Treasure Hunting Thursdays: There's A Secret In These Spoons

I've decided to devote Thursday blog posts to treasure hunting. If you're familiar with my blog you probably figured out right away that treasure hunting for me means thrift store shopping, flea markets, used book sales, the occasional auction or estate sale, and even eBay finds. Yay! 

So from now on I am going to try to make it a point to reserve Thursday blog posts for sharing my most awesome finds and treasure hunting tips and adventures. Of course, not all treasure hunting days are a win, but there's always something good in every day; interesting and funny things I find along the way, so I will share those things here. And I want to hear about your own treasure hunting travels too! So please be sure to leave comments after the post, and do share with us your best and most interesting treasure hunting finds. More about the spoons pictured above in a little bit...but first...

This past weekend we had our first snow storm of winter (finally!) We got over 30 inches of snow!  

This was the view looking into my front yard during the storm. It looks like powdered sugar!

I had my daughters for the weekend and we planned to cook and bake lots of great things. These were what everyone wanted: Elephant Ear Cookies! I hadn't make them for a long time and I think they disappeared instantly! I'll post the recipe in the next day or two. If you've never had them you're missing out, because they are an amazing combination of cinnamon and sugar mixed with a yeast dough pastry, and the texture is just out of this world! So get a pack of yeast and some parchment paper for baking and check back in a day or two for the recipe. (find it here)

During the storm I found Sam asleep on top of a tall bookcase in my workshop. My cats follow me around all day and love to hang out with me when I'm working in my workshop. I just love how he covers his face with his paw when he sleeps :)

Now back to those spoons...

Here they are. Five of them. Ornate handles. Perfect for making into jewelry. Or are they? 

I bought these spoons in an eBay auction that was a box lot of maybe 15-20 pieces of various patterned silverplated spoons and forks for about $10.00. I bought them a long time ago and stashed them away. Then later pulled them out to maybe make them into some jewelry. But on closer inspection...

I found they were solid sterling silver! Wow! I had no idea, and apparently neither did the person who sold them to me. I'm guessing they didn't bother to check the marks on the backs of the spoons.

They are marked "International Sterling". "International" is the manufacturer name, and "Sterling" is well, sterling silver. Flatware cannot be marked "sterling" unless it is solid sterling silver. Any other flatware is silver plated, coin silver, or if its modern, is most likely stainless steel. Also, just for a bit of trivia, there is no such thing as "sterling silver plated" because something cannot be marked sterling unless it is sold sterling silver through and through. 

The value of these five spoons? Around $200.00!

Lesson for the day: if you're selling something, always check first to make sure it not a valuable antique. Same goes for if you are going to use something that is old as a craft material!  

See all of my jewelry making videos here 

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Laura

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Article copyright ©Laura Beth Love 2022 and may not be republished in print or other media without express written permission from the author. For any link updates or corrections leave correct info in comment area

Refreshed

So glad to be back to my little blog and working again - this winter I made like a bear and hibernated most of the season...but am back with lots of new pretty things and a refreshed Etsy store with tons of new stock! (Check it out below!)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Note the new Etsy store name - missing the letter "a" in Dishfunctional - but alas, Etsy only allows so many character spaces for shop names....so I am without the a, but still dishfunctional if even now more so...

I actually had one of the very first shops on Etsy way way back when they first began. At the time, I had been a steady eBay seller for many years (I started selling my broken china jewelry on eBay in 1999) Since then, I've amassed over 5,000 positive eBay feedback - the number they show is 3,788 give or take a few, as ebay no longer counts additional feedback from returning customers - a bummer for sellers, but what can you do?

In any case, I closed my Etsy store after the first year, as I found I was spreading myself too thin, trying to supply both eBay and Etsy with new stock on a constant basis. Now times have changed. I've found the handcrafted market on eBay to be too ...well, too complicated. Fees and rules are always changing, I get phone messages on my answering machine from eBay associates trying to sell me new features, etc etc... I figure it this way, life is hard enough, why complicate things? I'm still a registered eBay seller - I haven't cut the cord completely, but am definitely shying away from the eBay marketplace. My new items will now be listed on etsy on a regular basis!