©2012 42" x 54" This 6-inch block is my original design, and I have chosen to name it "Melissa’s Locket" after my beautiful niece who has grown up loving lockets. Her first one came packaged with a children's book about a little girl with a locket. Melissa, then age 3, would wear the locket when she pretended to read the book. She might have gotten her love of lockets from her mother (my sister, Betsy) who wears a locket containing a picture of her three daughters. Her locket also contains little teeth marks in it from Melissa’s teething days!
During the Civil War era, brooches, watches, bracelets, and ear bobs (earrings) were the most commonly worn pieces of jewelry. Necklaces were saved for ball gown accessories. As one writer stated, "the broad expanse of (gasp!) neck and bosom exposed by the décolleté gowns called for a bauble to distract men's eyes up from where they would focus naturally." (http://www.shasta.com/suesgoodco/)
