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Want some wonderful color in your jewelry wardrobe?
Bakelite bangles will bring it with pizzazz! They can be worn in so many creative and colorful ways to reflect your own personality. Carved and buffed, over dyed and reverse carved, all kind of wonderful colored bangles were made of this amazing material. Stacked with other bangles and worn more than one at a time, they can be a real eye catcher. Come see all of ours, they are really fun!
The mixing and matching stacks of bangles is just part of the fun. One of my customers even mixes her bakelite bangles with sterling ones! It is such a pleasure deciding how to wear your bangles, and it is interesting to think that the earlier bangles will soon be antiques!
Bakelite jewelry was at it's zenith from the late 1920s till the start of WWII in 1942, and even after when Diane Von Furstenberg and Hattie Carnegie, among others, leant their names to this wonderful jewelry. The lack of money and need for inexpensive fun during the Depression era of the 1930s gave the whimsy, colorful and cheerful look of bakelite jewelry the perfect market. The sophisticated Deco and machine age look of some of the pieces made them fashion-forward.
OVERDYED or RESIN WASHED BAKELITE jewelry was finished with a layer of a darker or a different colored wash, creating what is called "resin washed" or "overdyed" bakelite. These pieces are some of my personal favorites. But testing resin washed pieces can be difficult as the wash tends to stop any oxidation at all. The ones shown here are genuine vintage bakelite.
One of the beautiful types of bakelite is called "Prystal", and people seem to have differing ideas of what the definition of "Prystal" really is. Wonderful contemporary bakelite jewelry artisan Kent Mundy of Butterfly Workshop shares his definition here. We thank him for his information, as well as for the wonderful bakelite treasures he has made. Kent says:
PRYSTAL & TRANSPARENT BAKELITE By Kent Munday
PRYSTAL These were original color formulations of the Catalin Corporation, post patent acquisition from the Bakelite Corporation in 1927. They are TRUE TRANSPARENTS, with zero marbling. Some may show unintentional inclusions, darker spots of unmixed dye streak etc.
THERE ARE 3 TYPES
~~~1. Colors you can see through unaided, or without backlighting. Over 50 distinct color variants are known in US production, with many more possible. Also, many dozens more from the very sophisticated French production.
~~~2. Colors that are very deep and saturated. These were early US productions from the 1930s, and meant to mimic the finest saturated, deep color gemstones. They are found in ruby, sapphire blue, cobalt blue, emerald, amethyst and others. These have been mistakenly misattributed and incorrectly described as "CHANGERS" but THEY ARE NOT. These are simply the sumptuous family of dark Prystals, which had only a few years production.
~~~3. Colors with foil inclusions, the "Stardust / Confetti" Prystals. By definition, also purely transparent, but with addition of a variety of types and sizes saturation of metallic foils and pastilles. No, real gold was never used. It is myth that these pieces can be dated to a of couple short years.
We venture next into the inks spots and remaining "transparent marbles". Then "translucent marbles" and "opaque marbles and "solid color translucents". Then "true, solid color opaques". Both tone and hue are also relevant to any scrutiny of color. Most people avoid this depth of technical analysis of color. All these factors are complicated by "original color", that color as originally cast, or restored to via abrasion and polish, versus "mature state" colors.
Only original colors can be accurately quantified as the many factors affecting surface oxidation color alteration are incalculable. One single formula of white, for example, can result in dozens of variant depth tones from the various oxidation factors. Apply this concept to the literally thousands of known formulations and you have endless color variety potential from this gem, like no other."
copyright by Kent Munday, Atelier Papillo
We thank Kent for his expertise!
You can BUY BAKELITE JEWELRY by clicking HERE.
Photos and information about vintage Bakelite is in our Jewel Chat Gallery HERE.
To see the most recent jewelry we have added on Morning Glory please click HERE.
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