Sunshine in my shadows

Welcome to sunshine in my shadows. This blog is my space to share all the stuff that makes up my every day life. Family, friends, crafts, recipes, books and all the little things that add 'sunshine to my shadows'. We all have a sprinkling of sunshine and an equal sprinkling of shadows in our lives. Hopefully you will find more sunshine than shadows to read about here and on the days when shadows fall, know that the sunshine is peeking just around the corner!


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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tuesday trinkets 10...

Today I'm sharing a few pretty floral brooches. It seems flowers have been the inspiration for jewellery makers since ....well forever!
This vintage beauty is a rare articulated brooch. Each of the individual petals can be moved to whatever position you would like to put them. I'm not sure what era it is from but it has been lovingly cared for and in almost perfect condition. Goldtone with yellow and white enamelled petals it has a cluster of clear rhinestones in the centre. If I had come across one of these without knowing what articulated mean't I would have presumed the jewellery to be broken!
This little brooch is really tiny measuring approximately barely 3/4 inch across. As you can see in the photograph it is made from the tiniest seashells ever!
This vintage beauty is rather shabby but was once beautifully enamelled. The enamelling on the leaves is still pretty well intact. I love the way the leaves turn over and are decorated with marcasite.
Another enamelled treasure that I suspect is from the same vintage as the previous brooch. Isn't that blue just fabulous? This one has kept it's enamelling but sadly has lost part of it's marcasite stem.
I tried and tried to get a good photo of this delicate floral brooch but this is the best I could get! It has tiny enamelled flowers dotted all over and each has a teensy diamante in the centre. It really is much prettier than my photo shows.
This brooch is a vintage plastic. I believe it is lucite which came into use for jewellery in the 1930s and was offered  as a cheaper alternative to Bakelite. My understanding of this type of brooch is that the pattern inside is carved into the back of the plastic and painted. The colour you see around the edges of this brooch are reflections in the bevelled edge. I have some much prettier examples of this type which I shall share when I find them. Lucite was very popular in the 1940s.
Another enamelled beauty I love the simplicity of this dogwood blossom. Again I am not sure of it's exact vintage but it is certainly a well made brooch that has been loved and cared for.
This is an exquisitely made little bunch of violets. The enamelling and detail is just gorgeous! I think I had a 'thing' for enamelled jewellery for a while lol.
More violets and I think a modern plastic. This one is stamped Avon.

wishing you sunshine in your shadows until next time
Helen

11 comments:

  1. They are stunning - how to choose a favourite ?

    I love violets so that would influence me, but I really do like the pretty little shell pink one.

    You certainly have a lovely collection Helen and thank you for sharing it with us.

    Love and hugs,
    Linda.

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  2. I adore the articulated one for it's uniqueness and the Dogwood just because it's stunning

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  3. Thanks for visiting my blog. Unfortuntely I´m not able to install a translator because I have a mistake in my html-code and don´t know how to repair.
    I think we share some passions, for vintage brooches (yours ar really gorgeous), flowers, old floral porcelain and books.
    In my last post I show some garden pictures but I´m very angry because to our house belongs a little garden in front of the house and at the weekend some people destroyed this little area. I don´t know why people can be so mean and rude. These things often happened at the weekends in our street. Sad.

    Have a nice day,
    Tanja

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  4. Thanks Linda I adore the violets too!

    Lynne I paid a hefty price for the articulated one but it is so unique...I just had to add it to my collection

    Tanja thanks for coming over to visit my blog. I'm so sorry to hear some horrid people ruined your lovely garden. It is very sad that some people feel the need to be so destructive.We do share a few passions indeed! I understand about the translator. I don't have one here because I don't have a clue how to. I will continue to visit and enjoy your lovely photographs :)

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  5. l love trinket Tuesdays and today you've shown some vintage plastic which is a BIG fave of mine. The violet brooch is gorgeous. Your trinket collection is amazingly endless Helen.

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  6. once again you have stunned us with more, and very different, treasures. I love the dogwood one, it is the Native Flower for British Columbia,Canada, and my Canadian penfriend sent me a leather dogwood brooch back in the 1960s, wish I still had that one :(

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  7. You have such a lovely collection, it's hard to pick favourites but I think I like the little seashell one this time.

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  8. You have such lovely brooches, the second and third are my favorites.

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  9. Bron I thought of you earlier this week when I picked up a couple more plastic bangles to add to my collection.
    Lyndel I love dogwood, it's such a pretty flower. I wish I had kept a lot of jewellery from my younger years too. Gave much away over the years.
    Lakota glad you are enjoying my trinkets posts. The little shell one is really cute, it's so tiny!
    simmone it's always interesting to see which ones other people like best. I went a bit mad buying on ebay after my divorce (comfort shopping) so my collection of vintage jewellery really is quite enormous.

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  10. Grinning at your comment about comfort shopping on eBay... nothing like a bit of online retail therapy, is there! eBay wasn't around when I divorced my first husband 36 years ago, otherwise I could have been tempted to do the same thing ;-)
    Your brooches are fabulous! It's given me the incentive to get mine out and photograph them for my blog, but maybe I won't...there's enough crap on there now - LOL!

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  11. Gina oooh please do get your brooches out and share. I am sure lots of your blog friends would enjoy seeing them. I know I would!
    Retail therapy may be expensive at times but it sure is a sanity saver and a much better vice than some lol.

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