I have been working with vintage jewellery for many years now. The thing about collecting and selling anything vintage is that one’s view of the world is not static or judgmental. There is also a firm belief that a person can improve and fix things. You can mold your own world, and you don’t have to fit into other’s perception of you. You can be a true original by finding things from the past that you love but that don’t follow any convention or fashion. You can find items that are from far off lands or that are part of long dead habits and mores, like cocktail hour for example. Or smoking as part of everyday life. These items cease to belong to the past and they become yours and yours only. You repurpose them or upcycle as the kids call it nowadays.
The same applies to jewellery but upcycling jewellery takes this concept to a whole new level. I have spent 40 years finding items in charity shops, auctions and vintage markets and polishing them up without any real goal in mind. It is just to breathe new life into them. That is why I started trading because I loved the fixing, the molding of the item to my standard. There were many items, jewellery included, where the bin was the best place for it because it did not work the way I had hoped but failure is just part of it.
With jewellery instead of restoring and repurposing something, you can make something completely new. I have put together an auction that showcases just some of the jewellery I and others have upcycled and redesigned. We have found the most beautiful elements and put them together to make something truly unique.
