Jewelry Class...

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Last night I went to my first jewelry making class that I signed up for a couple of months ago. It focuses on working with metal sheets (using basic fabrication techniques including sawing, filing, soldering...learning to create textures, patterns, adding color, finishing..). It was long overdue and I am really happy and excited (and feel very lucky) to be able to take this class right now. It comes at a good time for me b/c I currently have a growing interest in mid century modernist metal jewelry (lots of copper), and this class goes hand in hand with that style methinks.

My first love will always be early plastic jewelry like Bakelite, Celluloid, Lucite etc, as I have written about before HERE...and HERE...and HERE. And I love it so much that I still think at this point I just might opt for a Bakelite engagement/wedding ring over a fine jewelry engagement/wedding ring, if given the choice. But, the metal has been definitely growing on me.

So, when I got home yesterday, energized and refreshed, I finished going through the last box of old jewelry I had been organizing (some old pieces of mine and some from my last day-lab shopping trip)..and came across a few things worth noting:

Hand painted Bakelite discs and earring blanks:


Souvenir jewelry in (faux?) tortoise shell and wood:




Old plastic barrettes and a nice deco font on the Jane and Alice cards:


1984 Avon plastic owl pin:


Nemo scarab earrings:


Whiting and Davis snake earrings:


Celluloid and acorn book piece necklace:


As featured in the book:


And some mid-century copper....


And a little more...

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And lastly...photos of some lovely mid-century copper (and one enameled) that I found online and saved over the past month:









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