Introduction

Hello and a very Happy New Year to all,

my name is Chillibear also known as Evelyn and I live in the Fraser Valley, about an hour inland from Vancouver, on Canada's West Coast. Came here 41 years ago from Germany. I have worked in the hotel business, in medicine and my favorite job was in the fashion business in Paris in the late 60's early 70's.

My interest in antiques started when "garage sailing" to find furnishings for my new place after splitting up with my husband and leaving everything behind. I realized that this "old" stuff already stood the test of time and therefore will certainly also survive my 2 children, which cannot be expected of new furniture these days. And the prices were so reasonable! In the 90's I couldn't find any work around here so I went "self employed" and had a large antique store.

In 1999 when I still had my store in our quaint historic downtown, my next door neighbor vintage clothing store owner and I decided to do a X-Mas fundraiser for a local charity. She had the clothes and I had the space (10,000 sqft) so we put on a fashion show titled "through the decades" to round out the 20th century in style. To keep everything as original as possible, we needed the help of a 3rd person for the accessories. That's when I met my friend Bonnie who had been collecting these things and in particular vintage jewelry for about 30 yrs at that time and had tens of thousands of pieces from all eras to choose from. What an eye opener it was for me when she showed me a piece of Sherman, the construction, the workmanship and the beauty of the crystals and I never looked back.

Needless to say that Sherman is one of my favorite designers but I also am very partial to Boucher and Coro but generally all over the map. I turned out to become a bit of a crow in disguise because anything that blings would attract my attention and I have been collecting VCJ ever since but intend to start selling some of it as soon as I retire, which should be in a few months if all goes well, just for something to do and keep me busy and for extra income which I will need.

I'm also collecting bits and pieces of Art Deco and Nouveau, love Art Glass and bronze, Poole pottery, head vases, perfume bottles, and the list goes on...............

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Thanks for letting me join your group.

Chillibear

 

Welcome, Chillibear!

 

Welcome, Chillibear! What a fascinating story!

 

Hey Chillibear! Glad you joined. There are a few of us from BC here. I live in Victoria on the Island.

 

Hello and welcome !!

 

Hi Chillibear,
Welcome to the forum. We have several jewelry mavens here but more are welcome. We like to gawk at jewelry,wink wink. I am happy that you have discovered us.
greg

 

Welcome!

 

Hi Chilibear !

 

Greetings Chillibear!

 

Welcome, Chillibear -- sounds like you have a diversity of interests!

 

Welcome! This is a pretty nice place to hang your hat!

 

Welcome aboard !!!!!

 

Welcome...! You will love it here....

 

Welcome; I'm in Seattle but I get up to Vancouver about twice a year.

 

well.....I'm overwhelmed with your gracious welcome, thank you all. I'm sure I will enjoy hanging around this board, so many nice people here
Right now I don't have too much spare time to be very active here but that will change hopefully soon when I retire from my day job. Until then I'll be doing some lurking if you don't mind. Thanks again!

 

A warm welcome Chillibear...loved reading your bio.
Hopefully you will oneday share some of your treasures.

 

Lurk away until you have more free time. It is the beauty of this forum! Welcome, and glad to have you join us.