Wednesday, September 11, 2013

2nd Annual Challenge Of Travel ~ Santa Clara County and California in general!


Gosh, I am SO late for this one!!!! The reveal was on August 31st, and I finished making my piece a couple weeks before that. I was all set (and excited) for the reveal, and some time around August 21st, my home internet connection decided to die. It was resurrected only yesterday, so here I am with my post!

What's it about?

Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati had put out a call in the beginning of August to join the "staycation" edition in her "Challenge of Travel" series. We were to explore what our hometowns had to offer for visitors. Hometown could be anything...the town you grew up in, the town where you live now, any place you call home.



I was torn about "where" home is! In my heart, its always, always, always going to be India (and in my mind, when I say, I want to go home, I will always mean I want to go to India) But in reality, and for all practical purposes, home is California. So this is about California! And it is more about the history of California than present day California. Hope that is ok!

Narrowing down to where I live...Santa Clara. Silicon Valley. We have so many tech companies headquartered right here. Google, Facebook, Apple, Cisco, eBay, PayPal, LinkedIn...just to name a very select few. I guess being a tech hub is what my hometown is well known for. But I would like to step back into history and speak about the actual street that I live off of.

El Camino Real ~ The Royal Road! Before I begin singing its glories, I have to admit that I hate driving on it. With that taken care of....

This is a historical road, stretching from San Diego in Southern California to Sonoma in Northern California, connecting 21 Franciscan missions. However, the road’s importance and its name recognition have far outlasted that of the missions it originally served.
Here is more information about the road: History Of El Camino Real

*this part of my post is copied from wikipedia*
In 1892, Anna Pitcher of Pasadena, California initiated an effort to preserve the as-yet uncommemorated route of Alta California’s Camino Real. Given the lack of standardized road signs at the time, it was decided to place distinctive bells along the route, hung on supports in the form of an 11-foot (3.4 m) high shepherd's crook, also described as "a Franciscan walking stick."
*end of wikipedia excerpt*

These bells have always fascinated me...and are a very prominent part of my design.
Here's a picture of the bell over at the mission in Santa Barbara. This is the only picture of the bells that I have managed to click.


Here's a better version, not clicked by me. Click on the picture to go to original website:


Next thing that I took inspiration from for my piece...is the land here! My neighbor, who has lived on this street for close to 60 years now, says that the region was all orchards! Oranges and plums and figs! Even now, the soil is rich and extremely fertile. There used to be a huge orange orchard near my office, actually right across the street from a big Sony campus. It was a gem in the middle of the city, oranges for as far as the eye can see. I bet you noticed the past tense here. Yeah, its gone, there are apartments there now :((

Here's a picture of my own orange tree...


And the last bit of inspiration...I thought about this for a long time...what is my state known for? What does it say on the license plates? Golden state! So yeah...the last bit is the gold :) Although, I don't know of any gold panning being done where I live...I had use this bit of info about my state :-)

So...here are my earrings that I made for this challenge :-)




 These are for sale, although not on my shop. Please send me a message if you are interested :)

There was an inlinkz code for this, but since I am late..its closed :((
Please visit Erin's blog to see the other entries
http://treasures-found.blogspot.com/2013/08/2nd-annual-challenge-of-travel-stevens.html.


16 comments:

  1. Very nice post. Learned a lot about El Camino and your earrings are cute.

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  2. Oh very evocative of the South Bay/Peninsula Kashmira! I lived in the East Bay for a long while, but I worked for several years on the Peninsula and I know El Camino Real well. They are really cute earrings!

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    1. Oh nice! Where do you live now? El Camino is one of those streets that has everything you will ever need, but such a pain to drive through!!

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  3. A very interesting history of this area you live in. I would love to tour the mission trails and see those lovely bells.

    Your earrings are so very fitting for California! Beautiful!

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    1. Thanks Alice!

      There are two missions near me, and I have not visited them yet :( I drove past one of them after making a wrong turn and ending up in a completely new (to me) area! It was beautiful! Hoping to go back there soon!
      The other one is less than 2 miles from my home. Its a university now, and i didn't know it was a mission until i started researching the road!

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  4. I just added your link back into the post (just had to adjust the date that it closes!). I am so happy that you are back and that you shared these lovely earrings. What a cool thing about the bells along the highway! Often when we pass something like that everyday it can lose its significance. This is a wonderful tribute to the rich history and agricultural traditions in California. And can I just swoon for a moment? You have an orange tree in your yard?! Oranges are my favorite fruit! I would come and stay at your house just for the fact that I could get a snack anytime (and likely some fresh squeezed juice!). Thanks for joining me on the journey! Enjoy the day. Erin

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    1. Thanks Erin! I have always been fascinated by the bells...the road is actually ALL over california, and the bells just show up here and there :)

      You should definitely come and stay here! Right now, there are figs, apples and pomegranates on the trees :)

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  5. Your earrings are awesome, Kashmira... those crackly orange beads look JUST like the real thing, don't they? And the bells are so cute! Thanks for the pics of your tree... totally jealous :(

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    1. Thanks Mon! Yeah...don't they look juicy enough to eat? :)
      You should come over here then, and we can have us some oranges and apples and pomegranates and figs!

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  6. What a great post, Kashmira! Your design, with its connection to your "hometown" is so well thought out. Beautiful!!

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  7. We moved to the Bay Area from the east coast about 2 years ago and I really enjoyed learning about the Royal Road and the bells. Fascinating history of that area. I love how you wove that story into your beautiful earrings.

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    1. Thank you!! Are you anywhere near me? Its awesome to find new friends who are already neighbors :)

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  8. I was even later than you! I drove El Camino yesterday all the way from Sunnyvale to San Jose. It was interesting. One section had many Korean businesses, for example.
    I really like the earrings you made. They are very pretty.

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    1. Oh Inge, I have no patience for driving on this road! So many stop lights, so many super slow drivers. But yes, it definitely is interesting!!

      I am yet to start hopping around...am behind on that too :(

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