Sue-Ann's story

I can’t remember where I came across these amber earrings but I have had them for a long time. I was first attracted to the earrings because of the amber. Amber is an intriguing material which is revered for its beauty and its healing qualities. It’s also a very old material that’s been under the earth for millions of years. I never threw the lost earring away because I rarely look through my jewellery box for earrings. My ears have healed over and haven’t worn earrings for years. My daughter and I have made a pact that we will get our ears pierced together when she turns 13.

Sydney
Australia

Helen's story...

Where did you get the earrings from?

I bought the earrings in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco when I was traveling there with a friend in 2004. I found the history of the area fascinating and really liked the eclectic and funky shops that were there. When I aw these earrings I fell in love with them.

When or how did you lose the earrings?

The earrings are quite heavy and one of hem fell out when I was out dancing one night. Unfortunately it was never to be seen again despite searching.

Why did you keep the earrings?

I kept the earrings for sentimental reasons – primarily because I loved the earrings when I bought them and also because the remaining earring reminds me of the fun time I had traveling in America.

Helen
Sydney, Australia

Rui's lost earring story...

My mother gave these earrings to me for Christmas I think, though I don’t remember exactly now because I seem to have trouble recalling events between 2003 and 2008. I was very happy to receive them especially since they are my favourite colour and I liked to pretend they were the Taria River stone (a fictional stone) earrings worn by Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. My mother said she got it at Paddington markets, which wasn’t a hugely impressive fact before a lady approached me at a an jewellery exhibition opening and asked where I had got the earrings from. The lady was Sydney jeweller Brenda Factor and it would have been nice for her to recognise her pieces out in the world as it was for me to gain a further appreciation for the gift and my mother’s taste.

I’ve lost the earring before on a plane to Japan (or was it to Australia?). I was in a bit of a panic because I was fond of them and angry at myself for losing them so quickly but I got it back thank goodness. Then one day when I happened to touch my ear it had disappeared. I guess it never liked me back the way I liked it. Or maybe the pair didn’t like each other, who knows.

A tall-Asian-beauty-also-former-Cathay-Pacific-flight-attendant-now-jeweller friend of mine shocked me one day when she recalled how her friend had thrown out a few pieces of silver jewellery because she thought silver was a consumable. Lost others and things like it (broken necklaces, your relative’s broken necklaces that you promise to fix but never do) tend to sit in the bottom of drawers and boxes because they have a strange will to survive. They influence your conscience, which is why by the time I am 80 years old (the age where I wouldn’t mind dying), I will be surrounded by many trinket friends, great substitutes for real ones and a husband no longer living. This woman with the heavy garbage bin may end up with a quiet mind but may not have so many friends.

Rui
Osaka, Japan

Jasmine - on lost earrings

Where did you get the earrings from?

I am not your typical earring wearer so I don't have any personal lost earring tales to share. I do work in a restaurant however and we are constantly coming across lost treasures and earrings, especially after busy nights. I thought that I would share some of the earrings that have found in the restaurant, telling the story from the other perspective. I work at the Vanguard Jazz and Blues live music venue in Newtown, Sydney. Our patrons are hard core music enthusiasts. I see a lot of earrings come through the venue, some just don't want to leave it's such a lovely place.

When or how did you loose the earrings?

I can't identify exactly when the earrings were lost, I do remember finding the silver one under one of the tables late one night during clean up. The owner must have been doing some serious chair dancing for this one to come loose.

Why did you keep the lost earrings?

After a long period of time, the earrings remained unclaimed. Being a jeweller, I decided to keep them and add them to my scrap metal collection. The gold one is marked 375 meaning it's 9 carat yellow gold and the silver is marked 925 making it sterling silver. I will eventually melt the two earrings down to ingots and re-work them into new jewellery, especially the gold one with todays gold prices being as inflated as they are. I have another gold earring that my sister found in the street that I have already melted down ready to work into a new piece. I like the idea that what was once precious to someone can be re worked into something that will become precious once again. If any-one recognises these as their own, I will gladly return them.

Jasmine
Newtown, Australia

Zoe's earring story...

Where did I get the earrings from?
I spent a wonderful 6 days in Florence about 9 years ago and bought the earrings from one of the many little jewellery shops on the Ponte Vecchio.

When or how did I loose the earring?
A couple of years later, I was having lunch in a Sydney food mall, when I brushed my long hair back from my ears and realised I had lost one earring. I desperately checked the floor, my bag, my clothing (it was cold and I was wearing a scarf and high collared jacked), then returned to the last couple of places I had been. I couldn’t find it.

Why did I keep the lost earring?
I always intend to return to Florence to buy the second one so I can wear them. I really hadn’t worn them very often. I loved my time in Florence and the earrings were an important memento. This is a lesson, too, that I should wear and enjoy everything whenever I want to, not just for an occasion.

Mudgee
Australia

Kate's earring story...

Where did you get the earrings from?

The earrings were made for me by a folk singer/songwriter that lives in a forest above the sea in Oregon, USA. She specialises in peyote beadwork and names her earrings after natural phenomena and Captain Beefheart songs. I asked her to make me a pair in my favourite colours at the moment - coral, moss and gold.
When or how did you loose the earring?

I lost the earring lying on a football field at night, talking to a friend. They had arrived in the post that morning and I was wearing them for the first time the night i lost them. I went back at first light and had a football team scour the field for the missing earring to no avail.
Why did you keep the lost earring?

In hope the lost earring will magically reappear one day? Because i can't let go? Because nothing's ever really lost?



Sydney, Australia

Naomi's earring story

I found the lovely earrings at a second-hand market in Rozelle, Sydney, just after I moved there from Newcastle. I loved the idea that someone had loved them before I found them, and was sure they were meant for me. Two little white rosebuds sitting at the bottom of a dusty box, carved or cast from a type of hard plastic, I think. I barely wore any other earrings for at least a year.

Two years after I found the earrings I decided to travel overseas for seven months. When I moved out of my house I lost both of the earrings somehow- I think I had thrown them on the bed the day before. When I was vacuuming my room before leaving for the last time I found one earring wedged between the carpet and the wall. I looked everywhere for the other one, and have since kept the remaining earring in case the other turns up some day. Sometimes I wear the earring, mismatched with other randomly lost halves, just to keep the hope alive.

Naomi
Sydney
Australia