Pink Fire Opal Heart Jewelry - Downton Abbey Inspired

I ordered and received several new pieces for making jewelry last week and have been busy designing some new pretties.  Here's a pic of some of the pretty pieces - I absolutely love the pink glass fire opal hearts.

I have used glass fire opals in the past for quite a few designs, but these are the first hearts I have been able to find.   Glass opals are absolutely gorgeous!  Also known as Harlequin Glass, they have amazing fiery flashes of color.  These are pink, but they can also be found in red and other colors as well.  Since I loved the hearts so much, I started with them first.  I used the large pink glass heart for a necklace and the smaller ones for a pair of earrings.  Both designs have a Downton Abbey sort of look.

The hearts and other components here came from jansjewels.com - which has some awesome vintage style jewelry components. I also used some components I already had in stock - like the beautiful antique brass stamping on the necklace which came from another awesome site vintagejewelrysuppies.com.

Here are some pictures of the finished fire opal designs:

That's all for now, but more designs to follow.  Before then, be sure to check out all my Fire Opal Collection in my Etsy shop!

Vintage Jewelry Keepsakes

Is this vintage brooch not just beautiful!  I came across it while going through my Mom's vast costume jewelry collection.  The thing is that I remember this jewel from when I was very young.  My Mom would sometimes let me go through her jewelry, and this particular piece always intrigued me with its rainbow of pretty colors.  As a child, it looked as if it surely should have belonged to a princess.  It just brought back such wonderful memories!

This piece will be staying with me ... I plan to re-purpose it into something that I can wear and remember my Mom by.  I'm thinking of perhaps making it into a necklace.

I am going through all of her jewelry very slowly because I want to document and photograph each piece before I alter any of them.  It is slow, but in the end I will have a permanent keepsake of each and every piece.

Here are some pictures of the other pieces I went through this week - the first two pictures show the way I found the jewelry.  Mom stored everything in an organized manner - in egg crates and candy boxes, most of them grouped by colors.  The pictures after that are individual shots of each piece.

Blue and Green Jewels 

Miscellaneous and Multi-Colored Jewelry

Red and Gold Brooch

Blue and Silver Pin

Petite Blue and Silver Pin

Gold Flower Pin

Topaz Glass and Gold Pin

Gold Coin Pendant

Peridot Green Glass and Ribbon Necklace

Peridot and Silver Drop Earrings

Green Button Earrings

Clip-on Blue Glass Earrings

Emerald Green and Gold Button Earrings

Blue and Green Clip On Earrings

Marbled Green Earrings

Dark Green Glass Clip-On Earrings

Blue and Teal Beaded Clip-on Earrings

Teal Green and Gold Clip-on Earrings

Turquoise and Silver Earrings