Gifts for Vintage Lovers

With the gift giving season approaching, here are a few suggestions for vintage lovers, from imteam on etsy!

         Russian glass ornaments from Project Sarafan

Tins from Only Cool Stuff

Old maps from Carambas

for the film buff from Silent Heart Vintage

Antique jewelry from Wicked Darling

Remember these? From Alt Means Old

For lunar lovers from The Curators Prints

Ocean and botanical prints from High Street Vintage and Vintage by the Shore

Lovely old stuff from 86 for the Home

A couple of sweet pitchers for your collection from Vagabond Merchant

Vintage textiles from Raemj

Tea cups from 2nd Generation Vintage 

Rabbit collectables from The Hares Nest

Vintage Scandinavian from Monki Vintage

Weekend Thrifting

Summer is a great time to get out and hit the weekend garage and tag sales, or peruse the antique and second hand shops in your area. Personally, I sometimes find it easier to check out etsy's vintage shops! Have a look...

86 home Vintage Knox Hat Box

Reminiscence Papers vintage doll parts / Monki Vintage vintage wood type

Vintage prints and bookplates (clockwise from top left) 

The Curators Prints, High Street Vintage, Vintage by the Shore, Carambas

raemj vintage silver candlestick, 2ndgenerationvintage black leather clutch

Edwardian brooch from WickedDarling (oh look, it's on sale!)

Happy thrifting!

Spotlight on Cherry Lipped Roses

  

Renoir hand-smithed copper Modernist bracelet

As a child, Kathryn Ottolini remembers the walks in the woods of the Great Smoky Mountains she took with her grandmother, who would point out to her each and every wildflower. The result of that early introduction is that today, Kathryn is a master watercolorist living near and painting the wild flora of those mountains. But painting is just one of her many interests…

By day, she is an ophthalmological technician.  In the morning, at night and on weekends she is “a huntress.”

If you visit her etsy shop, you will see that she is an avid collector of vintage and antique jewelry and other precious collectibles. Her obsession is not only with the items themselves, but with their history as well.

Vintage signed Austrian opaline glass brooches

“If I can gain anything from research I am on it like a duck on a Junebug. I take history and use it as the drawstring around the piece, and often hold the piece in my hand and wonder what person it had been with, what facet of history was that individual living through when they first saw it.”

                                                     English embroidered leather card case

She explains that her mother, who grew up poor along the bottomlands of the Mississippi, developed an interest in antiques and over time acquired a keen knowledge of them, and Kathryn soaked it all up through osmosis.

When you peruse Kathryn’s shop, you’ll notice that she seems to have an affinity for certain items… “I found myself becoming increasingly attracted to opera glasses.”

                                                              flirty little opera glasses 


Now this is where she hops into her 6 speed VW GLI and does some time traveling… “Whose eyes watched the actors in the theater?...who else did they gaze on? Were there lusty flirtations that raced back and forth or was the smirking gleeful dowager behind them collecting all the dirt for the next day's tea?” She appreciates the fact that  “these pieces of history are beautiful and can still be used...if for nothing else than sitting on the mantle to be picked up on passing to watch birds...”

                                                            Taxco Mexican Silver

Kathryn’s idea of fun is sleuthing for and researching her precious finds. But she also manages to pack gardening, photography, writing, beading, reading, and of course, painting into her days. Oops, I almost forgot, she’s working on renovating a 100-year-old bungalow…

She has a son, who is one of the youngest jet engine repairmen in this country, a daughter, with her own etsy shop, heartsabustin.etsy.com and two grandsons. 

                                                 British engraved sterling cigarette case- 1926

Kathryn’s passion for antiques didn’t really become a business until, as she put it,  “I flicked the ‘ON’ button for the first time on a computer 4 years ago. Now THAT was an interesting moment. Then I stumbled across ETSY, called my daughter in North Carolina, and told her we were going to be business partners.”

                                                     vintage charm bracelet 1950's-70's

I asked her how she markets herself and she explained that she uses business cards. She wears a “magnificent Taxco silver clamper bracelet” daily, which elicits lots of comments. At that point a conversation usually develops and Katheryn has a new potential customer off to check out her site! She talks Etsy everywhere. She loves making treasuries, and has connected with many new friends there. She also uses Facebook, and her online selling has expanded to include a shop on rubyplaza.com. She spends a lot of time on her business, and it’s easy to tell she loves it. Her motto: “hands to work, hearts to God. Just DO it”. That she does.

                                                

                                 (You can find out how she came up with her shop name here…)

Spotlight on WickedDarling

I first became aware of Pam, the”Wicked” behind WickedDarling on etsy through her beautiful treasuries.  I love taking a peek into her shop on a regular basis to see what new treasure she has unearthed! Pam is a collector, specifically; she collects vintage and antique jewelry.

                                             Edwardian amethyst glass and pearls C1910

Pam’s passion for collecting and her love of jewelry began at a very young age; in fact, she was forced to give up piano lessons as a kid because she refused to part with her 60’s “mod” rings. I’m assuming her piano teacher was not yet familiar with Liberace…

At age 5, her goal in life was to work at a jewelry store and as fate would have it; her first job was to work in the same jewelry store she had dreamt about so many years earlier. A part time after school job led to full time work and Pam was able to acquire a wealth of knowledge about jewelry and how it’s made.

Part of an extensive offering of Victorian pieces

Her foray into the antique jewelry world began about 30 years ago when she found a Victorian locket in a box filled with costume jewelry. From that moment on she was “hooked”. She began a quest after information on the subject and became familiar with “every antique store and flea market from Miami to Baltimore” (a girl after my own heart!)


Her hobby led to an obsession and became her passion. Pam explains “There is something magical about holding or wearing a piece of jewelry that someone wore and loved over 100 years before you were born! It makes my soul sing!”

                                          Interested in tiny portraits?

    

 Pam has an eye out for vintage beauty in whatever form it presents itself!

When she’s not on the prowl for “new” old stuff, she enjoys spending time with her husband and cats watching old movies in their 100 year old cabin in the Georgia woods. When I asked Pam how she came up with her shop name, she told me it came from the title of a 1919 silent film with Lon Chaney called “The Wicked Darling” Her family agreed it was the perfect name for her. “Somehow it appeals to the southern belle in me. A little bit Scarlet and a little bit Melanie”

What would she be doing if she couldn’t be sleuthing jewels? She would spend more time sketching cartoons of her cats. “My husband at one time would make jewelry using my drawings and I would love to see that happen again!” Sounds like a second etsy shop to me…

You can visit pam at wickeddarling.etsy.com.