Collecting Costume Jewelry 101

My name is Julia C. Carroll. I’m the author of four books on collecting costume jewelry. Welcome to my Collecting Costume Jewelry 101 webpage and BLOG for beginning and intermediate collectors!

Thank you to everyone who purchased and enjoyed my books. The four titles below are unfortunately out-of-print and only available in the secondary market.

However, there is good news!

For fun, I wrote Collecting Costume Jewelry 404 The Basics of Recognizing Great Design. It is available to read for FREE by clicking on the Collecting Costume Jewelry 404 cover. Of course, the information is copy protected, so permission is required to copy the text or photos.

The Information link on the red ribbon leads to additional reference materials and articles.

My weekly jewelry blog follows. Scroll down to read previous entries or click the BLOG INDEX link below for an alphabetical list of past blogs.

BLOG INDEX

  • Section V: Psychology of Color

    Good morning, I’m continuing to adapt my new book “Collecting Costume Jewelry 404” for the website. Section V: Psychology of Color was added this morning. Section VI on plating will be next. Happy collecting, Julie

  • Section IV Color

    I’m continuing to publish my new book “Collecting Costume Jewelry 404: the basics of great design” online. Today I added Section IV Color discussing how color helps to define shape, theme/motif, and add depth to designs. I hope you enjoy it!

  • Another Antique Festival Find

    I purchased this beauty at the Liberty Antiques Festival on Friday. Even without pulling it out of the case, I knew it was an Eisenberg due to the 1940s design but mostly due to the exceptional sparkle of the Eisenberg stones. As soon as I was able to hold the brooch, I also knew it…

  • Antique Festival Find

    Today is a fun jewelry day! The weather is beautiful, and I spent the morning at the Liberty Antiques Festival in Staley N.C. with my beautiful daughter. We found many jewelry treasures including the DeLizza and Elster Siam/red rhinestone pin shown above. (The photos do not capture the deep fire of this piece.) The third…

  • Section III of Color

    There are six sections about Color in Collecting Costume Jewelry 404. Today I added Section III: Rhinestones, Specialty Stones to the manuscript. I hope you enjoy it! Please remember the focus of this book is design and helping beginning and intermediate collectors develop their jewelry “eye” to see design elements in collectible costume jewelry. Each…

  • Section One: Color

    The first section on Color has been added to Collecting Costume Jewelry 404! I’m working to add Section Two in a day or two. I hope you enjoy it!

  • Favorite Easter Pins

    I love them all! This year Easter dinner is at my house so I might try to wear them all at different times during the day!

  • Design Element Line

    Design element LINE has been added to Chapter One of Collecting Costume Jewelry 404 recognizing the basics of great design. Line is a useful and complex tool. If shape is the foundation of a design, then line is the director. They work together to define shape, direct the “eye”, add detail and dimension to a…

  • Two More Nolan Miller Pins

    I added two lovely Nolan Miller pins today to my collection. The huge, 4 1/4″ long faux coral and jade pin is called the Ann Margret Rose. The accompanying paperwork reveals that Nolan Miller and Ann Margret were friends. He created this beautiful pin to honor Ann Margret’s mother who died of lung cancer. A…

  • Julie’s First Blog Post

    Welcome to my new website and blog. I’m the author of Collecting Costume Jewelry 101 the basics of starting, building & upgrading a collection and two additional books in the series. The pandemic provided me with isolation, which was not fun, and time on my hands, which turned out to be fun. Using my library…