Upcoming Vintage Inspired Christmas Brooches and Other Delights

Showing off the first of my vintage & kitsch inspired Christmas brooches.

When I was a little girl, I always new Christmas was close when our old Woodwards store put out their big table of floral corsages. It was such a sight to behold through a child's eyes, the explosion of colour and glitter. The big glittered plastic flowers with big bits of plastic greenery, maybe some fake snow too. And each one of them would have it's own little plastic Santa, snowman or maybe a metallic wrapped fake gift or two.  They were attached with either a long straight pin or a simple open c-clasp one.

It's funny, I never really loved any of them individually, but all together was magical. Nowadays I often think back to those early Christmas corsages, which in turn make me think of all the other magical Christmas stuff:  when window displays were all about fun and fantasy and children would drag their parents to stop, look and dream ( unlike today where the ones here in Victoria British Columbia are so boring, lifeless, showcasing clothing/material objects  and all about getting more sales ).  I know I'm not the only one who misses those fun displays, so maybe one day soon someone somewhere will say "enough is enough" to the unmagical commercialism of today and make the effort to bring back some of the past, to lighten the eyes of todays children and re-lighten the joy of the adults too.

This pin was inspired by those memories of kitschy plastic flowered Christmas brooches and vintage Christmas cards. It's already in my Etsy shop --just click the shop on your right. Look for more in the upcoming weeks.

This floral necklaces was made 2 years ago. I will be relisting it again in the next day or two. Created with a real porcelain rose taken from a damaged Adderly rose table decoration. The necklace consists of czech glass beads, a few aurora  borealis glass beads, swarovski crystals on the dangle and a section of curb chain from another vintage necklace. A modern goldtone lobster claw is the clasp if you should need it --necklace slips on/off quite easily. True 'trashion', the bone china floral decoration almost get sent to the trash ! Thank goodness I saved it. I made a pink one for my mom, but she is now passed and so I will be keeping it.

I listed this piece yesterday and was going to blog about it when I went back to check on it and couldn't find it in my Etsy shop ! It sold ! What a lovely surprise that was :)

It's called Beautiful Dreamer because the image of the lady & all the other lovely bits are assembled on top of a vintage Sankyo music box which plays the tune 'Beautiful Dreamer'. Originally a keycahin and found amongst a pile of plastic necklaces and earrings in a thrift shop. I think I paid under $2 for it ( !! ) and didn't immediately notice the Sankyo mark, nor even knew they were collectible. A year went by until I finally dug it out from under my own pile of vintage jewelry, it was then I took a good look at it and did a bit of research online. Many other Sankyo music boxes were selling for quite a bit more than $2, let's say $40 to $60, sometimes more ! But they all had a design on the front whereas the one I found was a plain goldtone box with a simple cheap goldtone keychain attachment. The plain face of it called to me big time and I could almost instantly see what it was I was going to do. Well voila, there you go, a lovely assemblage to go with the Beautiful Dreamer music.

It took me several days to decide if I wanted to list it or not ! I did wear it once to a friends, just to say I did ;) But now it is on its way to another music box lover, in Toronto Canada. She too makes gorgeous creations with small music boxes and music works, the website is Tuned Teeth . Check it out !

I hope to one day find another wee music box and make another lovely necklace like this. The lady getting this is definately getting a ONE of a kind creation :)