I recently found a vintage Friends of NRA committee member pin on Etsy for a steal, and I’d like to clean it up and do something cute with it. For this year, I’ll stick to just wearing it as-is. I’d like to do something crafty with it, but I don’t actually know how to make jewelry, nor am I particularly creative.
In the meantime, I went surfing on Etsy again for a little gun jewelry inspiration and found some pretty stuff worth sharing.
Right now, I’m thinking charm bracelet for my new (old) pin. I suspect that’s something I could manage to make on my own without too much effort.
In other antique gun news, the city of Harrisburg is having an auction to rid itself of all the crap that a former MAIG mayor bought on the city’s dime while claiming it was for a museum. (Last year, the Department of Justice opened up an investigation into his questionable spending, so he’s another misbehaving Bloomberg ally.) Part of the collection is a series of antique firearm advertisements, plus several historic guns.
Nice finds, and good luck with the bracelet! Re that auction, first gun (Wyatt Earp’s) was apparently stolen… GOOD way to start… And I’m not impressed with the quality I saw.
Hmmmm…could we get the mayor on violating lost & stolen? ;)
And a 25% buyer’s premium for internet bids? Auction house must be owned by Friends of the Mayor.
It would be expected to see buyer’s premium at 15% and seller’s premium at 15% for total fees of about 30% paid to the auctionhouse (that’s how they cover all the overhead costs of running an auctionhouse). Instead, those site links show 25% due from the buyer and none from the seller. The auctionhouse is not exploiting.
That would make sense since the city’s goal is to get as much money back as possible from the crap their mayor spent tax dollars on. In some cases, they are real antiques. In others, they are junk copies. The city probably realizes that they can’t afford a seller’s premium. It sucks if you want to buy something from the city via auction, but that’s on the city rather than the auction house. Given the sparse crowds of only about 3 dozen people at the live auction, I would say that the city has a right to fear the outcome.
Thanks so much for the compliment and feature on one of my Outlaw Glam creations. Your pin sounds cool, I hope you find a fabulous way to upcycle it :)
Best wishes,
Tonya Boezi
Secret Garden Notes
You’re welcome! Your work is lovely, and I hope you can grab more sales from the link here.