Thursday, May 28, 2009

Buried Treasures

In a day's time, there are going to be some 300-400 children and youth milling around me and I'm going to wonder where my sanity is. In short, I'm festival staff in the upcoming Malaysian Choral Eistedfodd and 7th Young Singers Choral Festival which starts on Saturday. The competition involves the secondary school choir I've been tutoring for the last few months - that's one worry there already! - but in the Festival, I'm going to be sectional leader for the altos and that's even more of a worry. Why? Because this year we're attempting to sing a few selections out of Handel's Coronation Anthems.

If unexplained, screechy thundery sounds drift through in the next few days, it's probably me trying to get the young 'uns to sing properly. Apologies in advance, especially if it leads to thunderstorms.

However, today I finally found time to go through a stash of vintage beads I inherited a few years back - and I discovered buried treasure. Literally!





Vintage crystal chaton montees - in their original packaging! And more than one, I might add. There are several different colours, some are in plastic bags and those I suspect are probably glass since they don't have the sparkle of the crystal ones, but they have patina'd so beautifully, all it took was a polish of the stones and they still look good.


Some of the other treasure finds: vintage lucite beads, more chatons and some other beads which could be glass or crystal. I don't know. They just look gorgeous though!

I got all of these from a family member - a very elegant lady who used to have her clothes tailored in Hong Kong back in her heyday. I know the beads were bought in Hong Kong; I've got some of her dresses and every single one of them is embroidered with a selection of all these different chatons and beads. They're top-quality, that I know - she wasn't one who would settle for second-rate stuff. And that's not counting the bags and bags of seed beads, faux pearls, and other silver-lined bugle beads and things that are in those 15lbs of inheritance!

I can't -wait- to do something with these lovely shinies. Deryn Mentock's beautiful jewellery has given me some ideas, but they may have to percolate over the course of the competition and the festival. Ahh well - it'll distract me so I don't murder anyone in the course of the week from sheer frustration...

8 comments:

Shay Stone said...

Oh you are a stronger woman than I! Good luck with all those yougins and have fun.
I can't wait to see what you make with your recently unburied treasures:)

Mystic Indigo said...

Oh, can't wait to see what you do with them!! Hope it goes well with the kids...hugs and support from the States...

Life for Beginners said...

When buried treasures are uncovered, new magic is unraveled; you create fresh beauty from what was lost and now found...

... I can't wait to see what you do with them either! :)

Snickering Corpses said...

I shall pray for your sanity while dealing with the young folk. They can be nerve-wracking but rewarding.

Do you know what sort the green faceted beads in the metal mounts in the top right of the last photo are? I remember having some of those when I was little, which were probably leftovers from one of my grandmother's craft projects.

Swati said...

LOL! Have fun with all the 300-400 kids!

Daniel said...

I just became a facebook fan of yours :)

Gini said...

What a treasure trove of goodies! And I assume, as you are not currently blogging from prison, you made it through the event without murdering anyone...good show of restraint! LOL

Deryn Mentock said...

Oh, lucky girl!!