With A Twist Of Vintage

Serendipity or One Way to Successful Flea Market Shopping

Some pictures of the loot from Kobe's on Sunday....    
 
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone has any guesses as to what the second and third item to the last is, I'd be happy to hear it.  It will be transformed into something or other eventually. 

The brass item with the dragon on it is a button--at least I think it's a button, it seems to have two shanks.... And the last item is an Asian stamp.  Here's a picture of the bottom of the stamp.  Excuse my ignorance but I don't know if these are Chinese characters or something else.  Maybe someone could let me know? 

If my haul on Sunday looks like bits and pieces instead of saleable pieces of vintage jewelry, that's about the size of it.  That's the way it is sometimes.  You just don't always find the right pieces at the right price.  You have to be open to what's actually in front of you and not what's in your imagination.  And if I hadn't been open to what was in front of me I might have missed those exquisite Art Nouveau green enamel and brass buttons-- or the metal whatchamacallit, for that matter.  Not to mention the diamonte rhinestone bracelet--which is another story I will save for later.

  

The Flea

My sister and I did the flea market yesterday, we went to Kobe's here in San Diego.  When I lived in Orange county we did more of the LA markets, like Long Beach, Irvine and the Rose Bowl.  We still do Irvine now and then, but the others not so much.  The Rose Bowl is rather pricey, and Long Beach is huge, we never have enough stamina (believe it or not) to see everything....

I did pretty well, I was looking mainly for bits and pieces of jewelry I could use in my own work and found quite a few.  A man was selling things thrown out on the trunk, roof and hood of his car.  My best find was on his roof, a pretty little Belgian evening purse made of tiny, tiny seed beads and pearls and it  was in phenomenal condition, outside and inside.  I don't think it was ever used. The price was right and when I bought it several other people asked if I was buying it because they wanted it. Score one for me!

Then he had other bits and pieces of jewelry thrown out on the cars hood, most of it with problems, but some not, and he gave me a very good price for those, too.

Then I got a few other things from various sellers, a typical example is the shoe buckles I show in the picture, they have lots of nice dead rhinestones and I'm sure I'll be able to use them.

I'll be updating the shop in the next couple days with a few things, notably several pairs of earrings I made after using liver of sulfur to oxidize the sterling silver they're made with.  Oh-- and I'll be putting the wonderful Belgian evening purse in the store, too.