May's Birthstone - Emerald

Emerald Brooch by Barclay

The birthstone for May, as well as the stone of the Zodiac for the constellation Cancer, is emerald - a shimmering, green member of the Beryl family.

Thought to bring, and associated with, patience, wisdom, and understanding, Emeralds are often a wonderful gift a wedding or anniversary, as these traits are associated w/stong, everlasting love.

The use of emeralds in jewelry can be traced as far back as to the time of the Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Romans.

The Ancient Egyptians associated emeralds with everlasting youth and often carved sybols of leaves into the gemstones.  Ancient Romans thought emeralds to represent fertility and rebirth and associated the gemstone w/the goddess of love, Venus. 

Some famous sayings about emeralds include the Biblical Quote: “And the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.”  And the quote from  Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “And ice, mast-high, came floating by,  As green as emerald.”

Peggy Sue Went to the Prom

My pink daisy necklace was featured in this wonderful collection highlighting items for a vintage prom - there are some wonderful pieces in it, with everything from a vintage tuxedo to the most amazing, rhinestone studding, vintage, cat eye glasses (I love the look and style of cat eye glasses) to a wonderful pink clutch and matching shoes - what a fabulous look for today's prom-goers, and one that is sure to be unique and talked about.

There's Nothing Like a Trifari

I originally did this article for the Etsy Vintage Team:

EVT Blog

and thought I would recreate it on my own blog :)

Trifari Jewelry has always been a name synonymous with creativity, quality, and glamour. Even the jewelry made in modern times is of quality and style, and collectible in its own right.

The company can trace its beginnings back to 1910 when Italian immigrant, Gustavo Trifari, and his uncle began producing jewelry under the name Trifari & Trifari. Gustavo, 2 years later, decided to branch out on his own under the brand name Trifari. Continuing to produce high quality, costume jewelry, that rivaled the real thing, Gustavo met his partner & sales manager, Leo Krussman in 1917. Trifari & Krussman was later formed in 1918. When top salesman Carl Fishel joined the company in 1923, the name changed again to Trifari, Krussman, and Fishel, and the trademark "KTF" was born (the T in the middle is larger than the other 2 letters, denoting the senior partner, Trifari).

The 1930s & 1940s was the grand age of costume jewelry for many design houses, Trifari included. This was the time that Alfred Phillipe joined the company as head designer, producing some of the most outstanding jewelry the company has seen. Very, very collectible, Phillipe designs are elegant, glamourous, and timeless.

Some of the company's most popular, and most collected, designers, outside of Alfred Phillipe, include Jean Paris, Andre Boeut, and Diane Love. Pieces by these designers still command some of the highest prices Trifari jewelry can bring.

Even old magazine and fashion advertisements form a very popular collecting genre of Trifari Jewelry. For a wonderful selection of old Trifari ads, please visit Morning Glory's Trifari Ad Page.

Trifari Jewelry is marked, most commonly with what is referred to as the "Crown T" mark. Hallmarks w/a © indicate a production date of post-1955. For an extensive description of Trifari marks, please see Illusion Jewels Trifari Section.

Trifari became part of the Monet group in the 90s, and is today owned by Liz Claiborne and in off shore production.

My personal collection includes a wonderful array of Trifari figurals, and my quest is to acquire each piece in the specific lines, from the pearlescent Fantasia Collection to the oh so cute Pets Collection.

The Etsy Vintage Team offers a wonderful collection of Trifari Jewels - please click here.

Spring Sale Celebration by the VETT & VMTEAM

The Vintage Etsy Twitter Team (VETT) and the Vintage Market Team (VMTEAM) on Etsy have paired up to provide vintage lovers w/a huge selection of fabulous vintage wares ~ all on sale.

To celebrate, and in honor of the upcoming Royal Wedding, I made this treasury for the teams:

More Plagiarism on eBay

I am not sure what makes sellers, especially on eBay, think it's ok to steal someone else's work, be it copy or pictures, and pass it off as their own? Laziness, lack of character, desire to mislead buyers are just a few reasons I can think of. I am posting this article, because I keep running into sellers who think it's ok to take my original copy from my D&E Studio Girl listing as use it as their own. I am posting my original listing in image form (click on the thumbnail for a larger, more legible version) and will include the list of sellers, and their auctions, who are using my copy w/out permission or notation - who are stealing intellectual property and plagiarizing - both of which are illegal and against venue policy, be it eBay, Ruby Lane, or Etsy. I am currently dealing w/a seller on eBay who has done what I have described above. While she has apologized, her note back to me stated "I did not consider it stealing just practical but I understand your point". I will list her selling ID and auction number by end of day if she does not remove my original copy from her listing.

I also found a seller on Ruby Plaza plagiarizing my D&E Studio Girl listing, and it took no less than 4 emails to get this seller to remove my original copy and use his own. I highly caution buyers against purchasing from sellers who steal from others... it speaks to a general lack of character and honor if a seller is willing to pass someone else's work off as their own, which is a good indication of the lack of customer service they will provide to their buyers. To view my live, original listings, please click here.

Intellectual Property Theft on eBay

Unfortunately, there are people on eBay who think that stealing photos and text from other sellers to use in their own auctions is an acceptable practice. Such a practice is pure & simple, theft and plagiarism - the stealing of someone else's work. Usually, stealing of text and pictures from other sellers is done to con unsuspecting buyers out of their money, as usually, the seller doing the stealing does not posses the item that is up for sale. By the time the buyer is aware that the thieving seller does not have the item being auctioned, it's too late - the con-artist seller has made off w/the victim's money.

eBay is aware of this problem and has set up a reporting system to try and combat this type of stealing. However, is still happens today.

I have been a victim of this several times, the most recent was on Sept. 5th, 2009 by eBay user k-zoogirl (who has now, as of Sept. 7th, changed her user name to bitter-cranberry). This thief, whether she was just too lazy to do her own work, or she was trying to scam buyers on eBay out of their money, stole both my pictures and my text from this auction, eBay #360187440907 and portrayed them as her own in this auction, eBay #230374541475. Thankfully, eBay responded swiftly to my reports of the theft by k-zoogirl/bitter-cranberry by promptly shutting down the auction and removing the images from the system.

Below are screen shots of the fraudulent auction by k-zoogirl/bitter-cranberry in which she stole my images and text - click on the thumbnails for a larger version.

shows top of eBay page and seller ID

clear shot of my watermarked images

clear shot of my stolen copy - taken word for word from my auction

Below is a screen shot of her "My World" page before she changed her user ID. She also removed her profile image - why is she hiding? Is she ashamed that she stole from another eBay seller? Is she hiding the fact that she's a con artist and trying to run fraudulent auctions on eBay? I will let you draw your own conclusions as to the new user ID she chose. Her ID information, history, and image are all below.

My World Page before user changed her ID

User ID history page

If the property theft didn't tell you enough about this person's lack of character, honor, and integrity, the hiding behind a new user ID and the removal of her profile image should. I would be highly cautious if you purchase from her.

Sellers - How to Protect Yourselves from Such Thieves

• watermark your images - I can't stress how important this is (although k-zoogirl/bitter-cranberry was too stupid not to use watermarked images)
  
• run searches on items that you currently have listed - do listings by other sellers look the same?
  
• use specific wording in your text - when other sellers steal your copy, it's easier to pick out
  

Buyers - How to Protect Yourselves from Such Con-Artist Sellers

• be aware of what your buying - do your own research
  
• run a search on the item that you're interested in buying - do you find more than one listing that has the same pictures and wording
  
• if you find an item that has the same pictures and text, but is being sold by 2 different sellers, contact those sellers and ask question
• if you see an image in an auction that is watermarked, and that watermark does not match the user ID of the seller, there's a good chance that image was stolen - be careful if you decide to purchase
  

eBay has worked hard to reduce this type of theft - unfortunately, con-artists are con-artists, and this battle is very difficult to fight.

A Gallery of Sarah Coventry

Coming Soon