Flea Market Treasures

 Trying to get back into my routine....it has been a very busy month for me. I had company, bronchitis and two awesome shows. Last weekend I had a two day show and sold 87 pieces of jewelry...crazy, crazy! I think it has taken me all week to re-coup after that show, plus I put in 2 days of work at the antique shop. So what do I do to relax?...what else but spend the day at the Flea Market.

My found treasures for the day...

round blister pearls, moonstone, copper clasps, old keys, Victorian locket and chain, brass rings, enamel watch face, clock key, enamel cuff links, old rosary beads and masonic medal,, Victorian buttons, vintage dog tags, old chains and  photo tin type.

I could not resist this 1930's G-Man toy badge...how cute is that?

I plan to spend the rest of the day in my studio and see what I can do with these treasures.

Congrats again to the Bead Trends Magazine winner QuiltingJewel39, please contact me with your mailing address.

Happy Sunday!

Making Room for a Bead Giveaway

 Since yesterday I have been putting away all of my little found treasures from Texas, trying to organize it into a space that is already lacking good storage. So to make room I have cleaned out some of my containers and have made roughly a 3 pound pile of beads to give away.

 No junk in this pile! There are some vintage beads, pendants, gemstone and glass beads lots of beady goodness for you!

 Just leave me a comment telling me what is the best treasure you purchased at a garage sale, flea market or antique shop. I love to know what folks are buying! If you want to share this giveaway go ahead and let me know you did and your name goes in the proverbial hat twice. Giveaway will end on Friday Oct. 7th with one lucky winner. 

Here are more of my new treasures,wonderful vintage religious medals in all sizes.

 tons of great rosaries

 old hardware, buttons, keys, game pieces...

clock faces, tags, monopoly game pieces, cuff links...

These trinkets are my passion, what's yours?

Treasures

Here it is Thursday and I am just getting to show you my flea market finds from Sunday! Where has the week gone!  Check out these awesome boots I found...these were made for a store in Ashland City Tennessee and are marked as such inside...way cool!

 can you imagine your foot fitting into these....so very narrow.

I love old jewelry boxes....and especially when they have velvet inside. These are tiny and can only hold little bits. I am going to use them in my show display this weekend.

I was so lucky to come across these old tokens. There were so many different varietys that I have never seen. These will be just perfect in my jewelry designs. 

I also want to share with you one of the pieces I finished the other day. I am so happy with it! It includes one of the old brass findings that I have in my shop.  

I am off to set-up for a show today, although I am in a daze. We learned yesterday that a tornado went through the town we use to live in, Wilbraham Massachusetts. Here we live in tornado alley and this little New England town gets hit with a tornado. Freaky! All my old stomping grounds were devastated. My heart goes out to all my friends.

Wishes to you all for a blessed day!

New pieces from the jewelry drawer

I have lots of new creations to share with you...today from the jewelry drawer I have three pieces of jewelry created from findings from an old Jewelry Factory in Rhode Island.

 I was sooooo very lucky to have come across this man at a flea market in Connecticut. He was selling tons of this stuff. I think I wet my pants when I saw all of the findings. Some of the stuff is in limited quantities and some I will be offering in my Judith B Designs Etsy shop. Have patience I will be listing it slowly. The quality is outstanding, better than excellent !  Really ornate with amazing detail and some with nice patina.

Here is just a few of the pieces I got.

Mercy

Created from a vintage crucifix from the old jewelry factory along with cut Opaline glass beads.

Memory Lane

Cuff Bracelet

The detail is so gorgeous on this antique brass piece.....nice heavy brass that I carefully formed to fit your wrist and added a vintage rhinestone earring.

Lastly for today are Pine Cone Drop Earrings. Wait until you see these adorable pine cone like bead caps! I just can't stop smiling when I look at these. 

So that is it for today, you can find these pieces in my Etsy shop.

.Hope everyone is enjoying some nice weather like we are and thanks to you all for stopping by.

Naked Lady

Ha! Made you look!
Isn't this amaryllis just beautiful? Did you know it is also know as Belladonna lily or naked lady? So far there has been 8 huge blooms and two more are on there way to open. How does one small stem have so much beauty?

I have been busy working with some of the brass stampings I got at the flea market. Since I am not home and do not have my good camera I am relying on my I-phone. So these pics will have to do.
The brass stampings are loaded with lots of natural patina, a little buffing from some fine steel wool brings out some of the highlights so nicely.

I forgot to share these crosses with you the other day, they are from the same vendor at the flea market. Great detail and I think they are made from some type of pot metal as they have a softness to them.

Here is another piece I am working on, it is rather simple in design. All the glory lies in the connectors. Czech glass beads with simple loops. Still trying to figure out a good clasp. Any suggestions?

Flea Market Sunday

What a find! I am so excited over these antique brass findings. Even though it was a bit chilly at 39 degrees and I have a head cold we ventured out to the Mansfield Flea Market in Mansfield Ct. The sisters stayed with Ginger so I could have some time off. I found a few neat things for my antiques booth but when I found this booth my heart skipped a beat and I squealed for sure! Boxes after boxes of authentic antique solid brass stampings. The dealer said he made a huge purchase of the findings from an old jewelry factory.

Two people in particular came to mind when I saw these beads (sorry about the very poor cell phone picture)...it does not do the beads justice. Barbara Lewis of Painting with Fire and Shannon Levart of Miss Ficklemedia. Enamel and patina would be perfect on these solid brass gems! The bead caps are like little pinecones,solid and extremely well made, they don't make things like that anymore.

Check out the detail on these grogeous crowns! I dug a little in the box and found two with totally different natural patina's.

Now that I have had some time with my selections I know that I need more...so hopefully next Sunday I will go back and get some more. Hopefully everyone had a great weekend.

All the best,

Judy