Vintage Bling

From FairyFiligree's collection - in her shop very soon....

I have always been fascinated by jewellery, from the days when as a little girl, I traipsed into the room which my mother and her sister used to share and there found beads, beads and more beads - so many different necklaces left behind by my aunt when she emigrated to Canada.

Today I collect and research vintage and antique jewellery and it doesn't have to be expensive to make my eyes dazzle. Costume jewellery is just as enchanting as the diamonds and the pearls. Over the years I have to come to appreciate the fact that costume jewellery can be that much more innovative and original than the fine jewellery just because people can experiment more with the techniques. Let's face it, if something made of copper melts down or gets ruined during the creative phase, it's not the end of the world.

From FairyFiligree's collection - in her shop very soon....

When I first started researching vintage jewellery, I remember gravitating towards very diverse types of jewellery and one aspect of the vintage jewel intrigued me particularly - that was the way international relations actually influence the bling we wear. Take for instance the fad for wooden jewellery during the WWII. Wood replaced metal when metal was confiscated to make arms. But creative people, being just that - creative - let their nimble fingers and expertly creative minds take over and re-created jaunty little wooden designs to allow women to decorate themselves, minus the metals and cheaply so.

Then again, I look at jewellery as another art form that is there for carrying around with us every day of the year. Unlike the painting which hangs on the wall in our room and can only be enjoyed when we're in that particular room, we can carry the jewellery around with us wherever we go, all day long. Isn't that a fantastic way to wear art?

FairyFiligree is on Etsy.

Read more from FairyFiligree on the blog.