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| A little silver and blue bug 20's? a beginning |
It all started when I was a little girl, I am sure. I was sometimes a girly girl. I loved dresses, and frilly socks and purses and of course lipstick. Still love the dresses and lipstick.
Among the many things I am: mother, teacher, artist, gym rat, funny, vintage connoisseur, poet - a lover of jewelry is one of them. I love old stuff.
I collect vintage pearl necklaces. I like to buy them for a dollar in the second hand stores or flea markets.
I love old dresses, especially forties. Although some fifties are good too. I like the feel of the fabrics: the rayon’s, the cottons, and the cashmere sweaters. I like how worn and soft the fabrics are because they have been worn in.
In my twenties, I began collecting vintage pieces of jewelry from this shop in the Haight Asbury in San Francisco. The woman who owned the shop was absolutely delightful, she chatted about each piece of jewelry(she loved the jewelry as well). It started with a little silver and blue bug pin. I asked did she do layaway and of course she did. So every two weeks for over a year I paid her for pieces of jewelry. It began with the silver pin and moved on to Schiapparelli earrings, Hollycraft earrings and more.
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| two Hollycraft bracelets circa 1950's I was in heaven. It was the highlight of my week to go into her shop and hang out with her and give her money toward my purchases. |
Then one weekend when I was in Los Angeles, I went into a dress shop in Beverly Hills looking around and found another very interesting woman selling vintage jewelry. She had a Miriam Haskell necklace that is my favorite to this day. It has big pearls and a brooch type shape in the middle with a rhinestone.
I got this idea that maybe one day I would have a collection that could be shown in museum. That hasn’t happened - yet.
The most delightful thing about these women was the information they knew about the vintage jewelry they sold and I could tell it was their passion. I learned so much from them, details about the jewelry makers. I learned about how Schiapparelli’s costume jewelry pre -ww2 was made by Schlumberger, the diamond jewelry guy. Miriam Haskell made a lot of costume jewelry for movies.
After having children, my vintage jewelry collecting took a backseat to collecting children’s books and toys and sports equipment. Actually, I kind of forgot about my jewelry collection for a long, long time.
Recently, just for fun, I googled Schiapparelli and a necklace that looks like a necklace I owned popped up. And I had to go into my jewelry box and look at my stuff and find the picture of me in the 1980's wearing the necklace on Christmas day.
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| Me & my Schiapparelli necklace 1980's Christmas Day |
What I love are the colors, especially of the Hollycraft pieces. They look like candy. And to my artist's eye they are a feast of pinks and blues and violets and purples.
I think what appeals to me about vintage jewelry is how elegant a piece can be. It reminds me of a more romantic time.
My new goal for myself is to pull out all that candy colored confection and bling when I can and wear it again. Some of it is really delicate and I have to be careful, but some of it can take a little more wearing.
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