Vintage Glo - One-of-a-Kind Jewelry from Treasures Around the World

My best friend lived in a 3000 square foot Victorian House with a wraparound porch and fine antique furnishings inside.  I loved that house as a child and cherished the memory.  From then on, I have carried the love for old, worn, and unique things, anywhere from furnishings to trinkets.

—Gloria Bass—

Gloria Bass is the wife of a fireman and a stay-at-home mom who home schools her teenage daughter.  She has a hefty schedule volunteering in her community and designs beautiful vintage jewelry in her spare time.  She has only been designing and selling her jewelry a short while and has already sold quite a few pieces in select boutiques.  She has been featured in Ocean Magazine and Riviera Magazine.  Celebrities Gloria Loring, Anastasia Brown, Leeza Gibbons, and Cathy Rigby also own pieces from the Vintage Glo collection.

Bass combines old world charm with current runway trends to create the Vintage Glo collection.  She combs antique swap meets, boutiques, estate sales, and warehouses; and each hand-selected antique is given new life as Gloria works her magic to design her one-of-a-kind jewelry from her 'found' treasures spanning the globe.  She's even been known to purchase an entire chandelier in search of that one perfect piece.   You will find anything from key chains and antique ornaments to typewriter keys as main components to her vintage-inspired wearable art. 

In a recent interview with the creator of Vintage Glo, I asked Gloria to shed some light on her designs and how she got started.

Hi Gloria, I'd love to hear a little about you and how you started Vintage Glo.

I am married to a fireman for 18 years and [I have] a fifteen-year-old daughter.  I have been a stay-at-home mom the whole time, dabbling in different crafts and never dreamed I would be messing with jewelry.  I volunteer in the community and home school my daughter.

How did you get started doing jewelry?

I started making prayer books, like scrap books, and I embellished them with jewelry─old buttons, old clip on earrings.  I got away from that.  I knew I had to do something with the old because my house is filled with antiques.  It looks like a museum.  I started looking for jewelry and started making it.  I started making bracelets.  My sister was living with me at the time, and she is a web designer.  And as I started making this jewelry, I was producing all these pieces and gave them to her.  My sister insisted that we create a website and sell it.  She came up with the name Vintage Glo.  My nickname was Glo in high school.  After the website was done, she gave me all the pieces back and said, "Go sell them."  I went out to Irvine Swap Meet and laid my jewelry out and that's where I got my first offer to be in a store in Costa Mesa.  I approached more boutiques in the area.

So it's been pretty easy for you, then?

It's been really easy.

In more detail, tell me about your jewelry and what's involved in the construction.

I have made some pretty bizarre stuff, but people love it because it's out of the box.  I made a bracelet out of a door hinge. . .painted, rusted door hinge. And in the holes of that door hinge I had set some old loose rhinestones in the holes.  As far as chandelier pieces, I used that to embellish as well.  Typewriter keys. . .I typed someone's name with it. I even used a chain from a plant hanger. 

Were there any obstacles you encountered when starting your business?

I think basically getting the confidence from being out of the box so much.  People are so used to the norm.  Going out of the norm was pretty scary because I didn't know if people were as strange (or out of the box) as I was.  I love to be different.  That's why my house is full of one-of-a-kind knickknacks. . .furniture. . .I wasn't sure how people would respond to that.

When did you actually start selling?

May 2005

Would you say most of your success is through word-of-mouth and your website?

Yes, mostly through word-of-mouth and seeing it on other people.

What are your price points?

They range for the necklaces from $60-$120 retail.

 

Highest High

When I spoke to Anastasia, Gloria Loring, and Leeza Gibbons, and they loved the pieces.

Lowest Low

Sometimes when I am out there and I see people trying to create what I have already created, it bums me out.  But I realize that we have our own spin and nobody can get into my head and do what I do.  And that's been discouraging at some point.  [My lowest low] is when I see people trying to copy.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I can't imagine not creating my jewelry.  I hope that I am more successful and more well-known than I am now.  But I am proud of what I'm doing.

Any advice you'd like to give to someone trying to start their own jewelry line?

Stick with what you love.  People are always going to try to get you to [do what they think is cool].  Do what is in your creative heart.

Are you interested in mass producing?

I've been in eight boutiques.  I just decided to pull out of them.  It wasn't productive.  And I had to reproduce things. . .collecting checks. . .etc.  So, no.  I only kept one boutique, "Pink Laundry."

I don't look at magazines because I don't want to get off focus of what's in my own creativity.  Yet at the boutiques, they see my jewelry and comment on how my designs are what's totally in right now.  I will get up at 1:00 a.m. and I will run down to my studio if I have something in my head.

To learn more about Vintage Glo, visit www.vintageglo.com.

By Kaylene Peoples