The Stories They Can Tell Us

I recently uncovered this ring in my collection of jewelry. I'm not much of a ring person, so this interesting piece was languishing in a drawer. I have no idea where I actually got it from or how long I've had it.

Being a romantic, I just knew that there had to be a story behind this ring. Of course, my notions were heavily fueled by just having recently seen the latest Indiana Jones movie.

Perhaps the ring was purchased in from a market stall outside the walls of Teotihuacan. Maybe the purchaser had just climbed the pyramid at Chichen Itza. Was the ring made by some Mexican peasant who spent his days making items for the tourist industry? Or was it made by a factory in Mexico City? The ring appears to be hand made, but who knows what it's true origin.

Was it purchased by the beautiful, young second wife of a middle age tourist on their honeymoon? Was it worn by a member of the French resistance in WWII? The ring appears old enough. Was it a gift to an archeology student who did one semester of excavation in Mexico? Or perhaps it was worn by an illegal immigrant who wore it to remind himself of home.

I know there's a story and a past behind this ring. I can see it when I pick it up. I can feel it when I hold the ring. I only wish this ring could talk and tell me the story of the person who wore it. I'm sure it's full of love and adventure.

- Dawnjewels

I am so excited! I just got my copy of a new book on Juliana (aka DeLizza and Elster) jewelry. The book, The Art of Juliana Jewelry, was written by Katerina Musetti, and was published by Schiffer Books.

If you don't already know, DeLizza and Elster jewelry is among the most sought after costume jewelry around. Their use of unfoiled stones, art glass and other specialty rhinestones in fantastic multi-layered designs has always made this jewelry a standout. This beautiful jewelry is also extraordinarily well made, so it has held up well over the years.

Since DeLizza and Elster jewelry was never signed, it's always been difficult for the average collector to identify. Fortunately, Musetti's book contains a very detailed section on how to identify Juliana jewelry. She also uses lots of photos so that you can clearly understand exactly what she is describing to help with identification.

The book contains over 450 photographs of DeLizza and Elster Juliana jewelry. My only criticism of the book is that some of the photos are a bit repetitious. On the other hand, I was also very pleased that Musetti included pieces that were attributed to and signed by other makers, such as Weiss, that were made by DeLizza and Elster.

I have a few pieces of jewelry in my collection that I had long suspected were Juliana, and I was delighted that my suspicions could be confirmed with photographic evidence from this book.

This is an absolute must have book for both the fledgling as well as experienced collector of costume jewelry.

Lost Jewelry Arts

Just got back from Denver where I attended the national MENSA convention. No, I don't belong to MENSA, my husband does. As Groucho Marx once so wisely said, I don't want to belong to any institution that will have me!

Anyway, for several days of the event, there were various Mensan's who were selling their handcrafted items. Although many of the items were quite lovely, I was really surprised to see two vendors who were using techniques that I thought had been lost. These were sea shell jewelry and crocheted rope jewelry.

The sea shell jewelry was not the tourist stuff you generally see when you travel. Rather tiny cap, or cup, sea shells are dyed and made into delicate flowers or figures. These tiny shells, about 1/4" in diameter each, are very thin and delicate. In the 50's, sea shell jewelry like this was made by forming elaborate floral designs and gluing the shells onto plastic discs or into gold frames. This vendor had come up with an interesting twist on that technique by using plain vintage brooches as a base for her designs. Because the underlying brooches were often abstract in design, the result was attractive jewelry that was an interesting combination of old and new.

The second vendor was crocheting beads into ropes for necklaces and bracelets in beautiful jewel-like colors. Crocheted bead ropes are made by stringing tiny beads onto thread and then crocheting it into ropes about the same diameter is clothesline. She was using colored and clear beads over various colors of threads to form these bead ropes.

Crocheted bead rope jewelry has gone in and out of popularity many times. In the Victorian era tiny jet beads would be crocheted into mourning jewelry. In the 20's flapper wore sautoirs, very long necklaces with tassels on the end. These were often made of crocheted of glass beads. Although this particular style of necklace is out of fashion, crocheted bead ropes still make lovely necklaces and bracelets. In fact, I purchased a bracelet that was made of clear plastic beads that had been crochet on verigated cotton thread. The result was a really pretty bangle bracelet in soft shades of moss green.

Sometimes it seems that old techniques of making things are lost. But somewhere, there is always someone who continues to adapt old techniques to new fashionable styles.

Retro Jewelry and Plastic Jewelry

Since I talked about the types of jewelry I like to collect, I thought I would share some pictures of my favorite pieces.

Plastics have been used to make jewelry since around the turn of the century. Bakelite is probably the most well-known for use in jewelry, but other commonly used plastics include celluloid, lucite and thermoset. This pretty red necklace is actually a combination of plastics. The red links are made of celluloid and the interesting heart is a clear lucite over red lucite. The heart pendant is nearly three inches wide.

Celluloid could be used to make very elaborate jewelry. It was easily carved and molded into shape, like the links above. This bracelet is a perfect example of one of the more elaborate designs. Although this piece is pure white and looks like chalk, many of these bracelets were highly colored.

Because celluloid, as well as many other plastics, were cheap and so easily formed, they were often used for a lot of novelty jewelry. Remember Cracker Jacks? Cracker Jack "prizes" were often made of celluloid.

Celluloid is also highly flamable, so you want to keep it away from flame. I can't help but wonder how many pieces were lost back in the days when everyone smoked.

Retro is a term that is used often to refer to something that is a throw back to another era. However, there was a specific style of jewelry popular in the 1940's that is called Retro. Think back to some of the classic black and white movies of the time. Remember the women's fashions? Plain suits with straight skirts and jackets with wide lapels and broad, heavily padded shoulders. Retro jewelry, with its simple, bold lines was a perfect accompaniment for those styles. The pale blue stones on this piece make it a particularly attractive example.

Here's a smiliar piece with purple or violet rhinestones. This piece is signed Corocraft by Coro. Coro was one of the most prolific costume jewelry companies through the 30's and 40's. They created a great deal of Retro jewelry which is collectible today. Typical of Coro jewelry at the time, this piece is a gold wash over sterling silver.

Of course, these are just a few favorites. I have so many more, I couldn't possible post them all.