Pittock Mansion: Visiting Local History

High above the hills of Portland, Oregon is the Pittock Mansion, an early 1900's French Renaissance-style mansion that has been restored and opened to the public. My parents recently came for a visit and we all went and toured this fabulous piece of history. Our children were fascinated by all the old-fashioned technology. A great time was had by all!!

The mansion was completed in 1914, complete with progressive features of the time, including a central vacuum system and intercoms. The Pittocks hired Oregon craftsmen and artisans, and used Northwest materials to build the house. The final estate included the mansion, a three-car garage, a greenhouse, and a gate lodge servants’ residence, all situated on 46 acres of woodland and garden 1,000 feet above bustling downtown Portland.

An old fashioned intercom installed in the wall.

This is a crocheted bedspread. What an amazing creation! Can you imagine all the hours to handcrochet this out of crochet thread? Truly an heirloom piece.

They were having a special exhibit on beaded purses while we were there. Gorgeous collection of more than 50 well-preserved purses beaded and mesh purses (two of which were owned by Pittock family members) from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This type of elaborately decorated purse peaked in popularity between 1900 and 1930 and it was fun to see all the techniques and decorations used in the creation of them. This special exhibit is on display until July 10 if you are in the area.

Vintagey Lucite Flower Goodness

I just love custom orders! One of my lovely customers brought me a vintage necklace from around the 50's or 60's and asked if I could re-make it into some long, dangley earrings featuring the gorgeous vintage flower beads in the necklace. I'm no expert on vintage jewels, but they looked like Lucite to me! Vintage Lucite Flower Beads .... Yum!!

Here's pair number one:


And pair number two:

They are both so gorgeous, I don't know how she will ever choose. I know I'd take both!!!

***Update: She picked pair #1! Pair #2 is looking gorgeous and seeking a new home. To be the proud new owner of these lovelies click here. ***

The necklace was pretty long, so I had tons of extras left over. I'm going to post pics of them here and add them to Etsy too (here and here and here), in case anyone wants to make their own pairs.
So... you may ask what happened to the great Spring cleaning I was in the midst of. Grade school is so wonderful for the sharing of germs, esp. in Spring. Let's just say this has been "The House of Flu" for the past few weeks. Me hit the hardest since I exhausted myself nursing my sick little guys and husband. Life is bouncing back around here though and with one custom order done and packaged, I think I hear that coat closet begging to be cleaned out today! :)

Oh, and if you haven't seen this very cool Flu Trend Tracker from Google you should take a look. The tech behind it is quite novel and yet, extremely commonsense too. Google found that certain search terms were indicative of flu activity. They used the Google aggregated (combined) data to estimate flu activity in a given region. Neat, huh? Currently, Oregon rates as "high" .. no surprise there :)

A Tale of Pumpkin Walls

At last! The great painting project of 2008 is done! And I must say, with neither my husband or I having painted walls before, the end result is quite beautiful. Especially love how the setting sun catches this pumpkin wall in the evening making the whole room just glow!

My new pumpkin wall above the fireplace.
The lavender was handpicked locally last summer.

Why did this project turn into almost a two week monster? Well, that would be because we elected to leave the window casings white for a depth effect and the line between the orange and white did not go as expected. Blue tape is now my new mortal enemy. Our walls have a bumpy texture and when the *very* well-pressed blue tape came off .... paint had bled under it just horribly. So .... after many days touching up and handpainting with a 1/4 inch fine art brush (TINY!!) all the transition lines were prettied up to look like this:

Ah, a beautiful handpainted seam!

And now ... as promised ... some new pretty jewelry. It's all about vintage style! I've discovered all natural brass and I think I'm in love!! Just adore the Art Nouveau feeling of many of the brass pieces. And one of the great things about natural brass is that it's nickel free so it's more friendly to people with metal allergies. These are all part of my new line currently being featured at Saturday Market. (The new line also includes a rare stash of loose vintage costume gems reworked in natural brass filigree and reproduction vintage images fashioned into bamboo tile pendants and chokers.)

One of a kind, asymmetrical brass sparrow necklace.
$25 at Sherwood Saturday Market
SOLD - THANK YOU!

Art Nouveau style brass butterfly necklace.
$25 at Sherwood Saturday Market

One of a kind, vintage flower bead and brass sparrow necklace.
$25 at Sherwood Saturday Market
SOLD - THANK YOU!

And the painting is finished just in time, because my mother arrives from out-of-state for a week long visit in just a few hours!! Time for a Starbucks and chocolate donut double combo. Think I can clean up all the painting stuff, tidy the house to get ready for her visit, pick up the kids, read some blogs, and finish making my custom order for Saturday in the next 4 hours? Yeah - no problem for superwoman :) Gotta have the coffee and chocolate donut though - that's the secret :)

Longest Catch Up Blog Post Ever

Hello everyone! Finally, that storm system moved on at the end of last week and the migraine is gone and my vision restored. Thank goodness! Thank you so much everyone for your kind words of care and support and encouragement. I cannot tell you how much your sweet comments and emails meant to me! This is such a wonderful community and I am grateful for my bloggy friends each and every day!

Now, it's time to get cracking and get caught up! I have over a hundred blogs to visit and way more email to take care of. Oh, and let's not forget Saturday Market that opens in two weeks. Currently I will be standing there in front of an empty table, so it's time for this artist to get to work! Every power workshop session starts with this:There was an almond twist pastry too, but that didn't last long enough to photograph, but I assure you, it was delicious and a necessary part of kick-starting the day :) And you fellow Starbucks addicts might note the new color/labeling. Memo to Starbucks: if your sales figures are falling during these tight economic times, investing money on new retro labeling will not inspire me to buy more coffee - try new lower prices - *that* will get my attention.

Now suitable fueled, the workshop is churning with flower pin production:

Bird tile production: (Note: I just finished these at dawn, but the glaze on them needs about 1-2 weeks to cure after drying to get that old-fashioned vintage look.)

All this jewelry and pretty accessories, but I need some catchy display ideas too. How about vintage labels???? Perfect!! This is what you can do with 10 minutes at a high-quality color xerox machine and an hour of brain surgeon level hand-eye coordination cutting. They are looking good!!

Let's celebrate that I can work again! These are my new bird nest hair pins. How fine they look on those vintage labels! I will add one of these to any order placed starting now until they are gone. I have eight two zero left -- all the nest hair pins are gone now -- thank you for your orders!!!

Look what was incoming at the Jeweled Elegance workshop - this cool ACEO made entirely of polymer clay from DivaDea! She hosts these really interesting and creative Etsy song contests. I wasn't sure I had the concept down, but gave a guess and I won! Take a look at her site if you want a unique creative challenge.

Now, back to the grindstone! :)

Virtual Vintage Prom Night!!

It's time for the Virtual Vintage Prom hosted by the artistic Natasha. It's getting late, I better get dressed before my date comes to pick me up, but what frock to wear?? After trying on a few things in the mirror, there really isn't any doubt. Has to be this c. 1928 chartreuse silk chiffon flapper dress. Oh yes, it does!It's just coated in tiny pearls, silver beads and rhinestones that glitter and dazzle the eye. And oh that glorious pale green color! Maybe not for everyone, but if you have a touch of red in your hair like me, it's going to look great! :) What a site I will be doing the Charleston!

And what prom outfit would be complete without some jaw-dropping jewels? THIS is the stunning necklace I would go for! The Royal Juliette, inspired by French aristocratic fashion. J'aime ce collier!!! [If you're listening Santa I have been a VERY good girl]
My date's here! What a beautiful peach rose he brought me. My favorite color! He's pinned it to my dress and now it's off to the prom! (Click on Natasha's link above to go visit other prom goers).
(p.s. I really, really tried to fit into my old dress because it is really cool -- think 1930's, midnight blue, spaghetti straps, and lots of beading and sequins -- but alas .... I think it must have shrunk in storage :) .....so I'm glad this is a virtual party!)

Swapping Fun: Part II

And here are the other two cards for the Vintage Button Card Swap! Yes .. I used the same French Queen twice, but it was such a great, rich image. It was fun to alter and add to them in different ways.



For those of you who asked, the Beaded Fabric Hairpins are now at the shop! I'll add the Flower Fabric Hairpins and the Kitties handforged wire earrings next. Bird Nest Necklace news: Finally, my supplies for the bird nests are arriving this week! I have several back orders to fill and then I'll put them up at the shop.

In other news, I am SO excited to join the 2007 Bead Journal Project! I sent off my e-mail entry to join today, just one day before the deadline, so I hope I make it in! I really wanted to give it some serious thought and make sure I could make the year long time commitment. I've always wanted to experiment more with bead embroidery and I think the fusion of journal work and beading is going to be just heaven. There is so much energy around this creative project and so many talented artists! I know this will be a wonderful artistic journey and I am excited to have the opportunity to learn from such wonderful artists and share in return.

Swapping Fun

I'm participating in the Vintage Button Card swap over at Speckled Egg. I hadn't worked in the paper arts for a while (except for making Japanese paper earrings) and I had a really great time designing these. Thanks to Heather for hosting such a wonderful swap! Here are two of the cards complete with their buttons. I'll post the other two soon.


I also recently found out that Kaari Meng, of French General, is publishing a new book this fall ... and it's on jewelry!! I loved her first book and can't wait to order this new one. I already have it on my wish list at Amazon. I wish it was going to be out this summer, but I'll try to wait gracefully :)

Pretty Vintage Style

Finally! First we had the debut of our lovely crocheted hoop earrings, and now .....(drumroll).....the vintage inspired wood bird pendants are here! These have been individually hand painted from scratch and the wood artificially distressed and worn, so they really have that timeworn look of an old original. The hand drawn and hand painted images are original paintings exclusive to Jeweled Elegance.

You can find these sweet bird necklaces in our revamped "Vintage Inspired" jewelry category. I made a bluebird one for myself ("Happiness" in the boutique) and I am really enjoying it. It's fun, pretty and makes me think of Spring -- which I think has already come to Oregon. It has been just lovely here and all the geese have returned and the robins are out eating worms.

Bejeweled - Jeweled Elegance