Monday, January 30, 2012

Icicles melt into spring

Here's part of a collection entering the shop that is one foot in winter, the other in spring. Though the palette is icy, don't let it fool you; everything here is waiting to be taken to warmer weather.

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Hello from T Street!

Though I'm anxious to get back to shop tending, I'm not very excited to leave here and get back to hideous weather and city living.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

the Cadoro archives

This vintage find is the stuff of legends. If I told you how it happened, I would have to kill you (just kidding, but not telling!). You all know I am a hopeless magpie, completely obsessed with hunting down jewels. Well, let's just say I stumbled down a rabbit hole and landed in vintage jewelry heaven.

I currently came into possession of hundreds of pieces of some of the rarest, most collectible costume jewelry out there. My head is still spinning as I try to archive and research this stuff. I have hundreds of pieces of Cadoro necklaces that were samples, straight from their vault. Some of these things probably never went into production and are one-of-a-kind treasures.

Cadoro was founded by the actor Steve Brody and Dan Staneskieu in 1945. They traveled all over the world to source only the highest quality materials. It was originally very expensive, fashion forward and sold in Neimann Marcus. They stopped producing in the mid 70s, though their designs were sold through the early 80s. They used materials that are now highly sought-after; lucite, japanned metal, leather, handmade pottery, seed pearls and a whole lot more. Cadoro jewelry is highly rare, collectible, and sought after. As I mentioned, a lot of the pieces I have might not even be in books because they were production samples.

I have a pretty vast array of materials, styles and pieces from every era as far as necklaces go. Since the pieces are production samples, not all of them have the signature oval "Cardo" hang tags. However, I can vouch that they are all from the same source; they've been sitting undisturbed in a vault since the company closed. Below is just a small sampling of what will be slowly released into the shop. If you are a serious collector and would like to see additional pieces, please contact me via my etsy shop. All the pieces shown here will be up for sale in a separate category in my store within the next couple days.

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Monday, January 2, 2012

Pretty Victorian Baubles

I've recently developed an obsession with Victorian jewelry; the delicate work but the overall simplicity of form and often minute scale have won my heart over. I usually keep it when I find a good piece, but here are three little pieces I'm sharing, all in the shop as of today!



fraternal order pin, most likely read "STRANDS International Fraternity Hudson Valley"



love knot pin with paste rhinestone center and glass beads


sterling silver and seed pearl crescent moon pin