Start Collecting Vintage Weiss Costume Jewelry

Less well known than the more available Coro or Trifari, Weiss costume jewelry is a good choice for the beginning collector.

Spanning a large range of designs and materials, from rhinestones to enamel to plastic, Weiss was in operation from 1942 to 1971, making them truly vintage pieces. Albert Weiss contracted with designers and manufacturers to produce designs with the Weiss name.

Be aware, however, that some new Weiss jewelry copies can be found. Typically the newer pieces will have pasted in rather than prong-set rhinestones, the rhinestones are small and new-looking, and the plating on smooth-backed pieces is of poor quality. If youre interested in Weiss jewelry being sold on line, be sure to ask the seller whether the piece is vintage or a reproduction. Do a search to look at both vintage and reproduction Weiss pieces, and become educated about the differences.

Weiss was known for floral, fruit and figural designs, and also geometric, Art Deco necklaces, bracelets, pins and earrings. The workmanship and quality are uniformly very high. In the mid 1950s Weiss made creative use of Swarovski aurora borealis rhinestones.

A classic Weiss design features smoky quartz rhinestones with pave loops or icing. Smoky quartz was also referred to as the Black Diamond Look, and was created to imitate German smoky quartz stones.

Weiss butterfly pins are especially collectible, and some have wings mounted on tiny springs that make them flutter. Another popular Weiss collectible is Christmas tree pins, and can be a great investment for the beginning collector. Christmas ornament pins currently sell for much less than the tree pins.

Weiss jewelry used high quality Austrian rhinestones and were made in classic, timeless designs, made to fit with a modern wardrobe as well as the fashions of years gone by.

Several marks, or signatures were used on Weiss jewelry. WEISS, printed in caps, dates from 1942. Other marks from the 1940s and 1950s include Albert Weiss in script, WEISS in script, Weissco and Weiss in caps with the copyright symbol , denoting pieces made after 1955.

Some Weiss pieces may be unmarked, which would reduce the value. Some were sold to department stores, which marketed them in boxes with the store name.

Weiss produced many types of sets of jewelry. Pin and earring sets, necklace and bracelet sets, three-piece sets of pin, earrings and bracelet, matching necklace and earrings, any sets, if complete, increase the value beyond that of the individual pieces. If youre lucky enough to find the original box, the youve got a real treasure.

Some vintage Weiss brooches had smooth reflective metal backs. They should be totally smooth. Reproduction pieces may have smooth backs, but the quality will not be as good as on the vintage pieces.

As always, when considering the purchase of vintage jewelry, you should be sure that the piece is in good condition. If you are buying for yourself, and not for investment, you can be more flexible with condition, but the better the condition, of course the higher the value. Is the piece is signed? Is it well designed? And, do you like it? If youre buying for investment purposes, your personal taste isnt as important, but if youre buying for yourself, buy what you like so youll be encouraged to wear it often.

Weiss costume jewelry has been undervalued by collectors, but that seems to be changing as prices have been going up. If youre lucky enough to find a piece of vintage Weiss jewelry, and its in good condition, youll have a high quality collectible.

Top 4 Complaints When Shopping For Jewelry Appraisals

A store that sold you your jewelry should not appraise your jewelry.

Quite a few stores offer their customers free appraisals with their purchase. In some cases the person doing the appraisal is really a salesperson and is only transferring the stock information to a general appraisal form. A salesperson can have tendencies of inflating the expense to justify the buyers sale and make them feel good about the purchase.

Even though Heritage Appraisers operates their service inside several retail locations they are not the retail sellers. Any information and values are obtained from independent resources.

Appraisers which have not accomplished an accredited Graduate Gemologist Course.

In contrast to other appraisers, jewelry appraisers are usually not federally or nationally regulated, so any individual who wishes to hang a shingle and open for business can. These are usually people who believe because they have been doing business for some period of time, they possess the knowledge to offer credible appraisals

Heritage Appraisers are all members of The National Association of Jewelry Appraisers. To be a member each appraiser must provide proof of their Graduate Gemologist degree from an accredited gemology program and three appraisals to be reviewed before becoming a member.

Avoid appraisers that charge by the measurement of your diamond

Some appraisers will tell you the size of the diamond being appraised justifies a higher fee. A client with a 2.00 carat diamond is likely to pay more than a customer with a smaller diamond.

There is no additional task required to perform the appraisal on the bigger diamond. Heritage Appraisers charges one fee regardless of the sizing of your diamond. There is no more effort involved to assess a 1.00 ct diamond than a 3.00 ct. diamond. Appraisers that charge by size are basing their prices on how much they feel you paid for the item and not the actual work required.

Steer clear of appraisers that inflate the cost of your jewelry

Ask your appraiser how he reaches the values he attaches to your appraisal.

Heritage Appraisers uses current trade information along with multiple years of experience in sales, manufacturing and repair to determine the value. Values for gemstones and diamonds are obtained from regular monthly and quarterly price lists.

Antique jewelry entails more analysis, where recent auction or hammer price could be used to help establish the value. If your appraiser is not using these methods he won’t be able to present you with an correct appraisal.

Steal Michelle Obama’s Jewelry Style

A woman that exudes confidence and authority; that is First Lady Michelle Obama, clearly she matched his husband Pres. Barrack Obama’s equally influential persona. Since his husband assumed in his position as a president last January 2009, Michelle Obama had been a favorite subject of paparazzi, often photographed just to scrutinize the first lady’s fashion sense and her much talked about charms jewelry. I find it quite absurd, but then on the other hand, knowing her role as the wife of one the most powerful man in the world, then indeed it is inevitable. Go First Lady, show your dignified style.

Noticing the First Lady’s pictures, she is always photographed with personalized necklaces, her necklace with a HOPE dog tag pendant in particular. There had been rumors that it’s her necklace charm that made Obama the first African-American president in the history of America. But I doubt it, Obama won because he was elected by people, charm and magic has nothing to do with it. Mrs. Obama had been supportive during his husband entire campaign rallies from state to state.

Though, she was not born on the month June the public just cannot ignored the First Lady’s penchant for pearls. During her speech at Emily’s List gala during the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado her 36 inches pearl necklace that can be wrapped a couple times marked as one of her fashion statement.

Her dedication as a mother was known to public with the credits coming from paparazzi. One notable candid picture about the first family is when the president playfully raised his younger daughter, Sasha into the air with his both hands while Michelle and Malia were pictured laughing heartily while the family is about to board a private plane in Pueblo Memorial Airport. Despite the couple’s tight schedule they continue to attempt to schedule family time and date nights.

Pearl’s versatility make it an indispensable accent to any mothers jewelry. From necklace, bracelets down to earrings, name it, you can find any jewelry made and accentuated of pearls. All mothers’ regardless of his social status deserves gift. This holiday season take time to find a special gift only jewelry can deliver.

The Tools, Supplies And Skills Needed To Make Jewelry

Jewelry making is a popular and beloved pastime that has become more than a hobby for many throughout the world: it has become a passion. Making jewelry with wire and beads is a process that takes a long time to truly master, but a wide variety of jewelry can be made without having an expert or advanced skill set.

There is a wide variety of skills that, when mastered, allow you to create the most unique and advanced jewelry imaginable. By learning about these various skills on the internet or through books or magazines, you can push your jewelry making hobby even further.

Some of the more basic skills include cutting jewelry wire, straightening jewelry wire, how to bend jewelry wire, making a variety of loops with your wire, and more. Some of the more advanced skills include: hardening wire to make it permanent, making earrings using ear threads, and making advanced wire spirals.

As you can see, making jewelry has many different skill levels so that you can find your niche and improve upon it.

The right tools will help your jewelry making ventures be successful. You will need flush cutters for cutting wire, round nose pliers for making loops, and chain nose pliers for bending and grasping wire.
Above and beyond those essentials, there are many supplies that can greatly enhance your jewelry creating experience. These tools include: a ruler, a chasing hammer, a cub bur, ben closing pliers, an anvil, step jaw pliers, and nylon jaw pliers.

There are also different jigs available that help to make wire crafting easier. With jigs, you wrap the wire around various pegs to create the different shapes and patterns that you desire.

There are three basic supplies that are needed in order to begin jewelry making: beads, wire and findings. Beads are made from a wide variety of materials and come in a wide range of colors and shapes. There are glass, wood, metal, plastic, stone, semi-precious, precious, and bone beads that you can browse through and choose from.

Jewelry wire is generally either silver-plated, gold-plated, copper, brass, silver, or gold. All wire is sold in a few different sizes that are called gauges. The larger the gauge, the smaller the wire’s diameter. Most jewelry makers use wire ranging between 16 and 22 gauge.

Findings are components including ear wires, clasps, jump rings, head pins, and more. If you are beginning out in the world of jewelry-making, you should have a good supply of head pins, ear wires, clasps, and jump rings. This collection will get you started out, and as you grow as a jewelry maker, you can enhance upon your findings collection.

Jewelry making is a fun and creative hobby that could turn into a money-making enterprise!

Youngsters jewelry is the body jewelry

The body jewelry is worn on some specific part of the body that is worn after piercing a specific part of the body. Some of the type of such a type of jewelry is that you can wear are bracelet, ear ring, anklet, necklace, nose ring, toe ring, lip ring, navel ring, tongue ring etc. You can also wear that type of jewelry that comes with some gems and stone work in it. The material with which this type of jewelry is made is silver, gold, platinum, brass etc. The price of this type of jewelry is reasonable. But the price of the jewelry may vary based on the metal that is used for making this type of jewelry. If the jewelry consists of some precious gems as ruby and precious stones like diamond then the jewelry will be the expensive one. Some of the youngsters also like to wear this type of jewelry in nose, tongue, belly, ears, eyebrow etc. Based on your budget you should go for the body jewelry. >

There are different varieties of the body jewelry that is available in the market. You can also purchase some jewelry from the internet after comparing the price of the jewelry that is offered by different retailer. One of the popular type of the body jewelry is the eyebrow piercing. This type of jewelry is used since past. This type of jewelry is in use since past and since then some drastic changes are taking place that is modifying the different phases of the body jewelries. This type of jewelry is now a day considered a part of fashion that is mostly adopted by the follower of the latest trend teenagers.

Now a day the body jewelry is also available in materials such as glass and plastic. Instead of costly metals like gold and platinum, jewelry that is made from some other metal like copper and bass and anodized steel jewelry is also used. Everyone wants to look beautiful and charming. Because of this the body jewelry is preferred by not only man but woman of any age. But this type of jewelry is mostly preferred by teenagers who have a craze for it. With the change in time the taste of the people is also changing and because of this different design of jewelry is available that are designed based on the latest trend. This type of jewelry is designed for the different parts of the body. The body jewelry is the part of the youngster’s wardrobe.