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Do you love pearl necklaces?  These are one of this years hottest trends for necklaces in the last few years, thanks partly to the first lady - Michelle Obama's love of them.

One of my best selling necklaces is a lovely single strand which is 120 inches long and is made of glass. The pearls have a fabulous luster, are hand knotted, and can be worn long and loose in a flapper style, knotted at the front, worn down the back of a strapless dress or wrapped several times for a multi strand look the way it is shown here.

The necklace is an endless style with no clasp. Imagine the possibilities for wearing it!

I have the this pearl necklace and many other pretty styles available in white, creamy ivory, or black. This necklace is priced at only $17.99 . Here are some photos of the pretty design.


 

I am very fond of all types of Italian jewelry.  Readers of my blog know that I love cameos, but mosaic jewelry is another one of my favorites.  The workmanship and attention to detail in mosaics is just stunning, and the designs appeal to the romantic  and gardener in me. since many of them portray flowers.

The Chicago Mosaic School is a non-profit fine art school which is dedicated to preserving and promoting the mosaic art form through education and community partnerships. The school was formed in early early 2005, and has been committed to providing inspiration for artists, and a creative environment that fosters an appreciation and awareness of both classical and contemporary mosaics.

On August 18.2010, the school will hold a hands on seminar where the participants will be able to make two mosaic jewelry projects. Earrings, pendants, rings, and belt buckles are all styles which demonstrate the mosaic process well.  Rudimentary mosaic techniques, methods, and their application will be covered in the seminar. No prior mosaic experience is necessary and all materials and use of tools provided by the school.

For more information on the seminar, you can contact the organizer at info@chicagomosaicschool.com  Their website is very information and has some lovely gallery pictures. It's almost like a virtual museum of mosaics of all types. Vintage Jewelry lane has mosaic jewelry as a specialty. We offer many lovely micro mosaic and pietra dura styles at affordable prices.  Be sure to have a look at our lovely mosaics.  You might become just as hooked on the style as I am!

Do you have an interest in Native American jewelry?  If so, head on over to Collector's Weekly for their new interview with  Mark Bahti, the proprietor of Bahti Indian Arts based in Arizona and New Mexico talks to them about Native American jewelry.

Mark is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and the author of one of the first popular books on Southwest Indian arts and crafts.

In the summer of 1949, Mark's father Tom Bahti opened a shop called Ghost Ranch Trading Post in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Later, he moved the shop to Tucson, Arizona.  Mark and his wife Emma run this shop.  They also own another shop in Santa Fe, NM.

In the interview, Mark discusses the advent of silversmithing in New Mexico, as well as the importance of the early Native American tribes for the early jewelry styles. The interview is very comprehensive and talks about the very early southwest designs, including a discussion of Native American silver hallmarks, all the way through post World War II designs.

In the interview, Mark also discusses the use of turquoise in Native American designs and the importance of Native American families in the various early jewelry designs. Thee is even a discussion of the popular Squash Blossom necklace.

Bahti is the author of Collecting Southwestern Native American Jewelry, as well as Silver and Stone, in which he interviewed about 50 different jewelry artists.   Both books are available at Amazon.com. 

If you have a fascination with Native American jewelry, as I do, you will find the discussion with Mark very informative. You can view the whole interview on this page of the Collector's Weekly website.

If you love cameo jewelry as much as I do, then you are in for a treat. I've just purchased a very large estate collection of only cameo jewelry item.

Here are some examples of the newest additions.

 

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs returns to NYC after more than 30 years!  This exhibit made me think of all the vintage jewelry that is made with an Egyptian revival theme.  These styles are ornate, and full of a rich history.

Here is a YouTube Video (beware:  Sound included) which gives a bit of a preview of the Tutenkamun exhibit will will be on display at the Discovery Times Square Exposition in NY City from April 23, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

My favorite auction house Fellows and Sons has a wonderful array of Egyptian revival jewelry for their Upcoming auction.  Here are some of my favorites:

You can view the entire auction catalog on this page of the auctioneer's website

American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity is the first Costume Institute exhibition drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It will explore developing perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and how they have affected the way American women are seen today.

The exhibit focuses on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition will reveal how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sexual emancipation. "Gibson Girls," "Bohemians," and "Screen Sirens," among others, helped lay the foundation for today's American woman.

Of particular interest to me is the fabulous vintage jewelry that is exhibited as adornment for the fashions that the exhibit is featuring. 

I found a wonderful write up of the exhibit in woman's fashion section of the New York Times by Lori Ettlinger Gross. The years covered by the exhibition are 1890 to 1940, which were also some of the most innovative in vintage jewelry design.  This NY times photo of Mae West in Diamond Lil wearing Beaux-Art jewels gives a good idea of the fashion and jewelry of the period.

For those of you who can't be at the MET for the display, here is a YouTube video with some highlights.  (warning for those who read this blog at work:  Sound is embedded in the video.)

The exhibit opened on May 5, 2010 and will run intil August 15, 2010. 

I have some exciting news about a new line of genuine Murano Millefiori glass and sterling silver that has been recently added to my Jewelry Lane store at Ruby Plaza and also at my Vintage Jewelry Lane store.

The jewelry is just stunning and features cabochons made from genuine Murano millefiori glass made in the island of Murano. The designer is Alan K and the designs are all guaranteed hand made. Many of the finishes on the jewelry are also rhodium plated which gives the pieces a lustrous appearance.

Millefiori is a type of Murano glass that has been incorporated with various layers of colors to create beautiful flower-like patterns. The word literally means "a thousand flowers." Millefiori is the name of the cylindrical, long glass rods which contain a specific pattern along its entire length, so that when cut into slices from one end, the particular pattern will be revealed. This style of glass has been around since the Middle Ages and more recently, have been produced for fine jewelry items.

rices range from $27 to $165. Here are some examples of the pieces.

To see more items from this fabulous line of Murano Millefiori glass jewelry, you can click go to Jewelry lane or Vintage Jewelry Lane.

I love the ethnic look of Southwestern Jewelry.  The combination of sterling silver and gemstones such as turquoise and coral is stunning in design and appeals to the Taurus in me that loves all things "earthy."

The Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico, allows visitors to enjoy outstanding historical collections of Native American jewelry, as well as pottery, paintings and weavings.

The museum currently has a lovely exhibit of Historic Native American and Pueblo jewelry, which was collected by Ms. Rogers during her years in New Mexico.  It has more than 1,200 pieces of jewelry, which represent traditions of the Southwest, including Native American and Hispanic influences.

This exhibit is a permanent exhibition of the museum, so if you planning a trip to Taos, New Mexico this summer, a visit to the museum will be a nice addition to your itinerary if you also enjoy this style of jewelry.

Photo credit:  Millicent Rogers Museum.

If you are a fan of bakelite jewelry, as so many vintage jewelry collectors are, you should head to Yonkers, NY some time between now and June 6. 

To those of you who think of radios and furniture when you hear the word bakelite, then you also would have a treat in store if you are near this new exhibit.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented the plastic called Bakelite in his Yonkers laboratory in 1907.  And now, the Hudson River Museum,  in Yonkers, will bring, for the first time, more than 300 rare objects made from Bakelite and the more modern melamine.  The exhibition, is called  Bakelite in Yonkers: Pioneering the Age of Plastics, will be on view through June 6, 2010.

The exhibit includes the promotion of plastic products in vintage advertisements, 1930s film footage illustrating the Bakelite process and Art Deco and contemporary jewelry. The exhibition is drawn from the holdings of the Amsterdam Bakelite® Collection which includes some 4,000 objects owned by Reindert Groot, a Netherlands producer and director, as well as that of Hugh Karraker, a great grandson of Leo Baekeland; the Yonkers Historical Society; and other private collections.

Bakelite jewelry has risen in value in the vintage jewelry world and, of course, this gives rise to all sorts of fake products and reproductions.  I've written an article in my bakelite resource library to help you to identiry if your jewelry is actually bakelite, or the mass produced product called fakelite.

For more information on bakelite in general, you might enjoy this interesting YouTube video made in Amsterdam.

When you are looking for vintage jewelry online, many times you will find references to the various time periods.  Is this confusing to you?  You are not alone.  Most collectors don't have much of a knowledge of the characteristics of the various periods of time during which jewelry was produced.  Many think anything worn is vintage!

I thought it would be helpful to write a few articles about the periods of antique and vintage jewelry.  Today, we'll discuss the Art Nouveau period which occurred between the years 1895 and 1915.

In 1893, a young Belgian architect, who had been influenced by William Morris began the plans for one of the first important houses of the Art Nouveau style - la Maison Tassel.  Two years later, Paris officially called this period Art Nouveau.

For jewelry makers, this was a period of great activity.  The pieces produced had asymmetrical lines and very elaborate and ornate lines with flowers, plants and the female form particularly popular motifs.  Women depicted in Art Nouveau designs often had long flowing hair.

Designs of the Art Nouveau era used gemstones to emphasize the beauty, with pearls, opals and moonstones being the most popular.  Colorful enamel designs were also prominent.  All types of jewelry was used, but pendants, necklaces and elaborate hair ornaments predominated.  Some of the well known designers of the time period in Europe and the UK were Rene Lalique, Lucien Gaillard, Josef Hoffman, and Charles R. Ashbee.

The Art Nouveau time period started to wane about 1910-1914, when people started to find the HTML clipboardextravagance of the period not to their liking.