My Vintage Charms

50% OFF SALE!

2011-08-20T12:18:00.010+01:00

We've set up a special page with tons of items 50% off for a limited period - this page is not linked from anywhere else on the website, so it's for followers of our blog, Twitter feed and email list to see everything which has been reduced all in one place.

Our favourite pieces which are now half price are :
Sparkling Silver and Pink "London" heart and Pink Wooden Umbrella pendant - now £1 and 75p. Make a "London in the Rain" necklace which sums up our summer perfectly!

We also have silvertone Babushka doll charms, now 83p each. Fabulous on a necklace or charm bracelet with colourful flowers and beads for a Russian themed accessory.
Other favourites are these silvertone enamelled charms - beautiful quality and now only 50p each!

Click here to view them all in one place and buy at half price while stocks last.

Roll Up! Roll Up!

2011-08-15T23:24:00.003+01:00

Vintage Circus / Fairground charm : Another unique to "My Vintage Charms" item. £3

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys....welcome to the the Circus!"

Our long awaited and much anticipated Circus section is now chock-full of unique and vintage Circus themed charms and pendants...the majority of these pieces are available only from us;

The pieces start from only 90p to £5.25 for a large silver plated pendant - you can make yourself a really individual pieces of Circus Themed jewellery for only a couple of pounds (don't forget to buy any chains or jumprings needed from our "Findings" section.)

A silver plated glossy domed pendant showing an exotic feather-headed perfomer on a beautiful pink elephant...£5.25
How fab are these flatbacked porcelain vintage Pierrot clown faces?! £2 each, and perfect for using on a ring base or earrings etc.
"Bearded Lady" charm - a huge disappointment to the paying public to see this lady was actually just a man in a dress. £3

All available from www.myvintagecharms.com : Currently all orders are being despatched within 1-2 days...My Vintage Charms has a fast turnaround now, although very big orders with lots of handmade pieces may take a few days more.

10% off in May code

2011-05-30T17:13:00.004+01:00

It's been a long time since we've done a blog post - we've been moving premises, doing all sorts of other things which has left no hours in the day for anything at all frivilous but we can now devote the many hours a day we need to, to bring My Vintage Charms back up to the standard you expect.

To celebrate a new beginning and a whole host of new goodies coming this June, we are giving a VERY rare discount - we don't do these very often and are always asked for codes...so take full advantage while you can. 10% off all orders over £15 until the end of May 31st.

Use code MAY at checkout for an automatic deduction.

We're in the process of having a huge website update, and adding in tons of new charms and things, many of which are really quite rare and exciting.

We have a huge amount of Holly Hobbie cabochons, vintage Givenchy pieces, swarovski stones and an amazing Circus section with the most beautiful picture charms ready to use...

just about there!

2010-07-18T13:08:00.002+01:00

We're just doing lots of final checks to the new website before it goes live later today.

There will be lots of new features, such as images in the shopping cart to remind you what you've added to basket, a way to track the status of your order so you know exactly which stage we are at (picking, wrapping, ready for despatch, hurrah! it's been sent!) and of course a ton of new and restocked charms.

A couple of sections are still empty :( but we're working on those and it's better to let you get at the good stuff without a few minor issues getting in the way.

Our Wonderland, Alice, Britannia, Paris, Seven Seas and Love themed sections are filled and ready to be purchased...the brass, silver, plastic and miscellaneous charms sections are brimming with familiar and new pieces and we're excited to bring it all to you with a simple yet gorgeous new site design.

We will be sending another email tomorrow to let you know to Go Shopping!

very soon!

2010-04-10T22:46:00.002+01:00

We're receiving an awful lot of emails every day asking about out of stock items. We are getting everything (and more) back in, but it will be a week or more before anything is with us. The beginning of the year was simply much busier than anticipated and we couldn't get restocks quick enough...and of course the Alice in Wonderland movie meant some customers were buying all we had as soon as they were listed on the website.

We're also working on a new website design. It's very time consuming, but it will be a much better looking model and we'll all be happier when it's finished.

So, the Alice in Wonderland charms will be back, the I love tea & cake charms will be back, the I love Sailors charms will be back and...every type of bird, boat, anchor, French..you name it..charm will be back in stock VERY SOON!

Glued to TV

2010-01-05T00:30:00.011Z

TV, mind rot or not? Well, we don't really care either way, but there probably isn't a better device for mindless entertainment, information and education; apart of course, from the web.

Here at MVC we happened upon these little retro TV's complete with dials, knobs and one speaker (There is nothing more retro than mono.) I'm sure if these were real TV's they'd also be black and white. But seeing as they aren't real, why not inject a little colour and personality of your own. It's a hell of a lot easier than wearing the real thing around your neck and you're less likely to need a trip to A&E.

So what TV show has been your dirty little secret? What TV show had you mesmerised, wearing naff t-shirts and pinning posters on your bedroom wall? What pop video had you dancing like no-one could see you, only to bruise your knee on the coffee table?

We've created a couple of examples for your amusements (via Photoshop, for speed. For the genuine process, read below.)

Insert images....
Google, then size the title image from your favourite show, music video, movie, commercial or even album cover. Cut around it and glue it onto your TV. For extra protection and staying power, spray with a gloss/matt varnish (purchased from any hobby store.) This will not only keep your picture water/perfume proof but will also protect your brass from tarnishing. Enjoy!

Michael Jackson Thriller

Finland's The Moomins

The A Team

Charlie's Angels

Grace Jones

Dallas

Brass TV charm £1 at MyVintageCharms,
　
　

taking stock...

2009-12-27T01:09:00.003Z

After a much busier than anticipated end to the year, we're working on restocking all of the 'sold out' pieces. We are recoding and replenishing all we can before we re-open in January.

Many of the sections on the website look bare and sad, particularly the plastics and flowers sections and these badly need new items added asap! We will also be working on new themed sections...won't say what just yet as we know there are a few copy-cats out there ;) Suffice to say you'll be pleased with what we have to offer!

Right now, some of the codes in the themed charms sections such as Alice, Nautical, Birds etc. won't work. If you wish to buy, you can add them to basket via the main sections of brass, silver, plastic and glass/miscellaneous as these codes are now changed and working just fine. We'll get to the themed sections soon, but we're in a very long process of redesigning everything and it's been a long day.

We can't answer any stock questions just now...if an item has "disappeared" it means it's out of stock and yes, it will be back soon, but we can't give definite date of arrival. The best thing to do is check back regularly at the "new arrivals" section. We will have a "sold out " section soon, meaning you can enter your email address for an automatic update when we have restocked.

It's Boxing Day, it's very late, we're still working...someone ought to tell us it's a holiday!

Merry Christmas from My Vintage Charms!

2009-12-24T13:18:00.002Z

Bloomin' Fornasetti

2009-12-05T22:02:00.008Z

We're big fans of Piero Fornasetti at MyVintage Charms, so we're especially thrilled to have Tilly Bloom's jewellery for sale in our "gifts" section.

Piero Fornasetti was an Italian artist, interior designer and sculptor. Inspired by the image of an enigmatic beauty found in an old French magazine, he reinvented this motif into contemporary designs which include furniture, wallpaper, plates etc. In turn, Scottish born, New York resident Tilly Bloom has taken influence from his art for some of her pieces to produce dark, old-fashioned Victoriana pieces with modern day wit.

We have a wide selection of Tilly Bloom's pieces for sale; Brooches, Necklaces, Hairpins, Earrings, Badges and Cufflinks all available to send from the UK immediately and they're absolutely perfect to give as a gift as they have all the charm, but none of the price tag!

We love the Fornasetti teapot £338 @ CoutureLab

Fornasetti stool £600 at Liberty :

Wallpaper @ Cole & Son

"Eyes in a TeaCup" necklace £16 by Tilly Bloom @ MyVintageCharms

Cuckoo Clock necklace £16.50 by Tilly Bloom @ MyVintageCharms

va-va-vroooom

2009-11-29T00:31:00.005Z

I've always loved this image from The Face. It's simple and striking and hasn't really dated much despite being years old. And I love the big "Lady Luck" motorbike earring...so when some plastic motorbikes came our way I knew exactly what to show you to inspire you to hang some kitschery from your ears, although using it on a necklace would probably be a comfier option for all-day wear!
It's lightweight and fun, and only £1.25 from MyVintageCharms

give these vodka-lovin' grannies a home!

2009-11-27T23:00:00.009Z

Life can be cruel. Sometimes, the pretty ones get all the breaks, and those not blessed with such fine facial features are left on the scrap heap. We wish we could say we are different at My Vintage Charms, but we're unfortunately just as shallow, and when it comes to sending out the wooden Babushka Doll pendants we pick out the cutest ones first. With their rosy cheeks, big fluttery eyelashes and pink cupids-bow lips no-one can deny their prettiness.

Sadly, this has left the more "matronly" Babushkas sitting on the shelf. Anyone who has actually seen a real-life Russian Babushka would probably agree that these wooden ladies are a more factual representation of a woman in her late 70's from darkest Kirovsk. There's a good chance she'll have had a hard life - and under her colourful headscarf will be a face full of wrinkles, eyes filled with sadness and cheeks red from drinking too much straight vodka or sub-zero winters. Everyone loves their grandma, so we couldn't see our more, ahem, genuine looking Babushkas left homeless.

We ask you to open your hearts to these fine Russian grannies. Allow them to say "Do svidaniya" to the sneering beauties they're leaving behind and welcome them to your new home with understanding and just a touch of sympathy.

10 truer-to-life Babushka doll wooden pendants - £3 @ MyVintageCharms 's "Catch me if you can" section.

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore....

2009-11-20T08:08:00.007Z

We have managed to add in some of the long awaited Oz charms...we didn't list lots of each, but many were snapped up within hours of them going for sale in the "New Arrivals" section and we've been fending off eager customers looking for the ones they missed out on..unfortunately, we won't be able to restock these until the New Year, so the ones who got there first are the lucky few!

Some pieces are still available - only one or two of some of the cab charms as I type, but perhaps this would be enough to make a Christmas gift for a friend if you can grab it while it's still there....

Some of our favourites are :

Ruby Slippers round pendant £4.50 each

"Dorothy" name connector charm £1.50 each

Ruby Slippers metal pendant £3.50 each

Glinda the Good Witch gold plated locket £4.95 each

All available from www.myvintagecharms.com

Be Prepared!

2009-11-20T07:53:00.004Z

Last year we actually received a complaint from a UK customer because we didn't wrap and post and order placed on Christmas Day! Apart from stating the obvious, that Royal Mail don't work on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, we did want to spend some time with our new baby, our family and relax a little after a really hectic year.

This year has been even busier and we've decided to have a proper Christmas break to calm down after the mayhem that was 2009 and enjoy a short holiday, think over our plans for My Vintage Charms in 2010 and come back fully prepared and refreshed for a whole new year.

We will close December 16th until January 7th. Any orders placed during this time will be processed when we re-open, in the order we received them.

This time of year is crazy for everyone - we know you want your charms fast, but the volume of orders received means we need several days to wrap and send. Please order at least 7 days in advance of when you might need your charms.

We hope everyone has a fabulous time with Christmas markets, fairs and increased sales in their shops and websites...we will continue to add in gorgeous new pieces until we close for our much needed rest!

Zazie!

2009-10-25T01:22:00.004+01:00

If you haven't already seen Louis Malle's 1960 film "Zazie dans le Metro" it's definitely worthy of a look. Twelve year old Zazie has to stay two days with her relatives in Paris, so that her mother can spend some time with her lover. However Zazie escapes her uncle's custody and sets out to explore Paris on her own. It's a merry farce taking a satirical view of French society.

We now have these vintage plastic orange Eiffel Tower pendants and when we saw them we thought they were decidedly "Zazie".

Put this Eiffel Tower pendant on a chain and just like Zazie, wear with some cheek & chic. Polyester turtle neck optional.

VIntage 60's Eiffel Tower pendant : 75p each at My Vintage Charms

The Wonderful Alice pendant

2009-09-26T21:49:00.004+01:00

One of our most popular items is the Silver Plated domed Alice pendant. We never seem to be able to keep it in stock, but we've now got quite a few, so get them while you can!

We can't offer any specific images as they are all pre-wrapped, but rest assured they are all very gorgeous! 6 of the available images are shown, but we choose from a wider selection and yours may not be in the photo...

Domed Alice in Wonderland pendant : £4.95 at My Vintage Charms

too many charms........

2009-09-26T14:35:00.003+01:00

It's a bit crazy here - all of the new charms deliveries are arriving at once! We can't keep up! Too many charms, too little space...we're over-run with brass and silver and plastic and glass. But we love it! It's really quite exciting to have hundreds and hundreds, possibly thousands! of bags to open and marvel over.

The website is being updated completely - it's going to be a very busy month! Will post pics asap xx

Fortune favours the audacious

2009-09-23T02:25:00.011+01:00

This is how most items arrive at MVC, by luck, good fortune and fate. Some things are familiar and in no short supply, other things are rare & unknown; we burst open a dusty box and hope we chance upon something special and unusual, always worth an adventitious shot in the dark, good or bad.

Recently we received a beautiful box of disappointment - we discovered within, stunning 1930's porcelain flowers, so indicative of that era but every one of them broken, just like our vintage hearts.

Sometimes we discover something that has turned full circle on the style axis, no longer looking like the past but instead the future,and that is where fortune has been kind to us, chancing a sizeable bag of these brilliant cut diamond silhouettes our/your way. Fortunately, they don't cost a fortune, only 90p for two, so don't fear of using them in quantity.

I can think of many things to do with them - hand sew them around the neck of your favourite t-shirt, link them with jump-rings to make an unconventional diamond necklace, glue one on a ring or earring backs...ok, that's only four but I don't want to bore you. Instead of listing ideas I decided to produce something for your eyes to feast on.

For those of you wondering how to produce such a dazzling array of gems; I lightly covered the back of each diamond with glue and placed them on to a lurex tulle to dry. When dry, I cut around them and placed a jump-ring through the tulle and around the diamond (the tulle holds the jump-ring in the centre) and attached it into the link of an 18" necklace. Voila! Your very own, diamond, ruby, emerald, amethyst and sapphire necklace. It's enough to make even Liz Taylor green with envy.

Cut-out diamond charms : 90p for 2 @ My Vintage Charms

Gold Plated 18" necklace - 75p @ My Vintage Charms

I love these so much that I think they deserve their own soundtrack....and what could be more joyful than a long-time favourite band of the MVC workroom, Little Dragon, with their song "Fortune." Look out for little diamond silhouettes all throughout the video.

Mountain of pearls to soothe the soul
Gold and silver and silk to cover the old
Clocks and rubies crushing these hard bones
I'm going blind from too many shiny stones

lost findings

2009-09-21T12:16:00.004+01:00

The "findings" section is having a makeover! Ahead of the proper makeover for the whole website (P has created some beautiful imagery for the new look!) we need to address the mess that is the section for chains, earrings, jumprings etc.

We've sold out of almost everything in that section, and the heaviest, biggest box of supplies is winging its way to us now, so we're having a good look through all the necklaces, rings, pin backs, earring hooks and everything else to make it a much nicer section to go to.

We have such interesting bits to help you create your own jewellery, we really must get it all on show!

Sacre Coeur

2009-09-20T22:48:00.004+01:00

We love religious icons mixed with Day of the Dead kitsch. We're putting together quite special Day of the Dead boxes soon, just in time for the November celebrations, but we do have some beautful Virgin Mary pendants available now - glossy Sacred Heart cabochon in a large brass setting. Mix this with the red and yellow lucite rose vintage large hearts for something very special!

We have a plethera of religious charms to upload and will be photographing them for upload very soon.

Sacred Heart Virgin Mary pendant : £4.50 & Lucite Rose Hearts £1.50 and £1.65 - all at http://www.myvintagecharms.com/

Kiss me Quick

2009-09-20T15:23:00.006+01:00

Summer may already have come and gone (already?) but we've hardly had a day off here, let alone two weeks relaxing in the sun...must be why, although autumn has creeped in, our photos of the 1960's Kissing Swallow pendants show them on the map of Corsica and the south of France.

They come drilled with a hole through their crossed tails - or without. Vibrant and fun, these are ideal for making into a necklace or gluing a pin on the back for a big brooch.

Long, cool drinks and the warm breeze tickling our toes will have to remain a dream until next year now, so brighten up your jewellery with these kitsch characters in sunny yellow and hot red. £1.70 each at My Vintage Charms

new arrivals!

2009-09-18T22:01:00.005+01:00

It's been a while - but there are a few new arrivals now on the website, in the "New" section first before they go into their respective categories.

An awful lot of stuff has sold out, and we're working on restocking those items - thanks to all of you who have been so patient while we work through the mammoth task of re-coding and doing stock control and changing workspace etc. which we've had to do while carrying on with selling and packaging and everything else. It would have been easier to close completely while we did this, but we didn't want to disappoint anyone who needed something. We have had the odd irate email along the lines of "how dare you sell out of something I wanted to buy!" but we've learned to take those in our stride...it's a full moon coming after all, and we now expect some people will be irrational and let their inner werewolf come out to play.

One of our favourite new arrivals is little Bambi. One of Disney's most brutal films! Hang this little fella from a necklace...perhaps add a locket with a photo of Thumper inside? Too cute and guaranteed not to last long int the shop! (Cue angry emails....)

Bambi pendant £2 from http://www.myvintagecharms.com/

a change is as good as a rest...

2009-09-14T00:02:00.010+01:00

Not much resting going on round here - so a change is as much as we can hope for. It certainly lifts the spirit and makes work much more pleasant to be in beautiful surroundings, so we thought we'd share a few pics from Phase 1 of My Vintage Charms workspace...We have lots more things to add in, but we're happy with it so far.

We have hundreds of blue drawers, housing the charms, but we're waiting on brass numbers coming for the fronts so we know exactly what's where. It's a game of memory at the moment, and we are always relieved when our first guess is correct as shuffling ten drawers in and out to find an item is getting pretty boring.

Old Amaretti tins which were much too nice to throw away have now become storage for smaller items.

My sister bought an old mill to convert into a house and these lovely blue wooden drawers were left behind - Dewhurst's Sylko thread logo is on the top and we've filled them with cabochons...There are some fab 40x30 ones not yet on the website of cats, dogs, horses, Dutch scenes, vibrant flowers and Holly Hobbie.

We don't get to relax much, but this purple velvet chair sure is comfy!

More storage - these faded turquoise drawers hold many kitsch mixes and plastic charms!

Vintage confectionary or soap tins are perfect for storing little beads.

a quick update...

2009-09-02T16:51:00.002+01:00

We're updating the website just now, so quite a few items are showing error codes. We'll fix them as soon as we get to them in every section. It's time consuming but worth it!

It's been a very busy few weeks - a change of workspace into a brighter, lighter place with a home for every little bead and charm! We're still trying to organise everything so it's a bit of a headache until everything has been moved and re-coded and re-housed.

Also some very sad news which has meant a bit of time off for me - the lovely Charmettes have been holding the fort as best they can, but please accept my apologies if your order has been sent out a bit later than normal or an email has gone unanswered. I will reply to everything and everyone as soon as possible, whenever I can, which may mean a 2 or 3am email.

The exciting news is that we have so many gorgeous items we will be showing off in the next few weeks as soon as things go back to normal.

Thanks for your patience! A proper blog post will follow asap.
xxx

Marilyn

2009-08-14T23:40:00.005+01:00

We have the red "Marilyn Monroe" hearts back - they're fun, plastic and just perfect for adding to a chain for a piece of retro 50's kitsch. Only £1 and great to play around with.

The image is taken from a photo of Marilyn for the Photoplay awards in 1953 - she wore a gold lamé dress (sans underwear) designed by Travilla for "Gentlemen prefer blondes" and brought the room to a standstill. After giving her speech a Joan Crawford quip appeared in the newspapers the following day that Ms Monroe was "vulgar and unladylike". By today's standards she's positively virtuous....

Soon...soon

2009-06-28T13:42:00.003+01:00

We know the website is in a slight state of chaos. Charms which say "out of stock" may well be in abundance...those saying "in stock" could have sold out yesterday. It's a bit of a mess, and we're working on it.

We have thousands of new, different pieces awaiting their grand arrival, but first we need to do a huge clearout, a big stock-take and a bit of reorganising. It's a little tricky, because we do need to get orders out too, and it's hard to find the time to do everything. This weekend, we are building new storage...another 80 or so drawers are being built as I type, and that's not a quick process (we have almost 9 finished now) but it will certainly help. Everything will have a new code for quicker identification which ultimately means faster despatch. Having well over 1500 different types of charms etc. can make it a slow job when finding things. At present the drawers are named in the "sections" such as "love" or "Alice in Wonderland" and rifling through those for the correct bag of charms is annoying and time consuming. It was ok when we only had a couple of hundred items but we've grown too big for that now and it all has to change!

Now off to have some tea to give us the strength to carry on!

"Buy Big"

2009-06-28T13:26:00.004+01:00

We are always asked if we do our charms in larger "wholesale" quantities...On the website, most of the charms are reduced in price if 3, 6 or often 10 lots of each are purchased, but we now have a "BUY BIG" section where larger quantities can be bought, usually by the gross (144 pieces).

We've started this section with a few oddities - things we've never put on the main website, and they are priced very low for quick sale, such as 144 goldtone 80's earrings @ £3 and 144 goldtone pliable star charms @ £2.

Whenever we have the time, new pieces will be added to this. Goodness knows, we have enough things waiting to be photographed, priced and uploaded!

Making way for the new....

2009-06-15T01:22:00.003+01:00

We're adding more things into the "new arrivals" and "catch me if you can" sections of the website now, as we are having a big clearance of pieces taking up much needed shelf space! We're re-doing our workspace, removing the 2 huge cupboards containing lots of big bags of things we hadn't ever got round to listing on the website, so there will be some nice bargains to catch over the next few weeks.

We are waiting on new pieces of furniture being delivered, so hopefully will have made space to get the old out and the new in!

It will definitely be a nicer place to work, with our Amalienborg wallpaper, huge black framed mirror, white French armoire, plush purple velvet armchair, white painted metal table and lime green acrylic chairs, dozens and dozens of teal wooden storage drawers,with ribbons hanging from special shelves and beads all housed in glass jars! It might be hard to leave it all behind after a full day's work!

We were slowly getting around to doing this, but a very active 7 month old baby who is desperate to get his hands on absolutely everything we sell has meant we need to do it sooner rather than later. Every item has to be in a drawer or on a shelf out of little fingers' way.

We've just found some lovely yarns and fabrics, so hopefully these will be next up - a new category might be best for these, but will keep you updated!

"catch me if you can!"

2009-05-16T23:32:00.004+01:00

We have a new section on the website - one which will have many of you checking back a few times each day!

It's a strictly one of a kind, once it's gone, it's gone for good type of section where if you think twice about snapping it up, someone else might beat you to it...I must admit, as exciting as I find this kind of category, it does make my heart skip a beat to think someone might get their hands on something I want before I can manage to get to it. Sorry if it causes some of you disappointment and anxieties, but there really won't be a repeat of any of the lots up for sale.

We're working on adding new things in both the "New Arrivals" and "Catch me if you Can" categories just now. I'm loving finding little bags of goodies I know will delight some of you - we hope they're on their way to some good homes to be made into something beautiful!

Today's "buy it now or regret it forever" additions include :

20 porcelain Alice in Wonderland 18x13 cabochons :

10 piece Alice in Wonderland pendant and filigree charm lot

11 piece vintage love heart with plastic cabs lot

All at www.myvintagecharms.com

Guitar Necklace

2009-04-26T16:49:00.004+01:00

We wondered why the Silver Guitar pendants were so popular...of course they're pretty cool shiny pendants and make fab necklaces, but someone emailed to let us know Mischa Barton had been spotted wearing one...then of course we knew why we're finding it hard to keep them in stock!

Our shiny silver guitar pendant is only £1.50 - add an 18" (75p) or 24" (90p) silver plated chain from the "findings" section and hey presto - you have an instant necklace for only a couple of pounds...

All Yours..Babooshka, Babooshka

2009-04-26T00:24:00.007+01:00

Babooshka by Kate Bush was one of my favourite songs as a small child - while my sister tried to record the performance on Top of the Pops (strangely not on the "Betamax" video, but by holding a tape recorder with microphone to the tv speaker...) I would dance around the living room with wild abandon. Aaah, 1980. Wouldn't want to be back there. Watch the video and try to stop yourself singing the chorus all day long.

Although, not at all Kate Bush-esque we do have Babushka dolls at My Vintage Charms - the most fabulous wooden pendants with cute rosy cheeks and long eyelashes...large enough to be really eye-catching on a necklace.

These kitsch beauties are a little Russian army in our workroom, all begging to be the colourful grandmama doll that makes it into your package. And only £1.50 each.

We also have the matching pendant to our "Buttonushka" buttons - she's another one of our exclusive designs - not to be found anywhere else @ £2.95 each, she's a perfect size for using on a necklace. I'd mix with love hearts and a riot of colourful beads.

All together now "All yours! Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka, Ya ya!"

postie postie, don't be late...

2009-04-05T21:19:00.004+01:00

Unfortunately, Royal Mail is increasing its prices again. We've absorbed three postal price increases already (and a 40% increase in the price of brass over the last year), with the postage staying at a low, flat rate of £1 (in the UK) for an order of any amount, so we have to make a small price rise of 50p to go some way to covering our postage and packing costs.

Any orders totalling over £35 will also be automatically sent by recorded post at a cost of £2.50.

Of course, being able to buy a huge amount of charms for such a small amount of postage is still fantastic, but we thought we should let you know in case it came as a surprise at checkout.

Worldwide : Flat rate Airmail prices have increased slightly and orders over £35 will have to be sent "Signed-For", but the price of this has come down too, so it balances it out and gives everyone peace of mind that their order will have a tracking number and a signature on delivery.

New charms being added all this week...will keep you posted!

The best looking old lady in Paris

2009-04-01T00:21:00.005+01:00

The Eiffel Tower celebrated her 120th birthday today! Her gift is a new coat thanks to 25 painters applying over sixty tonnes of paint using brushes, never spray guns, at a cost of 170 million euros.

We're very pleased the Parisians didn't get their way when she was first erected and she still stands despite having only having a permit to stay until 1909...what they considered to be a travesty of taste is now the world's most iconic structure.

We especially love her sparkling light show at the beginning of every hour from sunset to 1am when all of her 20,000 lightbulbs twinkle and cause the crowds to do a collective "aaahhh"

MyVintageCharms has a new pendant just to commemorate her special day - a large vintage brass setting with a beautiful blue domed centre design. Of course we have lots of other Paris themed charms too in the travel section, should you wish to add some other trinkets to a necklace or make a matching bracelet...

Bonne anniversaire, La Tour Eiffel, je t'aime!

Beloved Brasso

2009-03-25T19:13:00.006Z

We're asked lots of questions each day by email, and thought it would be best to make blog posts of the most popular queries. One which crops up very often is, "How do I clean brass charms?"

Most of our brass charms are made from raw brass, meaning they are untreated and may be prone to tarnishing if exposed to the air, dampness in the atmosphere, sweat on the fingertips when handling etc. Lots of our customers prefer the charms as they are - a little bit old looking, but some want their charms to be shiny and new. For those who like their charms to be gleaming goldtone, we have tried every trick in the book to clean them; a mixture of salt and vinegar (smelly and not recommended!), lemon juice (good for a quick fix, but not good long term), tomato ketchup (messy and not very effective) and good old fashioned Brasso, which has proven to be the best way to clean the brasses - it's quick and leaves an anti-tarnish coating meaning you may not need to clean your charms again. We have found it quite addictive....taking a dark charm, full of age and grime and seeing it sparkle a few seconds later is really compelling! Not to mention the glorious Brasso smell....

Should your jewellery need another quick polish, a rub with a metal cleaning cloth (intended for silver, but also suitable for brass - check on the manufacturer's instructions) should make it clean and tarnish free again.

If you make jewellery regularly from vintage charms, it would be a wise investment at just a couple of pounds...

deer, deer, deer...

2009-03-20T10:00:00.003Z

One of the newest additions to the shop is this little leaping stag charm - a delightful little deer. They come in pairs as we wouldn't want them to get lonely...only £1.10 for 2 from MyVintageCharms and a lovely size for using on earrings, as done by London designer, Rachel Essex - £59 @ asos.com

coco avant chanel

2009-03-11T12:45:00.003Z

Who doesn't love Chanel? Who doesn't love Audrey Tautou? Put them together for a film I'm dying to see...premiering in France April 22nd.

...and we played with the box

2009-02-27T14:55:00.001Z

Sometimes you don't mind being forced out of bed early...and a box of marvellous vintage pieces awaiting your signature at the door is usually one of the only exceptions. This is the first box of a 3 piece consignment, all containing the most wonderful things from Occupied Japan (from 1945 - 1952). Everything still has its original wrappings, which are almost as much of a treat as what lies within. It's quite silly how enchanting we found the piece of knotted string around a brown box just because it looks so old and each time I see the little faded red "Made in Occupied Japan" sticker on faintly discoloured tissue it makes me smile. The absolute creme de la creme of vintage packaging had to be for white porcelain flower cabs; each piece was rolled in a little nest of tissue and straw which has kept them well protected for the last 60 years. We'll definitely be keeping these ingenuous wrappings when we send these out to the lucky customers who are the first to buy them.

The compass pendants are fabulous and a nice complement to the mini Japanese compasses we already have....the copper tassels are MUCH bigger than expected - absolute statement pieces..the porcelain roses are divine and the colours are beautiful.
Big porcelain anemone cabs - stamped "Japan" in gold on the back and ideal for glueing onto a ring base or as part of a collage necklace.

Musical instrument cabs with gold accordions, clarinets, pianos etc. - we'll probably set these ready to use as charms...purple floral garland connector pendants for necklaces...strands of 6mm glass beads in religious turquoise (also red, fuchsia, yellow, orange, green - very Mexican/Day of the Dead in style when used together)

Can't wait to get these onto the website...hoping the next 2 boxes to complete this order will arrive on Monday and we can share the newest beauties with you!

Doll Face Horror.

2009-02-19T17:16:00.006Z

Dolls....what can you say about them? Some are cute, some are ugly, some have functions (these are never cute), some are pointless, some have a trashy fashion wardrobe, others look like they are still living with Laura Ingalls on Little House On The Prairie...forget all those dolls. I want to talk about the ones that manage to make you feel like it isn't safe to close your eyes at night. You know the type, every time you open one eye to timidly check your safety, there she sits, staring at you with her big round eyes, stiff little lashes, moonlight bouncing off her chubby cheeks and a wry little smile that says "See you in the morning my dear....or will I?"

Sometimes in life, genres are mixed to great effect, but this advertisement for a doll falls firmly into shocked, mouth agog, epic failure. I'm not 100% sure if the ad agency and the toy manufacturer's end goal was to make something so hideous that it would regress the average 5yr old to bed wetting. I can't see the gain, but top marks for bringing a new kind of Horror to the doll market. As if the doll wasn't scary enough, the advertising execs have managed to push this beyond 'Chuckie' territory. You don't even need the lights out to be petrified of this teeny-weeny terror.

...but dolls aren't all bad. I like a doll with a snappy sense of style, with a career and a lifestyle. A doll that says "Hey girls, you can have it all" You can be 50 years old and still have your figure, youthful looks and no-one cares if you're plastic. It just so happens we have a doll that fits the bill...Barbie is celebrating 50yrs and we have these new Vintage Barbie pendants to help you celebrate too. At a mere £3.30 you can choose the one that best suits your lifestyle. Are you a chic artsy type or are you a chic traveller? If you aren't chic at all, then maybe these will help set you on the right road.

Rewarding ourselves with Tea & Scones

2009-02-16T21:37:00.005Z

Today was a busy one. We had the charming Sally here at 11am, then Marco arrived in the afternoon to do some baby-entertaining and order wrapping, making it four of us eagerly working away, stopping for the briefest of tea & biscuit breaks, to get as many orders out as possible. It was actually a record amount for us, so we hope we have lots of happy customers tomorrow when their little package arrives.

This meant we had a little bit of free time this evening, so I made a small batch of scones and as is normal at the Charm Farm, the leftover dough is fashioned into something to remind us of the day...Forgetting to take a photo of our newest member of staff today, it seemed fitting we should make a scone in honour of Sally. Of course she is much prettier in real life, but it was quite hard to make an elegant effigy in flour to do her justice, so we hope she doesn't mind her Bonne Maman strawberry jam eyes, with Rodda's clotted cream nose and rather crooked smile.

Sally probably won't be back with us before her scone expires, so we may have to load it up with some more cream and jam and dispose of it with a nice cup of tea...

With full bellies and contented sighs, we return to work on a much needed website update.

(sorry Sally, we did make you look like a jammy-eyed psycho, but you did deserve a mention x)

New Postcard & Sticker to brighten up our day!

2009-02-13T22:42:00.004Z

Once again P has designed us a new sticker and postcard. The postcard goes into the bag with the charms, and the sticker seals the bag and goes onto the front of the padded envelope (so you know it's from us straight away and can start to get excited about what lies within!)

They won't be ready for at least a week, but I thought I'd share the design with you now...

The sticker will look wonderful against our new colours of stripy bags and the postcard is fantastical as the big-eyed lovely red-head's dress is made up of tons of our vintage charms...probably too small to spot here, but everyone who receives a postcard will be able to make out the brass Carousel horses, floral bow pendant as a belt, Eiffel Tower charms around her hips, parrot charms down her sides, vintage green flowers on her shoulders , birdhouses on her hemline etc. It took him some time to create, but we think it's certainly worth it!

We will be very pleased indeed when UPS deliver the boxes with these goodies inside!

Introducing Francina...

2009-02-13T20:32:00.003Z

Say hello to Francina, the newest assistant at the Charm Farm...She arrives at 11am and wraps your order in tissue, writes out your postcard and pops your charms into their little stripy bag before putting it into the jiffy ready for the postbox.

She doesn't stop until home time, with only a Lavazza to keep her going.

With the extra pair of hands on board, we'll soon have more charms on the website, more regularly and orders leaving tout de suite.

can you spot yours?

2009-02-04T23:42:00.002Z

Some of the cabs about to be wrapped in brown paper and popped in their stripy bag to make their way to their anxious recipient.

Garlands of Glass...

2009-02-04T19:02:00.009Z

We're always looking for ways of decorating the garden here in Charm land. We have bird cages entwined with Clematis in summer and wrought iron tables strewn with bird seeds. For the Magnolia tree, we bought lots of strands of mirrored discs from John Lewis last year and they were lovely. They twinkled in the sunshine and sent enchanting little spots of brightness all over the garden, but when autumn and winter came with fierce winds, the strands got tangled and knotted around the branches and we had to cut them off, leaving the tree bare again. It's about to bloom beautiful big pale pink flowers again and it would be a joy to decorate it with these wonderful glass garlands from French based glass artist Pamela Angus.

The one shown here is "Baudelaire" and it would be perfect in our garden. Ideally we would have lots of this glass bunting running right across the lawn, above the lavender and the foxgloves. for a summertime party.
The prices for her delightful pennants are around $80.

Please can I have a Boston Terrier?

2009-02-04T18:41:00.004Z

I've always wanted a French bulldog (or a dachshund or a beagle), but coming across BeanTown's Etsy shop I now know I really want a Boston Terrier (Like having a 3 month old baby and running a business isn't enough to take care of.)

If you stop by their shop you might just want one too, but only to dress him in the fabulous Beantown knitwear.

I found the link on Pamela Angus's blog, and must also write about her gorgeous creations!

Parlez-vous français?

2009-02-01T01:20:00.006Z

I wanted to take photo's of the new charms on top of some old maps, but as they were on the top shelf of a cupboard, I couldn't quite reach them, and when the floor is stacked high with boxes of newly (and some not so newly) delivered things, I couldn't face moving half a room full of stuff to make way for a chair. So I settled for what I could reach standing on tip toe and brandishing a ruler. The book which fell onto my head was "Berlitz French for travellers", the 1975 edition. I probably bought it from a charity shop many years ago, as it looks a lot more dog-eared than I could ever make a book, and has that familiar "second-hand" smell to it.

The first page I opened it at was the "How to make friends" section which raised a small chuckle. The phrases they expected you to hear on your week 'vacances en france' included, "Do you live alone?", "May I take you home?", "Is there a floor show?", "My wife and I would like to dine with you" and "I'm lost, can you show me the way?" If holidaying on the Côte d’Azur this summer you might be advised to walk briskly in the opposite direction if a chap uses any of these as an opener. A more apt title for the section would be "How to sound like a stalker/axe-murderer/lose potential friends"

new front page...

2009-01-30T23:55:00.005Z

The hugely talented P has designed us a new front page : We love it. It has a fun, retro look and is just right as we head into spring...

It mentions we'll have gifts and fabrics as well as all the charms and pendants, vintage and new that we already do have - it's because we have a huge inventory of amazing fabrics to sell by the metre, in fat quarters and in crafts packs as well as all sorts of sequins and ribbons. We will have those on the website as soon as the majority of new charms have been listed, which we are doing slowly but surely...in between cat-napping and baby entertaining!

glued to you

2009-01-27T20:53:00.010Z

We've just got some ring bases in the "findings" section of the shop and these must be one of the easiest things to use when making jewellery. We've got some new cabochons in the shop too - our favourites are the big clock faces and little metal compasses. Add a touch of glue to the ring base and pop the cabochon in place and within a few minutes you'll have an eye-catching accessory.

The ring bases are £1 for 3 and the cabochons used in the photo start at 75p so if you need a quick accessory fix it's a cheap and easy way to do it!

Old Fashioned Lovin'

2009-01-26T23:11:00.002Z

We've just got some lovely postcards. This Victoriana cherub card is great because it can be used in antique-style altered art projects - cut it up or glue things on to it, add charms, trinkets and bows, frame it for your wall or just write a message and send it to the one you love this Valentine's Day.

£1 each (discounts for buying 3 or more) in the "crafts" section at My Vintage Charms.

hearts en masse

2009-01-26T00:23:00.006Z

click image to view in more detail.

Peary lucite hearts @ 50p each and 60's copper chain necklaces @ £1.60 each.
In the "New Arrivals" section at My Vintage Charms coming very soon!
This is one of the images soon to be on the website for inspiration as to how to use some of the vintage charms. Lots of strands of chunky copper chain and tons of white lucite hearts strewn around the neck may be more difficult to wear than a simple pendant on a chain, but definitely more eye-catching and worth the extra effort.

cut price luxe

2009-01-20T17:08:00.007Z

If you lust after all things luxurious, but can't always afford to splurge on the new season's pieces at http://www.netaporter.com/, the founder Natalie Massenet has started a new website - http://www.theoutnet.com/ which promises to be the most fashionable outlet store around...Join up now to be the first to hear of its launch.

I'm sure it will have all of the things Net-a-Porter found hard to shift full price...perhaps a British based version of Yoox?

tweet tweet

2009-01-12T00:31:00.004Z

We've started to "twitter" - it's a good way of letting you guys know what we're up to without having to do a long blog post. If you want to follow us we'd love to have you on our twitter list and you'll be able to read about our long days at My Vintage Charms! We've got the Twitter widget on the menu page of the website too, so you can check back often to see what we're up to...usually it revolves around packaging, photographing and tidying!

wonderland

2009-01-04T03:28:00.004Z

Some of our most popular charms are those with the Alice in Wonderland theme...We'll be adding to that section again very soon. It seems we can't quite keep up with its popularity and almost as soon as we restock some items, they've sold...some charms will come back and others have gone for good. It highlights why you should always snap something up when you first see it as we receive many emails every day asking if a particular favourite will be back in stock soon. Unfortunately, with vintage pieces we can't always guarantee a constant supply.

This Alice themed editorial from Inspire Magazine in Slovakia is one we particularly like and thought we'd share to keep you lusting after the new Alice themed pieces being added in asap.

Happy 2009

2008-12-28T04:39:00.004Z

We're taking a short break over the Christmas season to update and restock the website. We've had to neglect it a bit recently as we had a little baby boy who took up all of our time...He's still quite demanding but we're getting a bit more used to the lack of sleep and the constant attention a newborn commands and are slowly managing to fit work in with a baby quite nicely.

We have hundreds of new items currently being updated into the website...it will take us some time to upload everything into the website, but we'll re-open on January 5th with as many interesting new pieces as possible, and keep on adding things in daily.

We're also looking for some extra hands which will allow us to help the business grow - hopefully some part-time staff will have the orders flying out of the door faster than ever before and allow us to update the website with new charms and crafts items daily.

We're hoping 2009 will be a very busy year for all our customers and that the new things we have to show will inspire you to create better and bigger than ever. We have a huge amount of fabrics which we will sell by the metre and in smaller cuts of crafts packs for making accessories and crafty items. Also, tons of fab charms, pendants, beads, sequins, ribbons etc.

We'll be ready to send all orders placed over the holiday period on January 5th

We will email everyone on the mailing list and all previous customers as soon as the new changes have been made.

Best wishes to all! xxxxx

New Arrivals Update...

2008-08-29T15:34:00.004+01:00

We've not had time to send out a proper picture email with new arrivals recently...Lots of fab vintage charms have come & gone so quickly some of you won't even have known they existed! Thankfully, we have a ton of things coming back to us and lots of "new" things that we're anxiously awaiting their arrival. We will have more Holly Hobbie, the French "oui" and "je t'aime" charms, red lucite hearts, lovebirds, swallows, a Wizard of Oz limited-edition range, more Alice in Wonderland charms, and some new sections to make it easier for you to buy with a certain theme in mind.

We sent out a text email last night just reminding everyone the "new arrivals" section is worth checking every so often as while we may be tardy with the updates, you can always be sure the newest pieces will find themselves there first.

Our top 5 favourite new arrivals include :

1. Alice in Wonderland filigree charm/pendant with name drop heart charm: £2.80
2. Cloissone metal deer pendant : £1.20
3. Pink rose vintage heart : £1.60
4. Cloisonne metal owl charm : £1.20
5. Silver plated Alice "drink me" locket : £3

Unlock My HUGE heart

2008-08-28T20:05:00.007+01:00

Our "unlock my heart" two piece charms have always been sought after. We have 4 different types of "he who holds the key can unlock my heart" charm and pendant, including the dinky charm and the sizeable pendant, but if it's something ultra eye-catching you're after we can highly recommend the HUGE heart and key pendant...As the pics show, it looks amazing when the two pieces are used on the same necklace, using the key to hang down the back.

BIG "he who holds the key can unlock my heart" 2-piece heart & key pendant set : £1.80 per set @ My Vintage Charms

More stylish surroundings....

2008-08-27T17:02:00.005+01:00

We're in the process of making the Charm Farm a much more stylish place to work from...MyVintageCharms' space is a little too crowded so we'll soon have a huge clearout and will be replacing the functional little wooden drawers which house the charms and beads with pieces of chic antiquery and objet d'art which cleverly conceal the plethora of gems within...

One wall will be adorned with our favourite Designers Guild wallpaper from the Amalienborg range. A huge black mirror will take centreplace, but we have yet to find the perfect chairs/chaise/sofa combinations to sit alongside.

Vintage and new French-style chests with lots of drawers will house all of the charms and findings and as we'll soon be adding in beautiful fabrics to the MyVintageCharms webshop, we'll have to find some cabinets for the rolls and bales for easy access.

A large centre table will be where we tissue wrap the charms before they are placed into the paper bags then padded envelopes for sending, but we hope to find one with even more storage space underneath as the stock range is rapidly expanding! As soon as we've finished we'll be taking lots of photos for the website as we'd love to give you a little peek at MyVintageCharms.

Kokeshi Pendants

2008-08-27T16:36:00.007+01:00

The success of last year's Unazukin Dolls let us know you would love our Kokeshi pendants, exclusively available at My Vintage Charms.

They are such a lovely design - taken from the original wooden Japanese dolls from the late 1940's and made into graphics fit for stylish accessories.

Some of you have been buying them to make into earrings, but they are a perfect size for a necklace - simply use a bail and attach to a chain and it's a 5 minute job for an extremely rare piece of costume jewellery.

We currently have 3 designs - on white vintage 60's plastic pendants @ £2.50 each from MyVintageCharms.

The Yacht Club...

2008-05-31T12:20:00.005+01:00

The nautical section of the MyVintageCharms website is finally finished - now you can buy as many anchor charms, fish pendants, bikini-clad pin-up charms and yachts, ships, boats and little pirate-y skull & crossbone charms as you can possibly fit on to your charm bracelets and trinket necklaces.

There are low-priced stripy red/white and blue/white cube beads and St Tropez plastic anchors mix in red, white and blue to dot around your nautical accessories, bringing a little bit of French chic to your designs.

If you prefer your designs to look strictly vintage and not so cheeky & cheerful, stick to the big goldtone fish charm on a long neckchain and mix with the real sea-shells, vintage aged anchor pendant, big floral engraved love-heart charms and sparkling peridot buttons for a treasure-chest find fit for a mermaid.

The nautical section has vintage and new beads and charms starting at only 45p.

¿usted habla español?

2008-05-16T23:30:00.011+01:00

A lot of our vintage charms go to Spain, to some of the nicest and most talented customers we have! If you speak Spanish (and even if you don't, but like to look at the lovely pics and Babelfish the bits you need!) check out WeLoveCrafts magazine. Their blog is also a worthwhile visit....

If you are a fan of Spanish designers, you will love La Casita de Wendy - colourful and clever, they don't take themselves too seriously.

La Casita De Wendy - collection spring/summer 2008 "Happy"

The first Casita de Wendy collection - autumn/winter 02/03 - "Handmade"

La Casita de Wendy : spring/summer 2004 - "Fairy Tales"

We are also huge fans of Josep Font - having first come across the designer's small Bilbao shop several years ago when a friend was looking for a special outfit, we loved his charming 02/03 Look Book and came home to check out his beautiful website.

He's now got 3 shops in Spain and one in Paris, where he shows haute-couture.

Miriam Ocariz is another designer we were introduced to by Spanish friends...We loved her hand-drawn graphic designs which were sold in lots of Bilbao boutiques, but few had heard of her outwith Spain. Now she has a worldwide fanbase and it's hard to believe how grown up her collections have become - so chic!

Miriam Ocariz - spring/summer 2008 collection

Cherished Trinkets....

2008-05-16T21:30:00.005+01:00

Janine Byrom is the designer behind 'Cherished Trinkets', an irresistible collection of jewellery she has created using new and vintage pieces. We are lucky to have her as one of our customers and love spotting the little pieces she has picked up from us, mixing them with her own finds to create one-off little pieces of wearable art.

Her charm bracelets are especially covetable, dripping with sparkling gems and old treasures...the prices are also too good to be true, meaning when you see one you like, it's affordable enough to snap up without any hesitation.

The Alice in Wonderland bracelet filled with adorable charms is guaranteed to bring attention wherever it goes...and at only £40 it won't last on her website for long. Visit the Cherished Trinkets website and find yourself enchanted...

better late than never....

2008-05-14T19:41:00.013+01:00

It's been over a month before we've updated the website or sent out an email...those of you on the mailing list must wonder if we've forgotten all about you. Fear not, we've just had a few problems, mainly computer related, when the trusty little Vaio with all the website info and photos decided it wasn't playing anymore. No warning signs it was getting tired with all the overuse, it just refused to turn on one morning, leaving us in a slight panic while we scrambled to replace it with the newer, faster, more slimline version. Of course, it's all for the best as the new one makes life an awful lot easier. I hadn't realised how long Photoshop was taking to load in all the pics, or how old the version of Dreamweaver I used was...even starting up and closing down now takes seconds as opposed the minutes it used to.

The charm deliveries to us haven't slowed while we were offline, so there will be tons of new charms and pendants and beads etc. for sale in the coming days....first up will be a nautical section which is later than we hoped, but hopefully the anchor & boat charms in silver and brass, "Hello Sailor" charms, cheeky pin-up pendants and charms, fish, seahorses, shells, stripy beads, St Tropez red, white & blue plastic anchors and Pirate-y themed charms and pendants will be just what you need for some springtime jewellery making...

This is a sneak peek at just one of the fab things we'll be bringing your way asap! She's a real Hawaiian pin-up beauty, which would mix well with palm trees and floral beads on a trinket necklace.

We did manage to get a few new things up on the website this week, mainly some fun porcelain beads and some charms in silver plated metal we've only had in goldtone/brass before.

Silver plated mini kissing kids charms : £1.40 for 4 @ My Vintage Charms - these are perfect for earrings and delicate chains.

Tongue-in-cheek 'Perfect' connector charm - the C and T are falling off the end of the word slightly showing even the most beautiful can be a little flawed. Join to the two ends of a chain for a much cooler alternative to a name necklace.

Silver plated "PERFECT" connector charms : £1.75 for 2 @ My Vintage Charms

We've got some gorgeous new Paris themed charms too - One with the Moulin Rouge and the other the Eiffel Tower. They can be used separately on necklaces, mixed with other Paris/French charms.

Moulin Rouge and Eiffel Tower charms : £3.55 for set of 2 @ My Vintage Charms

We've also got a small amount of the cutest little piggy beads! I recently saw some of the most adorable real-life Pennywell Pigs which are the smallest pigs in the world. So small, they fit in a teacup! This one is called Tetley and I'll let his picture speak for itself.... Of course, you'll love this one so much you'll spend the next few hours on You Tube watching them.

We have some pig beads looking for a little home of their own too - They are definitely the runts of the litter! Rubbed off noses or squishy paint...so they're only 10p each to their new adoptive parents!

Porcelain "seconds" pig beads - 10p each @ My Vintage Charms

Big Apple Comb Necklace

2008-03-18T00:26:00.004Z

If you're a fan of Patricia Field (New York designer and head stylist of Sex and the City) you'll love our big plastic Apple Hair Comb pendant...

Patricia Field has this for $32 but if you can be bothered adding your own chain through the hole at the top (we have an ideal 48" goldtone vintage chain @ £2.25 that would make the apple hang just around your waistline) we have the Big Apple Hair Comb at My Vintage Charms for £3.5o

This pic shows it ready made at Patricia Field -

springtime at My Vintage Charms!

2008-03-17T23:57:00.008Z

The weather could be nicer, but here at the Charm Farm we've had some sunshine. Enough to make the tulips and crocus pop out of hiding and bring some colour back into our lives.

We've had some lovely charm deliveries too....too many to put on to the website shop all at once, so they're going up bit by bit as we find the time in between wrapping parcels and such.

Our favourites could well be the big brass Carousel Horse pendants - just add them onto a chain with a jumpring or split ring and hey presto, a fabulous necklace. £1.90 each at My Vintage Charms

Still with a circus-y theme, but MUCH more kitsch, we have re-stocked for the fifth time on these colourful carousel pendants...make yourself a merry-go-round necklace by stringing some cord through the hanging loop at the top. Think summertime, kiss-me-quick, sticky candy floss and lots and lots of fun. Get them while they last...only £1.10 each at My Vintage Charms.

Springtime wouldn't be complete without birds and butterflies and pretty winged creatures.

We've got the best vintage big dragonfly pendant in goldtone brass for £1.90 - just attach to ends of a chain for a beautiful accessory.

The vintage brass swallow pendant is one of our most popular items in shop - again £1.90 and as it's a connector piece, it's easy-peasy to hang from a matching goldtone chain.

These big goldtone brass butterflies have raised wings, making them look like they're getting ready for lift-off. At only 75p each from My Vintage Charms you could trail these from a necklace for something especially grand.

vintage plastics hand-delivered by Elvis.

2008-03-09T22:45:00.007Z

The UPS man knocked on the door at 7pm on Friday evening. He was on his way home, in his own car, but thought to drop off a package saying "it was all part of the job." It was completely out of the blue and you would be forgiven for thinking we had imagined the whole thing...especially as he looked like he'd be a mean Elvis impersonator at weekends, but I'm pleased to say it wasn't a dream and the box contained some of the loveliest vintage plastic cabochons and charms...a perfect mix of Japanese kitsch and French shabby chic.

The uses for such pretty little things know no bounds...glue them onto earring posts (E-6000 adhesive is probably the best, but the fumes are eye-watering at best, and it contains a chemical known to the state of California for causing cancer...but I know of no other glue with a similar bond and elasticity - if anyone else knows something just as good, I would really appreciate it!), glue them onto larger charms such as brass love-hearts, hang them from jumprings on delicate costume jewellery, use on cards and crafty projects.

I could go on and on describing them, but as they say, a picture is worth more than a thousand words....

These cheeky little apples are blushing hot pink...they look very tasty indeed!

Vintage flatbacked apple cabochons £1.35 for 4 at MyVintageCharms

These ones look decidedly French to me - pretty little pearlescent roses tinged with pink - glue them onto whatever takes your fancy...

Pink Rose flatback cabochons : £1.40 for 3 at MyVintageCharms

These vintage plastic flowers are especially great because they're drilled at the top and bottom. I would link them together with jumprings to make a pretty bracelet. Of course they could be used like normal charms and a smaller trinket hung from the bottom hole. The kind of thing you like to buy, keep for a while, ponder over then use on something fantastic!

Vintage Plastic Rose charms : £1.35 for 3 at MyVintageCharms

Paris, je t'aime

2008-03-05T17:51:00.008Z

It's no secret that MyVintageCharms is a lover of all things Parisian...We've got a fine selection of "oui" and "non" charms, Eiffel Towers, French Poodles and even little croissant charms, but the loveliest of all is about to go up for sale this evening...Gorgeous little French Maid pendant and Chocolat Parisienne pendant sold as a set of 2.

The newest lot of photos have been taken on old letters written during wartime, found in the fleamarket at Clignancourt - mostly to and from a mysterious Monsieur Eugene Pain...The postmarks are from 1935 through to 1945, but the French handwriting is a bit more difficult to decipher and only about half is legible. I truly love these little pieces of history and think they add a definite je ne sais quoi to the new charms for sale.

A jewellery designer who also seems to have a love for life across the Channel is Danielle @ Cutie Pie - Her ranges entitled "all good girls go to heaven" and "oh la la" have trinket necklaces dripping with religious icons, Eiffel Towers, Virgin Mary and Sacre Coeur charms.

Of course your left-bank belle maison, you should also be adorned with one of her eccentric 5-arm vintage Chandeliers, complete with ornate silver tableware of goblets, sugar tongs and cutlery! Contact Dani direct for a bespoke design : dani@ilovecutiepie.com

New Charms! Yippee! New Charms!

2008-02-28T23:52:00.005Z

The excitement I feel when a big box of charms is delivered is beyond compare. They are always taped with straight-jacket style overlapping, extra thick, fabric-y, brown tape to stop any little charm escapees, but when you're dying to see all the marvellous new treasures within, the tape is that last bit of torture. You've tracked the package at every airport hangar around the world for the last 10 days and this is the only thing stopping you from getting to the merchandise! The best scissors have a problem cutting through it, and big kitchen knives are not to be recommended when you're feeling antsy-pantsy...it takes the greatest amount of patience, cutting through it centimetre by centimetre with the blade of open scissors, resisting the urge to pull at it with bare hands (futile exercise, believe me) You just have to keep calm for the next 15 minutes and play along with it.

I'm glad to report the new arrivals are more than worth the torment - beautiful ornate frames in Antiqued gold plate and Oxidized silver, great for fabulous big necklaces or the fanciest adornment to a doll's house wall. They fit a 40x30 cabochon/cameo, so you can finish them as you see fit....These will soon be in the Crafty Section as they will suit the more ingenious jewellery maker.

antiqued-silver frames £2.80 each at MyVintageCharms

The most beautiful silver plated pendants with mirrored glass grand Peacock design cabochons are a delightful new addition and probably won't last long as they're so unusual...

Silver plated mirror-peacock pendant : $4.75 each at MyVintageCharms

26mm diameter vintage daisy cabochons, which have a hole to attach to your jewellery as a pendant/large charm or without hole to glue onto a crafts/jewellery project. These are very versatile and simply perfect for spring and summer.

Vintage Japanese daisy cabochons 26mm - £0.75 each at MyVintageCharms

Superb big vintage brass finding of a dancing fox holding an umbrella - no hole drilled, but could still be hung from a chain, or used on a crafts project etc.

Fox & Umbrella Stamping - £4.25 at MyVintageCharms

google no more...

2008-02-28T23:45:00.002Z

After a very short-lived (less than 24 hour) stint with Google Checkout, we're removed it as a payment method from the website.

It declined perfectly good credit cards and tested the patience of even our most saintly customers, so we quickly realised the angst it caused greatly outweighed the possible convenience to some...It's a shame as we were looking forward to the arrival of Google's answer to PayPal. Unfortunately they have a bit of catching up to do. We may look into it again in the future, but don't save the date...

Yazbukey

2008-02-26T19:08:00.003Z

If you like your accessories kitsch, but still couture, Yazbukey are just the ticket.

Born in the Middle East but based in Paris, the two sisters (Yaz and Emel) who make up Yazbukey create pieces that scream "Notice Me!". They're a slightly more hard-edged and less commercial version of Tatty Devine, using bold shapes and colours of acrylic, perspex and plastic.

These adorable pics are from their forthcoming autumn/winter 08/09 collection.

passementerie

2008-02-26T18:21:00.005Z

A recent visit to France has allowed us to introduce some rather lovely laces to the more-popular-than-expected crafty section of My Vintage Charms.

We just LOVE the colours of this pretty lace - instead of the usual ivory and white lace that's normally to be found, these colours are just crying out to be used in something fabulous!

There's candy pink and lime green, deep fuchsia and turquoise, coffee, red, palest pink and our favourite - teal. They came on brown card, but we'll have them for sale by the metre so you can buy a small amount if you just need to trim a little thing...

They're not quite up for sale yet, but we're sure they won't last for long when they are.

google

2008-02-26T01:01:00.003Z

We have just started accepting Google payments. We're not exactly sure if it will work out for us, as we have been very happy with payment being made only by PayPal (and cheque/postal order within the UK) but we thought it would be good to at least offer the option.

We don't know if it will integrate with our existing shopping cart perfectly, so will have to just wait and see...It may stick around or we might just get rid of it, depending on customer feedback.

searching...

2008-02-25T22:38:00.003Z

While we try to patiently (hah!) wait on gazillions of new things arriving for My Vintage Charms, we thought it best to create some sort of search function on the website. It's growing rapidly now, and I know it must be pretty frustrating for the regular customers who know exactly what they want to re-order to go directly to that particular item and buy. There are tons of lovely customers who tell us they were so excited to find the website they put the kettle on and sat down to browse for a couple of hours and made a night of it, and we felt this was always the best way to see My Vintage Charms....but when we've been looking for a certain charm ourselves, we had to scroll through 11 pages of brass and goldtone charms just to find that elusive one, and it was a bit annoying.

So...for starters, there is now a "NEW ARRIVALS" section, and regardless of whether they are beads, charms, pendants or crafty bits, they will all be put here, in a jolly little jumble so you can see what's just arrived. This will hopefully be useful to anyone who checks back several times a week for new pieces and doesn't want to go through every page just to see where we've hidden them!

The new arrivals will be introduced by date, and there is currently 23 items added since 20th February (the silver 'seconds' lockets have sold out already though...sorry! We did underestimate how much people like rusty charms!)

Using up all of our (very limited) html knowledge and with lots of pulling of hair and breaks for tea and Jammy Dodgers, we hope to very soon have a working search thingy where you can simply type something like "Lady Godiva" and hey presto, it will take you straight there, to that particular charm in your choice of silver plated or brass.

There will probably be some glitches and lots of codes to iron out before it works faultlessly, but we are sure it will be useful to lots of you.

We all love snoopy!

2008-02-15T00:37:00.024Z

I've been hankering after a puppy for ages...I do have a list of animals I'd really love to own which rank higher than a simple dog but do realise there's only a small back garden making a llama completely unpractical, a goat would be fun for a while but maybe all the obsessive eating of everything it sets its eyes on would grow tiresome and I was sure a Poitou donkey would be a good idea but after watching Au Hasard Balthazar I reckon the braying (quite a terrifying noise!)would frazzle my nerves after a day.

When it comes to dogs, I imagined a short-haired chihuahua in black would be quite nice, but it's just too Paris Hilton a breed to truly consider. A French bulldog has to be the most adorable puppy ever, but I'm assured they grow up to be slobbery and stinky. I've been thinking about beagles for ages. They look like no-nonsense, dandy little dogs who would hate to be carried in a handbag, the puppies are just gorgeous, and the most important reason...Snoopy is a beagle!

My interest was re-awakened when I saw on the US news (shown on BBC news24 in the early hours of this morning) that a beagle called Uno had won best in show at the Westminster Dog Show in New York at Madison Square Garden...he beat all the namby-pamby poodles and (quite literally!) howled his way to victory.

I'll probably have changed my mind by next week, but for now this handsome little guy could be this girl's best friend...

Unfortunately, we don't have any Beagle charms at My Vintage Charms, but we do have some spaniels, terriers and collies in this set of 3 dog charms - porcelain cabochons in goldtone settings : £2.40

I think these would work best used in a pretty kitsch way - use a few sets on a necklace dripping with love heart charms, ribbons, vintage chains and raw-edged lace to make something of a statement piece.

Along came a spider...

2008-02-10T13:53:00.000Z

After a new delivery of charms, the floor in the MyVintageCharms studio was strewn with brown paper bags filled with gross upon gross of brass birds, hearts, bows, clocks and mini bottles all waiting to be neatly filed away into their own little wooden drawers.

I picked up one bag and a little spider ran up the side, and even though I am a squillion times bigger than the tiny thing, I squealed and dropped the bag....I assumed it had made a quick getaway, being such a speedy creature. It wasn't until much later that evening, we found him still under the bag,with a broken leg. He could only hobble along on seven, and won't be making any more fast dashes to surprise unsuspecting females anytime soon. I do still feel terribly guilty...He's out in the garden now, hopefully with his leg in traction for a couple of weeks before he's back looking for another Miss Muffet to frighten...

The vintage domed nursery rhyme pendant with Miss Muffet trying to eat her curds & whey while Mr Spider comes down beside her is a fitting new addition to the My Vintage Charms shop. £3.20 each.

Cheescake!

2008-02-07T23:23:00.000Z

The Pin-Up heart pendants at My Vintage Charms are flying out the shop just now - The last lot sold out in a day or two and these are going just as fast, although we had the foresight to get a few more than last time, before they're gone for good...

Each heart has an image from 40's style pin-up girls from playing cards...if you don't like the image we've chosen, pop the pic out and change it for one of your own!

If those coquettish girls from wartime were around today, they'd swap their jitterbug shoes for some 6" heels from the divine French born and London based designer Natacha Marro and cast off their twinsets for some House of Harlot sailorgirl rubberwear...

Although their hearts firmly belong in fetish fashion, they are both incredibly talented at turning the extreme into haute couture; Robin at House of Harlot has been commissioned to do pieces you'll have seen on the catwalks at Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, John Galliano and Thierry Mugler whilst there's not a fashion editor worth his/her salt who's not a fan of Natacha's sky-high Mary-Janes.

Pin-Up Plastic Pendants : £1 each - at My Vintage Charms

Natacha Marro shoes : from around £290

Christina Aguilera in House of Harlot's sailor-girl outfit for her "Candyman" video.
£290 - call 020 7700 1441

wet dog

2008-02-05T10:41:00.000Z

Seeing as I absolutely detest the smell of 'wet dog' I shouldn't really like this Chihuahua soap quite so much...thankfully it has the altogether more delightful sounding fragrance of Mimosa & Violet, which is certainly more preferable to damp fur.

Absolutely kitsch, not at all related to charms, but I really do love it!

From Plumo - £12

little birdies...

2008-02-04T22:36:00.001Z

We are very lucky in that our 'Vintage Charm Farm' has patio doors looking out to a magnolia tree, decorated with fairy lights and bird feeders, so we get all sorts of lovely little birds coming to see us every day; The great tits and coal tits definitely prefer sunflower seeds, but don't hang around for long - they grab a seed and go! Our cheeky blackbird friend likes us to put out a handful of freshly soaked raisins on a secret wall hidden by leaves and the greenfinches will happily swing from the feeders alongside the sparrows, while the collared doves (who always come in pairs - the "Love Doves") stay on the ground picking up the leftovers. We even have a Robin who will hop up and down on the doorstep or window ledge if we don't pay him enough attention and serve him his daily bread. They all live in harmony, bathing in their copper bird-bath, drinking from an old garden candle holder filled with rainwater or turning over leaves for fat worms. Picture a scene of Snow White-esque bliss. That is until the skies quite literally turn black and the Starlings descend en masse in a rowdy, squawking, partying mob with their cocky swagger, eating everything they can get their stabby little beaks on. They are definitely the ornithological equivalent to pit-bull owning, kebab eating, football hooligan, hoodie wearing humans, sending all the more demure birds back to their trees until it's safe to come out to play once more...

We do love birdy-type designs....we know you do too because the bird charms at My Vintage Charms are one of the most popular themes...

There's definitely a Love-Bird theme going on, I do seem to have a particular obsession for buying bird charms which come as a pair, perhaps because it causes me great concern if our own little garden "Love Doves" are ever seen on their own.

All the bird and butterfly charms can be bought here and these are just a few available...

Large vintage Hummingbird charms - 2 for £1.15
Super-shiny and FAB quality charms

Vintage brass Lovebird connector charms (I thought these were all sold out, then found another little bag hiding at the back of the drawer! Hurrah! £1.10 for 3

BIG vintage plastic Kissing Swallows pendant : £1.70 each (these come in a gorgeous range of 50's colours)

Vintage brass love heart charm with Japanese Love-Birds and a little daisy...£1.60 each

Vintage 50's plastic Lovebirds in a hoop - perfect for swinging on a chain around your neck!
These come in a really pretty range of colours too - £1.20 each

Vintage brass Swallow in Flight connector pendant - £1.90 each

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We do also love these :

Birdhouses by Tamar Mogendorff

La boite de ma biche

2008-01-28T01:19:00.000Z

The storage tins by adorable French company 100drine (designer Sandrine Fabre) are all pretty nice, but there is one I don't think I can live without...The pink deer on the "My Darlin" (Or la boite de ma biche) tin has flashed her big dopey doe eyes and tugged at my heart strings. My problem is, I have almost as many boxes and tins as I do notebooks, never resisting whenever I see a new 'can't live without it' design and I don't really have a use for them all. Still, she really does look like she's crying out for a new home...18,00 € @ Sentou

She reminds me of the pink 50's style big-eyed Japanese deer we have at MyVintageCharms
£1.85 for 2

2008 intro : My Vintage Charms

2008-01-27T23:15:00.000Z

We can't believe it's still only January! It's probably because our days have been filled with lots of new and vintage charms deliveries from almost every corner of the world, with some personal trips to some of our favourite places to collect a few special pieces too.

MyVintageCharms now has more than double the selection of charms it had when it properly launched in November, and the exciting new charms and pendants (lots of re-stocked pieces too, to keep you happy!) on the way will see a hundred or so more items being added in over the next 2 weeks.

If you would like to be kept up to date with all the new arrivals simply join the mailing list, and if you buy, we will automatically add you...we don't believe in inundating your inbox with emails every few days; The emails are sent approximately once a month unless we feel there is something of utmost charm importance you should know about!

We've decided to no longer automatically include a paper invoice with each order - We were using so much paper it seemed very wasteful...we love trees too much! An invoice should be emailed to you when you order and you can print it off yourself if you need it for your accounts etc. and if you would prefer us to send one to you, of course we'll be happy to do it.

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The Alice in Wonderland themed charms have been as popular as anticipated, but the little girl who fell down the rabbit hole will always hold special appeal for those of us with a whimsical nature, so it's no surprise than almost everyone who stops by the MyVintageCharms website adds something Alice-y to the basket.

It's amazing that a story written in 1865 continues to enchant, inspire and influence and the arts obsession with Alice doesn't look set to go away anytime soon; It's one of those subjects that can be re-worked and played with time and time again.

The Annie Leibowitz shoot for US Vogue read like a who's who of fashion in 2003 :
Alice played by Natalia Vodianova, Olivier Theyskens as Lewis Carroll, Tom Ford as the White Rabbit, Jean-Paul Gaultier as the Cheshire Cat, Donatella Versace as the Gryphon, Viktor & Rolf as Tweedledum & Tweedledee, Stephen Jones as the Mad Hatter and Christian Lacroix as the March Hare, John Galliano as the Queen of Hearts, Marc Jacobs as the Caterpillar, and Nicolas Ghesquiere, Karl Lagerfeld and Helmut Lang thrown in for good measure.

These are our favourites, but the entire 11 pages still look good 5 years on....

The Alice themed charms and pendants at My Vintage Charms are a mixture of the rather suggestive sixties to the more Victoriana & feminine. If your Jewellery making skills are limited, it's easy to pull a pale blue satin ribbon through the top of a pendant and tie in a bow around your neck for an instant, pretty accessory that relatively few people will have - everything in the Wonderland section is limited-edition and many charms have been and gone, never to be repeated. It's very much a case of, if you like it, buy it now or you may regret it! Prices are pretty cheap for such lovely quality : from £1 at the MyVintageCharms online shop.

Domed Silver Plated Alice Pendant : £3.65 each

Setof 4 large vintage Alice themed charms : £6.50

Little glass "antique" Drink Me bottle : £1 each

Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts ornate pendants : £4.20 for 2

Set of 3 silver plated large Alice charms: £5.95

Set of 2 Muted Alice large charms / pendants : £3.75 for 2

An absolute joy is the work by devastatingly talented paper artist Su Blackwell. Her Alice in Wonderland book-cut sculptures for a Vanity Fair jewellery shoot are simply beautiful...