Charmed Bracelets

Vintage Enameled Ladybug

 The vintage ladybug charm in the photo is from Europe. It was made in the 1960s, is gold and enamel, and is valued at about $60. I love it because it is so perfectly detailed (and in perfect condition).

I also love the size--which is just slightly larger than a real ladybug. 

I put this dainty charm on a chain that combines gold and sterling silver--the gold beads are spaced every few inches on a sterling chain. 

The chain is a more delicate one than I usually use, but it is scaled just right for the ladybug. 

The chain is 18 inches long, plus a 2-inch extender chain for a perfect fit. The necklace closes with a sterling silver claw clasp, and the extender chain ends with a carnelian and a small gold bead. 

 This necklace is, of course, one of a kind. 

Price: $140, which includes the usuals: postage, insurance and so on. 

See more: Ladybugs

Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2010.

Design and text: @ Jeanne Sather 2010. 

Amber and Copper Ankle Bracelet

I've been working on ankle bracelets for summer. 

I worked out several designs, and then gave samples to a couple of friends, including The Amazing Martha, for a "test drive."

The bracelet in the photo is the first one I made, for myself, but also as a prototype.

The triangular beads are graduated in size and are a beautiful amber. Not amber glass or plastic, but real amber. The chain is antiqued copper, and it closes with a handmade hook, also oxidized copper. I've been wearing it off and on for a week, and I really like the way it feels.

It makes me want to go barefoot. It also makes me look around for a beach--ankle bracelets really belong on the sand, don't you think?

I have one more like this. Ankle sizes vary widely, so I will wait to finish it off until it is sold. That way, I can make sure it fits you perfectly. If you order this ankle bracelet, please send me a note with your ankle measurement. I'll also give it an inch or so of extender chain.

The price for the ankle bracelet above is $60, which includes postage, insurance, and so on.

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2011. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2011. 

Floor-Sweeping Earrings in Clown Colors: SOLD

I've almost run out of Czech vintage glass beads, and I don't have any more of these exact beads so if you want this pair of earrings, buy them now.

The glass beads are floor sweepings from factories in what is now the Czech Republic. 

I love the beads as much for the story as for their gorgeous colors and that feel in the hand that new beads just don't have.  

Read more: Vintage End-of-Day Beads

This pair is $25, and it is one-of-a-kind. 

 

Photo: @Monica Strasen 2011. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2011. 

1940s Lawn Mower Charm

This sterling silver lawn mower charm was made in the 1940s. It's a mechanical charm, which means it has moving parts.

Recently, I've been collecting sterling silver charms from this era that seem to symbolize a kind of retro, 1930s and 1940s domesticity--women wore aprons and cotton house dresses, canned their own fruit and vegetables, and decorated their kitchens with fabrics printed with lush fruit and flowers.

They also wore charm bracelets (with as many as 20 to 40 charms on one bracelet) with beautifully detailed charms of vacuum cleaners, toasters, bug sprayers, sewing machines, and more.

I wondered if women picked these charms as a not-so-subtle sign of domestic bondage ... but I've concluded that wasn't it.

Rather, they were in love with the new labor-saving devices--vacuum cleaners and pop-up toasters, for example--and that made them want these charms. 

For a true story that supports my thesis, see: 1940s Vintage Vacuum Cleaner Charm

The lawn mower has blades that turn and is less than an inch long. It is valued at about $30. I am happy to make you a bracelet or necklace with this charm: E-mail me and let me know what you'd like, bracelet or necklace, and we'll go from there. 

Note: I do not resell charms. I search for unusual charms to use on my one-of-a-kind bracelets and necklaces. 

 Read more: Retro Domesticity

See all the jewelry for sale in this group: Domesticity 

Also: Mechanical Charms

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2011. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2011. 

 

Jen Has Moved Her Online Store

My friend Jen, whose online store Xurple is my source for bakelite buttons, has moved her store from Ruby Lane to Bonanza. Here's the new link: Xurple

Here's a carved butterscotch bakelite bird that caught my eye: Bakelite Tropical Bird Brooch

The pin is $68, but Jen sent me an e-mail offering a 20 percent discount. She sent this e-mail to her regular customers, but gave us permission to pass on the discount code to friends.

So if you want to buy something from Jen's site at the discounted price--and who wouldn't?--e-mail me and I will put you in touch with Jen or just give you the code.

If you don't know much about bakelite, here's an explanation on my blog: My Bakelite Bangles

Here's a bracelet I made for Julie using bakelite buttons that I bought from Jen: A Gift for Julie: Flowers and Puppy Dogs

Most, if not all, of the buttons on the bracelet in the photo came from Xurple: Couldn't Wait to Post This One

Yesterday I ordered two groups of bakelite hearts from Jen, one group is deep cherry red and the other has five hearts of different colors. Expect to see bracelets with these hearts on my blog fairly soon. 

Jen doesn't just sell bakelite. Far from it: She has a wonderful inventory of vintage items. 

For one, she is selling a pair of 1950s lucite bracelets. The bangles are clear with embedded dried flowers, and are priced at $34, before the discount. The bracelets come with a matching lucite ring. 

See: Vintage Lucite Bracelets

Another item that caught my eye is an antique wooden needle case, made in Germany:

Antique Wood Needle Case

The German needle case is three inches high, which is probably too big to attach to a necklace, but it's a great collectible. I made, and sold, a necklace recently with a silver Chinese needle case:

Chinese Necklace

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2011. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2011. 

 

Prayer Beads With Vintage Glass Frog

Beads can do all sorts of powerful things:

Keep you safe. Mark boundaries. Give you something to hold onto in the dark of night or the glare of a fluorescent (medical) environment.

I have been using beads—and charms, and wire, and cord—to make jewelry for more than two years now. But only recently did I come to realize what I was really doing.

I started buying old factory floor-sweepings from my friend Cynthia in Colorado. Then I put them together into one-of-a-kind necklaces and bracelets.

 Each bead I added to a strand was a prayer.

Then I made a prayer bead necklace for myself, just as the brain tumor chapter of my life was beginning. And I wore it to my dates with the cyberknife machine, and kept it wrapped around my hand at night as I slept. Now that I'm in remission, I keep it on my bedside table. 

The beads are floor sweepings from those old factories in what is now the Czech Republic. The little glass frog was also made in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s. The charm is valued at about $70.

Glass animals--cats, frogs, various breeds of dogs--were made as charms to go in Christmas crackers. You know, the kind you pull and the prizes fall out. They are slightly less than an inch in size. Some are translucent, like this frog, some are opaque. 

They probably cost a few cents in the 1920s, but they are collector's items now. I get them from Sandy's site: Sandy's Vintage Charms

I made two more strands of prayer beads/worry beads with Czech glass animals, one a pale green cat, the other the cutest little French bulldog. One of these was sold, the other went to a friend as a gift.

See also: More Prayer Beads

Price for the frog bracelet: $150, which includes postage, insurance, and so on. 

Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2011. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2011. 

Victorian Doll Charm

This adorable Victorian charm of a child's doll was made in about 1895.

It is a "puffed" charm, as opposed to solid silver, and has marvelous detailing, including a sweet face. The joints are part of the detail but don't actually move.

Valued at $75.

I haven't decided yet whether she should go on a necklace or a bracelet, alone or with other charms of the period such as a Victorian love token. See: Love Tokens

If you know that you want this charm, e-mail me fairly soon and that way you can have input on the necklace design. 

jeanne.sather@gmail.com

Note: I do not resell charms. I search for unusual charms to use in my one-of-a-kind bracelets and necklaces. 

I love these doll charms, but they are expensive, so I don't keep more than one in stock at a time. Here's another Victorian doll, this one with moveable joints, that I used on a bracelet: Victorian Jointed Doll

Let me know if you'd like me to watch for a jointed doll for you, or one in another metal than silver. Sometimes these charms are brass, and sometimes brass with gold plating over the brass. 

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2011. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2011.

 

My Favorite Frog: SOLD

I've had this vintage sterling silver frog for some time, just waiting for design inspiration. 

And now, here he is. 

I used five strands of gemstone beads: one of beautiful natural turquoise beads in a small tube shape, and four strands of Chinese chrysocola in various shapes: round, square, and small rondelles. The Chinese chrysocola is a mottled blue that goes perfectly with turquoise. The lighter areas of the beads are turquoise in color and the rest are a deeper blue. 

The strands are gathered into cones of hammered sterling silver, and the toggle clasp is adjustable to fit wrists from about 6 to 7 inches.

The bracelet is $160, which reflects the value and quality of the charm (plus the "cuteness factor," of course. 

Price: $160, this includes postage, insurance, and so on. 

The Child Jeanne and Frogs

I grew up in a small town, playing with frogs. 

In the 1960s in Hoquiam, Washington, we had tree frogs in the yard, and bigger frogs and bullfrogs in the swamp at the end of our street. Hoquiam is at sea level (altitude: 0), and is only a few miles from the rainiest spot in the continental United States--a pretty good environment for the little guys with webbed toes. 

My sons grew up in Seattle, and, sadly, it's pretty hard to find a frog inside the city limits (I know one or two places where they can be found, but I'm not telling). We used to have to go to the zoo to see frogs. And the boys had projects at their grade school where they hatched tadpoles and then released them in Ravenna Park near our house, but the frogs did not survive. Environmental change.  

Not only did I play with frogs as a child in Hoquiam, I also played with ladybugs, beetles, tadpoles, bumble bees, baby trout in the rivers, grasshoppers, banana slugs in the woods ... but NOT the sick bat that attached itself to the porch of our house one year. I successfully raised a few birds that fell out of their nests while learning to fly.

I never played with ants, that was Becky, my youngest sister. 

So I have an affection for frogs that has now spilled over into my jewelry. 

More frog pieces to come. 

Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2011. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2011. 

Love & Marriage & Baby Carriage

The wooden doll you see here is the very first doll I ever owned. (She never had a name.)

Somewhere, my mother has a black-and-white Kodak snapshot of me holding the doll upside down and chewing on it. I think I was less than a year old.

The doll came back to me not all that long ago (maybe 15 years ago), when my mother was cleaning house.

She usually hangs from the knob on my bedroom door, and sometimes she models for photos, like this one. 

The jewelry she is draped in is from a group I call "Love & Marriage & Baby Carriage." Two of these bracelets are still available. I snatched the baby mug off the bracelet on the left to make a necklace for a new mother. 

If you suddenly want that bracelet and no other, e-mail me and I will see if I can find a similar baby cup. These were a popular charm in the 1950s, when women got all domestic.

Regardless of your feelings about the 1950s, it is a very cute charm.

See: Newborn on a Doctor's Scale

Baby Shoe Bracelet

Baby Carriage

Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2010.

@ Jeanne Sather 2011.  

Juicy Orange Lampwork Heart

Lampworked beads are handmade by melting rods of glass with a torch and then forming the molten glass into beads.

This heart has a sweet flower-and-leaf design on a translucent heart of orange glass.   

The heart is about 19 mm in size and was handmade in California by a company called Grace Lampwork.

I used sterling silver wire to attach the heart to a jump ring with a wrapped loop. Then I threaded a yard of brown grosgrain ribbon through the ring, and added a high-quality cultured pearl on another jump ring.

The ribbon is long enough to tie a bow at the back of your neck. It's also long enough that you can adjust the length of the necklace to suit whatever you are wearing.

If you find the ribbon is too long, cut it with a very sharp pair of scissors. 

The necklace is one of a kind, of course. 

Price: $85, which includes postage, insurance, and so on. To order: 

I would love to make lampwork beads myself, but I don't think I have the necessary hand-eye coordination, plus, I'm afraid of the torch.

If you feel like trying your hand, here are some instructions, from the Beadworx site:

How to Make a Lampwork Bead

Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2010.

@ Jeanne Sather 2011.  

 

Elegant Lampwork Heart Necklace

T

 You could search a long time before you'd find glass hearts as beautiful as these.

In fact, I did search for quite some time before I found these handmade hearts in various designs and colors. 

This heart has a dramatic but sweet design of flowers, swirls, and little raised balls of glass. One is the center to a flower, the others are part of the overall design. 

The heart is about 19 mm in size and each one is handmade individually in California of Italian and German glass by a company called Grace Lampwork.

I used sterling silver wire to attach the heart to a jump ring with a wrapped loop. Then I threaded black velvet ribbon through the ring, and added a high quality cultured pearl on another jump ring. 

You can't see the pearl in this photo, but here's a different necklace with a pearl: Glass Hearts: a Variation

I have some earrings made with the same pearls and jump rings: Precious Pearl Earrings

The black velvet ribbon is long enough to tie in a bow at the back of your neck. You should be able to adjust the length to suit the neckline you are wearing it with.

If the ribbon seems too long, just cut the ends with very sharp scissors. It won't fray as long as the scissors are sharp.

Price: $85, which includes postage, insurance, and taxes. Buy this necklace:

See also: How to Use This Web Site

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2010. 

 

@ Jeanne Sather 2011.