Vintage Jewelry Jackpot

Today, in between laundry, working an 8x8 canvas, a 5x5 canvas, buying candy for a Halloween outreach, and having lunch with a Certain Handsome Preacher, I finished almost four jewelry collections for my shop. I am so excited about these vintage pieces.

In the picture above, you are only seeing about a third of the haul I made this past weekend. I was told about an estate sale, and it turned out to be the Vintage Jewelry Jackpot. Seriously....there is so. much. more. I bought a lot. It was not cheap...but these pieces are gorgeous.

I have deconstructed all of it. Every bit. Friends...that took chutzpah on my part.

I ain't gonna lie, I was scared to take stuff apart. I redesigned the pieces to create my very first jewelry collection....actually, four new collections. Pieces of vintage bracelets have become rings. Brooches have become beautiful pendants. Watch faces that were broken will be embedded onto canvases as art. I've mixed vintage with new in everything...four different sets (so far) that, while not mitchy-matchy, go together so well.

One of history's top designers once said, "Matching is for amateurs", and I see the truth of that statement, the more I paint and create and design. To "match" is boring, and boring is the kiss of death. To haphazardly not match is just as bad.

But to purposefully and soulfully and imaginatively mix high and low, luxury and rustic, unexpected colors, prints and patterns, yin and yang...

....well, that is an art.

And mixed media must somehow truly be my heart and soul, as an artist (did I just now finally own that calling?) because I am mixing "medias" in my jewelry designs...gold and silver, crystals from chandeliers, pieces of leather, torn fabric trims, shiny with matte, old and new.

I have been thinking hard about the model I want to use, when I photograph these pieces. The Preacher wants to put me in a black turtleneck and jeans, and take the pictures himself. He thinks I would be the best model for my designs, but I have someone way younger and skinnier and cuter in mind. We'll see.

Can't wait to share these collections with you! I have truly poured my heart into them...I've worked so hard, all week, and there is so much more to be done before I can put them in the shop! I have to get pictures that do them justice. I also have to design the packaging for them...it must be vintagey, perfect, beautiful.

Hopefully, they will be available in a week or two...