Over her 95 years, Shirley Rosen has had many adventures. She owned the consignment shop Treasure Chest on Pleasant Street for 26 years. She’s a singer and a painter. She even worked as a clown. You might think she’d be slowing down… but you’d be wrong.
Rosen, who lives at The Mariner, just launched a new business called Ring-a-Ding-Ding. As CEO, she designs, makes and sells jewelry.
“It was a surprise, really,” Rosen said at a recent interview at The Mariner. “I designed this ring, and it just took off. Everyone’s wearing them.”
Rosen will be selling her rings at the Marblehead Farmers’ Market on Saturday, Aug. 16, and at Bobbles and Lace, which is owned by her granddaughter. Rosen and her daughter, Val White, will also be meeting with the manager of the Salem Hospital gift shop soon to talk about a merchandise deal.
Rosen created the ring at a monthly jewelry-making class at The Mariner. Her ring is made of sterling silver beads with a gem stone, colored glass or shell. It takes her about 30 minutes to make each one. She is selling them at the Farmers’ Market for $15 each. (She sells them for a discounted $10 at The Mariner, where they are all the rage.)
Rosen was born in Winthrop and moved with her husband, Stanley “Sooky” Rosen, to Marblehead when their daughters were little. Sooky was a professional musician with big bands in Boston and Shirley would sing.
“She’s always been adventurous,” White said. “She skipped school once to see Frank Sinatra.”
White added that she and her two sisters grew up in Marblehead “in a house with no rules.”
“Our parents would even let us drive the car when we were 13 years old,” she said.
One summer, the family was visiting Salem Willows and were approached by a man who said he needed to hire clowns for the park and would pay them each $100 a day to dress up, make balloon animals and paint kids’ faces. All five family members happily agreed and did it every weekend in the summer of 1980.
Asked where she gets her creativity, Rosen paused and answered with a big smile.
“Heaven,” she said.
Rosen sells her rings every Monday at the Mariner Little Store, 265 Pleasant St., from 11 a.m. to noon. The community is welcome to stop by and shop.
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist.
