Friday, June 20, 2008

vintagejewelrysource.com

I am the proud owner of said domain name. My friend and computer Guru is helping me launch the new site. I am pretty fascinated and just all around passionate about vintage jewelry. OK let me re-phrase that. I love jewelry. I am pretty partial to rhinestones. I love the sparkle and the glam of a well made piece of costume jewelry. I had in my possession a wonderful one of a kind opera bib by the Schreiner Company of New York look in my archives for January 22,2007 for more details about it. I buy and sell a lot of costume jewelry. I keep a few pieces for myself. I sold the opera bib because honestly where will I wear it? OK I DID actually wear it to an event and it was too much fun. Talk about feeling like a million dollars. A few weeks ago a customer brought me a beautiful pearl necklace by Schiaparelli. The clasp was this huge topaz and mocha rhinestone focal point with two strands of gold pearls about the size of chick peas. She needed a pair of earrings to go with the necklace for her daughter's wedding. I was able to find two pearls in my vintage repair drawer to make her a pair of earrings. (A picture is worth a thousand words and my camera had nothing to say on this one)

What's the website about? There are a lot of sites out there dedicated to vintage jewelry. I wanted mine to be a bit more than that. I am getting things together when I can offer vintage buttons, belt buckles and trims. Those of you who collect and wear vintage clothing can check the site out for the perfect vintage buttons to finish the outfit. Or perhaps you have a wonderful vintage dress that is missing the belt- I most likely have a buckle that would match and all you need to do is make the actual belt....see what I mean? Maybe you like to re-fashion vintage jewelry and incorporate it into your own design. I have a lot of items there too- rhinestone clasps, beads, etc...I am also figuring out a missing in action page- I have a single signed earring and you have the rest of the pieces to finish the set- I love reuniting beautiful jewelry pieces with their mates.

Pet Peeve: When I attend an auction and the jewelry is just thrown into boxes with no thought to pieces that match. I was at one auction where there were 8 foot tables filled with pop flats of jewelry. As I was looking things over I noticed that this earring was in that box and the mate was in another box and then even farther down was the bracelet. I am just obsessive enough to have something like that bother me. I gave the auctioneer a piece of my mind about it. Actually it wasn't his fault- the family members who were selling the pieces didn't take the time to really look at it. Needless to say the auctioneer was very kind and he told me it would be several hours before they got to the jewelry and to feel free to match things up all I wanted to. I love small town auctions where everyone knows each other. Now when I show up at auctions they just laugh and point me in the direction of the jewelry.

So what do you think? Vintage Jewelry Source- I can't wait to get it going!