Up-Cycled Vintage Jewelry.... What does this mean exactly?

The term Up-Cycled (Vintage) Jewelry is found in many jewelry stores online. If you go to Etsy.com and type this term in their search engine, you will find many jewelry shops, with handmade jewelry for sale. But what exactly does this mean?

I was fortunate enough to participate in a local fashion photo-shoot, last April. It was low-key local shoot, with the lovely photographer Laura Morales, from Blushing Mulberry Photography in Austin TX. It was there that I met one of the models, Aleta, from Austin Tx. Aleta (aka Stephanie Oliver) came to my house to drop off vintage jewelry in need of repair, and also gave me a pair of vitrail colored, vintage ear-clips, asking me if I could make another jewelry piece with them.

We decided on a bracelet. I truly had no idea how I would do this, but I didn't show this insecurity, I told her I was excited and would make something beautiful. And I did, eventually... I waited until I had the repairs done, as I did not have an idea yet, but it did come to me, as you can see here in the picture below:

©2012 House Of Joris Jewelry, Elvira Bracelet
Up-Cycled Vintage Earrings

This is a great example of 'up-cycled vintage jewelry'. You can see the earrings on this  picture clearly, the 3 prong vitrail navettes, with 3 vitrail chatons, a very common style of earrings in the 1950's. I am sure most of you are familiar with this style of earrings. For this bracelet, I added Swarovski, clear crystal vintage chatons in the middle, as to resemble a flower.

I started with a basic silver, rhodium plated (non-tarnish), clamp bracelet, with a flat base on both sides.  I took the clips off the earrings, and mounted them on these flat bases. The sides of this bracelet, were 2 single wires, about 10mm apart from each other, leading to the flat base. I carefully mounted about a foot of vintage silver Swarovski chain, with tiny clear crystals, on top of these wires, and in between the wires, I added Swarovski tanzanite octagon jewels (10 x 8 mm) in silver setting, as well as Swarovski vitrail vintage, octagon jewels in silver setting (10 x 8 m), and I had beautiful, smaller, vintage Swarovski aqua jewels (8 x 6 mm), and these matched the color scheme of vitrail beautifully, as you can see on this picture:

©2012 House Of Joris Jewelry, Elvira Bracelet
Up-Cycled Vintage Earrings

Alternating these three colors makes the result more interesting, then if I would have chosen just one color. The final step was to bend both sides, so that they would overlap, rather then meet each other exactly.

This bracelet shimmers and shines like no other, it is absolutely gorgeous! Even though the pictures represent this bracelet well, the beauty of it has to be seen in person. I use only Swarovski or the best Czech (vintage) jewels, as the quality can not be matched by any other. The price is definitely higher then other jewels, but they will last a few life-times, without losing any clarity or shine, and there is very little chance you will find scratches or chips off the jewels, even after 75 years!

I am very pleased with the result of this bracelet. The assembly took about 4 to 5 hours of work, labored with LOVE. I can not wait to hear what Aleta thinks of this bracelet, I truly hope she likes it as much as I do. And by sharing this with you, I was able to explain to you exactly what the term 'Up-Cycled Vintage Jewelry' actually means.

I love making custom jewelry. With this post I also want to let you know that I will be happy to take your custom order! Just leave me a comment under this post, and I will contact you asap!

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes.....

Mmmmm, I know the year has gone by incredibly fast, but I see here that I have only published one story.... kind of pathetic, if you ask me..... I guess that will be changing too!

There are so many changes happening, 2012 was for me all about change. And today I have to move, and see here..... of course a blog entry is waaaay more important!

How I do not like moving, I despise it! And it seems to become a Holiday tradition, because last year, I was doing the exact same thing.

Yes, lots of changes! I will fill you in on all of it! As you can see, right next to me here on the right... No more Etsy store!
This doesn't mean House Of Joris Jewelry seizes to exist, not at all! It will be quiet for a little bit, as changes will come to life gradually. Personally, I liked the Etsy I signed up for, at the very end of 2010, and had great hopes and expectations. After a few months, things were indeed happening!

Etsy decided to become another large company, and to be honest with you, I think they have become a little too big for their bridges.... I was angry one too many times, and decided that was just it for me and Etsy. I wish them well, but really wished they would have stayed true to being cool, different, not greedy with great customer service, etc..... But hey, what can you do?

So indeed, no online store for right now, but not long. This blog will be the main focus for a while, it is here where you will find all the information you need, when it comes to House Of Joris Jewelry, or myself. And if you have any questions, comments, requests, ideas, or need somebody to talk to, just contact me! You can always email me at HouseOfJoris@gmail.com. Or post something on my Facebook page!

By the way, did you know that when you befriend House Of Joris Jewelry on Facebook, you will receive a discount code? For all jewelry available? Yes indeed, everybody gets one!

A new online shop will open soon, in the meantime, I will post pictures of new, OOAK jewelry, as well as some tried and true jewelry items, right here, on this blog page!

AFTER I move house that is. I will have to do this first :-(   Sigh.....

Check back in with me, right here, in a few days, and like I mentioned.... and really, do not hesitate to contact me! Have a great week everyone!!

Cocktails.... Yes, that's the spirit! Cocktails...... Prohibition Time

Finally, I mean, FINALLY here is my blog. I am not going to write about the boring details that were keeping me from starting a blog, but I will let you know what made me go to blogger.com and sign up immediately, without blinking...

Cocktails..... Yes, indeed, that is the spirit! 

Let me be more precise, it is the cocktail ring that got me started. You see, not long ago, I started my own business, House Of Joris Jewelry. I came upon making jewelry by accident and fell head over heals in love with this art. To my surprise, people seemed to really like what I was making, and encouraged me to keep doing it. Well, I needed a job, and so a few months later, I opened my own store on Etsy.com.

I never really pay much attention to what is in fashion, when it comes to dressing myself. I have my own personal style and I know what I like! The history of fashion, and the influence on people and society however, I find very interesting. And, because jewelry is very personal, and often has a sentimental meaning to the wearer, it's history is particularly interesting story.

Delilah Cocktail Ring
©2012 House Of Joris Jewelry

I started making a collection of cocktail rings recently, and thought it was fun to name each ring after an actual cocktail, and so, the Happy Hour Collection™ of cocktail rings was born. Listing the latest ring last night, Blue Lagoon, I started wondering why cocktail rings were called just that. What do these rings, have to do with alcoholic beverages? So I googled the term, and I was again pleasantly surprised. These rings have their own wonderful little history!

The name 'cocktail ring' comes from the 1920's, the time of flapper dresses, new liberating short hair cuts for women, and of course: Prohibition. During the driest of times, the secret speakeasy cocktail parties, where illegal alcohol was flowing a-plenty, were The Place To Be (Seen)! Women, wearing their new style of fashion, were standing in line to attend these parties! The jewelry style was very glamorous, and these ladies were wearing long strands of pearls around their necks, and large eye catching rings on their fingers.  They knew that everyone could see this ring, as they were holding up the wonderful and illegal cocktails. It was a way for the ladies to showcase their wealth. And so you see, the cocktail ring has everything to do with prestige and status.

At first, these large rings were set with precious and semi-precious stones, for the wealthy woman. Soon, the middle class girl would follow, wearing rings with an imitation stone, although some of them were so well made, that only a jeweler was able to tell the difference.

Later, during the glamorous times of the late forties and the fifties, it was fashionable again to wear large cocktail rings, especially while attending dinner parties. And with that, the ring was given another name: Dinner Rings. 

Traditionally, cocktail rings are worn on the fourth finger of the right hand. Currently, these cocktail- or dinner rings, are back in fashion again, they are beautiful and really can make an outfit. Have fun, buy yourself a cocktail ring, or perhaps start collecting vintage cocktail rings. They are a real part of American history.