Hunting for the best vintage lockets for Luna & Stella at the Brimfield antique fair, we really had to bundle up. It was awfully cold (and muddy) for May.
Ever since Suzanne first admired the nearly invisible hinges that characterized the old, handmade lockets, she wanted to offer lockets at Luna & Stella. At first, she investigated whether hinges like that were being made today. They weren’t. So she started an antique and vintage line to complement the way her contemporary birthstone jewelry preserves customers’ special memories.
The best place to start the hunt for vintage is at the Brimfield, Mass., antique fair, a mega event that occurs three times a year and involves thousands of dealers. According to one website, the show extends about a mile along both sides of Route 20 and several hundred yards back from each side of the road.
The dealers are not all selling lockets or even antiques. The event is also a flea market. You can find pretty much anything there. All that stuff you give to the Goodwill, or even throw out because it’s broken, could easily be displayed here with a price tag. It doesn’t even have to be old. People will buy anything.
I had never been on any of Suzanne’s Brimfield expeditions, and as my sister was interested, I decided it was time. Alas, at the last minute, my sister was not able to make the trip. Getting to see pictures is not the same as being in those crazy crowds, eating at food trucks, and using Port-a-Potties, but it will have to do for now. It was definitely fun to see Suzanne in action. She was like a bloodhound on the scent, and I hope my sister will get a chance to watch her in action another time.
Here are a few photos. If a dealer has a dinosaur, you can bet it will get displayed prominently on the roadside. I noticed that the one below eventually talked Lady Liberty into hanging out.
One thing you can do at Brimfield is get ideas here for the stuff you have at home. For example, if you have a fake rhino head collecting dust in your attic, you might want to spray it gold.
I sent Stuga40 the picture of the Swedish tent. Here’s what she said about the clocks, moraklocka: “Mora is a small city in Darlicalia (Dalarna). These clocks were painted and decorated by peasant artists. There are certain areas in Sweden like Dalarna and Hälsingland where the ‘kurbits’ type of painted furniture is found. The red ‘dalahäst‘ [or wooden horse is] painted in this style and now used as a souvenir from Dalarna and Sweden.”
I loved the morning-glory look of the old Victrola. The quilt picture is for a few of my favorite readers.
The last photo is from the rural B&B where we spent a night. We needed the quiet haven after all the crowds.
You can read about the event here and get “tips on surviving Brimfield” here.
Yikes! I’ve always wanted to go to Brimfield but I’m not sure I could bear the crowds. Is there any kind of order, to help people find the sort of goods they’re most interest in? Or did you and Suzanne have to look at very single booth? The quilts are beautiful! I love that wedding ring one at the top.
You can get a booklet locating the booths, but I’m not sure if it helps. Some dealers had to relocate Tuesday because of the mud. Suzanne learned who carries good lockets by trial and error. Nowadays, she goes straight to “her” dealers.
What a day! Suzanne sounds as though she has well-honed talents for finding lockets. I am always amazed that no matter the profession, it involves lots of work and practice to be good. I suppose inclination helps, but there is no substitute for hard work.
Learning who were the best dealers for her purposes took time, but she is really good at finding beautiful lockets now.
Expertise always takes time.
I love the giant time pieces as well–definitely a fantasy-novel feel to them. I’ll have to go to this one day. (Your recommendation to spraypaint the rhino head gold made me laugh.)
It’s not far from you. Park at Hitchcock Community Academy for $10. Decent bathrooms. I also saw $5 parking with bathrooms a bit earlier on route 20. The port a potties we used were actually kept very clean by a hardworking woman.
Oh …quilts! Looks like it would have been the perfect day to wrap up in one!
I did actually see someone who appeared to have bought a blanket to go around in.