If you love jewelry and have quite a number of them stashed away in your dresser, perhaps it’s time for you to start organizing them and build a collection. You might think of checking out antique and vintage jewelry dealers in shops, online (Instagram and other websites), but how do you figure out what pieces to buy and how do you build a jewelry collection with vintage pieces? Gigi Clozeau jewelry can help you with that.
Before you decide to start an antique/vintage jewelry collection you need to educate yourself on how to decipher different time periods, learn how to bargain, look for trustworthy dealers and differentiate what is real from one that is a repro.
Building A Jewelry Collection with Gigi Clozeau
Building an antique/vintage Gigi Clozeau jewelry collection might sound easy, but it can be quite overwhelming. Some people start out by seeking advice from experts or shop through different antique shops and flea markets. Others even go as far as familiarizing themselves with the feel and look of the different materials and motifs spanning different time periods.
The more you do your research and check different pieces of jewelry, you’ll realize that while it is quite different from today’s starter collectors, there are a couple of common links that can help you get started on assembling a jewelry collection that will make you proud.
First Things First
Let’s take a quick look at the changes in jewelry collection. Back in the day, people did not have the luxury of using search engines like Google. People literally had to walk around and ask sellers personally for information. Nowadays we just let our fingers guide us through different shops and pages online. While the internet has made everything convenient for us, nothing beats personally meeting people with the same passion as you, personally seeing their merchandise and listening to the advice of trustworthy dealers in person.
Starting any kind of collection is not easy and there’s also a risk that comes with it. But if you come armed with knowledge, you can have fun and learn plenty of things along the way.
As a beginner, you may find yourself making a lot of wrong decisions at the start. But in the next couple of years, you might trade up, you might change your style, and while all of this is happening, you’re gaining more knowledge. You’ll learn how to bargain and barter, and trust your instincts on which dealers can be trusted or not. You might make a lot of mistakes, but you’ll also happily discover a fair share of rare and unique finds. Most importantly, you’ll learn which kind of styles, categories, and time periods you are specifically drawn to. In other words, you’ll learn more about your self and what kind of style you want.
Different Approaches To Collecting
Antique shop owners and dealers both agree that there are several ways to approach jewelry collecting. You can collect jewelry from a purely historical, academic, or aesthetic point of view. You can explore different time periods and try to find all the rare pieces made from a particular year or time period. Even if you were biased towards a specific time period, experts agree that as a new collector, it’s always a good idea to try out different styles that popularized periods in jewelry and figure out which of them works best for you.
For example, you might be partial towards a sentimental Victorian ring with a motif reminiscent of romance, or a great Art Deco bracelet which can both be useful staples in your day-to-day life and collection.
If you collect antique and vintage jewelry, this only means you desire pieces that are uniquely special and genuine. For newbie collectors, you don’t have to own a piece of jewelry that is a year’s worth of your salary. You can find dainty pieces of jewelry at different price points—yes even affordable ones! Building a vintage or antique Gigi Clozeau jewelry collection focuses more on staying true to your aesthetic preferences. This means your style and aesthetic choices are consistent with each other. You embrace the old and wear it with a modern vibe—it’s about being realistic with your lifestyle.
Jewelry should be worn instead of being stored and tucked away in a safe. You should be able to feel that excitement every time you put on that beautiful vintage Victorian-era ruby ring, or turn-of-the-century French necklace. These jewelry pieces should speak to you on an emotional level. You should also make sure that you are buying something that’s 100% original and in excellent condition for its time period. Always consider your budget when you seek out vintage jewelry. This will prove very useful in the long run.
Invest in Your Happiness and Your Future with Jewelry from Gigi Clozeau
When you invest in a piece of jewelry, you are essentially investing in your future and your happiness. But let’s face it: we want to focus on what is happening NOW. You can trade up later but when you start collecting, you need to do your research and familiarize yourself with different time periods. It doesn’t matter if the jewelry is signed or not. Just make sure you are collecting jewelry in the style you want and that you can see yourself wearing them often. If they are authentic and make you happy, then you simply can’t go wrong with them.
You can breathe new life into old antique necklaces, lockets, and medallions by repurposing them into a fob chain and other meaningful charms. You can give a whole new look to what women before us –our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers—wore! You can transform them into modern pieces that still retain their vintage feel.
Conclusion
As you become more knowledgeable and as your passion for jewelry collecting grows stronger, you can start investing more deeply in time periods you are interested in or signed pieces that will appreciate in value over time. But, right now, the best thing you can do is to train your eye, and wear pieces you love and would wear on the daily. Eventually you’ll be able to decide if you are a “thematic” or “historic” collector or a collector that loves different periods and purchases pieces across the board.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
