My Mother's Vintage Jewelry

Two years ago I started going through my mother's vast collection of vintage costume jewelry. These beautiful treasures were passed on to me after her passing in 2013. I wrote about some of these pieces in a blog post two years ago - you can click here to read that post.

Well I put the jewelry aside for a while and am now revisiting the adventure of going through all these marvelous pieces. My attention was redirected to the jewelry after my brother and sister-in-law found even more of my Mom's jewelry while helping my Dad sort through some things at his home.

This spectacular necklace is a triple strand of dark cream faux pearls and aurora borealis crystals. It is a choker style measuring 15 inches plus a three inch extender chain. I love this piece for its bold deco styling!

This next piece I'm pretty sure was one of my Mom's favorites because it is in her favorite color which was pink!  It is another triple stranded faux pearl necklace in several rich vibrant hues of pink.  There is hot pink, light pink and some hints of purple and lavender in some of the beads. The eclectic mixture of pearls, glass beads and fire-polished crystals is just my Mom's style! It is a choker style measuring 15 inches plus a two inch beaded extender.

Now I need to decide on whether to keep these pieces "as is" or to disassemble and repurpose them into something different. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

And if you want to see more pieces from my Mom's collection, you can visit my Pinterest board dedicated to her collection.

Upcycled Vintage Rhinestone Earrings - From My Grandmother's Collection

Last week I went to say good-bye to my grandmother who passed away just three weeks shy of her 103rd birthday. The service was inspirational and was truly a celebration of her long and meaningful life.

Although it is impossible to completely capture the essence of her life, I feel compelled to at least note some of life highlights of my Grandmother - Creola May Starnes:

• Born in Arkansas in 1912. 
• Moved with her family to North Carolina in her early teens.
• Married at age 15 to my Grandfather and raised five children - my mother being the oldest.
• Spent countless hours volunteering and being active in her church.
• Earned a business degree while in her forties - keep in mind this was in the 1950's when many women did not go to college much less consider getting a business degree.
• Established the first church daycare center in the city of Kannapolis, NC because she saw a need for working mothers to have access to child care.
• After raising their five children, she and my Grandfather moved to Winston Salem, NC and served several years as house-parents for adolescent parentless boys.
• Retired and moved to Waxhaw, NC where she became an advocate for seniors and their caregivers.
• Obtained certification in Gerontology from Livingstone College and served as President of the Union County NC Chapter of AARP.
• Retired a second time at age 78 and became caregiver for my Grandfather who had developed Alzheimer's - she cared for him until his death in 1989.
• After surviving her husband's death, she lived another 26 years until the age of 103.  Her legacy continues through her 16 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

I like to try to keep the memory alive of those who I have known and loved. I was fortunate enough to be given some of my Grandmother's old vintage jewelry. And I decided that I would like to repurpose some of these treasures so that I could wear and cherish them while continuing to honor her life for years to come.

This pair of vintage clip-on rhinestone earrings has lots of history and I could not bear thinking of these pretty pieces just sitting somewhere in a drawer. So I decided to convert them into a pair of post earrings that I could wear and enjoy and remember my Grandmother every time I wear them.  Here is what they originally looked like:

The first thing I had to do was to remove the screw-on clips. I did this by snipping them with a pair of wire cutters, then filed off the rough edges with a jewelry file. This is how they look with the backs snipped off and filed:

Next, I found a pair of post earrings to set the rhinestone dangles onto. I liked these pretty antique silver posts that I bought from VintageJewelrySupplies.com:

Then I used E-6000 glue to attach the dangles onto the posts.  I use E-6000 for any jewelry project requiring glue because it holds forever - and I do mean forever! The only tricky part was finding a way to hold the posts upright and flat in order to give time for the glue to set - it takes 24 hours for E-6000 glue to set.  So it is important to find a way to stabilize it while it sets. 

What I came up with was folding and taping a piece of bubble wrap, then sticking the posts down into the bubble wrap. Then I used a dab of glue (it only takes a dab) to adhere the rhinestone dangles onto the posts. To make sure there was good adherence I placed a piece of tape across the top of the earrings and let it set for 24 hours:

And after 24 hours, here is what they looked like:

I am quite pleased with the outcome and can't wait to wear them!  I just love the idea of wearing something that my Grandmother once wore.

I will not be selling this pair of earrings, but I have lots of other items for sale in my two Etsy shops: 

DJAjewels.etsy.com

EyeglassChainsEtc.etsy.com

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

Something Old Something Blue Necklace

You know the saying: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe."

For my newest design I set out to create a bridal necklace incorporating some of these attributes.



The Features:
*A beautiful re-purposed vintage pendant - "Something Old."
*Indigo blue Swarovski crystals - "Something Blue."
*A lucky penny on the back of the pendant symbolizing the "Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe."

The Story:
I used a beautiful vintage earring to create the unique OOAK pendant for the necklace.  The earrings were part of my mother's huge costume jewelry collection.  You might remember that I recently wrote about her passing away and her beautiful jewelry collection being passed on to me.  My mother and I both shared a love for jewelry ... she enjoyed buying and wearing it; I enjoyed making it.  Here are the original earrings with clip on backs:

Original earrings with clip on back

I used wire cutters to clip off the clip-on back of the earring:

Back of earring with clip removed

I found this pretty antique silver filigree stamping to use as a setting for the pendant:

Antique silver filigree stamping to be used for setting

I used E6000 glue to adhere the stamping to the earring.  E6000 glue works great for projects like this - it is really impossible to come loose once dry.  I let it dry 24 hours before handling.  Here is the front of the pendant:

Finished pendant - front view

And here is the back of the pendant - I was not quite happy with this look and decided it needed a pretty backing.  

Back view of unfinished pendant

To finish the back of the pendant, I eventually settled on this pretty blue glass rhinestone:

Back of finished pendant with Blue Rhinestone

Then I beaded the necklace with Swarovski crystal pearls, some small indigo blue swarovski crystals, and antique silver curb chain.

Here are some pictures of the entire necklace just waiting for a lucky buyer:

Close-up view of pendant

Find this necklace in my Etsy shop here:
OOAK Something Old Something Blue Necklace

P.S. - There will be more designs with some of my Mom's jewels which I will post about.  I have plans also to use some of them to re-purpose into Christmas gifts for her siblings and family.  I might make some pretty Christmas ornaments for myself and them to treasure and have something to remember her by.  Will be posting pics along the way!

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!