The chaos and colors, the poverty and piety I witnessed during the month I spent in Nepal and Tibet seem far away as I sit here in my Providence, RI jewelry studio. The experience brought me to work with shoeless orphans in a fog of flies and then to the grandeur of the Tibetan market in Lhasa.

China has engulfed most of Lhasa with wide streets, gigantic Chinese characters that dwarf the Tibetan predecessors and armed soldiers that comb the city to maintain the "peace." Thankfully some Tibetan Buddhist temples still remain with enormous volumes of hand-written holy texts that I am sure contain the secrets to the Universe. I only fear that something very important is now buried in parchment.

The market in Lhasa didn't disappoint with antiques and crafts lining the square and hawkers awaiting tourists, like myself, who traveled days to arrive at the flea-market Mecca to sift through antique wax stamps and keys. Everything seemed old and mojo-filled; I was in flea market euphoria. I found a particularly exotic key in the Lhasa market and I knew it would be a pendant with its unique Eastern feel. I have set rubies in the gold to give it a more regal and antique feel like the city itself.