Debuting the 4th Extraordinary Women Series : The Great Pretenders

The Great Pretenders-Part 1

Yesterday a client dropped into the shop and I did what I always seem to do....moved our conversation to the soon to be released, fourth collection in the Extraordinary Women Series:The Great Pretenders. I’m 5 years into this series and its still consuming me. I’m so fascinated with these women’s lives, that I’m compelled to do the other thing I do....design jewelry for them.

This client is one of my ‘besties’. She has collected over 100 pieces of my work over the course of 37 years, and she herself is an extraordinary woman with a full life and a long career in her field.

After listening to me tell her about my excitement for this collection, she posed a simple question.

“Why would you want to be a man?”

I could give my humble opinion on why each of the 6 women in The Great Pretenders collection wanted to be men, but me? Uh, no thanks. No joy there. Men have higher rates of injury, violence, and death and a lower likelihood of experiencing the joy that parenting often brings. When I was a girl, growing up in the 60’s, I thought that men had all the power but as I got older and was influenced by some damn powerful women, I stopped believing that my gender made me powerless.

Powerless. This might have been how some of the women in The Great Pretenders felt when each made the decision that living as a male would allow them to follow their calling. Looking into their life stories help know where we came and see where we are going. And know,

we need never accept powerlessness again.

Stay Tuned for Part 2