Vintage Attachments

I love that it is still possible to find genuine vintage items in charity thrift stores. These items are getting more and more scarce, it’s true, but for the dedicated treasure-hunter, there are delightful discoveries every now and then.

Screw-back earrings are accessories that seem so quaintly old-fashioned. Actually, they have not been around that long: they were only invented in 1894, while the clip earring appeared forty years later in 1934; the latter subsequently became the favoured option for women with unpierced ears.

Past experience with a pair of ceramic earrings had taught me that screw-backs were painful, but when I found these 1940s or 50s earrings in a charity store, I couldn’t resist purchasing them. They were so pretty, made of lightweight seed beads forming a knot. I paid only a few dollars for them, and happily, they turned out to be quite comfortable to wear.

The secret to wearing screw-backs is in tightening them just enough to bear the weight of the materials. In my experience, if the earrings are heavy they are going to hurt your ears after a while no matter how they are attached. (If you can’t try them on, weigh them in your hand.)

I wasn’t put off by the tarnished base metal either (earring backs can be cleaned easily with some methylated spirits), and it is the age of the earrings that delights me. I love knowing that vintage items have stories attached to them – even if I don’t know the stories themselves.

Photo: April 2016