Jewelry

At her in-home studio in Catonsville, jewelry artist Barbara Giles creates deceptively simple pieces of stone-and-metal, which she sells online (barbaragiles jewelry.com) and from elegant small display cases in local boutiques, such as Art and Artisan on Main Street in Ellicott City. They are beautiful pieces meant to be worn -- smoothly polished cut opal; softly colored sea glass connected with sterling silver; magnificent jade petals in pinks and oranges; amazing lasso necklaces of crocheted sterling silver perfect for twisting, tucking and tying.

In a series of raids yesterday, federal agents and Montgomery County police seized records and contraband at 11 jewelry stores in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs, charging five people with laundering drug profits through purchases of jewelry.Led by U.S. Customs agents, the arrests capped a two-year probe dubbed "Operation Green Ice" that centered on the Bethesda Jewelry Exchange and other stores, according to an indictment filed yesterday by Lynne A. Battaglia, U.S. attorney for Maryland.

UNUSUAL JEWELRY- encrusted Christmas trees created by members of the Snydersburg Homemakers Club are on display at North Carroll Public Library.The art of making the trees from pieces of old jewelry was developed and taught by Ruth Cassell to fellow club members.The volume of inquiries about the exhibit might lead to a workshop by Cassell at the library in the near future.About 20 club members created the jeweled trees by arranging and gluing earrings, brooches, bracelets, baubles and beads upon painted cut-out panels.

Two men escaped with a number of pieces of jewelry from a store in Owen Brown village Tuesday afternoon after assaulting an employee, Howard County police reported yesterday.An employee of Mai's Jewelry store in the 9400 block of Snowden River Parkway let two men into the store through an electrically locked door about 3: 25 p.m. Tuesday, a police report said.Police said that when the employee bent down to get a piece of jewelry from a case, the men pushed the sales clerk to the floor, took an unspecified number of pieces of jewelry from the display cases and ran out of the store.

Thrifty and niftyDressing for that transitional summer between high school and college is tricky. With clothing budgets targeted more toward building a new campus wardrobe for fall, summer needs to be cheap but fun.A senior from St. Paul's School for Girls, Payal Parekh, who is doing a scholastic internship at The Sun, was assigned to find inexpensive, cool stuff. She discovered this summer's hottest item, the tank dress, for $12.99 at the trendy Rave store on the lower level of Towson Town Center.

THE BEST things in life come in small, velvet boxes."A mother may teach her daughter many things - how to cook, how to sew, how to install a new application on her hard drive - but no lesson is more important than this one.Round or pear-shaped, they never lose their shape. Diamonds are a girl's best friend.Baby girls are born loving things that sparkle, but only another woman - her mother - can convey the important distinction between semi-precious stones and true gems and the men who give them as gifts.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Howard County.Ellicott City: 4300 block of Sweet Bell Court: Someone entered a home through an unlocked, sliding glass door and removed credit cards from a purse about 3 a.m. Wednesday.Ellicott City: 3100 block of Wheaton Way: Two men knocked on the front door of a house, and an 8-year-old girl opened it. The men entered the house and ransacked it, taking jewelry and jewelry boxes about 2 p.m. Wednesday.Ellicott City: 3200 block of Bethany Lane: Someone entered a storage area through a rear window and vandalized the building, stealing a telephone between 9: 30 a.m. Nov. 11 and 10: 30 a.m. Nov. 14.Oakland Mills: 9500 block of Transfer Row: Someone entered a home through a kitchen window and stole a handgun, jewelry and clothing between 9 a.m. and 6: 35 p.m. Wednesday.

An article in yesterday's Howard edition of The Sun mischaracterized a rape victim's identification of jewelry allegedly in the possession of her accused attacker. The victim testified in court that the jewelry was hers.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 1/31/97

An article in yesterday's Howard edition of The Sun mischaracterized a rape victim's identification of jewelry allegedly in the possession of her accused attacker. The victim testified in court that the jewelry was hers.The Sun regrets the error.Four of Timothy Chase's former co-workers testified yesterday that Chase tried to sell them jewelry just days after prosecutors say he raped and robbed a 15-year-old Columbia girl behind Howard County's central library.Jewelry has been central to the case against Chase since he was arrested on March 25, five days after the rape.

Jurors began deliberations late yesterday in the case against a Baltimore man accused of fatally stabbing the 81-year-old mother of an Annapolis district judge during a robbery at her home.Richard "Ricky" Green, 35, of the 500 block of Presstman St. is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Beatrice Lippman Manck, the mother of District Judge Joseph P. Manck.Mrs. Manck was killed after a break-in and robbery in her apartment in the 7100 block of Park Heights Ave., in which jewelry worth thousands of dollars was stolen.

Most years, as fall slowly slips into winter, many of us feel the need to update our wardrobes with something appropriately "holiday." But with the economy about as bad as a re-gifted fruitcake, fashion followers will be happy to know that this holiday season, all that autumn-appropriate gear you bought two months ago - knitwear and tweed and faux-fur vests - still will work for most holiday parties. "You'll see knitwear in everything for the holiday season," said Toni James, owner of Katwalk, a fashion-forward boutique on Read Street.

WEST ALLIS, Wis. - They come with their gold rings and tarnished dreams. Some haul in televisions the size of small refrigerators. Others toss down belt sanders and electric saws and quickly slink away in battered pickup trucks. And they make their way to Scott Moline, the guy you go to when even your mother won't lend you a $20 bill. Moline is the owner-operator of Moline Jewelry and Lincoln Loan. He's a pawnbroker. One side of his business is running a jewelry store. The other side is overseeing what he calls "a collateral-based loan company."

A jury asked to decide the fate of a man charged in one of the biggest jewelry store thefts in Harford County never heard from a key witness: a former Baltimore police officer. David A. Williamson, who resigned from the department after admitting that he took the stolen jewelry after pulling over one of the accused thieves in a traffic stop, did not face criminal charges after agreeing to testify against the suspects. But when the case came up for trial this week, Williamson was not there.

ACCENTS 55 E. Padonia Road, Timonium / / 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays / / 410-666-4800 ........................ MIKE TYLER AND MEMBERS of the Paszkiewicz family wanted to bring a little bit of Delaware down to Maryland. Six months after opening Accents, a successful accessories store in Rehoboth Beach, the team started a new branch -- with the same merchandise and layout--last November in Timonium.

Alexandra Webb 5726 Falls Road, Mount Washington Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday through March 3; noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday starting March 4. 410-303-1703 or alexandrawebbjewelry.com Alexa Webb, 27, began making jewelry for friends and family while she was an undergraduate student. Because of the popularity of her creations, she eventually turned her hobby into a side business, running a successful online jewelry store and selling her goods at local events.

Your holiday bash is days away, and you're checking off the to-do list. You hired the caterer. Ordered the wine. Picked the music. Decked the halls. But did you hide your jewelry? Or stash your bank statements? Nearly 1 out of 4 holiday hosts conceal jewelry and sensitive papers from friends and family, according to a survey of 1,122 people last year by Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. "They're not paranoid," says Chubb spokesman Mark Schussel. "It is smart." What's surprising is that more hosts don't take these precautions, he says.

At her in-home studio in Catonsville, jewelry artist Barbara Giles creates deceptively simple pieces of stone-and-metal, which she sells online (barbaragiles jewelry.com) and from elegant small display cases in local boutiques, such as Art and Artisan on Main Street in Ellicott City. They are beautiful pieces meant to be worn -- smoothly polished cut opal; softly colored sea glass connected with sterling silver; magnificent jade petals in pinks and oranges; amazing lasso necklaces of crocheted sterling silver perfect for twisting, tucking and tying.

ANN DELACY KNOWS how to bring people together. As the leader of a Howard County organization representing nearly 3,500 teachers, she is in the business of collaboration. But when DeLacy was looking for a personal union, she turned to the classifieds. "I'm married, on my second husband. His name is Michael Viola and ... we met each other through the ... personal ads," says the 57-year-old mother of grown twin daughters. "He lived in Washington, and I lived in Olney." The happy couple now lives together in Columbia, where they enjoy cooking, biking and sports.

Ethanol could fuel corn-farming growth The national boom in ethanol production could spark as much as a 50 percent growth in corn farming in the Chesapeake Bay region - and perhaps a 5 percent increase in nitrogen pollution from runoff, according to a new report. The additional pollution in the bay is a reason for Congress to include more money in the Farm Bill for cover crops and other runoff control programs, said Beth McGee, a senior scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and an author of the report.

Robert Levine is a jeweler by trade. His dream home on Baltimore's northern line reflects an environment that, in his words, "was treated as though it was a piece of fine jewelry." The pink brick, chateau-style house rests at the center of a semi-circular driveway, its periphery emblazoned with lush azalea bushes, in contrast to spiral topiary at the double-door entrance with its wrought-iron outer doors. Visitors are often greeted at the marble-floored entrance hall by the deep resonance of a large brass Indian gong that stands next to a 19th-century teak Buddha from Burma.