It's a Charming Life

I decided it was time to take a break from the garden and orchard and do something I enjoy - working with my charms.  I have often been asked "why charms?"  First off, a well made charm is a miniature work of art.  Also, when I was young, I had a favorite Aunt, Aunt Ella, who had charm bracelets that, to my young mind, were magical.  I always knew when she was coming by the musical jingle of the charms and, when I was especially good, I was allowed to try one on.  These days I spend too much time looking for some of the now very rare charms to recreate a bit of the magic from the way back years.  

14K Lobster on Anchor - Created by Yours Truly

Just today I had a customer contact me today with a very interesting question.  New to charm bracelets, she asked the best way to do one.  I almost replied that it's all personal preference but then I got to thinking - what does make a really special charm bracelet?

Well, first off, it needs to be individual to the wearer and not just a hodgepodge of charms thrown together.  When starting one as a gift, it's nice to get a flat back or disc style to put date and initials on the back.  After all, you are creating the next generation of family heirlooms.  One touch I always use is the addition of an anchor at the end of each bracelet but you can develop a signature look of your own.

The back of a state charm or Zodiac charm is great for this.

Next you need to choose a theme.  It can be as simple as general interests or life accomplishments.  Other great themes are a travel souvenir bracelet, hobby such as gardening, dogs or cooking or, my personal favorite, a wish bracelet.  Place what you wish for or places you would like to go on the bracelet and, then when you get your wish, move to a different bracelet.  The goal is to empty the wish bracelet onto a life bracelet, at which point you refill the empty wish  with new wishes.  Voila - you  now have 2 bracelets!

These are all dreams that can be wished, places to go or desired treasures.  The beauty of charm bracelets is that everybody has different dreams and experiences so each bracelet is an individual work of art.  Please, please take your treasure to a qualified jeweler and have the charm jump rings soldered on.  Whether being worn by an adult or child, accidents can and will happen and a soldered charm is a secure charm.

These charms and many more can be found at Christian Ridge Collectibles on Ruby Lane

The Ark Animal Shelter Opens Shop

I am pleased to announce that The Ark Animal Shelter of Cherryfield Maine has opened a thrift shop in Blue Hill, Maine. The proceeds go to supporting the care of the animals living at the shelter, adoption programs, community outreach and other services. All the folks working in the shop are volunteers as are the folks doing support services. The quality of goods is high but prices are attractive. This is much more like an antique and collectibles shop than thrift shop with everything damaged. There's no junk here, just treats and treasures. Plus, there's no better way to give green than to surprise somebody with a gift of distinction made when fine workmanship was celebrated.

Just a quick idea of what's here - remember that if you see it now, it may be gone tomorrow! My little corner is jewelry and silver smalls (now that's a surprise isn't it!) and I can say with no reservations that we have wonderful finds for all budgets. Directly across from the Blue Hill Fair Grounds in beautiful Blue Hill, Maine, the shop is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Of course, the Ark Thrift Shop is closed on Holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas and in case of major snow storms. Stop on by, there's loads of parking!

Researching Vintage Jewelry

When dealing in antiques and collectibles, there is nothing more important than study and research if a dealer wants to maintain a reputation for quality. It is amazing the sheer quantity of pseudo facts and erroneous information that can be found online. There are too many people in this business who seem to spend more time inventing stories, be they quaint or authoritative sounding, than they spend researching. Perhaps these folks would be better suited in a career as an author of fiction since that is what most of their descriptions are. The reputable seller will not list something about which they are uncertain before doing their own research. Actually, the "AH-HA" moment when a piece is positively identified is absolutely wonderful!

Recently, a sterling brooch was presented to a jewelry collector's group with a request for info about the SB in an oval maker's mark. There were several possibility mentioned and one of the members put forth that it was a mark by Silverman Bros. Because I had a brooch with this mark, I decided to find out for myself. Curiosity in high gear, I checked American Jewelry Manufacturers by Dorothy Rainwater and there it was, on page 218. I also checked Collectible Silver Jewelry by Rezazadah and found confirmation of the maker. Now, this is interesting but this is also where fortune smiled on my research efforts. I had just acquired a catalog dated 1942 published by the Silverman Bros for the Kresge company. There, in the upper left corner was my little horse brooch - the "AH-HA" moment. And people ask me why I love doing my job!

Online Resources for Jewelry & Silver Collectors

20 years ago, it was necessary to have bookcases full of reference materials to be able to do one's job as an antique or collectibles dealer. Thanks to the internet, there are many fewer books that are required although books are still a major go to resource when identifying and cataloging pieces. It's just that now, thanks to the efforts of collectors and educators around the world who have put countless hours of work into sites dedicated to helping others identify, evaluate and enjoy their collections, there are dynamic online resources too.

In the vintage jewelry world, a premiere site used by many dealers is Researching Costume Jewels . This site with its thousands of entries, has information about the major players in the vintage and costume jewelry fields as well as tidbits about lesser know designers. This is always my first stop when I come across a designer whose name is not familiar to me. Then there is the beautiful Morning Glory Antiques, home of Jewel Chat and one of the finest educational sites available to both novice collectors and professional dealers. There are articles about periods, designers, construction and hundreds of high quality photographs for illustration. While there, don't miss Morning Glory Collects, the gallery of photos covering the wiest range of styles I have come across gathered in one location. No starting list can be complete without a thank you to the online Encyclopedia of Silver Marks, Hallmarks, & Makers Marks. This extraordinary site offers photos and sketches of thousands of hallmarks from around the world for silver of most grades and is now also including some information about gold and silverplate hallmarks. Make sure to visit the forum in the resources section; this is a site that I can easily lose myself for hours at a time.

Another greatly valued type of resource by me are the online collectors groups, groups in which collectors, dealers, beginners and seasoned professionals gather to discuss their passion for jewelry. These forums are run by moderators, have specific rules and specific topics; to join you have to request membership and follow the sign up instructions. Make sure you say a quick Hi to the group when you are ready - lurkers are welcome but you'll get a lot more from membership if you fully join in. Jewelcollect , a forum for Collectors of Costume Jewelry, which has been on the web since 1995. It is in a newsgroup format which means that there is no website to which you can go to read past posts. If you want to refer to what you have read, you need to save it in one of your email files. Jewelry Ring, a wonderful group found at Yahoo, is web based and you can go back and read past posts and search for particular terms in past posts. My personal recommendation would be to join both groups as they are both vibrant communities of like minded people helping each other and sharing their prized finds.

This is barely scraping an inch from the mountain of information that is offered on line. When in doubt or when looking for a group whose interests are more narrowly focused, Google away but please do remember to focus your search terms or you will drown yourself in sites that are neither current nor correct. For every quality site out there there are 10 sites whose sole existance is to scam buyers and collectors with fakes and incorrect information; it takes time to learn the difference!

Betsy, signing off to go pick pears in the orchard

Lilly Home & Recovering After Mast Cell Surgery

Last Wednesday, Lilly went to see Dr. Barkdoll due to a recurring lump on her side. It appeared during mosquito season, along with dozens of other lumps thanks to our unusually heavy infestation of the little bloodsuckers this year. It went away as an insect bite is wont to do. Then, out of the blue, it was back but bigger. This was the warning, a sign that this one pea sized lump could be a mast cell tumor, a form of cancer common in boxers. When she stopped jumping on him and licking him, Dr. Barkdoll was able to examine it and we decided that it needed to come out.

Friday morning she went in and was home Friday late afternoon with a six inch incision with staples over her passenger side shoulder. Among my instructions was 'keep her quite and calm'. Right, my whirling dervish has to be calm. Late Friday afternoon I made my first panicked call as she kept scratching every time she fell asleep. When the doctor called that evening to see how she was doing, we decided that I couldn't spend the next week awake when she slept to grab her feet. Saturday Morning she met Dr. Barkdoll at the office to have a hobble put on her hind foot to prevent her from opening her wound. That proved futile and the doctor made her a dressing that looked like a designer jacket made of tape and ace compression bandaging. It is quite the fashion statement and has done a perfect job. It comes off Wednesday and staples out Saturday if all goes per plan.

Lilly has one from abjectly miserable, to very unhappy boxer to an utter pain in the neck. Her main goal is to go outside and roll in the grass, her secondary goal is to run like a fool; my goal is to prevent her from doing what she wants. To keep her quiet, I sat in the chair with her and a lap top and let her pick a treat for herself and I picked some yums for me all from Bonanzle shops. She loves the gift basket of biscuits because it's something different every day. The cookies are all home made and baked fresh to order. I even think they smell great when I open a package so I can only imagine how wonderful they smell to her. They were the first thing she ate after her surgery. Thanks Shasta for making such a wonderful product!

On the hottest day of the summer, we were thrilled to be able to take to the sea on the lobster boat "Miss Jilly". I can't recommend this wonderful trip highly enough both for the seasonal tourist and the lifelong Maine resident. Captain Brian is not only a skilled navigator and professional lobsterman, he is also an educator, teaching about lobsters, lobstering and the sea life living in Eggemoggin Reach. He and his wife Jillian are a true team, pulling the pots, measuring and banding the catch together and cleaning the boat at the end of the haul.

The Miss Jilly is a beautiful, well kept fiberglass hull traditional lobster boat with a single winch for pulling the pots to the rail where manpower takes over. Heading out, we basked in the sun and enjoyed the ocean side view of the mansions along the shore and the sail boats taking off for the day's sailing. Due to the heat and humidity the air was hazy so photo ops were scarce. A treat was seeing the rock outcroppings that were covered with gulls and cormorants relaxing in the warm summer morning. The view from the stern, with the wake forming fractal patterns was hypnotizing and we hated to see the day end. This trip is a definite repeat for next year and the next, and the next ....

For more info, check out A Fishin Sea Charters for all the different tours offered. There is everything from a 2 hour lobster tour to a sunset lighthouse cruise with a Downeast clambake. There is even deep sea fishing which I think would be a most wonderful way to enjoy Maine and her ocean bounty.

The Grand Finale - 5+ Pounds of Goodness

Make a Statement with a Brooch

With vintage brooches being seen on a wide range of people ranging from the First Lady, to the President's cabinet members, runway stars, and millions of main stream Americans, the brooch is enjoying a resurgence that is long overdue. Produced in styles as varied as a simple one inch diameter circle to wild conglomerations of rhinestones in a rainbow explosion of color, there is always the right brooch to match your mood. Feeling cheery? A 60's style flower brooch is just the ticket for you. Dealing with a reptilian client but still have to make nice? Only you will know what the four inch long rhinestone encrusted snake on your lapel really means. Feel like a victim of fashion? Buck up - there's a brooch that has that covered too. And on Friday do you feel the need to just fly away? Pull out your sterling Pegasus and dream of touring the clouds from your faithful steed's back.

No matter what your taste, there's the perfect brooch out there for you, or rather brooches since once you start you'll find that there is a new special brooch around every corner if you just look for it. Half the fun in wearing your latest lapel treasure is the memory of the hunt, that ah-ha moment when you and your brooch meet for the first time.

Attack of the Boxer Brigade

One boxer is a clown, a pal and a chair warmer extraordinaire. Two boxers are double fun. Three or more boxers are a brigade rolling over anything in their path with a zest and joie de vivre that is unparalleled in the dog world.

Because of their personalities and their unique faces and bodies, boxers often find themselves in paintings, jewelry, clothing, home decor and photography. I just completed a new hand picked list on Bonanzle. For those not familiar with Bonanzle, it is a vibrant new online marketplace with an amazingly diversified group of sellers and products. One feature is the ability for users, both sellers and buyers, to create showcases of good dedicated to individual topic or themes. My newly completed list, dedicated to these canine jesters, is called Attack of the Boxer Brigade. And here it is, in all its canine glory - Attack of the Boxer Brigade. !

What are Jewels by Fractal

Jewels in our lives are many different things. They can be the physical pieces of jewelry with which we adorn ourselves, the people who become the jewels in our lives and the jewels of nature which surround us. We just need to open our eyes to all of the beautiful possibilities to add beauty, in all its glorious forms, to our lives.

Featured here will be jewels that I have made and are available online at Fractal's Booth, fractals I have generated and wish to share because of their beauty, and images of natural beauty I have found and captured.

Before departing today, I'll leave you with a thought. Look around. Yes, take your eyes away from your monitor and enjoy something in your environment just for its uniqueness and its beauty. You have just found your jewel, now go find more!

Joy and sparkles 'til later,
Betsy