My Mother's Jewelry Treasure Chest

One of my last posts was about my mother's recent passing away.  One of the inevitable tasks after such an event is going through the loved one's possessions.  Initially I dreaded doing this, but once started I found it therapeutic and helpful in dealing with her death.

My Dad asked me to come and help go through her clothing and personal belongings.  She had a lot of clothing, some not even worn - still with tags.  She was a bit of a shopaholic - like me.  We donated most of the clothing to a local charity where it will be put to good use.  But as I dug through her closets and dressers I found some real treasures to keep for myself.

One of the treasures was an entire chest of drawers filled with her costume jewelry from over the years.  In her younger days, my Mom loved to deck herself out with costume jewelry, although in recent years I only remember her wearing her wedding ring and her topaz birthstone ring.   Finding these beautiful baubles brought back many memories - I remember her sometimes letting me play "dress up" with some of her jewelry.  Mom loved jewelry and passed this love on to me, and over the years I developed a love for making my own jewelry.

Even more amazing than the amount of jewelry I found was the incredible way she had organized it.  Everything was stored in an orderly color coded fashion inside egg crates and candy boxes.  There were boxes with black jewelry, white jewelry, rose colored jewelry, blue jewelry and so on and so on.  For this post I thought I would share her collection of black jewelry.

My Mom's Collection of Black Jewelry

Black and Gold Deco Beaded Necklace

Black and Gold Deco Beaded Clip-on Earrings

Bold Black Glass and Silver Deco Necklace w/Matching Earrings

Bold Black Glass and Silver Earrings

Black Beaded Stretch Bracelet

Black and Rhinestone Bangle Bracelets

Floral and Black Clip-on Earrings

Black and Silver Clip-on Earrings

Black Rose Clip-on Earrings

Large Black and Gold Oval Clip-on Earrings

Black Glass Flower Earrings

Round Black Glass and Gold Earrings

Faceted Round Glass and Silver Earrings

Round Glass Screw-back Earrings

Textured Round Black Glass Earrings

What will I do with these vintage treasures?  Do what Mom would want me to do ... upcycle some of them to make more jewelry of course!  She loved the fact that I made jewelry and I even found some of the pieces I made for her in the past - I will not be parting with those treasures but will post some pictures of them in the future.  Will also post pictures as I design some new pieces from the vintage treasures above!