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  #811  
Old 03-21-2010, 10:36 PM
Leslie Anne Leslie Anne is offline
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Originally Posted by Katmandu View Post
Leslie Anne, thanks for posting some of your KD pins! I will try to take some pics of mine. I don't have anything as old as 1909, but do have some nice ones, and a variety of sizes.

Re the colors of jewels. Personally, I am glad we have pearl, diamond and emerald as choices, since those are our colors, and I can't imagine a KD badge with rubies or sapphires, for example. I do have to admit, I wish we had opals as an option. I would pay big bucks for a KD badge of opals with emerald points...... drool....
I'd love to see yours, Katmandu! And, I agree, an opal and emerald KD would be a knock out.
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Originally Posted by honeychile View Post
I don't know whether to swoon, or to dare you to wear them all at once!
This seriously made me laugh out loud.
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  #812  
Old 03-21-2010, 11:35 PM
Brutally*Honest Brutally*Honest is offline
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I have to agree with honeychile regarding yellow gold with turquoise...

I totally have to agree with honeychile regarding how stunning turquoise is with yellow gold instead of white gold! Bear with me, I will explain.



My sorority (really fraternity) only allows yellow gold for our badges. Like many others on this board, I am fortunate enough to have numerous wonderful vintage bages. I happen to have a set of badges that came from sisters. One badge is all turquoise set in yellow gold while the other badge is alternating turquoise and pearls set in yellow gold, which was quite the rage for a number of groups a number of years ago. I am somewhat "on the fence" as to which I like the best, they are both wonderful and unique in their own way. I am fortunate enough to have several opal badges in a variety of combinations. Older vintage badges had more stones than are currently available from Inter/National on newer badges. Luckily, both of my turquoise badges have more stones than are currently available and they are wonderful pieces. I absolutely love my opal only bages, I absolutely adore my opal and colored stone badges and I absolutely love my opal and diamond badges. Of course, my all diamond badges are truly stunning! I also like the badges with diamonds alternating with various colored stones. We are lucky, in my opinion, in that we are not limited to only a few stones although limited to only yellow gold. That is said without offense to my NPC sisters who are not allowed those stone choices.

I was very fortunate in that my husband's mother and grandmother were both members of the same sorority, which just happened to be my sorority. When my mother in law died I inherited a number of their absolutely wonderful "family" badges. In the case of my husband's grandmother, her personal badge is beyond spectacular and unlike anything most of you have seen or will ever see. Also, my late mother in law had truly impeccable taste in jewelry. In addition to her personal collection of wonderful badges, I also inherited a number of absolutely wonderful pieces, in a variety of stones (luckily, she loved diamonds!) which are in various shapes of our badge. Those pieces have been wonderful as I am able to wear them to work, church or evening affairs, and besides being a family piece I have a beloved symbol that most just see as another piece of jewelry.

Now to my point, especially agreeing with honeychile. My husband's fraternity allows both yellow gold badges and white gold badges and a number of different stone combinations. He also inherited a number of truly wonderful vintage badges as he was also a multi-generation legacy. He has also, somewhat like Leslie Anne, collected wonderful vintage badges for both of us for a number of years. He has a turquoise badge set in white gold as well as a turquoise badge set in yellow gold. While one would think that white gold is the most obvious choice and would be preferred, when the badges are put next to each other... well, the first time we compared the bages we were both somewhat shocked. Both my husband and I felt the badge was far more stunning and classy in the yellow gold which, at least to us, was the opposite of what we expected. The most wonderful of those badges have both turquoise and diamonds and once again those badges looked so much richer and elegant when set in the yellow gold. I am not saying that the badges do not look spectacular when set in white gold, it is discrete and extremely nice. However, the yellow gold badges look so much richer and elegant and the yellow gold sets the stones off so much nicer than we had imagined. Had I not held the badges and carefully compared the badges and looked at the badges so closely while together... I would have totally agreed with AOII Angel regarding turquoise set in white gold. In fact, I have always been a little envious we were not allowed the choice of white gold. However, side by side, in our opinion the yellow gold looks so much richer and actually shows off the turquoise much better, especially the badges with the turquoise and diamonds!

As always,
Brutally*Honest

Last edited by Brutally*Honest; 03-21-2010 at 11:56 PM.
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  #813  
Old 03-22-2010, 01:59 AM
Leslie Anne Leslie Anne is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brutally*Honest View Post
I totally have to agree with honeychile regarding how stunning turquoise is with yellow gold instead of white gold! Bear with me, I will explain.



My sorority (really fraternity) only allows yellow gold for our badges. Like many others on this board, I am fortunate enough to have numerous wonderful vintage bages. I happen to have a set of badges that came from sisters. One badge is all turquoise set in yellow gold while the other badge is alternating turquoise and pearls set in yellow gold, which was quite the rage for a number of groups a number of years ago. I am somewhat "on the fence" as to which I like the best, they are both wonderful and unique in their own way. I am fortunate enough to have several opal badges in a variety of combinations. Older vintage badges had more stones than are currently available from Inter/National on newer badges. Luckily, both of my turquoise badges have more stones than are currently available and they are wonderful pieces. I absolutely love my opal only bages, I absolutely adore my opal and colored stone badges and I absolutely love my opal and diamond badges. Of course, my all diamond badges are truly stunning! I also like the badges with diamonds alternating with various colored stones. We are lucky, in my opinion, in that we are not limited to only a few stones although limited to only yellow gold. That is said without offense to my NPC sisters who are not allowed those stone choices.

I was very fortunate in that my husband's mother and grandmother were both members of the same sorority, which just happened to be my sorority. When my mother in law died I inherited a number of their absolutely wonderful "family" badges. In the case of my husband's grandmother, her personal badge is beyond spectacular and unlike anything most of you have seen or will ever see. Also, my late mother in law had truly impeccable taste in jewelry. In addition to her personal collection of wonderful badges, I also inherited a number of absolutely wonderful pieces, in a variety of stones (luckily, she loved diamonds!) which are in various shapes of our badge. Those pieces have been wonderful as I am able to wear them to work, church or evening affairs, and besides being a family piece I have a beloved symbol that most just see as another piece of jewelry.

Now to my point, especially agreeing with honeychile. My husband's fraternity allows both yellow gold badges and white gold badges and a number of different stone combinations. He also inherited a number of truly wonderful vintage badges as he was also a multi-generation legacy. He has also, somewhat like Leslie Anne, collected wonderful vintage badges for both of us for a number of years. He has a turquoise badge set in white gold as well as a turquoise badge set in yellow gold. While one would think that white gold is the most obvious choice and would be preferred, when the badges are put next to each other... well, the first time we compared the bages we were both somewhat shocked. Both my husband and I felt the badge was far more stunning and classy in the yellow gold which, at least to us, was the opposite of what we expected. The most wonderful of those badges have both turquoise and diamonds and once again those badges looked so much richer and elegant when set in the yellow gold. I am not saying that the badges do not look spectacular when set in white gold, it is discrete and extremely nice. However, the yellow gold badges look so much richer and elegant and the yellow gold sets the stones off so much nicer than we had imagined. Had I not held the badges and carefully compared the badges and looked at the badges so closely while together... I would have totally agreed with AOII Angel regarding turquoise set in white gold. In fact, I have always been a little envious we were not allowed the choice of white gold. However, side by side, in our opinion the yellow gold looks so much richer and actually shows off the turquoise much better, especially the badges with the turquoise and diamonds!

As always,
Brutally*Honest
Hmm.

So anyway, I'm absolutely loving all the photos of badges. Thank you to momof4girls for finding the Phi Mu with turquoise. I love all the options Phi Mu has!
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  #814  
Old 03-22-2010, 02:12 AM
Smile_Awhile Smile_Awhile is offline
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Originally Posted by Katmandu View Post
For all of you posting in this great thread, thank you and keep them coming. The Adelphian and Philomathean badges are amazing. Are there any really old Theta and Alpha Chi badges out there?
Really unique Alpha Chi badges are rather difficult to come by- we standardized to only pearls or diamonds by 1910, and had a official jeweler by 1906! So, there were only 25 years of any badges made with any other stones than pearls or diamonds. If you want a really neat timeline of important changes made to our badge, consult this page: http://xisigmaxi.squarespace.com/history-of-our-badges/

One neat badge that all chapters have is the Chapter President's badge. This badge is passed from president to president, and is in more of the style of the earliest Lyres. I don't have a picture, but one popped up on Ebay not too long ago (don't get me started on that!). It has garnets in it as well. It's beautiful!

We also have several opal badges that are passed down to various holders of National offices. They were all badges of members who are now deceased.

Here's the few pictures I do have access to.



The only badge we have from our Founders. This belonged to Bertha Dennison Cunningham. Sorry for the quality- they aren't my pictures and they're from Facebook.





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  #815  
Old 03-22-2010, 02:18 AM
violetpretty violetpretty is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jen View Post
Since we're only allowed diamonds and pearls on Alpha Phi badges, I'm always intrigued with the sorority badges that have a selection of stones available.

For those that have a selection - did you feel like you needed (or should) choose either your sorority's jewel(s) or jewels in your sorority colours? I always felt if I'd had a choice I'd want to keep it with sorority colour/jewel for some reason.
Sigma Kappa currently only offers garnets and amethysts as far as colored stones go, both in combination with pearls, our official jewel. They used to offer rubies. Diamonds are only for members of National Council. I'm on the fence. It's cool to be able to customize your badge, because it's like a piece of you on the badge if you choose your birthstone, for example. But, I also chose the jewels on my badge to stay with my sorority's colors. Our badges have maroon enamel, so I chose amethysts to go with it, so both our colors and official jewel are on there. I just can't imagine our badge with emeralds or sapphires.
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  #816  
Old 03-22-2010, 02:34 AM
Leslie Anne Leslie Anne is offline
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Originally Posted by Smile_Awhile View Post
This is stunning! It's bold and yet so delicate. Thanks for posting!
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  #817  
Old 03-22-2010, 06:59 AM
AOII Angel AOII Angel is offline
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I've been meaning to do this for awhile...here is the AOII badge next to a dime for sizing purposes.



BTW...I love the old AXO badges, like Leslie Anne says, They are so "bold and yet so delicate." That's a great description.
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  #818  
Old 03-22-2010, 07:02 AM
AOII Angel AOII Angel is offline
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Originally Posted by violetpretty View Post
Sigma Kappa currently only offers garnets and amethysts as far as colored stones go, both in combination with pearls, our official jewel. They used to offer rubies. Diamonds are only for members of National Council. I'm on the fence. It's cool to be able to customize your badge, because it's like a piece of you on the badge if you choose your birthstone, for example. But, I also chose the jewels on my badge to stay with my sorority's colors. Our badges have maroon enamel, so I chose amethysts to go with it, so both our colors and official jewel are on there. I just can't imagine our badge with emeralds or sapphires.
Is black enamel an old option? I see these occasionally on eBay.
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  #819  
Old 03-22-2010, 09:30 AM
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honeychile honeychile is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katmandu View Post

For all of you posting in this great thread, thank you and keep them coming. The Adelphean and Philomathean badges are amazing. Are there any really old Theta and Alpha Chi badges out there?
Fixed your post. It's a personal pet peeve about the spelling of Adelphean - there is no "I" in our Adelphean bonds! On to other things...

I can remember seeing a badge on ebay, and for the life of me, I forget which GLO it was, but it was trimmed with coral. I was interested more because my grandmother had a cameo that was coral colored, but I'm not completely sure I'd be interested in wearing it. Coral really does limit your choice of clothing, IMHO.
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  #820  
Old 03-22-2010, 11:33 AM
SthrnZeta SthrnZeta is offline
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I have always wanted a turquoise and pearl badge in white gold just because turquoise and silver (steel gray) are our colors. Thankfully though, I can also get emeralds (my birthstone) and I also love the pink stones (not sure what they are) for breast cancer awareness. I do feel compelled to get stones that would have meaning rather than just stones that I happen to like.
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  #821  
Old 03-22-2010, 12:06 PM
groovypq groovypq is offline
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Originally Posted by SthrnZeta View Post
I have always wanted a turquoise and pearl badge in white gold just because turquoise and silver (steel gray) are our colors. Thankfully though, I can also get emeralds (my birthstone) and I also love the pink stones (not sure what they are) for breast cancer awareness. I do feel compelled to get stones that would have meaning rather than just stones that I happen to like.
SthrnZeta, I like the turquoise for the same reason. I also think you can kind of fudge it with opal, because they often look aqua/turquoise in color.

The pink sapphires are gorgeous too! My birthstone isn't offered, but I do like that there are a lot of ways you could "bling" a ZTA badge in a Zeta-related way.
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  #822  
Old 03-22-2010, 01:41 PM
thetygerlily thetygerlily is offline
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I like that Kappa's options represent our colors (sapphire) or the standards (pearl or diamond). As stated above, it'd be strange in some respects to see a Kappa key with, say, rubies or emeralds or garnets. Although I think someone posted a photo of an older Kappa badge with rubies and it was stunning! I do wish that we could get light blue sapphires or aquamarines- can you imagine a blue and blue key! Oh, now that I would have to have. I love that AXiD added that double blue & gold quill to represent all of their colors.

Honey, I love what you mentioned about getting birthstone points- I would probably do the same! And I'm sure many women in various orgs do that. It's a great way to get a bit of you in there and have it really feel personalized. I'm lucky though because sapphires are my birthstone and Kappa's jewel, so I get both represented.

Leslie Anne, WOW! I agree with Honey, you should put every single one on and then take a picture like that. And it's incredible that you found that Kappa Xi & KD badge lot- I suppose with enough patience anything is possible. It's also interesting to see how different the enamel looks in your photos, especially looking at the dagger and lettering. It's also funny about the mini-badge trend- here we are talking about how small our badges really are when compared to a dime, but there was a time where people wanted them even smaller! Did they get the mini badges in addition to a standard size, or in lieu of the standard?

Those AXO badges are fantastic. I think some have been posted before... I think I've seen that 1897 photo. But not the 1885- WOW! That is gorgeous. It's a very elegant badge.
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Last edited by thetygerlily; 03-23-2010 at 12:51 AM.
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  #823  
Old 03-22-2010, 01:48 PM
sigmadiva sigmadiva is offline
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Originally Posted by Brutally*Honest View Post
I totally have to agree with honeychile regarding how stunning turquoise is with yellow gold instead of white gold! Bear with me, I will explain.



My sorority (really fraternity) only allows yellow gold for our badges. Like many others on this board, I am fortunate enough to have numerous wonderful vintage bages. I happen to have a set of badges that came from sisters. One badge is all turquoise set in yellow gold while the other badge is alternating turquoise and pearls set in yellow gold, which was quite the rage for a number of groups a number of years ago. I am somewhat "on the fence" as to which I like the best, they are both wonderful and unique in their own way. I am fortunate enough to have several opal badges in a variety of combinations. Older vintage badges had more stones than are currently available from Inter/National on newer badges. Luckily, both of my turquoise badges have more stones than are currently available and they are wonderful pieces. I absolutely love my opal only bages, I absolutely adore my opal and colored stone badges and I absolutely love my opal and diamond badges. Of course, my all diamond badges are truly stunning! I also like the badges with diamonds alternating with various colored stones. We are lucky, in my opinion, in that we are not limited to only a few stones although limited to only yellow gold. That is said without offense to my NPC sisters who are not allowed those stone choices.

I was very fortunate in that my husband's mother and grandmother were both members of the same sorority, which just happened to be my sorority. When my mother in law died I inherited a number of their absolutely wonderful "family" badges. In the case of my husband's grandmother, her personal badge is beyond spectacular and unlike anything most of you have seen or will ever see. Also, my late mother in law had truly impeccable taste in jewelry. In addition to her personal collection of wonderful badges, I also inherited a number of absolutely wonderful pieces, in a variety of stones (luckily, she loved diamonds!) which are in various shapes of our badge. Those pieces have been wonderful as I am able to wear them to work, church or evening affairs, and besides being a family piece I have a beloved symbol that most just see as another piece of jewelry.

Now to my point, especially agreeing with honeychile. My husband's fraternity allows both yellow gold badges and white gold badges and a number of different stone combinations. He also inherited a number of truly wonderful vintage badges as he was also a multi-generation legacy. He has also, somewhat like Leslie Anne, collected wonderful vintage badges for both of us for a number of years. He has a turquoise badge set in white gold as well as a turquoise badge set in yellow gold. While one would think that white gold is the most obvious choice and would be preferred, when the badges are put next to each other... well, the first time we compared the bages we were both somewhat shocked. Both my husband and I felt the badge was far more stunning and classy in the yellow gold which, at least to us, was the opposite of what we expected. The most wonderful of those badges have both turquoise and diamonds and once again those badges looked so much richer and elegant when set in the yellow gold. I am not saying that the badges do not look spectacular when set in white gold, it is discrete and extremely nice. However, the yellow gold badges look so much richer and elegant and the yellow gold sets the stones off so much nicer than we had imagined. Had I not held the badges and carefully compared the badges and looked at the badges so closely while together... I would have totally agreed with AOII Angel regarding turquoise set in white gold. In fact, I have always been a little envious we were not allowed the choice of white gold. However, side by side, in our opinion the yellow gold looks so much richer and actually shows off the turquoise much better, especially the badges with the turquoise and diamonds!

As always,
Brutally*Honest
So, are you going to post pictures of your badges?
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  #824  
Old 03-22-2010, 02:06 PM
Katmandu Katmandu is offline
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Fixed your post. It's a personal pet peeve about the spelling of Adelphean - there is no "I" in our Adelphean bonds! On to other things...

\Thanks honey!!

One day about a year or so ago, I was browsing, (don't ask me why--I don't remember...) in a DG forum thread. Someone posted a very old DG pin (late 1800's) that was passed down through her chapter for either scholarship or member of the year.... It was amazing. It had very different stones in it. I looked for the post but can't find it. Maybe if there are any DG's on here who remember it, they can repost the pic here.

That Alpha Chi pin is stunning! I also love all of the combinations of AOII pins. Love how they can be different, but all have the one RUBY!

Speaking of rubies, a couple of times on ebay I saw a DZ pin with a ruby in the flame, rather than the diamond. Is that an option, or someone's custom job? Gotta love that winged lamp. It's so graceful.

Last edited by Katmandu; 03-22-2010 at 02:08 PM. Reason: typo
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  #825  
Old 03-22-2010, 02:12 PM
ISUKappa ISUKappa is offline
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Originally Posted by thetygerlily View Post
I like that Kappa's options represent our colors (sapphire) or the standards (pearl or diamond). As stated above, it'd be strange in some respects to see a Kappa key with, say, rubies or emeralds or garnets. Although I think someone posted a photo of an older Kappa badge with rubies and it was stunning! I do wish that we could get light blue sapphires or aquamarines- can you imagine a blue and blue key! Oh, now that I would have to have. I love that AXiD added that double blue & gold quill to represent all of their colors.
You should see "Amy." She's an all-turquoise badge from the 1880s. She's beautiful! I think the pics are in the yahoo group.
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