Hand Painted Nippon China Treasure!!

When I was at the Manasquan Craft/Antique Show on the 3rd of August, I met quite a few of the other vendors, who took breaks from their spots and walked around to see what everyone else was selling. One of the ladies showed quite a bit of interest in my broken china jewelry. Towards the end of the day, she came over to me holding something wrapped up in newspaper and said "Here's a donation for you". I had such mixed feelings when I saw what she was carrying. It was a small pitcher that she had brought to the show to sell that had somehow been broken during the day. It was in quite a few pieces. I was so sorry to see such a beautiful little pitcher lying in pieces and so sorry for the woman who had lost such a valuable item. But I was so happy to know that I was being given the broken pieces!

The little pitcher was hand painted Nippon china, rimmed in gold and such a beautiful pattern. Nippon (which means simply "Japan") china was manufactured from 1865 to 1921 and is one of the most highly collectible antique china. Now this little pitcher, that made it through so many years only to break into pieces in Manasquan, will now be transformed into some very unique pieces of jewelry.

I broke the pieces into some smaller sections yesterday and now I'll start filing and lacquering them. Here's a photo of the best of the broken pieces that I'll be using.


I see several pendants. I see a brooche. And earrings. And a small piece for a wire crochet bracelet. And a couple that would look lovely at the end of a wire crochet necklace. Some of the pieces are in unique shapes since the pattern wrapped around the square edges of the pitcher. The flower piece with the gold trim on top that is in the middle of the photograph is actually the spout of the pitcher. I may not start on these right away. I want to wait until I'm feeling particularly creative because these are indeed special shards of broken china.