Want To Share Your Passion For Vintage Charms & Charm Bracelets?
Why not come join myself and several other charmaniacs in a new eBay Group?!
We're a friendly bunch (aren't ALL charmaniacs?) that share the great love for vintage Silver charms & bracelets. Even if your passion is vintage Gold charms why not come give us a visit? I bet you'll grow to love the silver ones as well! I love them both!
If you'd like to give us a visit please Click Here to get to the Group Join page. Once there click on the "join button" to request an invitation to the group. We look forward to seeing you there and sharing in our LOVE for vintage charms! :o)
Do They Have Collectors Anonymous?
It all started one night while I was searching for a Christmas present for my mother-in-law. I had plans to cross stitch her a Paula Vaughan design and decided since I knew the cross stitch leaflet was OOP I would have to search on eBay for it. Of course I found (what can you not find on eBay??) it and won the auction. After having such a wonderful auction experience I started looking for other cross stitch projects that were considered HTF. This started my eBay addiction.
My Small, But Loved Collections...
While searching for a Christmas present for my stepdaughter, who loves silver, I came across some gorgeous, vintage charm bracelets. I would have never thought in my 32 years that I would end up collecting these things. LOL! I have quite a few, all sterling silver. Some being English silver, but mostly American silver. There's a definite destinction in the two. The tarnish on English silver seems to have more of a gray color to it. American silver seems to be darker and the patina is deeper, but I find them both equal in the beauty department.
Now on to my newest collections. In my journey for charm bracelets I came across this GORGEOUS heart shaped, enamel charm with the most beautiful, little hand painted rose in the center. In the description of this auction was the word Guilloche, so I did a search and couldn't believe my eyes!!
Now, some poeple think that the term Guilloche has to do with the type of enamel that's used, but that's not it at all. Guilloche is a pattern that's made by interlacing curved lines, such as engravings on silver. If the work is done on metalwork, then it's sometimes covered with an enamel to protect the beautiful artwork from being destroyed. Guilloche work is also done on paper money. Those "lacey" lines you see on a lot of foreign bills is called "Guilloche".
For the longest time I had no idea how to pronounce this word. I knew it was from a French background. I finally found some site online that had sound wavs so you could hear the pronounciation. I'll try my best to help you out. Say the word "key", but say it with a "g" at the beginning. Then the best way I can help with the "losh" part of the word is, say "lotion", but take the "ion" off the end. Whew, I hope that's clear...LOL!
In my search for Guilloche I found my latest obsession. Vintage ladies compacts. I have 8 so far and am always on the look out for more!! All but one of the compacts have Guilloche engraving with enamel and hand painted roses on them. I have a few jewelry items with Guilloche work on them as well. Sometimes you can find some real bargains on eBay for this type of work, but believe me, it's very seldom that you do. It seems to be a VERY popular, collectible work.
I'm always in search of some good bargains. In those searches I've learned A LOT! It's amazing what you can learn from people you've never met...LOL! Some people's auctions are VERY informative and you'd be amazed what you can learn just by reading people's "About Me" pages. One of the most informative "About Me" pages I've read on Sterling Silver charms is Gelatogrrl's page. She has a link there that will take you to her website FILLED with some outstanding information. If you're a charm collector you MUST visit her page.
Not only have I learned a lot, I've traded with some outstanding sellers. How they part with some of their great finds is beyond me! I hope to be doing a little bit of selling myself soon. But you can bet I won't be giving up any of my new found collections anytime soon! :o)
I'll mostly be selling some of my old OOP and HTF cross stitch leaflets. I have Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Brite, the entire collection of Care Bears, 2 different Hummel, Paula Vaughan and some other hard to find leaflets. I'm not sure when I'll be selling them, but keep a look out for ReactionTimes auctions.
Thanks for reading my "About Me" page. I hope you enjoyed yourself and maybe you learned a little from me? LOL!! Hey, a girl can dream, right? :o)
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