Cameos have enjoyed a special place in the history of jewelry.

This cameo necklace was found at a thrift store in pieces. It consists of 5 shell carved cameos set in brass filigree.

It is said that Cleopatra had cameos with her image carved out of precious gems such as emeralds and Queen Elizabeth I had her portrait cut into semi-precious stones and turquoise. Catherin the great of Russia had a very impressive collection of cameos.  During Queen Victoria’s reign the cameo enjoyed wide spread popularity that is still evident today.

Cameos can be made from a variety of materials including shell, precious and semi-precious gemstones, agate. The variety of materials used to make a carving is amazingly large.

There are two different styles of carving–relief and intaglio.

1. Relief—carved from the front with only the front profile showing or one side as opposed to a sculpture that can be seen from all sides.

2. Intaglio—-carved from the rear of the profile or picture. Intaglio came before the cameo. In ancient times, the intaglio was used to seal papers or to mark property. Later on, it became a jewelry item worn by women.  The cameo is the opposite of the intaglio.

This ring belonged to my great grandmother who brought it with her from southern Italy. It is an intaglio of a man with a laurel wreath on his head and carved into carnelian. The stone is set in Italian rose gold and is my most prized possession.

Classically the designs carved onto cameo stones were either scenes of Greek or Roman mythology or portraits of rulers or important dignitaries. In history, agate portrait cameos were often gifts from royalty to their subjects. These antique cameos, some more than 2000 years old, are either displayed in museums or are in private collections.

Amber is fossilized tree resin (not sap), which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Good quality amber is used for the manufacture of ornamental objects and jewelry. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes includes animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber should not be confused with copal which has the same warm glow of amber and a wide range of inclusions, usually with remarkable preservation. Copal has many uses, from incense to varnish, and is important as an avenue in studying past life. Copal should not be misrepresented as amber, a mature fossilized resin, but marketed as copal, a fresh recent resin, with many desirable qualities of its own. There are many myths about the origins of amber.

Amber occurs in a range of different colors. As well as the usual yellow-orange-brown that is associated with the color “amber”, amber itself can range from a whitish color through a pale lemon yellow, to brown and almost black. Other more uncommon colors include red amber (sometimes known as “cherry amber”), green amber, and even blue amber, which is rare and highly sought after.

Much of the most highly-prized amber is transparent, in contrast to the very common cloudy amber and opaque amber. Opaque amber contains numerous minute bubbles. This kind of amber is known as “bony amber”.

Sometimes amber retains the form of drops and stalactites, just as it exuded from the ducts and receptacles of the injured trees. It is thought that, in addition to exuding onto the surface of the tree, amber resin also originally flowed into hollow cavities or cracks within trees, thereby leading to the development of large lumps of amber of irregular form.

Amber has been used since the Neolithic period (approx 13,000 years ago) in the manufacture of jewelry and ornaments, and also forms the flavoring for aquavit liquor.Amber ornaments have been found in Mycenaean tombs and elsewhere across Europe. Folklore attributed medicinal properties to it. Turkish fable has it that a mouthpiece made from amber prevents infection when pipes are shared. To this day it is used in the manufacture of smoking and glassblowing mouthpieces. Amber’s place in culture and tradition lends it a tourism value- The Palanga Amber Museum in Lithuania is dedicated to this mineral.

Testing Amber - how can I tell if this is real amber or just plastic?

1. HARDNESS
Amber has hardness on Mohs scale in the region of 2 - 3. Using appropriate scratch sticks it should be reasonably straightforward to test the sample under question.

2. HOT NEEDLE
Heat a needlepoint in a flame until glowing red and then push the point into the sample for testing. With copal the needle melts the material quicker than amber and omits a light fragrant odor. Amber when tested does not melt as quickly as the copal and omits sooty fumes.

3. SOLUBILITY
Copal will dissolve in acetone. This test can be done by dispensing the acetone from an eyedropper onto a clean surface of the test specimen. Place one drop on the surface of the test piece; allow it to evaporate; place a second drop on the same area. Copal will become tacky; amber will remain unaffected by contact with acetone.

4. FRICTION
Rub the specimen vigorously on a soft cloth. True amber may omit a faint resinous fragrance but copal may actual begin to soften and the surface become sticky. Amber will also become heavily charged with static electricity and will easily pick up small pieces of loose paper.

5. TASTE
I know it sounds weird but this is one test that I have used many times. I am sensitive to formaldehyde which is a key ingredient used in the manufacture of resins. After washing the amber specimen in mild soapy water and then plain water taste the amber, plastics and other common substitutes will give off a very unpleasant or chemical taste. Amber has hardly any taste at all. This is the least destructive method of differentiating between amber and certain other substances often misleadingly labeled amber.

6. FLOTATION (Specific Gravity)
Mix 8oz of standard table salt with 6oz of warm water. Stir until completely dissolved. Amber should float in such a mixture and some copals together with various plastics sink.

7. INCLUSIONS
Infrequently amber contains flora or fauna inclusions. Correctly identifying the trapped insect or plant should be an excellent indicator of a piece’s authenticity. Most inclusions from ancient amber are of species that are now extinct or significantly changed. Frequently present in Baltic amber are tiny stellate hairs which are released by cretins types of vegetation and trees.

8. KNIFE CUT
Using a sharp knife try to shave off a tiny piece of the amber from an unobtrusive section. Real amber will fracture and splinter; plastic and polymers actually cut and tiny shaved pieces can be removed without any splintering of the material. (Think of a piece of hard candy that has been hit with a hard object- it doesn’t break cleanly but splinters apart)

Have you been invited an ugly holiday sweater party? You know- the ones where you find the ugliest holiday sweater you can and wear it to the party?  Everyone says they found their sweater at a thrift store be we know some of them came right out of the wearers closet. let’s face it- holiday sweaters can be pretty ugly. Not so holiday jewelry. Christmas tree pins can be humorous and some can be a bit silly but nothing nearly as bad as the sweater. Besides- holiday brooch is small and sweaters are well- large. Here are a couple of Christmas tree brooches that I really like.

 

I mostly like snowflake brooches. I am sure some of them were not intended as holiday brooches but to me they look like a big snowflake and you can wear them well into January and feel festive without screaming Christmas. These thrift store finds are among my favorites. All unsigned but still very nice.

A recent e-Bay win of “rhinestone jewelry for craft and repair” garnered this incredible necklace.  I was able to repair it to like new condition. It was a very simple fix actually and all the stones were intact. it is signed on the back “RR”

Not knowing who this designer is I Googled her and all I can come up with is a few references on some vintage jewelry sites. Robyn Rush is a  contemporary designer fromFlorida. Her designs are manufactured in China. I have seen her Christmas Tree Pins and from what I can tell they are done in limited editions of 30. They are beautiful! So if anyone out there can give me any more information on this designer I would love to hear from you.

This year instead of just decorating a tree in the studio I decided to try something different. I found this tree in the thrift store for $5. It was missing three branches and needed fresh paint.

At the studio I made new branches to replace the old ones out of copper wire and gave it all a fresh coat of paint. I then went through my stash of ribbons and trim and found this pink ribbon I had bought on clearance for .49 a bag. (I bought all five bags) A little wire and my tree was ready.

The garland on my tree are all vintage crystal necklaces and the ornaments are vintage rhinestone brooches.  Remember those jewelry trees people made years ago as Christmas decorations? Every time I see one I cringe. So many wonderful pieces of vintage jewelry damaged and maimed….My tree is vintage jewelry friendly. No rhinestone or crystal pieces of vintage jewelry were

harmed in the decorating of this tree

Merry Christmas!

Over the past few years I have had the privilege to repair several Miriam Haskell pieces.

The value of a Miriam Haskell piece was- and still is- a reflection of this workmanship and meticulous detail. Each bead, each crystal, each pearl is picked up by hand and hand-wired to an intricate brass filigree backing this is then backed to second filigree, concealing any trace of its construction. One piece may take as long as three days to create.

 Miriam Haskell was elegant with an authentic desire to create the impossible. She knew how to entertain and counted among her friends were “the” New York and Hollywood glitterati. Many were in theater and film, and they appreciated her clever, eccentric manner. Fame was not foreign to her, nor was it something to which she aspired. She designed it.

 Miriam Haskell opened her first boutique in 1926 “LE BIJOU DE L’HEURE” in New York’s McAlpin Hotel. She created collections for the society women of her day, the lavish productions of Flo Ziegfeld, as well as the couture of Coco Chanel. It wasn’t long before her spectacular, custom-made jewels were sought after, collected and cherished. Today her pieces are being collected all over the world and are fetching spectacular prices. Miriam Haskell jewelry is still being produced today and almost unheard of in today’s marketplace are still made entirely by hand.

 

You will often see vintage  beads identified as Czech or Bohemian glass.  Everyone knows that Italy has held the crown for glass making for centuries. But things changed in the 15th century.

In the 1550’s a major glass industry was founded in the cities of Jablonec, Stanovsko, and Bedrichov (modern Reichenberg) in Bohemia (in the current Czech Republic). Glassmakers there were mostly cottage crafters making products for larger centralized factories.

The area had three main attractions. First of all, nearby mountains contained quartz deposits that were easily mined. Second, Bohemia had an abundance of cheap skilled labor. Third, and most important, was the expansive Bohemian forests, an abundant source for wood to heat the large furnaces required to melt glass. Potash was a by product of burning wood in the furnaces. Importing potash, an important ingredient in glass making, would have been very expensive. It takes between 15,000 and 40,000 pounds of wood to create the potash to make 50 pounds of Czech glass. The wood burned in the furnaces created the ash that was later collected to make all the potash that was needed. The Bohemian factories turned out mainly glassware and cut glass stones. Beads were a secondary product.

The 20th century saw two great epochs of bead making. One is the period of the 1930’s in Czechoslovakia. When it was formed after “the Great War”, Czechoslovakia included the Bohemian glass makers who had already become well known for producing glass for world trade in the 1800’s. During the 1930’s, the Czechs made beautiful cut crystal, foil glass, molded shapes, and satin glass, using unusual styles and bright colors. This period of the Great Depression and the decline in income in the Western Hemisphere made glass beads more attractive to consumers than more expensive gemstone beads. The second period is much more complex and more international. The great demand for glass jewelry after World War II during the 1940’s - 1960’s led to an explosion of styles, colors, and forms of glass. The most bountiful producers of glass beads included Japan, West Germany, Italy, and Czechoslovakia.

This necklace came to me in pieces from a woman in Massachusetts.  It is a vintage piece of Bohemian glass. It was strung on silk cord and knotted between each bead. The beads in this necklace were hand cut in a wonderful starburst design. I restrung the necklace using silk cord and I used a knot bewteen each bead because I wanted to keep the integrity of the orginal piece.

Remember those tacky Christmas trees that were all the rage in the 60’s and 70’s? The ones made out of costume jewelry with a velvet background? This beautiful Rhodium plated Lisner brooch was rescued from one of those trees. All the stones were intact and it was in excellent shape. Except for the pin back. It had been cut off. Using fine jewelry files I smoothed out the places where the pin backs had been. I noticed there was some glue residue on the back of the brooch and in some of the crevices between the stones. Using my dental pick I gently removed all of the glue. After the glue had been removed I used rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab to clean away the dirt that had collected in the little crevices of the leaf shaped stones. A final polish with a lint free cloth and I was ready to take it to the design board.

I had been browsing through some old magazines and came across an advertisement for the Pearls Exhibition at the Field Museum a few years back in Chicago. I love pearls and one of the photographs from the exhibit inspired me to create a necklace using vintage components.

I assembled some vintage glass pearls, a pair of rhodium plated rhinestone three into one necklace spacers, a hook and some vintage hand cut faceted glass spacer beads. My original thought was to incorporate the rhinestone strand separators you see on the bead board. But when I actually started stringing I realized they were not the right size for the pearls and I didn’t need that extra bit of rhinestone- after all the Lisner brooch was my focal point. 

I placed a spacer bead between each pearl. The spacers beads are very interesting- because they are faceted they catch the light beautifully. They also have a bronze/gold/taupe finish to them which continues the color scheme of the Lisner brooch throughout the entire necklace.

After I finished stringing the beads I used some clear vintage spacer beads on the ends so when I connected the strand to the brooch you would not see the stringing material.

I finished off the necklace using a pair of vintage three into one strand connectors. these are set with rhinestones and are rhodium plated too. Since this piece has a nice weight to it I decided that a simple hook and jump ring would work for a clasp.

 

 

 

The finished piece turned out beautifully. Perfect for an evening out on the town or to finish that holiday outfit.

I recently came across this wonderful unsigned necklace. The inner strand of beads are a very interesting and unusual shade of olive green - very pretty. This necklace would be worth a lot more if it had been taken care of properly. Notice stones 1, 7, 9 and 10- they are not the same color as the other stones. They are grayed and a bit cloudy.  I am sure this is a result of moisture. The settings on this necklace are open backed and the stones are foiled - the perfect combination for disaster if moisture comes into play.  I searched through all of my rhinestone replacement sources and could not find stones of this size- about the size of an M&M- and the unusual lemon green color. This necklace will stay on the repair shelf for a very long time until I find stones that are worthy of it or until I decide that I should just take it apart and refashion it into a new necklace. The beads are really amazing in color and finish.  Anytime you have open backed settings with foil on the stones moisture shuold be kept to a minimum. I would clean a piece like this with rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab and then a gentle wipe down with a very soft lint free cloth. The alcohol evaporates quickly leaving little chance of moisture seeping behind the setting.

Recently while shopping on eBay I saw several pieces that were listed as being by certain designers but then went on to say they were unsigned. How can this be?  If you do your research you can assign pieces to certain designers. For example- Miriam Haskell has a very distinct style. ,

Miriam Haskell first began making jewelry commercially around 1924. Like her design predecessors in the Art Nouveau era, she designed and manufactured jewelry that evoked nature in their subjects and construction. She began to create the pieces using organic materials in her jewelry. Not only was Haskell riding the wave of the Roaring Twenties, she was creating a wave of her own. The Twenties were the years that all of the fashion rules were broken. Haskell’s unbounded creativity met with enormous popularity. The prices for her costume jewelry were much lower than the cost of precious metals and stones, so anyone could afford to look fashionable. The popularity of her costume jewelry continued, even after the stock market crash.

 At the heart of a Miriam Haskell piece is a filigree base made of stamped brass. These come from France, Germany, and the US. The filigrees are plated separately in signature Russian gold or a specialty finish, then assembled, and then embellished. Vintage filigrees that are difficult to find are often used. Each element is first picked up by hand. Depending on the nature of the design, the element, no matter how diminutive, is then threaded, encrusted, or wrapped by hand onto a wire, a chain, or handset into a channel or finding. It’s the tight embroidery of the elements-that exposes no sign of the base underneath- that is one of the most distinctive features of Miriam Haskell jewelry. In addition to meticulous construction practices she used sophisticated and unique materials with colors that are characters unto themselves. In the early years, Haskell jewelry was not marked and production was limited. Many of “unsigned” Haskell pieces are questionable as to authenticity.

Haskell never registered her designs. She began to sign her pieces in 1950. The Miriam Haskell trademark was not received until 1988, 64 years after she began designing. Because there were no marks to identify her work prior to 1950, it is difficult to verify many of her pieces.

Several signatures including an incised “Miriam Haskell” on the hook, “Miriam Haskell” in a crescent shaped cartouche, and an oval stamp “Miriam Haskell” on the clasp. Some designs during the fifties were incredibly elaborate, combining stones, pearls, beads, and filigree in new and exciting ways.

So how do I know if this piece is a real Haskell?  Research. Look through photos in books on vintage jewelry; vintage magazine ads and website that specialise in the designer you are trying to research.  My rule of thumb is that if enough characteristics of the designer are present in your piece you can say with confidence that you do have an unsigned piece “in the style of”  your designer. This piece is not signed Miriam Haskell but the over all design has her style written all over it. From the organic style of the flower centerpiece covered with interesting hand wired beads  to the flower shaped beads accented with rhinestones.  it is very likely that this piece is a genuine Haskell pre- 1950.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The brooch below is one  I recently discovered at a flea market is unsigned. Whne I forst looked at it I thought to myself this looks like a Schreiner piece. But after doing more research and comparing it to other Schreiner brooches I have I have concluded that it is not a Schreiner. The center stone even though it has an open back is foiled.  it would have been more in keeping with Schreiner’s style to place an unfoiled stone of a higher quality as the centerpiece of this brooch.