Shades of Sparkle

So, I read the 50 Shades Of Grey trilogy. I must say it was a fun read. I really cannot stand book snobs, they are kind of like jewelry snobs. While a style or type of jewelry might not be your taste, if you are open and give it a chance you can always appreciate the creative force it took to make, the craftsmanship, or the colors. It’s the same way with most things. Take Miriam Haskell for instance, It is not my style (gasp) and most of her stuff is to busy for me, but she was an amazing designer and her work was good, her detail and quality for costume jewelry is unsurpassed.
 The controversy these books have stirred up is astounding! Erotica writing has been around as long as time. These books have caused all kinds of religious and moral debates, I love when someone mentions it on face book, this is me when this happens

The 50 Shades Of Grey books remind me of a line from the movie The Fisher King with Robin Williams. the character is talking about a girl he has a crush on who reads trashy romance novels 

"There's nothing trashy about romance. In romance there's passion. There's imagination. There's beauty. Besides, you find some wonderful things in the trash."

Why do people have to tear each other apart?
 Well anyways since I am a jewelry enthusiast I have been daydreaming about what the jewelery Christian bought Ana may have looked like. ( maybe they will consult me for the making of the movie hehehe)
OK the second-chance earrings this is what Cartier has ( where Christian purchased them from)
Diamants Legers De Cartier long earrings

Nice but I was thinking bigger maybe? After all he is a billionaire and this is a fantasy!

Next the platinum bracelet

http://www.kwiat.com/fine-diamond-jewelry/wide-diamond-bracelet-crochet-collection-18k-white-gold/p/320/4/0/0

http://blog.emitations.com/index.php/fifty-shades-of-grey-2/fifty-shades-of-style-anastasias-fifty-shades-of-grey-bracelet

 “Oh My” “Holy Cow”

 Ankle bracelet..

 Ehhh. But I am not a big fan of ankle bracelets, I find them kind of tacky ( but I can appreciate them hehe)

 Charm bracelet

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DallaLuna?ref=seller_info_count

 OK this is very sweet Love the idea of this

And the last the engagement ring.. Drool J

46.51-ct. oval-cut diamond

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonydemarco/2011/05/26/48-carat-diamond-ring-may-fetch-3-5-million-at-auction-2/

Grandma’s pearls

Pearls are one of my most favorite gems. Although all gemstones are made from the earth, I think pearls are especially amazing since they come from the sea. Must be what  mermaids get for engagement rings.
Not all pearls come from the ocean and most pearls you will find today will be cultured pearls. That means they have had a little help from mankind. A natural pearl are formed in mollusks, they form when an irritant gets caught in the mollusk’s shell then the mollusk secretes nacre to cover it, gradually layers form and the pearl grows in size.  Nacre is also what the inside of the shell is made up of also know as mother of pearl. A cultured pearl is formed when a person surgically inserts a foreign object usually a bead or piece of mantle tissue into the mollusk, and the process goes somewhat the same.
My husband and I owned a seafood restaurant that has since closed and every so often when someone was shucking gulf oysters they would find a teeny tiny pearl. Which would be what is called a seed pearl

Many women dream of one day Grandma or mom passing down a strand of pearls. In the early 1900’s many imitation were sold as “genuine pearl jewelry” or were very misleading.

 Needless to say most of these did not last to be passed down. You must be careful with today’s cultured pearls as well, Always buy from a reputable dealer or store. Sometimes the layer of nacre is very very thin and by the time you are ready to pass it down to little Suzie, all you will be left with left with is a strand of beads.

How to tell what you have. Natural pearls can only be verified by X-Ray, so if you really think you may have a natural pearl, it is best to have it sent off. The GIA lab will do this, they can also grade a cultured pearl and tell you how thick the nacre is
http://www.gia.edu/lab-reports-services/pearls/index.html

To tell if a “pearl” is real or imitation the best way in my opinion is to do the tooth test, rub the pearl lightly on your tooth if it feels rough or slightly gritty it is probably real. If you spend enough time with pearls you will be able to tell just by feel. Beware people will probably look at you funny if you do this at an estate sale.

 I was told my grandmother had a strand of pearls. I never saw them. My grandma had dementia and early Alzheimer’s and was in placed into an assisted living facility after she became unable to live by herself. She moved into a little suite with a sitting area, bedroom and a small kitchen. She had good days and bad, but as her age and illness progressed she began giving away some of her things to the other residents and staff and to who knows else. We believe this is what happened to her pearl necklace. It was heartbreaking as My cousin had so wanted to wear them at her wedding. They probably would have been Mikimoto cultured pearls, as I do have a brooch from her by Mikimoto.

I enjoyed all of the classes I took with GIA, but my favorite was the pearl grading.
This is my favorite piece of jewelry. Another that I wear quite frequently is this pair of drop earrings.

 I purchased them at the TACA craft fair one year at Centennial park in Nashville. They were crafted by Marilyn Greenwood. http://www.marilyngreenwood.com/ They have some amazing stuff!

Grumpy Little Men & Dollhouse Dreaming

Once years ago, I had a yard sale and being utterly exhausted by the end of the weekends, I neglected to take down our sign at one end of our street. On Sunday, a very grumpy little man came up to my door with sign in hand and yelled at me for not taking it down. I have become that grumpy little man. It really irritates me when I am looking for the sign to a sale and “A” the family either puts it up the day before, or “B” forgets to take it down, even worse is when the sign is up on the right day, but they just decided to not have the sale. I do have more sense than to knock on some stranger’s door and inform them of this though. After all this is Tennessee “the patron state of shootin stuff”. This is a quote from a favorite movie of mine The Shooter. (Very true).

All this being said it really pays to do your research before venturing out, and there are all sorts of neat and nifty technologies to help you with this. There is of course map quest, and Google Earth which is really neat to see the street view so you can tell what you are looking for. There are a couple of neat phone apps that show location of sales too.

  I drove 71 miles yesterday while going to estate sales. It is nice to live out in the country, but it sure made for a long drive Thursday morning. As I said in an earlier post, at estate sales you really do have to get there early. This particular company that was hosting the sale does not put out their signs until 30 minutes before hand. I had punched in the address on my dysfunctional garmin, and it was giving me the runaround, but since I had used google earth, I finally found it based on sight.

The hosts were offering hot coffee and cookies to the customers. Nice thought, but bad idea. Hot liquids, caffeine, and sugar do not go well with overenthusiastic antique dealers. How are you supposed to hold hot coffee while clutching your loot anyways? They also had loud blaring trance type music on which I thought was very odd. Now I do enjoy loud blaring music on occasion, it’s just that I did not feel like dancing in a room full of fragile antiques and strangers. This sale had some nice things, scary looking furs and ….a Doll House! 

I know I am probably too old for a dollhouse, but I do have three girls, and they have a doll house at MiMa’s house. I probably could have gotten away with it, but this dollhouse was high dollar, 600.00 to be exact. That is way out of my price range. When I was a girl I made a dollhouse out of cardboard boxes, then when I was a teenager I saved my money and bought a kit, I never did have the money to finish it, and it got sold over the years, but maybe someday I’ll get one again 

Mine will have a little chest like this with little gems

Titanic Jewelry

OK, I will admit to the world that I absolutely love the Titanic movie. I secretly want to go see it in 3-D. I saw it when it came out in 1995 twice in theaters, this was back before the release date for DVD was about 2 months out, actually this was before DVDs were all that available.
I think some of my love for antique jewelry comes from this.I have watched the movie many times although my husband says I have seen it 2000 times, this is not an accurate count!
It may be cheesy, but I think it is a wonderful romantic movie. I do cry every time I watch it. I am not ashamed to admit that. Crying is what makes us human, as is love, and fear and all those emotions people think are cheesy or don't want to talk about. Jewelry is human, it conveys a message, it gives people a peek into your style, your feelings, your soul.This post is about Titanic jewelry so forgive me if I have gotten off topic, but when taking my graduate diamond class, my GIA instructor gave us a fun little sheet at the end that described your personality with the shape of the diamond you chose. I think it is very accurate. See if it is for you.

DIAMOND PERSONALITIES

If you chose a ROUND diamond shape, your personality reveals that you are faithful, traditional, dependable, religious, old-fashioned and honest with your values. You are home and family oriented and security conscious. The down-side is your lack of spontaneity. Your personality is easy to get along with!

If you chose an OVAL diamond shape, you are creative, well-organized, dependable and wiling to take chances. Your strongest desire is to be different and not go with the crowd. You have a wild streak, yet you are predictable, stable and be counted on!

If you selected the SQUARE princess cut, you have an electric personality. You are fun, exciting and definitely not afraid to take chances. You live life to the fullest. You love being the center of attention and absolutely adore the spotlight!

If you are drawn to the EMERALD cut diamond shape, you are a tough nut to crack. You love to impress others. One of your greatest characteristic is that you do not See yourself through the eyes of others. You are a natural born leader with a quiet elegance and regal temperament.

If you chose the MARQUISE shaped diamond, you have a socialite attitude. You are extroverted, innovative and exciting to be around. But, you tend to be concerned with first impressions. You are goal oriented and career minded!

If you are attracted to the HEART shaped diamond, you are a pure romantic. Your motto is love conquers all and it has no restrictions or boundaries. You are constantly searching for love. You are a dramatic dreamer. Your wonderful traits is that you are sentimental, creative, sensitive and can be trusted!

 

My favorite cut is a toss up between the princess cut and the emerald. OK but back to the Titanic Jewelry.
My heart of the ocean necklace was bought back in 2003 for a fraction of what they are going for now, I am happy to say. Just goes to show again how much value costume jewelry can have.

 Actually part of what makes me cry in this movie is when she flings the necklace into the ocean ( Yes, Yes I know what it symbolizes and all that), but Come on NO please don't fling a 56 carat diamond into the ocean
 OK back to the jewelry here is my sterling silver copy of Rose's engagement ring, this is a Jill Bailey piece from her Titanic line, I do believe it is retired, but hopefully it may come out of hiding sometime soon.

Next is my favorite piece The butterfly comb, again from Jill Bailey. Here it is right on my head!

Here is a pair of the "Jump" earrings, again Jill Bailey. Watching this movie and wearing long earrings has made me understand the up swept hair styles of the times. One cannot wear long dangling earrings and have long hair without them getting hopelessly tangled together, enters up swept hair, lol. A fun fact about the earrings, and this comes from watching the movie way to many times; In the scene before she is running out to the back of the ship to "jump" she is having dinner Rose has a matching necklace that goes with the earrings, well when she is running and when she is hanging off the rail... NO necklace!

This is a replica (Jill Bailey) of the hair cage. The one in the movie has rhinestones. If you do a web search you can find several links, and even a YouTube video of how to put it in. Looks stunning.

This is not in the movie, but imagine what I found out at sales this weekend? An early 1900's cigarette stem/ holder! So cool!

Forest Hills

In my years of attending estate sales I have found that you Must get there early.

Yes Virgina the early bird does get the worm, or the Victorian gold jewelry. I was at a sale in Forest Hills the other week and I arrived promptly  one hour and a half early, only to find a fellow sale attendee had arrived first, her bag was already holding her place in line.  She was in her car, waiting with her dog, cool I thought, a companion while you wait, I’d rather sleep,  with it being 6:30 in the morning. I pulled my jacket around me and dozed off, I awoke about 30 minutes later to find 2 more attendees had arrived and the sale hosts as well.

  It was starting to drizzle, and the lady with the dog was no longer sitting in her car, but jogging up and down the driveway leading up to the house…. …with her dog….In the rain… at 7:00AM, WOW        

                 

Well maybe her dog needed some exercise.. I dunno . Anyways eventually around 7:45 everyone started lining up and it started raining, Hard. I came unprepared and forgot my umbrella, oh well I had a plastic tote for securing my treasures so I just stuck that on my head, a woman with an umbrella laughed at me. The jogger dog lady in front of me was worried someone might steal her umbrella if she left it at the door while she shopped. Really??  Since it looked like it belonged to a 3 year old I seriously doubted it.

When the doors opened she went the opposite way of me which was towards the jewelry of course. I think she must have been after larger items( her bags were quite large) So initially I got to the table first, which is important if you want the good stuff, this is some of the good stuff I found at Forest Hills.

Victorian/ Edwardian ANTIQUE 14K white gold plated perfume vial necklace bottle. I initially thought this was sterling silver, turns out it is white gold plated

Victorian/ Edwardian yellow gold black enamel hinged bangle bracelets. The top one is 10K solid gold. the bottom one is gold filled, It has a maker's mark that is unknown to me. looks like a cubed slice of cake. The top one dates to the 1890's

Sterling Silver Egyptian-Revival  Scarab Pendant double sided. This is one I almost wish I had kept. It is a lovely piece. I'm sure the buyer is pleased.

Friendship Hand

Friendship Hand

 I sold my Victorian Friendship hand last week. It had been listed for about a year which is common with antique pieces. I hope the buyer is happy with it and that they understand what a rare piece it is.
About the piece
It is carved Ivory .The design is a popular Victorian motif the hand with flowers signifying friendship. It was common for women to give each other tokens such as these to each other, as a sign of their friendship.
It is extremely well carved with fine details down to the fingernails. It is also embellished with two small red and green stones as well.
I have seen several of these type pieces, but none carved as well as this. They are common in Silver and gold.


Here is an example of a old calling card with the friendship hand motif

 

Here is a lovely Coral charm example






 In my youth I can remember friendship bracelets being popular

I made a ton of these at Girl Scout Camp

Also Friendship pins were common

My 7 year old daughter and her best friend had those matching heart necklaces with Best on one side and Friend on the other
I really do think the Victorian Ladies had us beat though.