After watching Agatha Christie's The Moving Finger, I developed a mild obsession with art deco bakelite jewelry. If you haven't seen Miss Marple produced in the 2000s, especially the first two season with Geraldin McEwan, I highly recommend them.

Along with a newly founded interest for Agatha Christie's murder mysteries, I've also started a modest collection of bakelite jewelry. They are just one of those things that I did not know existed, and then suddenly one day I could not live without them!

Today I want to share my modest bakelite collection and a bit of stories behind them. Hopefully, my collection will continue to grow in the new year!

These are a set of three bakelite bracelets. Mostly estate finds, the yellow ones for instance, was buried inside a box with other jewelry for years and years until someone discovered it. When I got these, the stretchy chord that hold the bracelets together have lost elasticity. This is a very easy fix, a trip to fabric store and a roll of colorful stretch chord later, I now have a brand new bracelet.

This is actually a set than belonged to a lady who was selling her great aunt's jewelry. I cannot understand people that sell family heirlooms, but it is such a wonderful set!

Cherry bakelite brooches are apparently very popular as they tend to sell for a high price, but not this one. It just doesn't belong to the typical collector's item list. It has a C clasp in the back, so I believe it is quite old, it's old, it's bakelite, and it's pretty, so that's all that matters to me!

Another family heirloom that belonged to a man's mother. I suppose if your mother wants to sell it and you have no female relative in the family to give it to, then off it goes for sale.  This is quite a statement piece, since my style is rather casual, I am still waiting for the day to take it out! Perhaps for a art show or a concert?

I wear these two necklaces the most often. The green necklace is the only one that took quite some internet search power to track down. I believe it's the same style of necklace that's worn by Emilia Fox in the Moving Finger. I was of course obsessed with it!

Finally, a couple of tips from the not so experienced bakelite buyer. Be thrifty! I have seen these necklaces costing from different dealers for ten times as much, while another dealer could sell for way less. It seems that bakelite prices are set much to the discretion of the seller.  While some pieces are rare, it really is worth the wait for a bargain instead of paying top notch price. The second tip is to always have a tube of simichrone on hand. It's a quick easy way to test bakelite. There are lots of how tos out there, but basically, you take a small amount of simichrone and rub it with a cotton swab on your bakelite piece. If the pink color of the metal polish turn to yellow, then it's bakelite!