Needles, the Third

So, I had a run of ten days, ten glorious days in which I found something precious at almost every, single place I stopped my car.  Now it's been four days of nothing, a great sucking hole without even a decent piece of Taxco silver.  I was psyched last week - exhausted, but psyched.  And I decided I had to stop the group photos, if only because it looked so much like bragging.

Okay, maybe it was a tiny bit of crowing ... a soupcon of whooping ... a smidge of nanny-nanny-boo-boo ... But after my bout with Lutheran/Catholic hybrid guilt (which, like mirrors and candles, just magnifies it) I decided to spend the next few weeks doing the teaching thing exclusively.  Until I have another amazing week and cave to my baser, more gloaty id.

This week is about pins.

One of these things is not like the others.  Actually, each of these things is unlike the others (one has cultered pearls, one is single, one is hearts - ha!  I have eyes, too!) but my question is more about what it's made of.  Hard to tell, for the most part.  Okay, the single circle has really (really) deep grooves and it looks an awful lot like the circle pins I see at least twice a day, every day, everywhere I go.  But the others aren't too far off the pattern, right?  Right.  Plus, not one has a mark that's visible to the naked eye (or even one covered with a loupe, as mine was ... it's very well-hidden).

Tell you what - rank them.  What're they worth, least to most?  (No peeking!)  Got it?  Scroll down.

Ha!  That didn't help did it?  Not much, anyway.  Two of them have the telltale mark of my electronic gold tester.  However, only one passed.

Yep, the hearts.

Funny story about that one - it was in a basket in my favorite charity shop, nestled amongst pins very much like the other two for weeks and weeks, with a $3 (or $4?) price tag on it.  I must've picked it up a dozen times, and put it back, too.  Until one day, when they were in the process of moving and so discounting everything 25%, I picked it up and saw something on the back of one of the hearts.  Like the face of Jesus in a piece of wheat toast, I saw something that looked an awful lot like "14K" - blurry but it didn't scratch off with a fingernail.  And (I sneaked) it bent easily.  I decided I could handle $2.25 (or $3?), blessedly forgetting I'd picked it up and looked so often already.

When I went to meet the Lug for dinner, the "mark" flecked off.  I almost cried.  So while I waited in my car, I shrugged and folded it almost in half.  Then I looked for the inevitable cracked bits of plating.

Nothing.

Long story short(-er) I found the mark, hidden and faint under the pin clasp (really under it), but there.  I tested it, to make sure, but it was another of those "woot-woot!" days.

Don't pass something by just because you've seen it a million times.  Touch it.  Heft it.  Don't bend it unless you buy it - I did find out last weekend that plated stuff cracks really easily ... and visibly - but if you have an ice cube, it should test it just as well.

What?  You don't know that trick?  Gold is superconductive, so it gives up its heat faster than any other jewelry metal.  A piece of ice starts to melt almost immediately on a gold surface.  Make sure you're not holding it, though.  Or it's not summer.

Okay, so it's a great trick to use in winter.  Or in really, really strong air conditioning.  But it's still a great trick!

Next time, it's all about my favorite mismarked stuff - yep, the silvery stuff.

Nanny, nanny, boo-boo!

The Tiny Part

I bought a new car on Friday, and the Big Lug and I decided to take a long drive on Sunday, just to - you know - try it out.  Not only is the car the best of the 6 I had it narrowed to but the hunting wasn't bad either.  In fact, I've been on a tear; since last Thursday, there wasn't a yard sale or thrift shop or consignment store I hit that didn't have a good (at least) piece of gold or silver.  Until about an hour ago, anyway, which is why I'm not going to get pictures up this week - I'm exhausted.  I think I'm actually shopped out!

So the story today, is different.  On our ride last Friday, we stopped at a Goodwill we like about an hour and a half away.  As I was digging through a little bin (finding a couple of grams of 14K!) a lady came up with several CD cases.  The clerk asked if she'd checked to make sure they were there.  She hadn't, and when she did she found only two in their boxes.  When the Lug came up with his CDs (and checked them - all there since his taste isn't as current) I handed him my finds, we paid, and left.  I was steaming.

"You have to be pretty desperate, or pretty rotten, to steal from a charity shop," I growled.

About ten miles, later I heard what I said.  After all, I'd seen at least one of the earrings' marks before I paid.  Wasn't I doing the same thing?

Hey, relax, I'll spare you the wrestling match I had with my conscience.  Truth is, I rarely see the marks before I buy, unless it's over a certain price, in which case I'm guessing on the weight or the veracity of the mark or ... okay, I'll spare you most of the wrestling.  What came out of it was simple, though:  I haven't been stealing, I decided, but I have been uncharistically squirrelly.

Not that kind of squirrelly, the kind that stockpiles all kinds of crap, and not only nuts (shut up!).  I remembered it's not theft but thanks that keep things moving.  I've been forgetting to contribute to the flow instead of dam it up.

I took a box to one place yesterday - including gold studs, nice purses, and jeans still in the package (hey, you want good stuff, you plant good stuff!).  And I'm putting an empty box into my new trunk to fill gradually, and empty frequently (having someone else carry it in, of course, since I'm still in physical therapy for my back).  Like corn, I will cultivate, harvest, then return some to the earth to keep the crop growing year after year after year (even with the mixed metaphors).

I meant to post yesterday. I really did.  But I was chasing something, the last big (maybe) thing ... that turned out to be amazing ... a real OMG thing ... which you will see next week ...

Good to have you back, Twinscapes!

The Weekend

It wasn't a bad weekend - no rain, plenty of places to go (including our 1st Saturday sale).  I have some great finds, including a gold watch with four diamonds (that needs work but was $15) and a pair of screwbacks that had a hidden 14K mark (which I saw so didn't argue about the $5 price), but most of what I found was practical or mistake.  And since I have to spend the day continuing a new-car search that I began online, I just don't have time to take pictures and post for something that was primarily coats, purses, and linens.  Even this is taking brain cells I need in order to get out of here soon.

Now get out and hunt!

And since I look at car hunting with the enthusiasm I reserve for root canals and foot surgery, think of me often ... and laugh.

Needles, Part 2

I love watches.  At first, I bought anything mechanical that appealed to me, for their "archetectural" beauty (I have one from the late 20's, very deco) or for their bling value (more than one plated watch has real diamonds in it) or both (the deco).  Then one day I found a gold watch in a thrift shop for $10, and I was hooked (mostly because I was through breaking out in a rash every summer from the base metal reaction ... okay, the gold, too).

One thing I didn't know until last year is that not every watch is marked on the outside.  I mean, I knew really old ones weren't always (found one in an antique mall) but things that looked contemporary, too?  I honestly thought everyone had to mark on the outside, that it was the law, or something.

Nope.  Take a look:

All of these are gold.  Not one is marked on the outside.  And not one was more than $20.  Hey, if it's not marked outside, it can't be gold, right?  With those crappy bands?  Where else would you mark a watch?

How about inside?  They are, in fact, marked, maker on the dial and carat inside the back cover.  Left to right, I bought a 14K Hamilton, 18K Omega, and two 14K Omegas, the last of which is (according to my watch guy) quite rare, if only because it has a green crystal and moveable lugs.

Not all Omega watches are marked only on the inside, and not all unmarked Omega watches are gold.  I carry a cheap-pen top (you know the kind, blue or black, non-click) to pry open the case without scratching or even gouging the gold (as was done with the 18K before I even got it).  If the cases won't open, don't push it, just buy it if it's cheap (surprisingly you can sell the parts for a few bucks on eBay) and take your chances.  That's what I did with the last beauty (there wasn't even a crown on the winder) and I didn't regret it.  In fact, she's my favorite these days.

I saw well over a thousand watches last year.  I found three gold that weren't priced as gold.  The way I see it, needles are kind of fun no matter how big the haystack.

It all depends on the needle, yes?

Grab Bag

Slow week.  Too close to the SATs, Memorial Day weekend clear-out in town, all that sort of thing.  Still ...

I really thought this would be all this week - things found in thrift shops, all (sterling earrings, gold ring and bracelet) and not yard sale prices (the bracelet almost drained my payday allowance).  But I did something else this week, something I've never done before:  I bought a grab bag.

We have lots and lots of charity shops in the area.  The one in question isn't one I usually find much in.  It's also the only one I've seen that has big Ziplocs full of jewelry, mostly aimed at beaders.  Priced at $10 a bag, it's not something I've usually taken seriously, especially since what I can see is ... well, "crap" is being nice.  This week, however, in a fit of desperation (and since the whole shop was 50% off) I took a look.

In one bag I caught a glimpse of a 14K clutchback on an earring.  In another, a gold clasp on an onyx necklace.  There were two more bags, kind of light - though they'd been stapled in addition to zipped, all four had been partially opened and obviously looked-through (one more than others).  I bought the other three.  What the hell, right?  Why not a real hunt?

See what I mean?  (That's a serving bowl, not a cereal, and pretty heavy filled.)  As I sorted, I saw tons of single earrings, a flash here and there, and more honest-to-heaven junk than I've ever seen in one place.  Beads skittered across the table.  Tangled necklaces had to be separated.  My fingers were blackened by dirt and tarnish and who-knows-what.

And yet ...

Okay, costume first, the things I think are good enough to donate (yes, even the kid thing).  My favorite is the fan, upper right.  It's gold plated, and folds up just like a real one, even has a pretty, damask-like pattern on it.  Pairs of earrings and dangles, a couple of things that might make good pendants, even some fairly nice vintage rhinestone pieces.

These are all stones, shell, whatever.  Two favorites - the box is a music box, broken beyond my capacity for repair but I know someone who might like to tinker with it; and the square thing in the middle is a very pretty, carved piece of jade, pierced as if it had something bolted in as well.  No idea what I'll do with them, but I have a box full of various real stones ... saved for the day when I turn to jewelry design, or turn into a dragon.

But wait, there's more!

Sterling, with turquoise, crystal, and amber.  The intricate earring in the bottom center has British markings for sterling.  I really wish I had the other because it's gorgeous in person.  FYI, this pile alone would pay for two of the three bags.

This definitely will pay for the other (those are gold beads, too).  But there was more to come.

All 14K, marked pieces on the right and tested on the left (with stones out in two, more for the dragon-bag).

Oh, and one last, small thing ...

I almost put this into the costume, to-be-donated pile, if only because it looked so cheesy - and I mean that literally, for though I couldn't capture the color, it's almost Cheetos-orange.  Even the markings on the back made me think "plated," or maybe patent number.  But it wasn't magnetic, it hefted okay, and since I had some time on my hands without the usual weekend hunt, I decided to test it anyway.  See if you can figure out why my eyes bugged out when I did so.

Do you see it, buried in the middle?  Hard to, because I still didn't believe the tester, so I used a pink eraser to rough it up, a needle to scratch it, and even bent it to make the plating crack (first with my fingers, then with a pliers - which pulled it like taffy, smooth, instead).

Still don't see it?  Tap on the picture and make it bigger.  Look harder.  Harder.

"22CT."

Yeah, it's about like that.

It's not a big pendant (about a pennyweight) but it's definitely a first for me.  And though I tossed about a pound of unfixable, broken metal in my recycles, and I still have about a cupful of beads to deal with (Ziploc and donate, marked "beads"), this little piece made certain that this won't be my last grab bag.

I LOVE treasure hunting!