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Home > About Our Findings |
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About Our Findings |
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What can I say?
Our brass stampings and findings are very special.
I started my days in this business as a seller of vintage goods. In time, I realized I had a great love of old jewelry. Nothing gave me such a rush as finding myself in a big flea market with lots of tables piled high with old jewelry....and back about twenty years ago in my part of Ohio, that was not hard to come by. There were a lot of good places to shop out, to learn and handle these wonderful old pieces. I bought alot, I sold alot, and I kept more than I thought I did! I still have several suitcases full of pretty things I kept back for myself.... just because I loved them.
I began to notice the pretty background stampings on much of the old 20's-30's brass jewelry. Some were compilations of manipulated, or soldered-together pieces, beautiful old filigree with dark patina. Who made this stuff?, I wondered. Most of it had no maker's marks.
When I then began to make jewelry from old broken pieces, I realized I was going to need a supply of items to fill in the gaps in my creative stash. Through networking I found good sources of supply for more filigree, more findings made from the same old dies, as many of the findings I loved in the antique jewelry were still being made. I bought all that I could, and in time I was making so much jewelry, that I developed a large line and even began selling to stores.
In time, I also began to sell some of the extra findings I had out of my workshop....and the rest is history, isn't it? And today, my commitment to you is that I will not offer goods I myself would not use; I believe in quality and using the best components you can find, in your work. I also promise to offer you the best there is out there, at the LEAST possible price. You can count on that.
Our stampings are either struck from vintage tooling, or are true vintage. The listings on the website will tell you if the piece is true vintage; in fact, there are two categories specifically for the old patina brass findings alone. There are also links for one-of-a-kind or limited stock design components I have found in my travels, as well as links for some lovely old vintage glass we have fished out of backrooms and warehouses. I try to get on the road a couple of times a year to search.
For the MOST PART, the brass we carry is USA-made, from dies (tooling) that originated in the late 1800's-early 1900's. Much of it was refurbished in the 50's when the Victorian Revival style of jewelry made a resurgence. These are the dies that produce the stampings we use today.
The dies are struck in rich low brass sheet, most of which I call 'mellow yellow', and it is fairly consistent. This brass will oxidize as it is stored. If you don't like the oxidization, just spritz with some Jewelry Joose (carried in the Cleaners section of our site) and give it a whack with a Sunshine cloth. If you want to preserve the mellow yellow color and not have to clean it alot, you can hit it with a light coat of matte spray lacquer, on both sides. If you would like to deepen the patina, check out our report in the Project Ideas, COOL WAYS TO AGE BRASS AT HOME. This report is printable and we encourage you to print out a copy for reference and your own use, in your workshop.
The FINISHES on our goods are done by the BEST costume jewelry finishers in the United States, according to STRICT US standards for safety in these sorts of goods. Brass stampings, whether finished or not, contain NO LEAD. Nickel content is very low; there is a bit of nickel in pewter ox, silver ox and gunmetal finishes, but only about half of the allowed standard. Our plater uses as little as possible to achieve these finishes. There is no nickel in any of the other finishes.
What does OX mean, such as brass ox, copper ox, etc? OX simply means OXIDIZED, or that it's an antique finish. All of our OX finishes are soft and need no special shining or cleaning. They *may* deepen a little with age, but that just makes them better. Silver ox and sterling finish *may* need a whack with a Sunshine cloth from time to time, this is to be expected as silver oxidizes fast and there is real silver in the plating bath for these finishes.
Our Russian gold plated finish is extremely special. I have been a fan of the old cageworked jewelry, especially the Miriam Haskell line, for years.
There really was no finish out there quite like the old Victorian rolled-gold or the Russian plate that was used on the old Haskell pieces. They tell me this is because that plating was actually a form of brass-plating over brass and some of the chemicals used in that product are no longer legally used products by today's plating and finishing houses.
So, I got together with one of my platers to see what we could come up with. *Our* Russian gold plated finish is now the closest thing you will find to the real, true, old finish in those collectable types of jewelry; you can only tell it apart if you look very closely, side-by-side. Our finish is NOT a brass on brass plate but a true form of gold plating with gold in the mix, so it is actually a much superior, stronger finish than the original old finish. It is muted and lovely with a light, pale antique to it, and it is sealed. It is easy to manipulate and does not tend to be brittle. You will love working with it if you like to make jewelry in this style.
What is gingerbread brass? Well, this the old stuff that has a patina that only time, dirt, humidity and improper storage can produce! We've fished this stuff out of warehouses and bought large batches of it, in the past, from private concerns who had collected it. Much of it is guilding weight brass and while much of it was made in the US (and is no longer made, dies no longer available), we have had a lot of wonderful old French product available. Our stock of the French product is not as high as it used to be, but we still do have some.....and if you love gingerbread brass, you should scoop it up when you find it, as there is less and less out there to be had.
At this time, we do not recommend our brass stampings for use in children's jewelry, but their use is strictly up to you.
If you have any questions about our stampings or our finishes, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best to one and all!
B'sue
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