ROGERS NICKEL SILVER

These are some of the bracelets I made out of the beautiful silverware pattern I found the other day. I always buy silver plate and as I was cutting these I noticed that they said Rogers Nickel Silver on the back, I keep looking on line for the name
of the pattern and every picture I find says the same thing-pattern unknown, its hard to believe that on the world wide web there isn't one site that has the name and the year this was made. I've spent many hours searching, I am not giving up, if anyone out there knows this pattern please let me know.

                SILVERWARE SHOPPING

Every other Wednesday I take a ride to see my
silverware guy. He is a retired antique dealer
and still sells all sorts of things. Today I spent two hours rooting through twenty boxes of vintage silverware and came home with 158 pieces, 14 of them were of this pattern. Of course I couldn't find the pattern in my sixty-five page bible, there are quite a few that are very similar but not exact. Tomorrow I will
begin to clean them up and transform them
into something beautiful. Pictures to follow!                              twitter.com/jmillerdesigns

           WILLIE WONKA'S GARDEN
This is a picture of the entrance of Willie Wonka's Garden at the NJ Flower and Garden Show which is going on right now at the Convention Center in Edison, hosted by Mac Events. All of the gardens are so beautiful and there are vendors throughout with really unique items. So stop in tomorrow from 10 to 8 or Sunday from 11 to 6, you'll love it!

                           IT'S TIME!

Time, that is, for the 10th Annual New Jersey Flower and Garden Show, February 16 through 19, 2012 at the Convention Center in Edison, hosted by Mac Events. So to make sure I'm on time tomorrow to go over and start my setup I figured I'd pair watch faces with vintage spoons.
They are battery powered Geneva Quartz watches and really are fabulous with the bands made from old silverware. Stop in to the Flower show for a fresh breath of spring!

                              RADIANCE

This is one of my very favorite silverware patterns and up until yesterday I never knew it's name. It is called Radiance and was made in 1939 by the Crown Silver Plate Company. The detail intrigues me, all the beautiful little flowers. When I sell a piece at a show the client always asks what the pattern is and most of
the time I don't know. I've gotten info on some  pieces from the Restoration site but not enough and have never been able to find a book. Yesterday I continued my search online and typed in yet a different search term and -YAY-found a site that had 65 pages with pictures of every piece I've ever seen and hundreds of others that I've never seen but will be on a quest to find.
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                        JACKPOT!!!

When I come home after shopping for vintage silverware I have a system,  I go through all of the brown paper bags that hold 20 each and lay them out in 2's, each of these pairs will be cut for a bracelet, when I'm finished sorting, all the other piles, for necklaces, rings and earrings go in a half box, the kind that you would get six packs in and they are stored in my downstairs studio (my half of the garage). So as I'm prepping for this 4 day Flower and Garden show and realizing that I'm out of pairs for bracelets and have no time to shop for them I figure Oh well, it is what it is. Last night while straightening up my upstairs studio (the converted extra bedroom) I come upon a large plastic shopping bag that I had shoved on a shelf, well low and behold there were 143 pieces of silverware in there! I love it when I do something out of context and it turns out to be beneficial!      twitter.com/jmillerdesigns

CRANBERRY SAUCE SPOONS     I just love these serving spoons! My antique guy Alex told me that this spoon was used to cut and serve cranberry sauce, the premise being that the juice would drip through the cutouts and not get your other food wet. After doing some research on William Rogers Manufacturers I found out that these spoons are actually Tomato servers or Casserole spoons depending on the pattern. Interesting! I have been turning these into beautiful pendants that are certainly a conversation piece and just look stunning on anyone. They are not easy to come by but I keep Alex on the hunt for me and I'm always delighted when he finds me one with a different look.

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