New to my Shop: Jewelry

I started collecting a fair amount of jewelry for my Etsy store. I am very impressed by the quality of "costume" jewelry from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Most jewelry I have found has stood the test of time and the test of daily use! Costume jewelry from this time period seems to be made more like the more expensive jewelry of today - sturdy, well made, quality pieces.

For my wedding ceremony jewelry, I used my Grandma's wedding jewelry (She wasn't wearing the jewelry in the photos, but I'm sure she wore it for the celebration!). Some of the rhinestones were darker or discolored, so my mom took the earrings and necklace to a jeweler, who said it was the foil behind the rhinestones and it would cost xxx.xx dollars to fix... I don't mind the slight discoloration, and I think it adds to the charm. The jewelry is in the original box my Grandma bought the jewelry in - another reason why vintage costume jewelry is far beyond the costume jewelry of today (I guess it's not called costume jewelry anymore, but affordable jewelry? Non-precious jewelry? Honestly, I don't know!).



Here are two AMAZING finds of vintage costume jewelry I just posted to my Etsy store (I will definitely be posting more in the future!):

A pair of earrings that remind me of a peacock - long steel blue rhinestone "feathers" with turquoise and aurora borealis stones.

A pair of earrings that look like they just came off of a brides ears! They are so classy, clean and definitely stood up to the timelessness of the style.

Grandma's Jewelry - Rings and Bracelets

I've been wanting to photograph and document my grandmother's jewelry for a while now. Since I started having memories of my Grandma E, these memories always included her jewelry. I think my first memory includes the story of why Grandma always wears clip-on earrings: she was too scared to get her ears pierced because her mother told her it would hurt too much and she would cry. Meanwhile, I didn't even wince when I got my ears pierced (my mom told me I could only get my ears pierced if I didn't cry... so I didn't!).
Speaking of crying, I cried my eyes out this past Saturday because I had 4 cavities filled (yuck). 3 of those 4 were drilled and filled without any Novocaine. Maybe my extra crying was making up for the no crying for my pierced ears.... or maybe having 3 teeth drilled without a local anesthetic was the reason....

I decided to break these post up into a few, since there is so much jewelry and so many beautiful photos. Here are some of Grandma's rings, ring dish, and bracelets.

Decorative, ornate gold toned rings.

I just learned that this is called a "Poison Ring".... what were you keeping in there, Grandma?!

A clear, glass ring holder. A gold toned wavy bracelet with pearl and turquoise beads.

Copper bracelets. The one on the right I very much so remember my Grandma wearing... I don't remember if it had something to do with health/balance, but she was always wearing these hammered copper bracelets.