With A Twist Of Vintage

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.  

What's New

I finished two more necklaces, and have two more I finished a bit ago to add to my Etsy store.  The one based on an old brooch as a centerpiece is being called in my head Egyptian Fantasy as the brooch has an Egyptian theme.  It's a metal brooch in this wonderful chocolate colored metal (brass that has darkened with age into this gorgeous patina) that has a scarab in the center, but the scarab has outstretched wings.  And that makes me want to give it the title Mothra, but I'm trying to restrain myself and not call it that on the site....

It's made out of really interesting materials: the chocolate colored metal, an antique mother of pearl rosary, an old copper necklace, half  of a very deco mother of pearl buckle....  When I was first thinking about the piece,  I really liked the contrast of the chocolate metal and the silvery white mother of pearl, I thought it would be very striking.  Then with the addition of the copper, I think it turned out a gorgeous and interesting piece, if I do say so myself.

I just realized that on my first entry I forgot to add my shop's URL.  It is www.Withatwistofvintage.etsy.com.  Come by any time.  The service is great and if you just want to browse, no one will hassle you!  I'll be adding new things every day, including plenty of vintage costume jewelry as well as my own pieces.