Vintages is now carrying creative art soldering kits. These are great for creating pendants, charms and jewelry. The kit comes complete with: soldering iron specific to this type of soldering, coil spring iron stand, acid free flux, lead-free silver solder, copper foil tape, two holding clamps, assorted jump rings, four sets of glass and instructions on soldering basics and safety information. We have an instructional DVD and a great book on soldering to get you going on a new level. The interactive DVD is like taking a solder art class, with the instructor guiding you step by step through the soldering process. It is broken into categories and you can play any section as many times as you want. Professionally filmed, the DVD has great close-ups showing you the techniques that are hard to explain and includes clip art and three guided design projects to help inspire your creativity! The book contains much of the instruction that is on the DVD as well as a lot of information on to...

Jonas Eisenberg immigrated to the United States in 1880 from his native Austria. Settling in Chicago, he founded his fashion company in 1914. Eisenberg & Sons designed, made and sold high quality ready-to-wear clothing. Around 1930, to enhance the sale of dresses, they introduced jewelry accents. The jewelry was sold with the garment, but was also sold individually in a blue velvet box marked Eisenberg & Sons Originals. The jewelry was so popular that Eisenberg stopped selling clothing in 1958 and concentrated just on the jewelry. The spectacular costume jewelry was probably the best produced during its heyday. These large, ostentatious jewels have become the definitive statement of crystal rhinestone jewelry. Eisenberg employed only the finest workmanship and materials available. They used Swarovski Austrian crystals and rhinestones, the best plating and metalworking techniques available, and other high quality materials that made their jewelry expensive even when orig...

With the Fall Holiday season just around the corner, it’s time to check out the glitz! If you have diamonds, wear them. If you don’t, then crystal rhinestone jewelry fits the bill. rhinestone NOUN: an imitation diamond used in costume jewelry and to decorate clothes. ORIGIN: late-19th century, translating French caillou du Rhin , literally pebble of the Rhine . The history of this queen of all faux diamond-like stones seems a bit murky, considering the brilliance of jewelry grade crystal rhinestones. Somewhere back in time, rock crystals found in the Rhine River were harvested to create usable and decorative objects and as the base for blown glass from Bohemia and Austria. Around 1775, an Alsatian jeweler, Georg Friedrich Strass, came up with a method of coating the underside of faceted glass with metal powder to imitate diamonds. Ahhh … the beginning of glitz! In Victorian times, a common alternative method of making rhinestones involved a ground glass paste that was molded, cut ...

The Annual Los Gatos Art & Wine Festival -- Fiesta de Artes -- will be held at the Los Gatos Civic Center grounds this weekend, August 15th & 16th from 10am to 6pm both days. A Los Gatos Town tradition for over 30 years, the 2009 Fiesta will be the 13th event sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Los Gatos. The Fiesta is a venue for artisans, vintners, micro-brewers, entertainers, merchants and visitors from all over the San Francisco Bay Area. Join us for two days of music, art, crafts, food and wine. When you are done having a great time at the Fiesta, come on down to Vintages and see what's new, or just to say hi.

We have these really great programs from Paris Theaters in 1914. The photos are wonderful and the advertising is fantastic. I really liked these automobile ads. Hope you do too. These are a couple of ads for car parts, the one on the left is intriguing. And Sears & Roebuck is not to be outdone. This is a 1910 ad for a car made by Sears!

I came across this article in the New York Times about an exhibit in Paris at the Musee du Quai Banly devoted to Tarzan. His life, myth and character are examined (yes, examined!) through old comics, film clips, faux jungle sets and children’s action figures. Maybe a bit much, but interesting none-the-less. I did find this one image from the NYT article that I just had to pass along. This is an 1871 engraving entitled Man is Descended From the Apes by Georges Labadit, showing an ape reading Darwin. Mmmmmhhhhh! Makes one wonder .....