Red Jewelry and Hearts for Valentine's Day - Perfect Choice!

It's that time again. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. That is when you go to the grocery store on February 13, and can't buy your groceries because the men are taking all the check out space waiting to pay for flowers and chocolate. Be creative men! Long after the flowers have faded and the chocolates have been devoured, a piece of jewelry will give pleasure to the wearer, and remind her of your throughfulness.

My stores - Vintage Jewelry Lane, Vintage Jewelry Mall, and Carolina Collections Vintage Jewelry - all have a great selection of both heart jewelry, and red jewelry. All perfect for your special someone on February 14.

Here are some of my top picks for unique, out of the ordinary, and affordable gifts for the special someone in your life.

Step outside the (candy) box guys. She will love you for it!

Multi Strand Necklaces - Fill up that neckline!

I've seen a big increase in the number of multi strand necklaces that I have sold recently. They were hugely popular in the 1950s and 1960s and many are marked Japan and West Germany. There also seems to be a resurgence of this style with contemporary designers too.

The necklaces come in a myriad of bead types but all have one thing in common - they have more than one strand, normally attached with special findings at the neckline so that the strands sit evenly in rows. Some, like this interesting artisan glass bead necklace, are crimped at the neckline for more of a bunched look. It's perfect for the rich fashion colors forecast for winter 2009 by Fashion Trendsetter. It's muted tones would look wonderful on any color, but would be great with red, which is a very popular color right now.

Other multistrand necklaces of interest are those which actually twist the strands. Mainly done in glass, these torsade necklaces give a neater look at the neckline. Here is one featuring three rows of black and white glass beads. Imagine this with a black jacket and white open necked blouse. It's available in my Carolina Collections Vintage Jewelry store at a bargain price of only $11.99.

It isn't just necklaces that lend themselves to the multi strand design. Many bracelets are made this way. Visit my Ebay store Carolina Collections Vintage Jewelry to view a wide range of multi strand styles - all at bargain prices.

Creative Use of Christmas Tree Pins!

I love Christmas. I am the original Christmas fairy. I go all out in the decorating department each year and have a huge collection of Christmas collectibles. One of my favorite types of jewelry is also the Christmas tree pin.

I have heard of people doing very creative things with these pins. Some people put them into shadow boxes. Some people use ones with broken clasps and other problems to make into Mosaic Christmas tree decorations.

But never have I seen such a creative use of the pins as that which a customer of mine told me about. Adam Wide from the UK - magician, then comedian and now creative consultant for many large organizations, such as the Dubai multimillion dollar theme park - Global Village, uses his pins in a unique fashion.

Every year, Adam conducts a small group of comedians who go out Christmas carol singing around the nobby, trendy market ares of London for a charity called "Crisis at Christmas." This charity does its part to make sure that homeless people in Londan to have a good Christmas day. This past Christmas, the charity raised over £1,850 from their "enthusiastic, but often terrible four-part harmony singing", as he puts it.

Here is Adam, on his Harley Motorcyle all dressed up like Santa Claus. He tells me that his scarf weighs a ton and has 150 Christmas tree pins on it.

Adam started collecting Christmas tree pins on a previous trip to Copenhagen, in 1984, where he got his first tree. This YouTube video of him as Clarence with Babs as Joy Pickles is an entertaining look at some of his comedy. If you look very closely in one of the frames, you can just see the original Copenhagen pin.

His collection of Christmas tree pins was 750 at the last count, (before his recent purchase from me of several more). He also sent me a photo of some of the other pins in his collection. It is massive and very impressive.

I would dare to say that this Santa Claus certainly causes quite a stir. Santa with Glitz!

Vintage Jewelry Lane and Carolina Collections Vintage Jewelry both have a huge range of Christmas tree pins for sale. Your collection may not be as large as Adam's but one can always dream!

Do you have an interesting story to tell about jewelry? Please email me with details and you may be featured as my next customer of note.

Milk Glass - Opaque Beauty in Jewelry

In a previous blog post, I talked about how undervalued glass is in the vintage jewelry collecting hobby. In this article and future ones, I'll talk about a variety of types of specialty glass used in the manufacture of vintage jewelry pieces.

My personal favorite is milk glass. Wikepedia describes milk glass as an opaque, milky white or colored glass, that is blown or pressed into a wide variety of shapes. It is also used in dinnerware, lamps and vases. When used in costume jewelry, it produces a piece with a crispness not otherwise found.

Early examples of milk glass vintage jewelry include pieces marked Germany, and Japan. Miriam Haskell was particularly fond of milk glass in her jewelry designs, and her pieces are much in demand and command high prices. Trifari also used white milk glass, particularly in marquis and navette shaped stones. This gorgeous milk glass flowered brooch is a new addition to the Trifai page of my Vintage Jewelry Lane Website. It is so simple in design, but just elegant.

Milk glass is used in all sorts of vintage jewelry. Japan and Germany made both earrings and necklaces - some single stand, but many with multistrands and fancy milk glass clasps.

Germany and Miriam Haskell often used unique shapes of milk glass instead of the traditional oval or round shaped often used. Dimpled glass or "baroque" glass shapes like the one shown here were common. Some designers used petal shaped milk glass stones in earrings for a lovely flower petal effect.

Not all milk glass vintage jewelry pieces were marked. Some of the nicest designs that I have seen use prong set milk glass stones in quality settings, but have no markings at all. Often, these are unsigned designer pieces. Designers often had pieces made for their high end lines with their signatures, and then had some other pieces for the lower price ranges with no markings.

The pieces shown here and other lovely milk glass vintage jewelry pieces are available on my site Vintage Jewelry Lane site, or my ebay store Carolina Collections Vintage Jewelry, at very affordable prices.