Today's Vintage Bling - Yellow Flower Pin with Orange Rhinestone Centers

This pin isn't a super glitzy piece. It just has a few orange rhinestones that are centers to the yellow enamel flowers but don't they showcase the piece beautifully?

The pin really appeals to me. I love the combination of yellow and orange and the depth and dimension of the design is really special. It is not often that one finds older enamel flower jewelry in such good condition. Someone took special care storing this beauty.

The brooch has a white riveted back setting and is 1 3/4" with a 1/2" dome and rounded V clasp closure. It is from the 1950s but would look spectacular with this summer's fashions. Yellow has been a strong fashion choice all summer long this year.

The pin is available from my Ruby Lane Shop - Finishing Touch Vintage Jewelry for only $22.

Today's Vintage Jewelry Word - Pavé

Pavé is the process of setting stones (notably rhinestones) in which a number of small stones are set as closely together as possible. The word is taken from the French and is pronounced pa - vay.

Often better pieces will use a claw setting. For less expensive pieces, the stones are simply glued in. The end result is what looks like a continuous surface of diamonds or other gems.

Pavé is a word that is often misused. So much so, in fact, that the word has incorrectly become nearly a ‘generic’ description of any piece of jewelry with a lot of rhinestones. The original French word meant paving, in a similar manner to paving a street. If you think of this meaning, it will help to get a better picture of pave settings in your mind. The jewelry piece should be literally "paved" with stones or rhinestones, with as little metal as possible showing.

The word is also often used for a strip in a setting which is done in this same style. The strip will look like a little paved street, and is used as an accent, rather than covering the whole piece of jewelry. In pavé, each of the stones each has their own little holding area the shape of the stone. The holding areas are just very close together.

Here are a few examples of pavé jewelry. You can click the pictures to open a larger image.

Vintage Jewelry Find of the Week - Juliana Style Aurora Borealis Earrings

This week's vintage jewelry find is a pair of fabulous Juliana Style earrings with Aurora Borealis Rhinestones. The earrings have many of the elements of D & E Juliana designs but, alas, were not verified by the Juliana verification site. Still lovely and so full of sparkle and fire.

The earrings are set in goldtone metal and have a layered design with prong set aurora borealis rhinestones which rise to a large single aurora borelais center chaton which is surrounded by smaller AB stones.

So pretty and fantastic condition of the AB rhinestones. The size is 3/4 x 1". They are in gently used very fine condition.

For details and more pictures, you can view these Juliana Style rhinestone earrings in my Finishing Touch Vintage Jewelry store. The price is $30.

Today's Featured Vintage Jewelry Designer - Emmons

Today's featured vintage jewelry designer is Emmons. Most collectors of vintage jewelry know the name Sarah Coventry, but many do not know that the Sarah Coventry line was only one line developed by Charles H. Stuart.

In 1949 Mr. Stuart founded the Emmons Jewelry Company, to honor his wife Caroline (Emmons) Stuart. Like Sarah Coventry jewelry, the Emmons line was also sold at home parties. The prices of the Emmons pieces were higher than the Sarah Coventry pieces. (Sarah was founded in honor of his daughter.)

The company was located in New York City and did business until 1981, at which time it closed its doors for the last time. The early representatives for the company were all men, but by the 1950s women were mainly showing the lines to prospective customers with the home party plan.

The Emmons designs were very well made, good looking and, while more expensive than Sarah Coventry designs, still easy on the pocket book. Often a design was made in matching pieces - brooches, earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets. Full parures are much harder to find now than single pieces. The pieces in the line were all marked with a design name.

The Emmons line made great use of pearls in their designs as well as a wide range of silvertone and goldtone pieces with interesting design techniques. Here are a few examples:

The early design mark in 1949 was EmJ, and the later one after 1955 was Emmons. Here are some examples of the markings:

Emmons pieces were plentiful at the time, but are harder to find now than the Sarah Coventry pieces. It is considered a medium range design name. Emmons jewelry seems to me to have a higher value than the Sarah Coventry pieces do. There is no need to purchase pieces with damage. Choose those that you like, and choose pieces in good condition.

Jewelry and Astrology - Virgo

This blog post is another in my series about choosing jewelry suitable for individual star signs. Today's astrological sign is Virgo, which is the sign for those born between August 23-Septempber 22. The sign is depicted as a Virgin and it is an earth sign. The ruling planet is Mercury.

Zodiac Logo courtesy of zodiac-signs-astrology.com/

Those born under the sign of the Virgo are said to be shy and modest. They are methodical, and analyze every aspect before making a decision. They are practical in matters concerning money. On the negative side, it is thought that they can be too analytical and too perfectionist. They tend to worry too much, even about trivial matters. This is the sun sign that likes all their ducks in a row!

Here is a short poem that typifies the Virgo personality:

Critical Virgo

Who criticizes all she sees;
Yes, e'en would analyze a sneeze?
Who hugs and loves her own disease?
Humpf, Virgo!

Thinking about buying jewelry for your Virgo friend and don't know where to start? Let's examine some of these zodiac facts for a bit of inspiration.

• Their primary color is blue, particularly navy blue
• Their birthstone is sapphire, jasper. carnelian, moss agate, or jade
• Their lucky numbers are four and eight
• They love all brightly colored small flowers, particularly those that are blue or yellow

Here are a couple of pieces which might suit your Virgo friend:

This pretty set of interchangable flower pins by contemporary designer Joan Rivers would appeal to the small flower lover in her and the color blue as well.

This pretty necklace by Sarah Coventry is called Park Avenue and features a navy blue curved front to it, which is the lucky color for Virgos.

What would your Virgo friend like for a gift?