The Jewelry Edit: Mystery Bag Adventures

While my style has remained relatively consistent in recent years, subtle shifts are still happening all the time. That is the nature of any creative pursuit; it is not a sealed vacuum where everything remains perfectly static. Small changes can create a domino effect as well. Recently, I’ve found myself reaching for different jewelry pieces than in the past; more minimalist and classic necklaces and earrings, in particular. Think pearls, diamond tennis bracelets, simple studs and gold hoop earrings, and so on. (Along with watches, obvi.) It was not a conscious decision, and it didn’t immediately dawn on me that this was even happening, but once I noticed the trend, I also realized that it had a direct correlation to the shift in my personal style that led me to incorporate 90s minimalist and classic preppy influences into my outfits.

Naturally, the first thing to do was go through my jewelry collection and start pulling out older pieces that fit my new ‘mood-board’, most of which I hadn’t worn since the early 2010s — the last time I was into delicate, minimalist jewelry. I am very happy that Old Adina bought a few Tiffany pieces back in the day when their silver jewelry cost half what it does now; the designs are simple and pretty timeless, and while I was previously saving them for my daughter, I think I’ll be keeping (and wearing them) myself for a little while longer. Ditto for some other semi-fine pieces, like silver ball stud earrings, that I bought back in the days when I was trying to curate a collection of classic staples. I still subscribe to the concept that ‘nothing is truly timeless’, but maybe jewelry is the closest thing to an exception. I also began to look at the thrifts for a few items with which to update my jewelry collection. I bought a couple of choker-length pearl necklaces, and a pair of chunky gold huggie earrings. As it often happens, as soon as I started looking for minimalist stuff, it seemed as though all I could find was the opposite. I’m sure, with time, I’ll have more luck — such being the nature of thrifting.

Strangely enough, thrifting did end up contributing to my current jewelry line-up in a rather roundabout way. Having been sucked down the rabbit hole of thrift haul reels on Instagram, I ended up watching a bunch of videos of people unpacking jewelry mystery bags. Basically, these are large containers full of assorted jewelry that either didn’t sell as individual pieces on the thrift store floor (or showcase) or were never properly sorted and merchandised in the first place. I imagine that thrift stores get such large quantities of small accessories that they sometimes don’t bother to individual sort, price, and stock everything in the store. These mystery bags/jars/containers are usually transparent but sealed up; you can sort of see what’s inside but not really, and you can’t pick through them before you buy. I haven’t bought one of these myself in the past because I always assumed they’d be largely full of junk, and they’re not cheap — most start at $30 and go up from there — but some people are finding decent stuff, along with the junk.

Anyway, after watching these videos, two things happened. One, I started to consider buying one from my local thrift store. (Of course I did, I love mystery bags. My inner child delights in surprises, even as the adult hates the idea of wasting money and cluttering my house with junk.) I haven’t yet, but never say never. Two, I remembered that, years ago, I put aside a bunch of jewelry that I thrifted (or was given by people) for the purpose of upcycling. Remember when I used to make upcycled jewelry? It’s been a hot minute. Well, I went down into the basement to dig up my craft boxes and see what I had forgotten I had. And the first thing I found was … wait for it … a plastic bag full of miscellaneous jewelry.

Now, this wasn’t the typical stuff I was using before for upcycling. This was stuff that I got as part of larger lots, which was too nice to upcycle but didn’t suit my style at the time. And, boy, am I glad that I had the foresight to put it aside and save it — rather than donate or swap — because I found some pieces that are totally up my (current) alley.

This is practically identical to one of the necklaces I thrifted recently, except that the clasp is gold not silver. If I had found it first, I would have saved myself the extra $6, but it is what it is. It’s not a bad thing to have a back-up, and the pearls are actually slightly different colours also.

A slightly different take on pearls; less classic, but I like the dainty details.

This long necklace of faux baroque pearls and marcasite has no markings or stamps, but it has a nice weight to it and feels like good quality. Hard to tell if it’s vintage, but it’s definitely above your run-of-the-mill fast fashion.

I love the vintage vibe of this necklace. The beads are plastic/resin but from a distance they could pass for stones. In my book, knots between the beads are a sign of slightly better quality — plus, I think they help to make the necklace stronger/ less prone to breakage.

This teeny watch, featuring a mother of pearl face and marcasite embellished silver tone band, has bracelet-stack potential. I do need to figure out if I can take out a link or two in the band, as it’s currently too large for my wrist.

I am not 100% sure this beaded necklace is something that suits my current style, but it’s giving me 90s vibes so for that reason, I decided to pull it out and give it a trial run.

These little hoop earrings with interchangeable charms are just perfect. No notes.

Lastly, a couple of smaller pieces — a simple rhinestone brooch, and a silver-tone chunkier necklace. The latter is always nice to have on hand, as I have quite a few silver pendants that I can rotate through.

There were other things in my home-made mystery bag, which I’ve put back and tucked away for the future. If this has taught me anything, it’s that Future Adina will love to re-discover this little time capsule at some point. And I’ve made another one too … from all the pieces I decided it was time to edit out of my current collection. Having realized that change is afoot, it makes good sense to assess what no longer serves me fully and make room for the new by removing some of the old.

I started with my necklace collection; took everything out, looked it over, identified what I have not been wearing for a while. I made three piles: donate, offer to my daughter, put aside for the future. Here are the pieces that I’m moving out of my current rotation but keeping:

The long colourful necklace on the top left side is going to my daughter, but everything else is going into storage. I can see myself wearing these again — particularly the Alexis Bittar necklaces on the right — so they’re keepers.

I don’t wear chunky colourful statement necklaces very often anymore, but I did keep a few for the rare occasions that call for them. These ones did not make the cut, but I still like them a lot, and think they have potential to swing back in style for me.

I thrifted a lot of Stella & Dot pieces over the years, but as time goes on, I have been moving away from this style of costume jewelry. I already pared down my collection over the last few years, and these are some of the last remaining pieces that I don’t wear but am not quite ready to let go. I’m putting these in a separate bag, and will reassess next year whether I want to keep holding on to them or not.

This ended up being a long-overdue (jewelry) closet edit that brought some much-needed organization to my collection — a good reminder not to forget that accessories, like clothes, benefit from periodic review. Speaking of which, I really should tackle my belt drawers next … but I’m not sure I’m ready for the extra difficult decisions involved in that particular project 😉