It's for this reason when Accessories Magazine announced that they want to promote heirloom and vintage looks for an upcoming trend report, I was reminded how Dunitz & Company has often incorporated such doodads into many of our our looks. This photo to the right, used as a pitch by Accessories features a stunning necklace with an old coin. It's not our necklace. It did however spark me to remind our customers that we use lots of old and collectible tidbits in many of our fair trade vintage jewelry designs.
Great things happen when you least expect it. In order to stay ahead of the curve, one needs to continually be thinking of new designs and new looks. It seems forever ago, that I started purchasing vintage glass buttons from a friend of mine who was also a then button dealer. Her beautiful Czech buttons combined with our bead-work created new looks that hadn't been seen before. Retailers responded. Sales were excellent. At one point, my friend suggested I purchase her excess stock at a deep discount. This has allowed Dunitz to offer so many other limited edition vintage styles in all sorts of colors. (Looking for buttons for your own project? We still have lots of stock. Reach out. We may have just the thing you need.)
And then it was time for our next brainstorm for expanding our heirloom styles. Steampunk looks were landing on shelves in many hipster stores. The look was not quite my thing. However, I was enamored with some of the components. I found watch part vendors in the US and abroad willing to part with specifically watch faces...watch faces of all sizes. I've had to pay a premium for the faces. And often faces arrive that are unusable driving our costs up. Just the same, they're such cool components we have justified and figured this into our costs. We launched necklaces, bracelets and mis-matched earrings mostly in various earthy tones. The beauty of these pieces is no two are ever identical. The lucky person who purchases this piece or that piece will never ever find another just the same.
It seems almost crazy that the our designs using old coins came after those that use buttons and watch faces. I say this because old coins are much more readily available. So once again we launched several designs as part of our 'prosperity collection' using mostly retired coins from around the world. The coins we're using have little value to serious coin collectors. They sure do look 'cool' as part of bracelets, necklaces and other stuff. Other stuff? Ponytail holders, rings and more mis-match earrings. We also figured out a way to secure enough old Israeli lira and shekels allowing us to create perfect pieces for our Judaica customers. (I know, it sounds a bit sales pitchy. Perhaps a little so!)
And then there were three. Well, three types of components used on a few of our most recent fair trade vintage designs. We offer some nifty one-of-a-kind designs that use buttons, watch faces and coins. This one here ---> we call our Potpourri Necklace. Because we'll never find a duplicate button or watch face, each Potpourri Necklace is truly unique. We suggest you be one-of-a-kind and shop our heirloom and vintage fair trade jewelry. -ND