Spring Trunk Show at Oaklandish - Debut of Fall Collection!

We're celebrating spring with a last minute Spring Trunk Show at Oaklandish this Saturday from 12-3pm at 1444 Broadway in Oakland, California. We'll be debuting a new line of designs I've been working on the last several weeks.

I've made lots of new - Neoclassically inspired designs with front toggle clasps. I used to only do these on the Antiquity Collection, but they add such an elegance at an affordable price.

 

Above: Mother of Pearl Victorian Button, 1893 Worlds Fair Souvenir, Vintage French Tourist Medal.

I'm also using gold fill pocket watches, metallic watch dials and the result is rather pleasing. As the industrial age took hold, the Victorians became very nostalgic about nature. That tension is reflected in the beauty of the Victorian-revival dragonfly contrasted with the mechanical metallic watch dial. These new designs will be on our website next week.

Check for event updates on our events page!

Trunk Show at Oaklandish
Saturday, April 13 2013, 12-3pm
1444 Broadway,
Oakland Ca.

Urban Air Market - Spring Show SF
May 5, 2013, 11am-6pm
Hayes Valley: Octavia Blvd. @ Hayes
San Francisco, Ca.

PG&E Spring Bazaar
May 9, 2013, 11am-4pm
66 Beale St.
San Francisco, Ca.

Marin Open Studios
May 11 & 12, 2013, 11am-6pm
19 Caletta Ave.
San Anselmo, Ca.

Fairfax Festival
June 8 & 9, 2013
Fairfax, Ca. 

San Anselmo Art & Wine Festival
June 22 & 23, 2013
San Anselmo, Ca.

Rivertown Revival
July 20, 2013
Petaluma, Ca.

Willits Kinetic Carnivale
September 7 & 8, 2013
Willits, Ca.

SHOP NOW and save 15% with secret code: VICTORIA15
 
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Apple Pear Crisp, Holiday Shows, Winter Sale!

We've had a breath between summer and winter Compass Rose Design shows and have been enjoying settling into the winter weather. A quick announcement - we finally made enough spoon rings to list - I made my first a couple years ago and now they are finally available in our shop.  We'll also have them at our Holiday Open Studio.

Autumn and winter conjure many memories of baking Dutch deserts with my mom. We would buy fruit by the flat from Jelich Ranch, one of the last working fruit farms in San Mateo County until the resurgence of organic farming.  Mr. Jelich was a larger than life old school farmer and a man who refused to sell land his orchards to developers as Silicon Valley took root. We'd pull up to the fruit stand in my mom's old deisel and honk the horn to announce our arrival- old school local commerce. I remember Mr. Jelich - and the vintage crate stickers and occasional risqué vintage pinup on the wall of the old fruit sand. There is nothing better than a fig or apple or pear freshly cut open by Mr. Jelich - a secret handful of berries - just for you. But these times are passed, and what remains is recipes and memories. Here's an old clipping with the great man himself just as I remember him.

Winter baking is about family and memory. Warm smells of appelkoek (apple cake) and pear tart conjure images of warmth, motherlove, home and hearth. It has long been a dream of mine to have fruit trees, and we finally do. My favorite is the apple and asian pear - each branch grows a different variety thanks to the art of grafting. Though I'd love to bake up a tray of tarts, apple crisp is another classic favorite - all the sentimental enjoyment at a fraction of the effort!

Apple/Pear Crisp Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
• 5 cups apples (or mix of Asian pear and apple)
• squeeze of lemon (or lime)
• touch of citrus zest for top (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Peel and slice apples and pears. Sprinkle with citrus juice and cinnamon. Mix other ingredients and sprinkle on top of apples in greased 8x8x2 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 40-55 minutes or until top is slightly browned and carmelized.

The recipe is super simple and has lots of wiggle room!

 

I didn't have a lemon to squeeze on the apples and pears to keep them from oxidizing, so I just used some lime. Then I added a bit of lime zest to the top - just a touch for a delightful and subtle zing.

 

Quick and easy to make and SO delicious!!

I did a mix of asian pears and apples and it was amazing!!! Delicious to behold!


WINTER SALE!
20% off until 11/18/12 with secret code: SNOW20 at www.compassrosedesignjewelry.com 

Winter Events

Bazaar Bizaare Holiday Show
December 1 & 2, 2012, 11am-6pm
Concourse Exhibition Center EAST HALL
620 Seventh St., San Francisco, Ca.

Trunk Show at 416 Gallery
w/ Kingmond Young Photography
December 6, 2012
416 Cortland, San Francisco, Ca.

Compass Rose Design Holiday Open Studios
December 8 & 9, 2012, 10am - 6pm
San Anselmo, Ca.
email for directions

Nightlife at the Academy
December 13, 2012, 6-10pm
California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, Ca.

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A Brief History of Buttons

Victorian Buttons & Necklace

I love making antique and Victorian button jewelry. Searching for Victorian buttons for my antique button jewelry is one of my favorite adventures. Discovering jars at estate sales and hidden corners of junk shops and sorting them into colors and eras and designs is deeply satisfying.

Buttons were invented in the Bronze Age. Their earliest use in Ancient Greece, the Indus Valley and China was as ornament rather than fastener. 

15th Century Button from the UK

Buttons of bone, shell and horn are some of the earliest found. Ornamental shell buttons have been found in the Indus Valley made around 2000 BC.

Functional buttons, buttons as technology, appeared in Medieval Europe along with closer fitting garments of the 13th century on. Though the hook and eye closure was in use by the 14th century in England, in the mid 19th century

1850-1900 Buttons

steel hook closures enabled tighter lacing.

Designs of the early Victorian era reflected the romantic notions of the young queen’s courtship and marriage and a fascination with natural history.  Love tokens, travel charms and other symbol-laden, sentiment-infused jewelry was popular from 1830 through the end of the 19th century. 

Mass production methods in the 1800s popularized the use of steel picture buttons on women’s and children’s clothing from the 1860s into the Edwardian era. Victorian pictures buttons, often with multiple layers, featured detailed scenes from Classical art and European fairytales.  

Gown with Buttons, 1870-80s

Natural and romantic designs - botanical scenes, animals were common. Most buttons were made of steel, brass, mother of pearl, wood, or horn. The patterns and detail can be stunning and intricate.  

With the death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria adorned herself in black Whitby jet mourning jewelry, causing the rest of the nation to do the same. Jet is a hard, deep black material formed when wood petrifies under pressure in the presence of salt water.

The premium jet preferred by the Queen came from mines in Yorkshire, but was not affordable to most. Since the petrified wood jet was expensive, black glass buttons came into fashion to fulfill the need for strict rules of mourning attire in Victorian Europe.

One of Queen Victorian and Prince Albert's daughters, Princess Louise is pictured at right wearing a jet necklace and mourning

Princess Louis

attire after the death of her father.

The 1860s and 1870s was also the time of the Civil War in the United States. It was a time when most of the world was in revolution, tumult and mourning. Germany, Italy, France, Prussia, and other countries were formed and torn asunder in decades of upheaval as the modern world was born. As a result of widespread grief suffered by Royal family and families the world over, keepsake charms, lockets and other sentimental expressions of love and memory flourished throughout the Victorian era into the early 20th century.  

This pair of antique button earrings by Compass Rose Design is made with a pair of buttons with a beautifully detailed flower vase design set in brass filigree setting and accented with amber brown

Compass Rose Design Earrings

 czech glass crystal beads. 



See more Victorian Button Jewelry in the Compass Rose Design etsy shop.

We're also working with antique railroad uniform buttons, circa 1880- 1920. Some of our Antique Railroad Uniform Button Cuff Links were featured in a Valentine's Day treasury on etsy.

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NEW!!!! Compass Rose Design Direct Online Shop

Etsy has been so good to me, I love sending pieces all over the world - but the time and fees are adding up. Our friends at Timmy Mays set up a new online shop (which is awesome!) and inspired me to set up a direct shop as well.

The new shop is at www.shop.compassrosedesignjewelry.com


How is the New direct shop different from the Etsy shop?

• No Etsy signup required - All you need is a paypal account.
• The direct shop will have the full collection, where Etsy has limited line.
• Etsy gets so flooded and I want to make it easy for folks to find me.
• Etsy has lots of fees, so I can offer lower prices at the Compass Rose Design online shop.

So...wider selection, easier to find, lower prices - you can't go wrong!!!

I'll be adding items frequently for the holidays - feel free to make requests.

Shop before December 31, 2010 and receive 10% off the entire store when you enter XMAS10 at checkout!

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Announcing.... Compass Rose Design Bracelets

I tend to make things I like, and haven't yet found the right bracelet fixin's until recently. But, I've gotten a lot of requests for bracelets at various shows, and I finally got my supplies in. Today I did bracelets with vintage watch movements, antique buttons and typewriter keys.











































I'll be posting these at my etsy shop soon and am sure to make more - especially considering the mass produced but expensive crud available at SkyMall.