Grandma's Jewelry

Loved ones pass away, it's a fact of life. After they are gone, their belongings must be dealt with. It's not easy and it's not fun, but it is an opportunity to remember the good times.

My grandma passed away last fall at the age of 94. She had a lot of costume jewelry as it turns out. I had seen a few jewelry collections on Pinterest and thought it was worth a try. Each piece or pair of earrings was in it's own plastic ziploc sandwich baggy. After removing all the pieces from their bags, I sat and sorted. Then I started the creating. These projects are a puzzle - with no right or wrong solution. I can't say mine are as fabulous as the ones that are posted on Pinterest, but I put forth my best effort.

The Christmas trees are somewhat forgiving, they are symmetrical, but not awkward if things don't line up exactly. Just like a real Christmas tree's branches, there's lots of variation. I used different backings and frames on all of them to create variety.

Some of the brooches I kept by themselves. Rudolph stands out as one i didn't think I could incorporate easily into the others, but he would be kind of lonely in a frame by himself. So I went to Main Street Antique Mall in Marshalltown and found the story book. I was looking for sheet music to the Rudolph song, but flexibility is key. For this project I used turnbacks so the contents are fairly accessible and the storybook and brooch can be removed.