vintage jewelry

I finally did it! I opened an Etsy shop full of vintage treasures I've been collecting over the years. I hope you love the pieces as much as I do. And I've kept the prices really reasonable; they range from $7.99 - $29.99. :)

Be sure to check in often - I've got tons of more stuff to add!

To celebrate, I'm going to be giving away a $15 gift certificate to my shop! All you need to do to enter is post a comment, and if you want extra entries, you can tweet about this post or blog about it. Post a link in the comments and you'll be entered to win!

Good luck and thanks!!

Elsa Schiaparelli was a well-known Italian fashion designer in the early 1900s. Her greatest rival was Coco Chanel, and she was heavily influenced by the Surrealist movement.

Her main focus was designing clothing (click here for a fabulous article about all things Schiaparelli - her work is shockingly modern), but she also started designing jewelry in the 1930s. "Some of her best known and most avidly collected designs are whimsical pieces she designed with circus themes, signs of the zodiac, and surrealistic jewelry inspired by the surrealist art of Salvador Dali" (via).

Her signature color was "shocking pink" so if you're in the market for a Schiaparelli, that's what you should be looking for.

A lot of Schiaparelli's pieces are unsigned, but when they are signed this is what it looks like:

Did you get a last minute invite to the Oscars?? Yeah me neither. But let's look at some fab jewels anyway!

From 1stDibs

From Portero

True story. Some 12 year old almost ran into me and  I, of course, did what was right and yelled some choice curse words at him. They have to learn some time! It's the rules of the road! (Altho I did feel a little bad afterwards).

Anyway, I motored on, made it to "We Love Jesus" flea market (that is its honest-to-goodness name) and found some seriously cool jewelry. 

At first glance I thought this might have been bakelite, but it turned out to just be carved plastic - still cool tho! Especially for $6. I love the graphic-ness of it, too.

I've been hunting for a box chain like this one, and it's wicked cool, really heavy and has a great patina. $7. I should've haggled with the proprietess, but I'm a worthless haggler.

Coolest jewelry find in A WHILE. I am obsessed with this piece. It's not a  necklace - it's a chain, with one large pin/pendant and 2 small pins/pendants on each end - no clasp (maybe a cousin of the sweater clip?).

I couldn't quite capture the high quality of this piece - the rhinestones are in such great shape. Ya know how they usually get kind of murky and dark? Not these - they're crystal clear and sparkly.

Seriously obsessed with this piece. It had a little bit of the green funk that copper sometimes gets, but with a little bit of white vinegar, it looks almost like new.