WEC: Thoughts about Jewelry — Costume Jewelry

Do you wrinkle your nose at the mention of bugs? What about butterflies? They are in fact insects. They have four wings and six legs and like other insects, they have a  multi- stage life cycle. They have exoskeletons, but in the butterfly, this exoskeleton is the velvety looking wings which are made of pigmented scales. Enough science.Like many people, my internal filing system has one drawer for butterflies and one for all other insects. Today, I have the butterfly drawer open, so let's talk butterfly jewelry.   Caterpillar pin (larva stage) by Kenneth Jay Lane Insect collecting was widespread in Europe in the 1800s and...

Crowns, the preferred headgear of royalty. Turns out to be a popular subject for costume jewelry as well. Perhaps the most well known crown in costume jewelry is the Queen's Crown as seen below with matching earrings. It was designed by Alfred Philippe for Trifari and produced in 1944. This design was so popular that it remained in production for around three years. It was featured was featured in a Sak's Fifth Avenue Christmas ad. Trifari released many crown designs over the years, but none as popular as the Queen's Crown. Here is a sampling of other crown designs by Trifari. This...

With wood being readily available and easy to manipulate, it's no wonder woodchucks chuck it and artists use it to make jewelry. This blog post is all about wooden jewelry - from novelty to collectible. So let's get to the photos. This is a gopher, not a woodchuck, but it's a relative and it chucks wood too. He's carved and painted with leather ears. This wooden dog is wearing a felt hat. This mule has multi-colored rhinestone accents. A grid of 9 or 16 wooden pins like the examples above could easily be framed for a one-of-a-kind art piece. Novelty wooden pins...

Lisner is an affordable line of costume jewelry with some iconic designs and it's the perfect place for a beginner to start. Probably the most recognizable designs are the molded plastic maple and oak leaves. These leaf pieces were produced in fifteen color combinations including autumn tones and shades of green. The leaves were set in necklaces, bracelets, pins and earrings. Lisner made over a dozen other leaf shapes as well. Molded plastic was also used to make flower petals. Less common are Lisner's rhinestone pieces often found in familiar leaf and flower shapes. Some Lisner pieces lean toward bizarre. Lisner jewelry...

I was searching for something on the internet recently when I happened upon a list of "ugly" quotes. Several appealed to me and I decided to see if I could match the quote to a piece of jewelry. Make a game out of it. Turns out, I have some ugly jewelry, but the quotes don't really match. Nonetheless, this is the result: “My mirror never shows me what I want to see. I can't possibly be this fat and ugly!”- Michael R. Fletcher, from Beyond RedemptionClown pin by Lisner  “Even the most beautiful girl in the world becomes unsightly without depth...

Most online vintage jewelry sellers don't bother with cuff links. They are dated and no one wears them. At least that's the perception. I find it untrue. I sell quite a few sets every month. Half are shipped internationally and the remaining pairs are purchased by U.S. buyers. And those pairs go in equal number to men and women. Yep, quite a few women seem to be collecting and wearing cuff links. And why not? Like a pair of earrings, they can make an outfit. Unlike other jewelry, their origins are newer. The first cuff links appeared in the 1600s...

Monkeys aren't the most popular animal motif in costume jewelry, but if you look hard enough, you'll find they are represented. Apes, on the other hand are not. Must be the fact that apes don't have tails. In jewelry, the monkey's tail balances the design much like it balances the animal in the wild when it's leaping from tree to tree.  Elzac ceramic pin with lucite tail Unsigned pin with googly eyes Arboreal monkeys live in the trees and they are excellent climbers. Below is a sought-after silver and enamel charm of a monkey climbing a pole followed by a brooch...

A human hand contains 29 bones, 34 muscles, 123 ligaments, 30 arteries and 43 nerves. Taking all those numbers into account, it's no wonder hands have fascinated artists over the centuries. The variations are endless. Everyone has seen Abrecht Durer's "The Praying Hands." It's a pen and ink drawing executed in 1508. Below is a El Mano (The Hand) by Mario Irarrazabal. It was installed in 1982 in Uruguay The Hamsa, also called The Hand of Fatima is a centuries old design motif from the Middle East. The design and meaning of the Hamsa varies a bit from country to country but essentially...