Decades of Elegance Summer Look-Back

Hello my dearest, I hope you are having a lovely summer week so far!  I am very excited as I have just found my camera, after having lost it about three months ago!!  And no, I don’t know how it ended up behind the fridge, but I will make sure to put it to great use again.

Vintage 1950s Necklace i Multi Colours

I have had an admin day today with my photos and thought that a little look-back at these past few years was in place!  In the photo above I am wearing one of my own favourite pieces – a 1950s costume jewellery necklace that my dear sister gave me for my 30th birthday.  She envisaged me wearing it with a white dress, and so for her 30th birthday party this is what I ended up in – a white silk and lace dress by Haiku Kimono.

Onyx and Marcasite Art Deco Cocktail Ring

Onyx and Marcasite Art Deco Cocktail Ring and a very handsomely dress Tedi

And at her 30th birthday party my sister then wore this Decades of Elegance Art Deco onyx and marcasite ring, and she paired it up with a white shift dress in silk by Haiku Kimono and her hair so beautifully half up half down with a black bow.

Vintage-Style Leopard Bracelet at Marys Living and Giving Event in 2013

And of course there was this glorious Leopard bracelet, vintage style and also Cartier style – you might know how beautifully Cartier designs their leopard jewellery pieces, and this one always makes me think of their designs!

I would love to hear about your favourite summer styles and what vintage or antique jewellery you wear at the moment, so please email me a photo and write a few lines: info@decadesofelegance.com

Happy Summer!

A beautiful Prasiolite ring

Sooooo sometimes when I visit an antique market I see a piece that I fall in love with and then I somehow rationalise with myself that I shouldn’t buy it – only to deeply regret it when I come home.  This is what happened on Sunday with this stunner:

Prasiolite ring, also known as Green Quartz

The lady who was selling it told me that it was a Green Amethyst, which I had never heard of before, so I did some research and it appears that Green Amethyst is sometimes the name mistakenly used for Green Quartz or Prasiolite – it is also sometimes called Vermarine or Lime Citrine.  I can however understand why people make this mistake, as Prasiolite occurs when an amethyst or citrine (both coloured varieties of quartz) undergoes a selective heat treatment in the presence of iron, that transforms the quartz into a cool leek or celadon green.  However, it is apparently against Federal Trade Commission Guidelines to call a Prasiolite a Green Amethyst, so we better keep that in mind!

Such a beautiful design

It seems that a Prasiolite is a very spiritual stone and it is used for a number of wonderful things, such as clearing negativity, fostering compassion, self-acceptance and self-honor, igniting love and compassion in one’s heart, strengthening the emotions, the mind and the will, and bringing good fortune and luck (1).  Now who wouldn’t want to wear a piece that that does so many good things?!

I suspect that I fell in love with this ring because it reminds me of Scandinavian design: clean lines and such a beautifully transparent yet striking colour.  I believe that it is a modern design, but sometimes those show up at these antique fairs as well.  So if anyone of you lovelies would like to buy it do let me know, and I will do my best to find the seller when she returns in a month’s time (if she hasn’t yet sold it!).  I would need to check that it actually is a Prasiolite and that the mount is silver, but if all is correct then it is yours for £50.

Sources:

(1)  Crystal Cur

Our interview in the Antiques Roadshow Magazine is now out!

 

Antiques Roadshow Magazine issue 4 has just appeared on the newsstands…  

And so a brand new issue of the Antiques Roadshow Magazine has appeared on the shelves and I am absolutely delighted to let you know that there is a Decades of Elegance-interview on page 89!

The Decades of Elegance interview in the Antiques Roadshow Magazine is now out!

The two-year-anniversary of Decades of Elegance is actually here now, in July, and I must say that seeing this interview in print feels like the perfect way of marking this milestone.  The Antiques Roadshow is such a dear programme to so many of us and being able to take part in it like this is just the most wonderful thing!  In the article you will get to read about the history of the blog, the exciting things that have come my way in the course of blogging and of course why we should buy antique jewellery.

Glamour on the Go – another article in the latest issue of the Antiques Roadshow Magazine

We first made the acquaintance of the Antiques Roadshow Magazine in the blog post Review of the Antiques Roadshow Magazine back in April, as you might remember.  They are now on their fourth issue and things just keep getting more and more interesting.  I found myself engulfed in the article on the history of cosmetics, where we are taken on a journey that starts with the appearance of the ‘world’s first powder blusher’ in 1863; continues through the 30’s when women were suddenly seen applying lipstick and powder in public; and shows us some beautiful and clever jewellery inventions that allowed for beauty products to be carried around in a very fashionable manner.

So my dear, if you would like to read about the most fascinating stories behind beautiful antique objects, go behind the scenes of the Antiques Roadshow tv-program and also read the Decades of Elegance interview, I would warmly recommend that you pop out and buy the new issue of the Antiques Roadshow Magazine!

‘Blog of the Month’ in the ‘Make and Sell Jewellery’ magazine

We are so proud to be Blog of the Month in the Make and Sell Jewellery magazine

We are just so happy to have been made ‘Blog of the Month’ in the magazine Make & Sell Jewellery!  This is their June 2014 issue, number 62 and it can be found in Waitrose, WH Smith, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda.

Make and Sell Jewellery

Make and Sell Jewellery is so lovely as it is really aimed at everyone – from beginners to pros.  I started looking through it and to my delighted I soon realised that it was bursting with tips on everything you can ever imagine when it comes to making and selling jewellery.  You will find out how to make jewellery, what products to use to achieve professional jewellery results (for ex. where to buy freshwater pearls in stock and where to get a jewellery making qualification), where they offer workshops, how to do market research to improve your jewellery brand etc. etc.

This magazine is an absolute must for anyone in the jewellery trade – I now have so many wonderful ideas on improvements at my end!

How much do we love our statement necklaces… and here we will learn how to make our own!

I was drawn to an article giving advice on how to organise a successful jewellery party – something that I have been thinking of for a very long time but never managed to get around to.  Is this something that you guys would be interested in when it comes to Decades of Elegance?  If you leave a comment below I promise to give it some further thought!  

Have a lovely Monday my dear and I will see you again on Wednesday, when we are popping over to a gold souk in Dubai to see what one of those look like!

The Chelsea Antiques Fair – 19-23 March 2014

… a lovely invitation has come through:

The Chelsea Antiques Fair at Chelsea Town Hall 19.23 March

The Chelsea Antiques Fair will be running this week from Wednesday 19 until Sunday 23 March 2014 and we will be able to see the collections of around 35 specialist dealers at this beautiful venue.  (You might remember that we visited Chelsea Old Town Hall for the Frock Me! Vintage Fair last year?  The building is such a beautiful setting for these fairs!)  At the antique fair there will also be many affordable objects, in additions to all the exquisite highlights, and we are of course most excited about all the stunning jewellery.  Here is a sneak peek:

Antique Yellow Diamond Ring at the Chelsea Antiques Fair

A platinum carved crystal and onyx diamond brooch with cupids playing musical instruments ca.1910

And for those of you living in London, I would love to see you there, so do pop by!  I will be there on late Friday morning, so if you see me wandering around with my camera do come and say hello – and browse some beautiful sparkle with me!

The fair is supporting the Hearing Dogs charity

I was also delighted to hear that the fair is supporting the Hearing Dogs charity and that a percentage of the sales will go directly to them.  The charity trains hearing dogs to alert deaf people to important sounds and danger signals, providing independence, confidence and companionship.  Now this – coupled with the knowledge that buying vintage/antiques is a sustainable way of shopping – has made me even more excited to visit the fair!  Hope to see you there my dear!

Mid-Victorian French Jet necklace in Cape Town

Good morning my dear, and what a beautiful morning it is here in London!  On my run along the Thames I couldn’t help but stop to admire the haze that lay so beautifully over the river.  The picture was perfected by four Canada geese flying so peacefully in formation, just a meter above the water surface toward the sunrise.  I hope you are able to take a few moments out of your busy day to take in little details like these around you, that can otherwise so easily slip us by.

Hazy London morning by the Thames

Now one of my favourite things with the blog is seeing the fabulous pieces from the Decades of Elegance-collection that have found new homes, being worn by their new owners!  You might remember the mid-Victorian French jet necklace whose acquaintance we made a few years ago here on the blog?  Well, it has belonged to my dear mama for quite some time now and she was wearing it around Cape Town, which I just couldn’t wait to share with you:

A young seal admiring the mid-Victorian French Jet necklace 

I have already posted a few photos on Instagram of the entertaining seal family in Kalk Bay – they put on quite the show when the fishing boats come in to offload their catch!  In the photo above you can see how one of them is very curious about our little photo shoot, and he kept swimming around and doing little tricks for us.

A black necklace is so versatile as it matches more or less everything in your wardrobe.  I love the combination of blue, white and black here.

mid-Victorian French Jet necklace, Kalk Bay, Cape Town

So all of you lovely ladies who have a piece of Decades of Elegance at home: do send me a photo and I will post it here for the rest of the world to see!  Happy Friday my sweets, hope you have a wonderful weekend!