Thank You to a friend!

Good morning,

Today I want to thank my friend Julie (yes, we share the same first name) for posting the information about my blog/website on Facebook which resulted in a HUGE increase in traffic on the site. My goal is to write, research, and share my love of jewelry with other collectors. Julie’s generous post helped me with that goal.

In my experience, costume jewelry collectors are an amazing group of interesting, generous and supportive people. To illustrate this belief, I want to tell you how I first met Julie.

My sweet husband gave me a copy of The Napier Co. Defining 20th Century American Costume Jewelry by Melinda L. Lewis for Christmas in 2013. It is a beautiful, amazingly well-researched 1011-page book about Napier jewelry. It is so comprehensive; it took me three days – sitting at a table due to the weight of this masterpiece – to read it through. As is my practice with my jewelry books, I took notes of the information that interested me at the time – pages and pages of them for this encyclopedia level book. As a collector, I love to own a beauty from each of my favorite books, so I also started searching online for my favorite “book piece” designs.

This search for a Napier book piece led me to Julie’s shop Chapel Hills Vintage Jewelry https://www.rubylane.com/shop/chapel-hill-vintage-jewels. The motto on the Chapel Hill Vintage Jewelry’s home page is “Jewelry is my favorite Art.” There I found beautiful, artistic jewelry AND the Napier necklace matching the pin shown on The Napier Co. book cover!

It is also my practice to politely “ask” if the owner can do any better on the price. Julie recognized my name and gave me a generous discount. This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship, not due to the discount, but due to our mutual love of costume jewelry.

I learned that Julie was actively researching the history of American made Schiaparelli jewelry and is an expert in the brand. She also, to the delight of my daughter and myself, publishes a continuing series of videos on youtube aimed at new collectors. These informative videos present five things to know about many different brands https://www.youtube.com/@chapelhillvintagejewels. The latest release is called “Five Things to Know about DeLizza & Elster Juliana Jewelry”. I love her videos. She is a natural speaker and I find myself riveted to them. I recommend them all!

I met Julie in person at my first, and unfortunately, last jewelry convention in Rhode Island held in 2017 where she helped me navigate the wonders it had to offer. At that time, I didn’t know my sweet husband and I were destined to relocate to North Carolina to be near our grandchildren and, in a stroke of luck, to be near Julie. Today, Julie and I live less than an hour apart. We find time to shop together and sometimes run into each other at local shows.

Costume jewelry has brought me many treasures. The most valuable are the people I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made. Julie is one of those treasures.

Happy Collecting

Love,

Julie