Vintage Jewelry: Heirlooms & Relics Dear to the Heart

Summer in steamy southern California is the antithesis of winter in frigid Maine. Temps here are a stifling heat with a smidge of humidity… just enough to bake you to a crisp golden brown. For the record, I’d rather be bundled up in my L.L. Bean gortex woolies and standing in a snow bank. But that’s another story.

Birth of the yard sale

Summertime also generates a constant weekend flow of yard sales, tag sales, garage sales… call them what you will. Where I live in my 60 house oval shaped community there’s a home owner’s association and we’re allowed to do one per year on a pre-determined date. This is ok, since it’s a better draw to advertize many sales at once. I saved up an assortment of stuff all year long, so by the time the big weekend came I was relieved since it was clogging up my garage to the point of bursting!

Jewelers and designers come a-sniffin’!

Among the usual assortment of linen, mugs, baby clothes, electronics, games, dvd’s and more was a large table where I featured a lot of jewelry. Some of it was a collection of “dinosaurs” from my jewelry box, other were some vintage necklaces that I decided I didn’t want any more, and the rest were some cool components and fun things that I just had tons of and decided to let some of it go. Vintage stuff is so tempting and people just want to touch it. It got majorly manhandled all day until it was gone!

Planning ahead

Prior to our sale day I called a few friends that design jewelry and told them about the stuff that filled my table. They showed up with an army of one dollar bills and empty bags to carry their loot home in. :-) Happy shoppers! Towards the end of the day I wandered in my neighborhood in search of the great bargain. I was surprised to find a big selection of jewelry out there! Apparently quite few residents had raided Grandma’s jewelry box and thought they could make some cash on it. They were right! They were meant to be mine! What did I snatch up?

Beautiful baubles!

The fun plastic bead strands, big baubles clustered in chunks in the front with graduated beads heading toward the back. I adore the 1950’s bead look, with the short strand at the collar bone in opaque colors and a pretty adjustable clasp hook in back. Retro-beautiful! Big chunky beads on a stretchy silver colored band, bead clusters on clip on earrings… it was vintage bead-a-palooza! Toting my full bags home to the scowl of my husband. “Don’t look!”, I said, as I slinked past him into my bead room, hunkered over my hoard of treasure. He adoringly calls the yard sale the “sh*t shuffle”, since we all buy from each other. :-) Good times!

Vintage jewelry is treasure

Real vintage jewelry is becoming harder to find these days. When I visit stores that sell it the prices are enormous and the selection is minimal. The perfect recipe for “collectible”! The Beadin’ Path is at times blessed with an opportunity to buy an estate or a private collection from someone who has an extensive assortment of rare and great quality beads and jewelry. The beads are fantastic since they’re not available in bulk or loose, only in these finished pieces.

Think twice!

Before you yard sale out your Grandma’s baubles, consider wearing them! They’ve got style, personality, and you’ve got some one of a kind pieces to show off! Don’t have Grandma’s jewelry box any more?? Well, never fear! Take a look at some of your old family photos, and most likely we’ve got supplies on how to re-create some of that fabulous jewelry! And you can let the style live on!

“On a day when I’m down, I put on my Grandmother’s red necklace, and I feel like I have a ring of sunshine around me! I feel closer to her, and I’m reminded of her all day. What a rich blessing that necklace is to me.”  ~Debbie Raymond