Monthly Archives: February 2016

A little bit of the American South West, found on eBay UK


The Bay of Evil isn’t what it used to be for sellers, but sometimes you can have a magic moment as a buyer. While browsing the jewellery section recently, I saw this ring. The photo was blurry and the description just said “silver ring” (or something equally short and uninformative), but it just had that “look” – the first thing I thought was, “I bet that’s Navajo silver.” Turns out it wasn’t Navajo silver, but it was something almost as good. Firstly, the 925 mark on the inside proclaimed that it was indeed silver*. Then there was a letter R, and a copyright symbol. If you’ve never come across this mark before, it’s a range called Relios, by American jewellery designer Carolyn Pollack. The company, which has featured on QVC’s UK website (though not any more I’m sorry to say), is based in New Mexico and specialises in “South Western” style jewellery. So my “Navajo” guess wasn’t too far out.

relioswrapring

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*Sadly, not all jewellery marked with “925” is actually silver. There are some fakes out there so if you want to be totally sure you’re getting the real thing, stick to items with either a full hallmark or a reliable trademark, like my ring. But if you’re me, sometimes you’ll have a punt anyway – it can pay dividends and if you put a limit on your spending, you can end up with a real bargain.

Scottish silver bird of prey pendant


Anyone ever hear of Derek Wakeling? No, neither had I – until I came across this bird of prey pendant. It’s hallmarked for Edinburgh 1977, and the maker’s initials – DW – were a complete mystery to me. A bit of online research came up with this list of maker’s initials on the Edinburgh Assay Office site:

http://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Makers/Edinburgh-D.html#D

The font shown in the image is exactly the same as the one on the pendant, so I’m fairly confident that ol’ Derek was the maker. Anyway, I rather like this pendant and will be sorry to see it fly away.

birdofpreypendant

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Teal and orange button bracelet


Every so often, I think about my button stash. It’s now vastly depopulated, thanks to a massive downsizing project that took place seven years ago. (In fact, the reason I joined Etsy in the first place was to sell my button collection.) However, I’ve held onto a few buttons, and sometimes give in to the urge to buy more (not that the really good ones turn up in the charity shops all that often, which is probably just as well).

I recently made the bracelet on the right, from a selection of 1930s – 1950s plastic buttons. What’s nice about it – IMO – is the colour of the buttons: teal blue alternating with burnt orange. The button I’ve used as a fastener is Victorian and is made from metal, enamel and mother of pearl.

If you look at the bracelet when it’s laid flat (see below), you’ll notice that the buttons are bunched up close together, so that they overlap slightly. This is because when you put the bracelet round your wrist, the curvature makes the edges of the buttons separate slightly from each other – i.e. the overlap disappears.

tealandorangebuttonbracelet

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If you want to look at any of these pics up close, click for biggering. Then click Back to reverse.

Necklace made from an old earring, some beads, and a sterling silver chain


I won three orphan sterling silver earrings on eBay for the princely sum of £2.50 including postage. One of these earrings has ended up as the focal piece in this necklace. The earring is rainbow moonstone, and it shimmers in that bluish, almost supernatural way that moonstone does. I removed the French hook (simple job – it’s handy having strong nails sometimes).

Using 0.8 mm gauge, 3 mm diameter silver jump rings, I attached it to some garnet and labradorite beads (which had been part of a bracelet I’d bought in a charity shop for 50p). I used silver wire to give the beads loops at each end, so they could be attached to the jump rings. And finally, I cut a silver chain in half with a pair of pliers, and spliced the earring/bead combo between the two halves. Voilà! A necklace.

moonstoneandgarnetnecklace

More views here:

moonstoneandgarnetnecklace2

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It’s always worth buying sterling silver chains if you come across cheap ones in charity shops etc. – even if the chains are 14 or 16 inches long and therefore only suitable for the most swan-like necks, you can still use them for projects like this. Or chop them up to make safety chains, or even just save them for scrap.

Repurposed bracelet with a carnelian-set sterling silver filigree focal piece


The bracelet below started life as a… well, actually I’m not quite sure. In the Thanet Animal Group charity shop, I found a perfectly flat, oval filigree thing set with a carnelian cabochon. It was stamped on the back with “Israel 925” and there was no bale or anything, so I have no idea whether it was intended for use as a pendant. Being filigree though, it did have plenty of holes – a fact I made use of when converting it to a bracelet.

I g-e-n-t-l-y bent the “thing” around the contours of my wrist. Then I threaded three thin black lengths of waxed cord through each end, and then plaited them. I had six strands of cord to do the plaiting, which of course divided neatly into three lots of two. When the time came, I created a buttonhole by splitting the plaiting off into two lots of three, and then joining together again a couple of centimetres later.

Carnelianfiligreebracelet

At the other end, I bent back the ends and sewed them together to create a base on which to sew a button. More views here:

Carnelianfiligreebracelet2

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I did consider sewing the focal piece onto a backing – a piece of black velvet was my original thought – but I vetoed this idea on the grounds that the filigree work (which is really nice quality) would lose its impact. As with most of my jewellery projects the focal piece can easily be returned to its original state, in this case by cutting the cord.

And here are some more pics below. For some reason, my camera didn’t like taking pics of the bracelet laid out flat.

Carnelianfiligreebracelet4

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Bakelite, Prystal? Or not? Vintage plastic necklace


A while ago I found this necklace (below) in a charity shop. I gently cleaned it using an old toothbrush, unscented soap and tepid water. It’s come up looking very nice and the appearance of the beads, together with the style of the findings (which are sterling silver), makes me think that the necklace is more than a few decades old.

pseudoprystalnecklace

On looking at the egg yolk yellow, round beads, my first thoughts were “amber”, followed by “Bakelite”. But I was puzzled by the clear orange barrel-shaped beads – obviously they are some kind of plastic, but what? I put the necklace away and several months later while randomly searching the Internet, I hit on what I thought might be the answer when I found the site Gale’s Bakelite Guide. The orange barrels could be made of something called Prystal, a clear form of Bakelite that was manufactured in several colours.

The Guide also lists several ways to test for Bakelite, the most reliable non-chemical one of which is to run the item under hot water. A formaldehyde smell is a positive result, while no smell at all suggests that your item isn’t made of Bakelite at all but some other plastic like lucite/acrylic.

I duly ran the necklace under the tap. Was there a smell? No. So I am listing it on Etsy as “vintage plastic”.