My Vintage Hands

A couple of weeks ago, I signed on to Facebook and there was a post written by an eBay seller. Not someone that I actually know, just someone I see posting sometimes. She was ranting about how poorly other sellers compose photos to sell product. She was going on and on about how people take photos on their sofa and do not pay attention to the backgrounds. And this one comment stood out to me like a blinking neon light. She said "And I don't want to see your hands! Why do people have their hands in photos? It's so unprofessional!"

You know how you see a post and you want to comment, but don't and then you wish you did? 

Well, Now I am going to comment. 

I like to use hands in my photography. It is a great size reference and it gives the buyer an idea of how a piece jewelry might look while being worn. My daughter has beautiful hands and for years she was my hand model. She's in college now. She's busy. 

The hands that I use now are mine. They aren't pretty. They are old and wrinkled. They have big scars and they are dry because I am allergic to leather. (The girl with a leather steering wheel in her car. The girl that holds leather reins every day. Allergic.) I get manicures to help them look better, but they just aren't pretty. They never were and never will be. 

They are working hands. They have served me well. They learned with me how to sew all of my own clothes when I was 13. They made thousands of dried flower wreaths and hats in the 1980s and 1990s when I had my first business. They drew ads and created art. They changed diapers, held a little girl's hand and braided her hair. They cooked hundreds of hamburgers for the kids fundraiser at school. They drove the van full of giggling little Brownies to sell the Girl Scout cookies. They cleaned and cooked, gardened and pulled weeds. They took care Cory's burns when his racecar caught on fire. They practiced injecting insulin into an orange when my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. They saddle a horse and clean his stall. And every day they hurt. They have swollen joints from too many years making a living banging on computer keys. 

My hands are like the vintage silver Indian pieces that I love most. Like the bracelet above with grooves worn into it from so many years of constant wear. It took on the shape of the wearer's wrist. Or even the one below with dings and scars all over it. Those old loved and worn pieces match my hands. 

So dear eBay seller,

You'll see these hands all over my website, all over my Facebook page, my ads and my Instagram feed. They aren't pretty, but they serve me well. And I bet that out there somewhere there are more than a few other women with hands like mine that would like to see that vintage hands can wear pretty rings too!

High fives!