Vintage Memories; Vintage Jewery

Yes, I...am...vintage. See, I am more than 20 years old. Along with being vintage comes memories - lovely memories. Some of you that follow this blog know that as a young girl, I lived in Brazil. We lived in the state of Minas Gerais (General Mines) where most of the Brazilian stones were mined. We often went rock hunting and found tourmeline and amethyst in their raw state. I loved that!!

Back at that time, Brazilian stones set in sterling were very inexpensive like our costume jewelry today. Therefore, as jewelry lovers, my mother and I had a boatload of Brazilian jewelry.

I was rooting through some drawers the other day and found this set of Brazilian "costume" jewelry set in sterling with real tumble-polished stones. Taking a new look at these as an adult brought back many fond memories of my mother wearing these pieces. These were not the star of the show, but good, daily jewelry.

She had many fine jewelry pieces with cut stones she hand selected and had settings custom made into various pieces of jewelry. I have a few pieces left, but alas, a burglary years ago left me with only few pieces - thankfully.

These pieces have tourmaline, amethyst, topaz, white agate, hematite, rust agate, pink morganite, and aqua marine. There is a three-strand necklace that is a fabulous neckline filler and the stones are set horizontally as links. I love this necklace - it is very colorful and happy!

Always the creative jewelery lover (people say I make jewelry out of anything - steak bones, Christmas ornaments...!), I utilize my jewelry tactics from college days and hook together five bracelets with the same type polished dangle stones to make a fabulous necklace! I wear it long or double it for a lush, fabulous look.

I have seen several smaller pieces on eBay with this same design, setting, and polished stones. The sellers did not know what they had and called them "agate" jewelry and indicated they were silver tone - and sold them for next to nothing. So, now you have been warned! If you see these on eBay, know that they are Brazilian, real stones, and sterling!

It is fun walking down memory lane, especially when it involves jewelry. These are not for sale, but I really wanted to share the beauty of these stones with you! For pretty usable vintage jewelry, please visit GalleriaLindaLoft's vintage jewelry shop on Zibbet!