Thursday, January 25, 2018

Let's Fly Away - The Juliana Figural Bird Pendant Necklaces

Watch Owl Pendant
White Washed Owl Pendant
Today we will continue on with the bird pendant necklaces.  Most of  these are what is often called Last Generation pieces and most are owls.  Many can be found in my book Juliana Jewelry - The Last Generation.  The first one we will talk about is an unusual one. It is an owl pendant with a watch in the center of it.  You will see that it is a variation on a regular pendant owl.

The 2nd one is a variation on the owl watch.  You will also see that the metal has had a white wash done to it.  In Mr DeLizza's book on page 113 he talks about how the white wash treatment was done.  They first did it on the elephant and donkey pendants they made and then later when they made the owls they used the same treatment.  Not all of the owls are white washed.  They are also gold or silver toned.
Period Reproduction
NOT a Juliana Owl
Close up of incorrect tail linkage (green)
and correct tail linkage (red)

One extremely important thing to know when identifying these owl designs is that the connector for the tail must be a fold over piece of flat metal and not just a metal loop.  The ones with a metal loop are period copies, not Juliana (D and E) originals.

Large Looped Owl
Small Looped Owl
Our next owls will be the looped owls.  They are made with metal loops with rhinestone accents.  There are small and large ones of this design.  They date to the early 1970's and are shown in Mr DeLizza's book on page 105.  These owls have folded over flat metal holding the loops together and tassels for a tail.  Found in other color combinations.

The next owl is a large cast design with a large cabochon body.  Again it has the same fold over metal holding on the tail.
Rhinestone Body Owl

Heat Formed Plastic Owl
Wood and Heat Formed
Plastic Owl
The next owl is one that would fit well in the blog I did about heat formed plastic Juliana (D and E) jewelry  Juliana Heat Formed Plastic Jewelry Blog Post.  It uses heat formed plastic instead of rhinestones. The final owl is one I have shown before in the blog I did about the Juliana wood jewelry. Juliana Wooden Jewelry - Blog Post.

So as you can see owl pendants were very popular in Juliana designs but other birds not so much.  The only non owl pendant I know of is the thunderbird pendant which has a cabochon center and metal with heart scrollwork.  Next week we will take a little break from figurals and talk about the geode jewelry that Juliana (D and E) did.
Thunderbird Pendant