Our Hopeful Home: vintage jewelry

Showing posts with label vintage jewelry. Show all posts

Thrill of the Hunt #24

March 29, 2016

Welcome back to Thrill of the Hunt! It's been more than a few weeks since my last post about thrifty vintage treasures so I thought it was high time I shared again. I'm starting out with a special religious statue that I picked up in the quaint town of Galena, IL this past New Year's.

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Friday Finds: Vintage Edition #13

September 25, 2015

Welcome to another edition of Friday Finds! Today I want to share with you a few things that I picked up at the Randolph Street Market in Chicago back in August.

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Festival of the Vine Sneak Peek

September 7, 2013

Exhaustion has set in.

Preparing for a jewelry show is just. plain. exhausting.

Here's a peek at some of my vintage jewelry designs that you'll find at The Festival of the Vine in Geneva, Illinois tomorrow and Sunday. I do hope you'll stop by and say hello.

Hope to see you there.

xoxo

Pounds of Vintage Jewelry

July 2, 2010

I was lucky enough to hit it big at my local monthly church barn sale last Saturday ~ and I mean B-I-G. Lots of bling for NOT a lot of bucks!

Just look at these brooches!

Keep scrolling........

and scrolling.......

and scrolling.....

this was a W-O-W

Nice rosary ~ great necklace potential...

Look what's still left!

Total cost: $6.50 Gotta love barn sales!

SO much great stuff ~ some of it I can't imagine upcycling into anything else because it's just so grand, while some other pieces I can definitely see using to create some new shabby chic designs! Later in the day we stumbled across another barn/tag sale and I snagged some really great goodies for jewelry display and for decorating my studio. I'll share it all with you some time after the 4th of July holiday weekend.

Right now I'm thinkin' of taking a blogging VACATION! See you when I get back!

Restyled Cascading Multi-Strand Necklace

November 22, 2009

The necklace muse strikes again -- charm bracelets are on hold for the time being, it seems. I just can't help myself from designing necklaces right now. This one is my first multi-strand necklace and I learned a lot while putting it all together.

It's a five-strand gold-plated necklace, the bones of which came to me in the form of a broken vintage costume jewelry multi-strand necklace. Problem was, the five strands were held together by two multi-ringed findings which were meant to hold three strands of chain each (my chains were jump-ringed together in one set of two chains, another set of two chains and one chain alone, equaling three "chains" altogether). It worked, but it looked awkward when worn.

Soooo, I took off the original findings and replaced them with simple gold jump rings. I then attached the three sets of chains onto the jump rings and added a solitary round gem connector to attach all the chains to the single chain and clasp I added to round out the necklace. And of course I added the pearls and beads to make it interesting.

I feel lucky to have inherited the vintage necklace in the first place. Little did the original buyer know so many years ago that this style of necklace would become hugely popular in 2009! I can't wait to wear it. Oh, and it looks great when worn with Soho Nights, my last beaded necklace creation. They look like they totally belong together. Now I guess they do.

Do you have any tips or anything to add to my story regarding the creation of multi-strand necklaces? I could use all the help I can get, here. Comment and let me know your thoughts about this particular style of necklace as well as the one I created.

I think my next project will be a multi-strand charm bracelet. Can't wait to get started.

Well, it's getting late and I need to rest up for the upcoming week with the kids -- apparently Thanksgiving is a five-day affair according to our local school district. They're also predicting snow for Thanksgiving -- nothing like living in Chicago! Ciao for now.

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

-Benjamin Franklin

Restyled Vintage

October 17, 2009

So here is another piece of vintage jewelry I received gratis from a friend. It's actually one half of a pair of dangle earrings. There are nine "coins" imprinted with the head of Julius Caesar and 11 teardrop-shaped black beads. Each individual piece is hanging from its own chain. I saw it more as a necklace, or the beginning of a necklace, anyway, and placed it on a gold chain to get an idea of what it would be like as something other than an earring. As much as I like it, I feel that it needs something more. Any ideas? The good news is that there is yet another earring I can use to create another necklace after this one! Whether or not they'll be the same I don't know. But I do know that they have potential.

On another note, the final lot of A Charming Exchange's (www.justsimplycharming.blogspot.com) jewelry has been listed in the ebay auction benefitting Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Go to the auction site and bid before it's too late!

Please follow this link to bid: http://shop.ebay.com/english_dixie/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

There are SO many great and unique pieces to bid on. And all of the money is going to fund the fight against breast cancer. Thanks for your support. Ciao for now.

Surprise Vintage

October 9, 2009

I love getting packages in the mail (brown paper packages tied up with string......). I love it even more when the package contains something special. Today I received a package from a dear friend that blew me away. She sent me some vintage jewelry pieces that I couldn't have chosen better for myself. My absolute favorite is highlighted below.

I'm not sure how old it is but I'm guessing it's in at least the 30 to 40-year-old range. And the silver filigree ball charms are exactly like what I'm using today for my tassle necklaces! Wish I could take a better picture so you could really see and appreciate the details. There are silver wreaths, diamonds, and love bird charms. I love this charm bracelet!

The rest of the stuff she sent me is chock-full-o' great charms and gems and ideas....we'll see what happens with it all. I can't wait to find out. Thanks, friend, for some fabulous finds.

Comment and let me know what you think of what I'm going to call "Love Birds and Lace". Ciao.

More Sites to See For Ideas and Glam

October 6, 2009

First let me comment on my Christmas charm bracelet I mentioned in yesterday's post. You'll totally have to forgive the rudimentary (and that's being kind) style of the photos I've been posting. Techniques for taking good web photos are a whole other can of worms I'll have to open up and suffer through some day soon. But for now, it is what is it. Ta da.

It's a vintage inspired silver plated bracelet and charms, along with some epoxy charms which really give it a vintage feel -- Santa and his pack, two little Victorian girls, holly and Santa's sleigh. Besides the epoxy charms I really love the simple charm with "25" on it in red. It's a simple design reminiscent of much simpler times.

OK, now on to some great jewelry sites not only for their design ideas but for the pure fun of it! Janna Conner is a popular designer that I really like. Her site, www.Jannaconner.com, currently has four trendy bracelets that I love: the Gold Plate Biba Bracelet, the Gold Plate Ribbon Bracelet, the Gold Dax bracelet and the Adina bracelet. The Adina bracelet happens to be the only true charm bracelet in her collection. It's clear from her designs as well as many other artists' designs that multi-strand bracelets are very in right now. The bracelets I've mentioned have either 3 or 5 strands. It's a look I really love. The bracelet prices ranged from $75.00 to $192.00.   A little steep for me, but maybe worth the splurge. And you know I'll be trying to emulate her style very soon.

In contrast to Janna Conner's prices I stumbled upon a site, www.pinkice.com, which had amazingly reasonable prices for trendy costume jewely. I loved the multi-layer chained link bracelet for $9.99, the Bold Statement Hang Gem necklace for $19.99 and the Lucky Shoot charm bracelet for $17.99. Lucky Shoot is 9 inches long with 7 charms and a toggle clasp. You need to check out these sites and let me know what you think of the designs.

Me, I'm on to more web research and hopefully some hands-on jewelry making before the night is through. Ciao for now.

Vintage Jewelry Finds

September 26, 2009

I thought I'd talk today about incorporating vintage jewelry pieces into your creations. I love vintage jewelry, always have. Depending on the piece, sometimes, I can almost picture the person from days gone by who used to love it and wear it. In my preliminary on line research I came across a jewelry blog called www.collectingvintagejewelry.blogspot.com. It touts itself as a good resource for "Hot Trends, Designer Information and Jewelry Gossip" (whatever that is).  It also has a web store featuring many designers. I looked at the vintage Sarah Coventry collection and it was really reasonably priced. Problem is, my quest is to find out where to nab the stuff locally, not on line. And I guess the type of pieces I'm looking for are the imperfect ones, the ones I won't feel so bad pulling apart and using for other creations.

A word to the wise about buying this stuff --check out every inch of it before buying it. Case in point: Last weekend my family and I attended a local yearly "Barn Sale" run by three local churches. It's a really big deal in the community. Anyway, by the time we got to the jewelry section there wasn't much left. My daughter found some cute clip-on earrings she ended up buying (3 pairs for $1.00!) and after much searching through the piles of zip-lock baggies I came up with two necklaces.  My other daughter found herself a necklace and we got, again, 3 necklaces for $1.00. Not bad.

One was a pink pearl multi-strand necklace with a vintage clasp, adorned with pink pearls. It reminded me of the clasps I used to see on my mother's necklaces. The pearls looked more like plastic than glass (or God forbid real!) so I really wanted it for the clasp. I pictured myself taking it off that necklace and using it on one of my original designs. Unfortunately, when I got home and took the necklace out of the bag, it was clear that the clasp was broken!  I was really disappointed but I learned a good lesson --try before you buy.

In contrast, the other necklace was a nice surprise. It was a silver plated chain with three silver hearts (charms!) that were very worn looking (can you say vintage?) along with three small freshwater pearls and two clear gems, all strategically placed. It even had a tiny silver charm on the end of the chain with what looked like "AL" in script. The other side of the charm was engraved with a bird in flight.  If this means anything to anyone, please comment and let me know. I like it so much that I know I'll have a hard time taking it apart unless I can come up with a charm bracelet or necklace design that I feel it deserves.

So, where do you go for vintage jewelry finds? Flea market, antique store, tag sale, church bazaar? What kind of stuff are you finding there? Please leave a comment and let me know. And if you're in the suburban Chicago area I'd REALLY be interested in hearing where you go to find great vintage jewelry.

Well, I'm still sick so off to bed and more medication. Tomorrow's Sunday and we know what that means....sunday school for all three kids. And I'm a co-catechist in my son's kindergarten class. Wish me luck. :)