Charmed Bracelets

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. 

 

Laurie Models the Red Button Necklace

 I have quite a few red bakelite buttons in my collection of jewelry-making materials, but this is the most beautiful one I have found so far. 

It's a deep, rich red that somehow looks very Asian, and it is hand-carved in a design that resembles a pair of abstract fans. 

To buy this necklace: The Red Button Necklace

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2010. 

Design and text: @ Jeanne Sather 2010. 

Megan Models a Bakelite Necklace

 I've made several necklaces that show off one beautiful vintage-bakelite button. 

For those of you not familiar with bakelite, it is an early plastic much used during the 1930s and 1940s for household items and jewelry. These uses were phased out in the mid-1940s when bakelite was needed by the military to make radios and such, and as other plastics came along. 

But collectors love bakelite, and the buttons are wonderful little pieces of hand-carved art that I always marvel at--how could someone spend time carving a button that was going to be sold for a cent or two? (I usually pay $10 a button or more for nicely carved ones like the one in this photo.)

The necklace Megan is wearing in this photo has a hand-carved bakelite button in the color known as creamed corn. I paired the button with two strands of small black-onyx beads, which are pulled into flower-shaped cones of Thai silver and attached to several inches of sterling silver chain.

To read more about this necklace, or to buy it, please go to this link: 

The Yellow Button Necklace 

Here is one more similar necklace:

The Red Button Necklace

To read more about bakelite:

My Bakelite Bangles

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2010.

Design and text: @ Jeanne Sather 2010.  

 

 

Luscious as a Bowl of Cherries

Peaches and cherries? Or bakelite?

Stop and take a second look before you bite into these. Luscious as they look, they aren't edible. 

These vintage pieces are classic bakelite button earrings, one pair in cherry red, the other in butterscotch. 

They have screw backs, which was typical in the 1940s, when not too many women pierced their ears. 

I bought these to wear with my own bakelite jewelry, bracelets and necklaces I've made from recycled bakelite buttons. 

But if you'd like to buy a pair, I could probably be persuaded to part with them. E-mail me if you're interested: jeanne.sather@gmail.com THE BUTTERSCOTCH EARRINGS ARE GONE, I STILL HAVE THE CHERRY RED ONES. 

See also: 

Happy Bakelite Bracelet

Red Button Necklace

Playing With Bakelite

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2010.

Text: @ Jeanne Sather 2010. 

The Lady With the Cane

 Let me say, first of all, that I just don't see myself as The Lady With the Cane. 

Not my self-image. 

However, I have been using a cane for a couple of weeks now, because of the pain in my left hip. I need the cane to get out of bed in the morning, and for the first little while after I'm up because I can't put all my weight on that leg. And I need it each and every time I get up from a chair or the couch. 

This situation seems likely to continue. 

(Don't know what I'm talking about? See my cancer blog: The Assertive Cancer Patient) 

Given this situation, I may have to bow--not gracefully, but with my own sense of Assertive Cancer Patient style--and accept a cane. But not just any cane.

I want to be The Lady With the Totally Cool Cane. And I've found the cane, online, of course. To top it off, this cane has a bakelite handle. Those of you who know my jewelry will know that I am fascinated with bakelite right now and making a lot of pieces with vintage bakelite buttons. (See: Charmed Bracelets: Bakelite) 

The cane--vintage, of course--is topped by a bakelite parrot. How cool is that? 

I snatched the photo above off the seller's Web site. Since I'm buying it, I figure he won't mind.

Can I afford this cane? Of course not. It costs $650, including the shipping. But I'm hoping that my friends and readers will chip in and help buy the Assertive Cancer Patient her signature cane. 

By my math, if thirty-two and a half friends and readers send me $20 each, that will cover it. If you make a donation through PayPal, please add a note that it is for the cane. 

Thanks, everyone. 

A footnote: Parrots were a popular subject for bakelite carvers in the 1930s. Here's a parrot pin for sale from California Girls, a dealer who sells me sterling charms and bakelite: 

Bakelite Parrot Brooch

@ Jeanne Sather 2010. 

The Yellow Button Necklace

 Here's one more necklace designed to show off a beautiful, vintage bakelite button. 

This button, which was made in the 1930s-1940s, is hand-carved. The color is known to collectors as creamed corn, and it is as yummy a shade of yellow as you will find anywhere. 

I paired the button with two strands of small black-onyx beads, which are pulled into flower-shaped cones of Thai silver and then attached to several inches of sterling silver chain. 

The one-of-a-kind necklace is finished with a handmade sterling silver hook and a Thai silver leaf and large rectangular bead of black onyx.

The length is about 20 inches, plus a two-inch extender chain. 

Price: $80. The price includes all taxes, postage, and insurance to U.S. destinations.

If you are outside the United States, please e-mail me to discuss your shipping options: jeanne.sather@gmail.com 

See also: Red Button Necklace

Photo: Monica Strasen. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2010. 

Red Button Necklace

 Vintage bakelite buttons, like the one I used to make this necklace, were hand-carved. It amazes me that craftsmen put as much effort into carving a button as they did a bangle bracelet, a pair of earrings, or a brooch. 

I can't begin to fathom the economics of that--what did a single button cost in 1930?

Economics aside, though, the buttons deserve our attention for their beauty.  

This rich red button has an Asian feel, and I paired it with black onyx beads for even more drama. The one-of-a-kind necklace is finished with sterling silver chain and a large onyx bead to weight the extender chain. 

Price: $80. The price includes taxes, postage, and insurance to U.S. destinations. 

Photo: Monica Strasen. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2010. 

My New Postcards

 The new postcards for my jewelry business landed on the front porch the other day, and I'm thrilled with how well they look. 

Monica, one of my closest friends, shot the photo. She shoots most of the photos for this blog and has  a wonderful talent for making my pieces look good. That's important when most of my customers don't get to handle or try on my jewelry before buying it.

  Laurie, another close friend, took the image and put the postcards together in Photoshop and ordered them from the printer. 

That's a task I could do, but it would stress my abilities a bit (I'd have to learn something new, which is hard sometimes when you don't have a lot of bandwidth), and it is so nice to have a competent friend take over the job. 

Now I have postcards to promote my jewelry in a low-key sort of way, which is all I'm comfortable with. I always include a few postcards when I mail a jewelry purchase. I leave them around town at restaurants and coffee places where I hang out. My friends have stacks of them as well. 

The previous batch of postcards featured a photo of a turquoise bracelet with a vintage sterling charm. It was a great image, but after that bracelet sold I wanted to use something else. (This is the older postcard: Sterling and Turquoise Bracelet . I still have a few and am happy to send you some with your order. Just ask.)

I am determined to start a new fashion with my jewelry made with vintage bakelite buttons. Each piece is unique, each piece has the charm of an object that has been used and lived with for decades--what the Japanese call wabi sabi--and there is a quirkiness about taking such a mundane, everyday object, a button, and making jewelry with it. Or so I think. 

See: 

Bakelite

Vintage Jewelry: My Collection

Photo: Monica Strasen. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2010. 

Cleaning & Polishing Bakelite

 The task of cleaning and polishing bakelite can be a tedious chore or a calming meditation, depending on your mood. 

So choose your time for this task carefully. 

Authentic bakelite buttons and jewelry are anywhere from 70 to 100 years old, so it's likely that they've picked up some grime along the way. The best product for cleaning bakelite is Simichrome, a brand-name cleaner originally made to clean the chrome on automobiles.

I spent an hour this afternoon cleaning a dozen round bakelite beads and buttons. I used Q-tips, paper towels, and toothpicks, along with the Simichrome, which comes in paste form. The job requires patience when the buttons are small or when they have a lot of carving. You don't want to leave residue in the carvings, and that's where a toothpick or a soft toothbrush comes in handy.  

Simichrome is also used to test bakelite to confirm that it is indeed genuine bakelite, but you shouldn't rely on this test alone. More on testing bakelite some other time. 

See also: Bakelite

@ Jeanne Sather 2010.  

My Bakelite Bangles

 I bought myself an armful of bakelite bangle bracelets for a birthday present four or five years ago. (Yes, I give myself birthday gifts. It's one of the things I've done since my cancer diagnosis.)

I bought six, the five in the photo plus one more that is dark brown. I bought them at an antique store in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood, and I paid about $350 for all six. 

Those were pretty good prices, and the bracelets are probably all worth more now.

I didn't buy them as an investment, though, I bought them to wear. This selection gives me a great range to match most of my clothes. (The second one down is actually a pale marbled green, but it looks more yellow here.) I sometimes wear just one, sometimes two or three, and sometimes all of them at the same time. 

One of the interesting things about bakelite is that it changes color as it ages. I probably would not have liked the garish colors of new bakelite back in the 1930s or 40s, but I love the patina and color changes that come with age. 

The pale "creamed corn" color started out white, and there is no white bakelite today unless you find a piece that was stored away from the light. Yellows become butterscotch or amber, like the carved bangle third from the top, which I often wear alone. Blue becomes black or sometimes green, and red deepens. 

That butterscotch bracelet is a perfect match for this necklace: Happy Bakelite Necklace

Buying Bakelite

Bakelite jewelry was cheap when it was first made during the Great Depression. A bangle bracelet might have sold for as little as 10 cents.

Today, bakelite bangles vary widely in price. I paid only $20 or $30 each for the thinner ones with no carving--sometimes called "spacers." I paid about $80 each for the two most expensive of my bracelets--the red and the amber carved ones. But I've seen similar ones for sale recently for $200 or more each. 

The width of the bracelet and any carving, which was done by hand, add to the value.

I have never bought bakelite bangles online, even from Web sites that say that they guarantee that it is genuine bakelite, because there is a lot of "fakelite" out there. Also, sometimes inexperienced dealers label a piece "bakelite" when it is another early plastic like lucite. I prefer to buy from a dealer I can meet face to face.

I'll put up another post soon about how to tell if a particular piece is bakelite or not, and if you are interested in buying bakelite bangles I would be happy to search for them for you at my local antique stores--where I know the dealers and can get a money-back guarantee in writing that the piece is vintage bakelite. 

Interested? E-mail me: jeanne.sather@gmail.com

See also: Cleaning & Polishing Bakelite

Photo: Monica Strasen. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2010.