I’ve been collecting vintage charms and creating bracelets, as well as selling them for a while now, and lately I’ve started to collect vintage costume jewelry lately. Pins and brooches in particular. I love the figural shaped pins and pins with colored stones the most I think.
Using jewelry pins is a great way to accent your wardrobe and define your style. And vintage pins are both easy to find and fun to shop for. Whether you prefer fine jewelry or fun funky fashion there are tons of pretty vintage pins, or brooches, that will be sure to get you compliments where ever you go. Keep reading for 10 and creative ways to wear your vintage finds in ways you may not have thought of.
A while back I wrote about record prices that were fetched at auction for pink diamonds. Well the diamond color of the day now is daffodil yellow. Tuesday a 110.03 carat yellow diamond, known as the Sun-Drop Diamond sold for $10.9 million, not including taxes and auction fees.
What scars me is that as the price of sterling silver skyrockets, and the economy stays in the tank, more and more people are scrapping their family heirlooms for quick cash. Right at this very minute there are probably hundreds of thousands of vintage charms sitting in scrap silver bins all over the country. Collectible charms made by Cini, Walter Lampl, Nuvo, and other great silver artisans ready to be melted and lost forever. This is the perfect time to start a vintage charm bracelet collection, as a matter of fact it may only get harder in the future.
August 31 is the day I posted my first blog post ever right here on Charm Chatter, exactly 3 years ago. At the time I had no idea how to operate wordpress and had a fit of a time getting it installed. It was a lot harder back then. But I persevered and wrote that [...]
The vibrant green colors of a peridot stone explain why, for centuries the peridot has been a symbol of nature. In ancient Egypt they were called “the gem of the sun” because of their brilliance, and early priests drank cups made of peridot stones. They believed the act connected them with Isis the goddess of nature. Another traditional belief is that when one wears a peridot, they will be protected against night terrors. This stems from the fact that the green color stays bright even at night.
Slide bracelets gained favor in Victorian England. They began as a decorative accessory to a watch chain or necklace. Women added watch fobs that were made into slides as necessary to move the watch up or down on the chain, and also to prevent the chain from twisting. Sometimes they cut the heads off of stick pins and fashioned them into watch chain slides.
Usually attached to a pocket or belt at the waist, chatelaines had chains with a swivel hook at the end of each to hang tools necessary to deal with problems that arose during the daily upkeep of the house. Some items typically found on a chatelaine are keys, a small notebook, pill bottles, eyeglasses, writing instruments, scissors, or a watch, to name a few.
Finding Fossil fashion charms and charm bracelets made my day. They have all the rustic earthy charm you know and love from Fossil brand, and are so darn cute!
Kate Middleton watchers have been oogling a new sparkly trinket she’s been sporting on her right wrist recently. It’s a gold charm bracelet given to Kate by her new step-mother-in-law Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. Rumors say it was a wedding gift, and it seems to represent a growing bond between the two Duchesses.
Elizabeth Taylor loved many things, of course men and jewelry, and she had some extraordinary and beautiful charm bracelets. She had a glamorous charmed life and I love reading and looking at the pictures in my copy of her book “Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry”. It’s got some of the prettiest jewelry pictures I’ve ever seen and is a fascinating and humorous peek into the life of one of the worlds most famous movie stars.
My almost finished hat theme charm bracelet has an alpine hat, summer flower hat, military hat, English police hat, pirate hat, straw hat, and a cowboy hat. I’ve got a few more to buy but it looks pretty fine so far. Check it out……
If you’re lucky enough to be born in June your traditional birthstone is a pearl. What woman can resist a strand of soft, smooth, lustrous and velvety pearls? Of course being a charm collector I love charms with a pearl or two set into them.
This is short and “sweet”. I think this is perhaps the cutest charm I’ve EVER seen. I’ve got to have it. A Limited Edition 2011 Juicy Couture Box of Chocolate charm.
I wanted to share with you some photos of two puffy heart charms that have my name engraved on the back. One is a US Navy Anchor repousse, and the other is an enamel finish with stars in the design. I have no idea who the “Wandas” were who first owned these, but it seems fitting that since I’m a Wanda, I should have them now.
Although green amber is not really a mineral it IS green and used extensively in jewelry so why not? If it will help us celebrate the Irish holiday then it’s a great jewel for St. Patrick’s Day. I love to wear green amber set into earrings or a pendant. Become a green amber aficionado.
Connemara marble is a luxury marble known as “Irish Green” because it’s mined exclusively in the wild rugged Connemara Mountains of western Ireland. It’s a rare highly variegated and veined marble found in over 40 shades, from pale yellow, to various shades of green, and gray. I’m wearing these lucky charms this St. Patrick’s Day
