cool vintage finds

After much frustration and exasperation with the embassies in Singapore, our friend Jenna finally set off for KL to get her visa into India yesterday and suddenly the house seems awfully big and quiet again. Which means it's time to become a recluse and work harder than ever! Recently I've been falling in love with gemstones and collecting different pretties one strand at a time cos the good stuff never comes cheap! I've been starting to include them in my pieces as well and it makes me so happy to just work with these pretty gemmies :p

I've finally opened up my trove of treasures from trawling the antique shops/flea market stalls of Salamanca Market in Hobart and Port Adelaide. This ain't the whole loot too! That's how much stuff I came back with.

The last picture are some beautifully aged cameos that my girlfriends and I found and I especially love the vintage black carved cameo set in a what i think is cannetile* filigree frame.

*Cannetile is a french term to denote a decorative jewellery technique in which a metal, usually gold, wire is twisted into delicate and intricate designs featuring rosettes and scrolls. Meant to be very popular in 19th century England.

So there! My stock of possible Christmas goodies. They're in excellent condition and beautiful in their own right so I don't have to do much to repurpose them. Just hope I can do them justice!