Confessions of a Jewelry Groupie.

I finally got these dang things up:
The Brethren of Purity.
Madonna and Child.
The Condor. 
The Turban. 
I also made a new bracelet:
Dragon Bones.
Using a lovely dragon filigree from my SacredCake windfall.It has jade and 'Krobo' beads from Ghana.
Opulent Oddities asked me to make some bit earrings and here they are:

Next to a penny you can see how really huge they are.
So in exchange for the earrings she said she was gonna send a box of stuff.
Dear lord. Let me just show you.

Here's a bunch of color loveliness. Oh, the perforated brooch in back is covered w/the sweetest flowers that I've already started using:

Tenderness.

How much do I love this block that just says "PIG"? This little jar is filled with what I think are Herkimer diamonds, a kind of quarts only found in Herkimer, NY, of all places on earth. They naturally form double points and these tiny ones have double points, so.... I might put them in a deep bezel... 

Tons of rhinestone chain and 2 broken chubby baby hands. Also, see that micromosaic? In the upper right you get a peek of the tons of sparkly rings she sent which I've already started to take apart. 

Poison ring(!!!), ivory carved roses and floral cab.

Stuuuuuf. That car actually rolls. Madness.

Several lockets, a pair of earrings with the rose-in-glass/resin going on. I know I'll use those as easy as blinking. In the background you can see brass steel-cut style 'buckle' stampings, which I've never had but always wanted to play with..

Oh, and little things. Tiny things. I'm all about tiny things. Antique tiny things are always so precious. Even that maniacally smiling cow. 

Cellulose crackerjack prize about as big as the pad of my thumb. The rhinestone bit over his head is an already-taken-apart ring. And look at those faceted black shanks!!

These things are tiny- the shield charms could fit on my pinkie nail. I've only lately learned the value of the small. I used to be all about big ol' beads, for example. But now I realize a tiny thing call be so endearing, thus the description in the "tenderness" listing above.

Even the fork is quite small, though also thick and heavy. 

Rhinestone heart earrings next to a golden locket.

Oh, this tiny MOP brooch has the loveliest opal glow that I was just barely able to capture.

And mind, I'm only showing you a small percentage of what I got, because more than anything the box was loaded with chain. Dear lord, you've never seen so much chain. Had to put most in a box in another room just because I couldn't psychologically deal with having that much chain. That's something I won't have to look for in Uruguay at least.

What I haven't ever spoken of is what a huge impact Opulent Oddities had on me when I first saw her work what seems like decades ago. I had never seen jewelry made of old vintage bits and it blew my mind.  I also remember I was so jealous that she got to play with such beautiful things! I wanted to be her, I wanted to play, too. The delight I've felt every time I get to handle something old and beautiful and imagines what I could make it into is sort of still pacifying that violent desire and jealousy I felt. Among other firsts, she was the first jewelry artist I saw incorporate frozen Charlottes. 

I remember seeing this I think it was:

Which now seems simple enough, a doll and a laundry pin, but at the time it cracked my head open. It may have been when a lightbulb went on and I realized it wasn't about what could you put on a necklace- but what couldn't you? That as long as it was small and interesting, it could be used.

Seems like everyone and their momma has heard of her, but she's never, as far as I know, been one to try to get published or write a book. Seems she's always been doing this kind of art jewelry since before anyone else, without fanfare or anything, as if it were just a regular craft, always keeping the focus on the vintage pieces without fussing with faux aging techniques or any such thing. Sigh.

Oh, and she has a pair of earrings up now that I'm flipping over:

Oh geez, which reminds me- I even tried to emulate her photos when I started! The tilt! I'd never seen the tilt and I thought it was soooooooo cool! I thought it was so amazingly artistic and mysterious and just awe-inspiring. So somewhere in my sold section you can find tons of these ridiculously overly tilted pieces that are trying waaaay too hard. Ha! 

Well, there, I feel like I confessed. I confessed to what a groupie dork I have been and still am. And now she is sending me glorious things and telling me how inspiring my shop is! Makes me feel like surely I must be hallucinating in a straightjacket somewhere....