Charming

Sarah Kahn has an I Kahn Do It attitude. The jewelry she makes shows it. When asked when she started making her own, Sarah shares, “I was at a fair and this lady had great jewelry, baskets of beads and trinkets, and she told me to pick out the charms and beads I wanted and she’d make my jewelry on the spot. I thought, ‘I can do that’ but picked out some stuff anyway. The lady made my earrings right there while I waited.”



Kahn’s inspired firsthand experience of watching someone else create tiny treasures light a fire under her to create her own jewelry fashion. She uses semi-precious predrilled stones, plastic and glass beads, polished seashells, and metal accents.



“I was really into it for a while. I made a whole bunch of jewelry really fast,” she says. Kahn’s charming one-of-a-kind accessories spotlight whimsical lightweight metal charms. They range from stalking panther in profile to discs with stars embedded in them. One set featured a single scoop ice cream cone, lone die, and a tiny baby bird. Earrings range from just barely a dangle, slightly over an inch and a half long strand of charms and beads, to serious jangle, three strands of flexible metal strands strung with more than three inches of color-coordinated or intentionally contrasting baubles, grazing the shoulder. Prices vary but typically top out at under $20. Kahn’s treasures are available at Embellish Multispace Salon, where she is the operations manager.



[Embellish Multispace Salon, 1121 Court D, Tacoma, 253.752.8144, www.embellishtacoma.com]

Goodwill hunting

Goodwill Industries has been part of my life since grade school when, as foraging parties of pre-teens, we would swarm the stores in hopes of finding perfect Halloween costumes and accessories then morphing into high-schoolers trolling for corduroy pants, old band T-shirts, vintage leather belts, hippie shoulder sling bags and bead necklaces we could deconstruct and use for spare parts for other jewelry projects. Not a whole lot has changed, though I hardly have time for making my own jewelry any longer. Bored last Sunday evening, I went for a drive and dropped in at the Gig Harbor Goodwill.



Folks shopping talked to each other over the shoe and clothing racks, asked a young girl working there if a certain item had been donated since they were last in and kept up a friendly co-shopper camaraderie. I quietly observed this small town uniqueness and envied it a bit. I shook off the musing and got back to rummaging through a bin full of books, records, binders and other square objects till I came across a small box of 45s. The recording was a compilation put out to raise money to help feed the hungry in 1985 with proceeds going to Northwest Harvest and USA Africa. It’s just a single with different artists singing “Give Just A Little” on each side. JR. Cadillac, Duffy Bishop, The Neville Brothers, Marva Scott and an impressive number of other noteworthy entertainers and musicians that worked to make this record happen for a project called Seattle Helps The Hungry. I bought the entire box of 25 for $1.99 (the original 1985 asking price for one record). Brandie, sweet cashier that she was, chatted me up at the check-out telling me the store was relatively new still, just five years old. Once home, I played the mint condition 45 and thought, “How cool, what a treasure.”



Anyone wanting their own record can contact me through feedback@weeklyvolcano.com to receive one for free.



[Goodwill Industries, www.goodwill.org to find a store near you]