New Camera, Bad Pics

Ed and I opened our Christmas presents a bit early. To be honest, they weren't even wrapped. But I wanted a smaller camera for my jewelry pictures and Ed wanted a new monitor. So we bought our presents and agreed to use them.

Unfortunately, as these cameras get smaller, the learning curve seems to get larger! I played for 3 days and still couldn't figure out what settings to use and how to save the ones I tried. So I ended up using my old camera, and will work on learning the new one.

I thought at first that this pin was made by Liz Claiborne, but the mark is a bit different from the LC marks I found online. So I guess this just gets to be call designer signed without a designer.

Vintage Signed Christmas Tree Pin

Signed JJ Christmas Ornament Santa Cat Pin

This cute pin has a whimsical cat in a Santa's hat perched on top of a blue-green Christmas ornament that is covered with sparkles.

Signed on the back with the copyright symbol and the letters JJ. This is part of the Artifacts line and was made in the mid-1980's. The pin is 2.25 inches tall and 1.25 inches wide.

A great Christmas pin!

Vintage Spiderweb Turquoise Choker Necklace

I wish my neck were just a little bit smaller so I could wear this lovely necklace. At 14 1/2 inches, it definitely falls in the choker range. I am not sure if it belonged to my mother or grandmother, but it has been around for a few years.

Vintage Spiderweb Turquoise Necklace

I've had this necklace since the 70's. It combines my love of fossils with my love of jewelry.

The pendant is made of fossil walrus ivory and hand painted with a bee sitting on a thistle. The 18 inch chain is made from sterling silver.

What is really cool about it is that a similar image is on the storage box.

Fossilized Walrus Ivory Pendant

I found this in an old trunk from my grandmother's estate. I was helping my parents clean out their garage where my grandmother's things has been stored since her death. Also found some Victorian porcelain that I claimed for myself.

Art Nouveau Belt Buckle

Laurel Burch Swan Necklace

I bought this for my mother in the 1980's and it has come back to me through her estate.

I have to admit that I don't really want to sell this one. I have been searching the net for a couple of years and have been unable to find anything at all like it. I have asked at the eBay boards and they didn't know anything about it either. This is quite unlike her usual style, but there is no doubt she made it. It is marked on both the main swan panel and the extender.

Unique Laurel Burch Swan Necklace

Rebajes Copper Necklace

Another of my mother's necklaces. This one has always fascinated me because of the way the the copper leaves are formed to join together. From the 1950's, the necklace was made by the Modernist master Francisco Frank Rebajes.

Rebajes was a forerunner in producing copper jewelery. He was born in the Dominican Republic in 1906, and emigrated to New York in 1923 when he was 16 years old. In 1932 he was out of work, and collected some tin cans, took them to his friend's workshop and fashioned the scraps into animals. He displayed his work outside on an ironing board at an Art Festival, where Juliana Force (Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art) saw it. She liked his work and purchased the whole lot on display for $30 - a lot of money in those days!!

With this windfall, Frank Rebajes' rented his first workshop and store. His pieces were signed simply "Rebajes'". In 1942, he opened his first retail store on Fifth Avenue in New York, employing forty workers, and a National sales and distribution network was set up. His work was featured in Saks of Fifth Avenue, and was advertised in top fashion magazines. The rest is history!!

In the early 1960's, he sold his workshop, and moved to Spain, where he lived until his death in 1990.

Modernist Rebajes Copper Leaves Necklace Signed