January Jewelry Sale

During the month of January all jewelry in my Etsy shop are 20% off, no coupon code needed.

This listing process

Good heavens I haven’t written a post since September. Between homeschooling, soccer, preschool, business and my husband’s activities which included running for our county Recorder office. He won by the way. Our lives have been crazy busy, but if you have been keeping tabs on the shop you should have noticed all of the new listings I’ve been busy working on.

Several weeks ago I took somewhere between 500 pictures that required editing and listing, it evened out to be about 100 new pieces for the shop. I try to take 5 photographs of each item to show all the angles and important trappings.

I’m going to talk about the process I go through for a piece after I have acquired it.

Cleaning: I clean almost every garment even if it is just a freshening up.

Steaming: I steam the wrinkles out of everything, I never use an iron on my clothing. Mostly due to the fact irons and I don’t get along, plus when I use my steamer I get the added bonus of a facial.

Photograph: As I stated before I try to get take at least 5 photographs of each piece to show every angle, imperfection,  what makes it unique, label etc. I then take my camera home and edit all of those lovely pictures I took, usually just cropping them a bit and resize them a tad.

Measure: I measure every piece and hand write my listing out in a notebook that comes to the studio and home with me. I have filled 2 notebooks already and I’m on my 3rd one for this year. I used to use bits of paper but I would lose them, so now I stick to notebooks. Plus if I ever happen to accidentally delete a listing, I can look through my notebooks and rewrite the listing out.

Research: Once I get my notebook home I go through and do research on each piece, if there is a brand label even better I try to find something comparable not only to help with SEO Tags but for price as well as history. I use the Vintage Fashion Guild daily as they have a lovely Label Resource and are just a great resource for all things vintage clothing related.

List:  Once all of that work is done, I get to go through Etsy to list this is where my handy dandy notebook comes out. Once I have something listed I draw a diagonal line through that listing and write the amount I have it listed for so I know it is done.

This isn’t a very sophisticated procedure but it works for me until I can find a more efficient way to list which will probably come in once I get a computer up in the studio for me to work from.

Until Next Time,
~Kristen

Buckles and Belts

I rarely buy belts, not that I don’t like them I just don’t come across to many that strike my fancy. That is until last September when I found a light blue scale belt, when I say scale it literally has scales like a fish or a dragon. I’m pretty sure I snatched it up as quickly as I could and threw my money at the booth owner and ran the opposite direction laughing gleefully the whole way home.

This week I finally got around to photographing said belt and it will be up in the shop this week so be sure to keep an eye out for it.

Isn’t it great?

Until Next Time,
~Kris

It’s the Little Things

I finally have been working in my studio more. Now that the baby is 7 months old and is big enough to babywear on my back it makes working up there so much easier. Happy Baby makes for a more productive Mama that is for sure. I have dedicated at least 1 day a week to taking pictures and writing the listings out in my notebook that I bring home and write out in my Etsy listings.

I know it seems counterproductive to write my listing out in a notebook first then on the computer but I find it easier that way if I lose the information on the computer I still have a hard copy to fall back on.

Today was not picture day as I like to call it but a day where I cleaned and straightened and hung more hats and clothing I finished cleaning up. I really need a way to buy Command 3M hooks in bulk but I haven’t found a great way to do so just yet. Yes I’ve checked Amazon and eBay without any luck so the search continues.

Now that the playroom is finished I had both boys up there while the oldest was getting a sewing lesson down the street, they literally played in their room the whole 2 hours we were there. I’m sure that won’t last forever but at this time I really don’t care.

Now that we are almost a whole month into the new year, I have decided on a plan for my shop. I will be listing all the of the jewelry I have and once it is all sold I will not be adding any more jewelry to the shop. I’m also thinking about phasing out any home wares as well actually I’m thinking I am going to do it. I want to focus on vintage clothing and accessories only.

Cyber Monday Sale

Vintage Fashion Show

Join me on December 3rd at 2 pm at the Puskarich Public Library in Cadiz Ohio for a Winter Vintage Fashion show. I will be showcasing many party dresses and winter wear. Signup soon, spots are going quickly. 

Hope to see you there,

~Kristen

History of Jonette Jewelry Co

Jonette Jewelry Co has a rich history and a humble beginning. JJ was first started by a man named Abraham Lisker who was originally trained as a doctor. Deciding that he needed a career change he moved into the jewelry industry in Rhode Island. Then in 1935 he started a costume jewelry business called “Providence Jewelry Company” for only 2 years, when in 1937 his brother Nathan joined the company and the name was changed to Lisker & Lisker.

Image Source FrivolousIndulgences on Etsy

At one point Abraham decided that novelty figural brooches were the direction he wanted his company to go after seeing the high sales of mother of pearl and ballerina pins.

Image Source Kris’ Vintage Clothing on Etsy

However the company was basically forced to shut down at the beginning of World War II due to government restrictions and the shortage of metals and other materials at that time. During that time Abraham Lisker enlisted in the U.S Army for 2 years and served abroad.  After the war was over Abraham and his brother Nathan made the decision to rename their company from Lisker & Lisker to Jonette Jewelry Co in honor of their parents John and Etta by combining their names together.

Image Source GreatVintageStuff on RubyLane

1944 Jonette Jewelry Co was incorporated in the state of Rhode Island. The company used the hallmark JJ on a rectangular cartouche.

In 1972 Abraham retired and his son Gordon took over as the new owner until the company closed in September 1^st, 2006.

JJ jewelry has been widely collected over the course of the company’s production. Even though JJ Co is best known for their pin, they also fashioned jewelry, letter openers, photograph frames, watch straps, bracelets, bookmarks, candleholders to name a few

Image Source denise5960 on Etsy

Image Source dollherup on Etsy

Image Source Kris’ Vintage Clothing on Etsy

Studio Renovation Part Ten: Organizing

Finally an update. I know it has been awhile but having a new baby tends to put everything but baby on hold.

I did get a chance to go work in my studio last Saturday with my youngest 3 children in tow, we went during Abigail’s afternoon nap so she slept while I worked and her brothers played with their blocks and dinosaurs.

I finally finished hanging up all of my inventory. I needed to purchase more hanger thus the hang up, pun intended. Once that was completed I started the arduous job of organizing all of the clothing which I should have done all along but didn’t as I was trying to get as much done before Abigail made her appearance. After much debate with my 4 year old son Z, we decided to organize by type of clothing then by decade within each type. I only got about halfway of organizing by decade when I broke up a fight between the boys and that sent me on a another task.

So all in all I started my wall of hats, cleaned some trash up, hung the hooks for my backdrop, organized my clothing inventory and some general clean up.

Noticed my husband put in a light for me one day, he did a great job picking it out and installing the chandelier for me.

I love it.

My husband also claimed one of the other bedrooms as his office so I told him he needed to paint it since I’m so over painting anything right now. He picked a lovely light blue and did a pretty decent job of painting. I really should have had him help me with the rest of the studio.

   If you noticed the pile of foam in the door way, that was carpet padding from the living room that has been sitting there since last fall. My husband also got rid of that along with several other bags of trash that needed removed. So I can now walk into the living room without climbing over all of the carpet and carpet padding.

Also the reason the door is off is that my husband purchased a very large desk that won’t fit in his office without removing the door and door jam.

It was wonderful being able to put in a few hours of work and seeing progress made even a little bit is better than none.

Until next time,

~Kristen

Studio Renovation Part Nine – Moving Day

Yesterday day I along with help from my daughter we moved 3/4ths of my inventory into the studio which equals to 5 loads in the back of my SUV. Thank goodness the seat lays down so we could move a lot of it without stacking or worrying about damaging anything.

 

First load of the morning

 

 

Pile #1 of clothing awaiting to be hung up

Pile #2 of clothing waiting to be hung up

Shoes and Handbags

 

And Hats too

More hats and a few books

 

Clothing already on hangers that were on a single clothing rack in my house.

 

 

We celebrated our success with ice cream cones at our local ice cream stand.

 

Today I moved the rest of the inventory from the main part of my house including another set of shelves and then I started to arduous task of organizing and hanging all the dresses up. I made a huge  dent in hanging everything up but I’m not quite done as I need more hangers to finish the job.

By the time I was done today, this is what the room looked like.

Most of the clothing had been hung up.

All hung up and ready to go.

 

Instead of 2 mounding piles, I have 1 small neat pile.

Now  there isn’t any function or organization to my racks just yet, that will be step two once I get everything hung up. I have figured I will have a rack for each era and then address it by type of clothing. The only selection of clothing that will not have its own era is children’s clothing and that is because I have such a small selection of it right now, but I will put it in order by decade/era.

Until next time,

~Kristen

 

Outfit Of The Day: Winter Outerwear, Holiday Party and Christmas Party

Many times I hear “I don’t have anywhere vintage clothing or how to wear it.” Guess what they are just clothes exactly like the ones sitting in your dresser and closet at home.

Winter Outerwear consists of a beautiful gray coat with real fur collar and cuffs, I added a hat and a red flower brooch for a pop of color.

Coat Link Here

Hat Link Here

Brooch Link Here

Holiday party outfit is elegant yet simple, a lovely brown dress paired with red shoes and a poinsettia apron. The perfect hostess ensemble 

  

Dress Link Here

Apron Link Here

Shoes haven’t been added to my shop yet, but check the many other pairs of shoes I do have listed.

Christmas party, I know you ladies love to be the Belle of the Ball at parties and this outfit has all the right pieces to do so. To be honest if my shoulders weren’t as wide as they are I would have kept this dress, it is probably my favorite dress in my shop.

Coat Link Here

Dress Link Here

Headband Link Here