Sweet Bead Studio — Handcrafted jewelry by Cindy Wimmer

A Show and a Tell (winner announced)

by Cindy on March 7, 2012

Hello!

I seem to be in a cycle of blogging about jewelry, family, and antiquing….have you noticed? 🙂 These are my favorite topics, and I hope you enjoy them too. Let’s go straight to the family/antiquing corner. A few weeks ago while the older boys were in ski school, I took a trek to Hagerstown, MD to check out a couple of antique malls. If you’re ever in the vicinity, Antiques Crossroads and Beaver Creek Antiques Market are side by side and I’d definitely put them in the “very good” category! I spent a few hours there with my 3-year-old son and we had a great time.

This past weekend, the DC Big Flea was in town again. I went last year and shared about friendship and great finds in this post. This year I brought my 9-year-old son and we strolled the aisles for 4 1/2 hours! Luckily he’s a treasure-hunter just like me! He was looking for fountain pens and watches, and I was looking for….well, all sorts of good things.

We met a wonderful vendor who was eager to share with us the evolution of the wristwatch. She explained that at the time of WWI, pocket watches were clumsy for soldiers to carry, and how straps were created so that they could easily see their watch on their writst. My son received some good advice too; she told him to start a collection now and just hold on to it! Another vendor told us that one of her sons paid for his first year of college with the money he made from selling a collection of toys that he started when he was young. Another couple wanted to show my son their great big (thickest one I ever saw!) dictionary and helped him look up a few words. They were concerned about kids these days just looking on the Internet for information. Coincidentally, he just had an assignment this past week that required him to use an actual dictionary (had to borrow one from PopPop!). In the big dictionary, the last President listed in the back was Harry S. Truman!

Now on to some of the treasures we found –

Oversized chandelier crystals. These might make nice Christmas ornaments.

All kinds of trinkets. The box is from a prominent jewelry store in Baltimore that was in business from 1873 to 1991. I was thrilled to find the little football charm, it says Navy!

Lots of sparkly baubles. One of my favorite finds are the velvet boxes underneath the jewelry. Well-worn velvet is swoon-worthy to me! One of the boxes still had a label – the boxes once held what must have been incredibly high-end stockings. The company name was “The Jewel by Sapphire”.

Detail of the exquisite crown applique. One of my favorite books became real when I found these boxes!

A grouping of earbobs. The sweet enameled pink Weiss earrings are another favorite find. This picture was taken on the inside of the box lid – notice the crown logo label.

I found many special cabinet cards. I love to look for siblings (especially brothers), boys in sailor suits, unique props and beautiful clothing. Who were these two girls? And don’t you love the ornate hat and parasol carried by the girl on the right?