Vintage Wooden Jewelry

You can find wooden jewelry made at any time period but a lot of the pieces that you will see come from the era of the 1940's. During World War II there was a shortage of metals. Aluminum was heavily used in costume jewelry in the 1920's-early 40's but when war broke out it became more important to use the metal for building military equipment. Jewelers and artist started to look at other materials such as wood (I'll get into Bakelite later) to create jewelry. The piece featured to the left is an amazing example of a carved wooden piece. The saddle is made of one piece of wood with burned designs that were done by hand, tiny leather accents, and hand carved boots. I collect these piece not only because they are unique but because it reminds me of a generation that made due and continued to create even in the midst of war.