From the category archives:

Vintage & Antique Jewelry

DIY Converting A Belt Into A Necklace

July 26, 2012

I have had my mom’s vintage Moschino belt sitting in my closet for a few years unworn. I thought the belt was really cute but it was way to heavy to wear and looked a little much with two strands of chain. So finally I had the idea to do a DIY on it and make it wearable. This project is super easy and probably took less than 20 minutes to create. i decided to break the belt into two so I could have a belt and a necklace.

Materials:
1. belt
2. Jewelry pliers
3. lobster clasp
4. 4 jump rings
5. Chain
6. Ruler

Here is the belt before I did any work to it. I decided to remove the chain with the charms which will be used for my necklace. Now that the belt is only one strand I actually love it. It is not heavy anymore and will look really cute with lots of different dresses.

Using your jewelry pliers open the jump rings on the belt to remove the smaller chain from it. Now that they are in two pieces the belt portion is ready for wear.

Here is the necklace portion from the belt I will be working with. I love the charms on it which are so Moschino! I measured the chain and it is 15 inches in length which is too small for a necklace of my liking. I decided to add some vintage chain to it to make it wearable.

I decided I wanted the total length of my necklace to be 19 inches. The leather chain measured 15 inches so I needed to add an extra four inches in gold chain. I cut the gold chain into two two inch gold segments that I would attach to each side of the leather chain.

Open your jump ring and attach it to the clasp on the leather chain part with your gold tone chain. Do this to both ends of the leather chain and close your rings so they stay connected.

It is time to put the finishing touches on the necklace. On the left side of the necklace attach a jump ring and clasp to the chain and close. On your right side attach only a jump ring and close.

This necklace hits around my collar-bone. I love how the chain only shows at the back of my neck so from the front it looks like my necklace is all leather.

This was such a fun DIY I should have done it years ago!

Lauren

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Joan Holloway

July 25, 2012

I had a great time pretend acting as personal shopper to both Megan and Betty from Mad Men. For the last in this series I of course had to work with Joan and found both vintage and modern items to dress her in. Joan is definitely one of my favorite characters on the show. I love how confident she is around both men and women. It is so refreshing to see a woman on T.V. who is not a stick figure and actually looks like a woman should look. I love how she chooses to wear clothing that shows off her figure rather than hide it. And I love how you can always find her in bright colors and her signature pencil necklace while in the office. Below are the items I chose for Joan. Click on my pinterest board for links on where to buy them.

Dresses

I am a big fan of the wiggle dress. I love how it is sexy but not over the top and it shows off the right parts of a womans figure. Joan always looks amazing in them.

Shoes and Purses

For Joans accessories I used a mixture of both vintage and modern staying true to her style. I went bold with color to give her outfits a punch.

Jewels

For jewelry I used all vintage costume and chose pieces that were statement makers in the red, blue, green, and coral family. Those colors look amazing with her bright red hair.

Lauren

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DIY Necklace Clasp

July 19, 2012

Hi Guys,

Today I have for you a very simple yet still fun jewelry DIY for you to try at home. Changing the clasps on your necklaces or bracelets to make them wearable. There have been so many times that I have had to pass on a necklace that I love because the closure was not secure and could not have been changed. The closures I hate the most are the ones you find on vintage 1950′s necklaces, hook closures. They just don’t seem secure to me and I am afraid I will end up losing the necklace. I do indeed buy those necklaces when I know for sure that I can remove those clasps and put on my own! The two necklaces that I am working on below are both vintage with hook closures.

Materials:

1. Two jewelry pliers
2. Two lobster clasps
4. Four Jump Rings
5. Ruler

Before: Original hook closures. i knew that I could re work these necklaces because if you look at where the closure lies, it can be easily removed and the open circle can hold a new clasp. That is always a giveaway when deciding if you should buy a piece!

Necklace One: Vintage Napier

I was hesitant to take off the closure at first because it was signed Napier but when I turned it over I saw that the necklace was signed again. With your Jewelry pliers open up the jump ring and remove both ring and hook closure on both sides of the necklace.

Open your new jump ring so that it is large enough to hold your lobster clasp and fit through the hole in the necklace. Once on, close both ends of the jump ring and your clasp will be secure. There is no way it will fall off now!

On the opposite side of the necklace attach a new jump ring and close both ends together.

The new closure is safe and secure and ready for wear!

I love how short the necklace is. Reminds me of something Cleopatra would wear.

Necklace Two: Vintage three strand gold pearl

Measure necklace for exact length. My necklace has a beaded extender on the end so you can make it shorter or longer. You need to determine here how long you want your necklace to be because when you put on the new clasp and closure it will no longer be adjustable.

The beaded extender. I decided to make my necklace 17 inches and to achieve that length I only need to remove the bead at the end.

Just like the first necklace remove your hook clasp and the jump ring it is attached to.

Open new jump ring and put through the hole in the necklace with your lobster clasp attached and close securely.

Remove the portion of the extender you don’t want to use. For me, I am only taking off the first bead but someone else might want their necklace shorter and have to remove more till they reach their desired length.

Attach your new jump ring to the opening of the last bead and you are done!

Your necklace is now secure and ready for a night out on the town.

This is one of my new favorite necklaces and it only cost 10 dollars, a great buy.

Lauren

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Betty Draper Style

July 18, 2012

Last week I had a great time pretend styling Megan Draper in a mixture of both vintage and modern fashions. I had even more fun working on Betty this week because I love her feminine style. Betty reminds me of a doll with her light blonde locks and big poofy tea style dresses. She always looks polished and very put together. The looks that I found for Betty are really reminiscent of the first couple seasons of Mad Men when she was married to Don and went to a lot of work functions and parties. I really enjoyed her character and was pretty disappointed when they gave her less and less screen time the last couple of seasons. I think my favorite Betty moment is when she accused Don of having an affair and spent days in her party dress wandering around the house in tears snooping through his things. have a look below at the clothing and accessories I would love to style Betty in. Click on my pinterest board for links of all the items.

favorite Betty moment

Dresses

My favorite vintage dress here is the white with over sized pink and green flowers. It is such a princess dress and perfect for Betty who is like a real life Barbie doll. I especially love the giant velvet green bow tie right underneath the breast.

Shoes and Purses

I decided to go with modern shoes and vintage purses for betty’s accessories. Since the dresses she wears have a lot of color and pattern already I wanted the accessories to be more neutral but still feminine. I chose pieces that had rhinestone, glitter, beading, and floral.

Jewels

My favorite part of dressing Betty is of course the vintage jewelry I found. I love to see Betty in a big statement necklace such as a the three strand pearl above. The strawberry necklace adds a little humor to her put together style.

Stay tuned next week for the last of the Mad Men series. Who do you think I have decided to style?

Lauren

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My Animal Jewelry Farm

July 17, 2012

Hi Guys,

Last week I showed you some of my favorite high-end fine vintage jewelry favorites. Very out of my price range but fun for day dreaming. Today as promised I wanted to show you some of my favorite costume vintage animals from my own collection. I am an avid collector of animal jewelry and I am just showing you a small sampling of some of my favorites. Expect to see many more posts in the future of my jewelry zoo.

This vintage elephant pendant is probably from the late 60′s or 70′s. I had originally designed it for Corvus Noir but I liked it so much I decided to keep it. I love the vintage star and moon chain that I added.

You know me I love cats and I could not resist this vintage 1960′s necklace from the “garage” in NYC which is a big indoor flea market every weekend

I bought this vintage 1980′s leopard pin at a tiny street flea market on the upper east side last summer in NYC. I love all of the enamel detailing and those emerald-green eyes. I was hoping I could turn it into a bracelet but if not I plan on wearing it on the shoulder of my vintage faux leopard coat.

Just a little note. The pieces below are inventory from Corvus Noir that I love. I will be reworking them and putting them up for sale on the site in the future. If you are interested in any of them shoot me an email. They can be custom designed to your liking.

Vintage enamel fish and rhinestone pendant from the 1970′s. It is pretty gigantic and very unusual. I love the red, green, and blue enamel and the large tail.

This vintage tiger pin from the 1980′s is one of my favorites of all time. It looks like it took a bath in rhinestone and black enamel. What really sold me on the piece was its size. It was the biggest tiger pin that I had ever seen!

I found this vintage peacock pin from the 80′s I think back in 2009 at a now closed antique mall in NYC. I think the hearts along the tail are the cutest detail and I probably have yet to rework it because I don’t really want to part with it. it is just to darn cute.

Hope you are off to a productive Tuesday morning. I wanted to share some exciting news. My dear friend Amanda and I have started a new blog together called Thrift Sisters. Our new blog is devoted to vintage and will showcase our favorite vintage finds, collections, and inspirations from NYC and Austin. We are very excited about working together and starting this new venture so have a look! Don’t worry though, I will still be 100 percent devoted to Corvus Noir too.

Lauren

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Megan Draper Style

July 11, 2012

Even though the Mad Men season ended weeks ago, I am still so inspired by the ladies fashion each and every day. Whenever I go vintage shopping I always keep the girls styles in mind. Especially if I find a cute 60′s dress or vintage jewels. I thought it would be fun to make style collages for some of my favorite female characters. I picked both a mixture of vintage and modern clothing and accessories and broke it all down into categories. The items can all be mixed and matched together for different outfits. Please click on my pinterest board for links to all of the items since everything is indeed for sale.

I definitely love Megan’s style the most because she dresses so young and carefree. The perfect clothing for an aspiring actress in her twenties. She wears a ton of cute mod style dresses as well as fun psychedelic maxi style dresses too and always looks amazing when she goes to an important work dinner. My favorite Megan outfit of all time though was when she wore the coral dress with matching white and coral coat. It looked amazing and I gasped in excitement when I saw it on-screen.

Dresses

The dresses I chose are all vintage, my favorites are the short black with metal trim and the stripe suit. I just love the color combo of red, blue, and black. The maxi dress would be perfect for one of Megan’s dinners that she is always dragged to.

Shoes and Purses

Almost all of the shoes are modern but I chose them because they have such a fun 1960′s feel to them. I love the black pair with the oversized buckles and the gold capped toe shoe as well. The purses are all vintage and are all so elegant and chic.

Jewels

You know me, I am a vintage jewelry gal so this is my favorite category. I would love to add those vintage lucite bracelets to my collection. I love the contrast with the rhinestone, they are so fun. The turquoise egyptian revival bib necklace is also another fave of mine and would look so good paired with the maxi dress.

Stay tuned next week for another favorite Mad Men character of mine

Lauren

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Animal Jewelry Jungle

July 10, 2012

I don’t know what it is but whenever I head into a vintage store I am always first drawn to all of their animal jewelry. It truly is my favorite thing to collect and I have so many animal pieces for Corvus Noir and my own personal collection. I just can’t get enough of it. I tend to buy from the cat family the most. Tigers and leopards being my favorite, especially when they are covered in lots of enamel and rhinestone. One of my favorite places to window shop for animal jewels is on 1st Dibs because they have the most incredible “real” pieces. I get my inspiration from all of the fine jewelry and then see if I can find similar costume styles when out. Below are some of my favorites all real and completely out of my price range.

Lauren

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My Own Neck Cuffs

June 22, 2012

As promised, here are some pics from my personal collection of neck collars. I am so happy that I have stumbled upon so many signed vintage pieces. A signed piece really is a collectors dream. The signature makes it much easier to date the items. And with vintage I always feel like I am the only one wearing it and know that it won’t turn up in Forever 21. Austin and the surrounding suburbs have been a gold mine for vintage jewelry. I am constantly finding new and beautiful things each week but am going on a shopping freeze, although it is very hard to!

vintage Whiting and Davis snake collar. I have the matching bracelet and earrings, a great find from Ebay years ago!

how amazing are the tiny teeth and delicate scales. So much attention to detail

vintage Monet necklace from the 40′s or 50′s found in an antique mall in Round Rock Texas

vintage Napier necklace from Memphis Goodwill only 79 cents and my moms 90′s heart necklace

vintage 1950′s Trifari necklace from Austin antique mall and for only 12 dollars!

DIY two necklaces made from a vintage belt

vintage 40′s or 50′s Napier collars found at thrift and vintage stores in Austin and Georgetown

vintage Napier collar. Love the egyptian revival feel

Lauren

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Vintage Road Trip

June 20, 2012

Hi guys,

One of my favorite things about travelling is checking out some vintage stores while away. You know me, I love to shop and I love my vintage so I always have to find some vintage destinations along the way. We hit up some fun vintage stores in both Memphis and Dallas. I allowed myself to buy one thing, a leather purse from the 80′s and I took a lot of pictures. When shopping, I am not only on the look out for vintage clothing and accessories but also home accessories as well. I am building quite the collection of vintage glassware, figurines, dishware and just love how it adds so much character to our home.

amazing neon clock. I would love to have a clock collection gallery style of different shapes and sizes

vintage cat art

1950′s vintage poodle party

how amazing would this look in a kitchen

vintage arm party

love collecting vintage lady head vases

gone with the wind plate

my one purchase, vintage 80′s bag

love all of the colors in this clutch from the 80′s

the perfect summer dress

cool sign, great store in Dallas

I think the vintage light would scare me even as an adult

What are your favorite things to buy when vintage shopping?

Lauren

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Neck Cuffs

June 19, 2012

For the longest time I refused to wear a necklace that was shorter than 18 inches. I have a short thick neck so any necklace that hung around the collar-bone felt restricting and tight on me. And I thought that it made my neck look even thicker whenever I would try one on. So it was long styles for me until I became intrigued by this new collar trend. I loved the look of having a piece of metal around the neck, almost like a neck cuff. Again I was afraid to try the trend until I came across a vintage Napier necklace in a Memphis Goodwill. The collar was gold-plated and when I tried it on did not feel restricted but rather elegant. it could be worn dressed down or dressed up and I loved how simple the piece was. When I found out that it was only 79 cents I was sold. Since moving to Austin I have come across many vintage collar necklaces from the 50′s that have all been signed which makes them even better. I will be showing you some of my favorites later in the week from my own collection. Until then, below are some of my favorite modern neck cuffs. Click on my pinterest page to see some other lovelies that did not make the list below but are still special.