Unlocking Inspiration in Arline’s Heirloom Photograph

My New-Fashioned Old-Fashioned Photo Locket

My grandmother loved lockets and photo jewelry, and I do too. My niece, Kayli Craig, crafted this new keepsake for me with specialty items as an Origami Owl Custom Jewelry Designer. The locket features a snap open glass case that can hold three-dimensional objects, including this photo of my grandmother Arline and a gold-tone heart frame I found in a box of her old jewelry. I think the little metal frame may once have held another photo in it’s own locket. I selected the family tree charm as my own contribution.

We don’t know much about Arline’s beautiful photograph. Other similar photos are dated about 1908 and look very similar, giving a clue that this may have been created about the same time. Arline would have been 18 years old.

Arline Allen Kinsel, ca. 1908-1910

This same photo was also the inspiration for a custom-made porcelain doll commissioned by Arline’s eldest daughter sometime in the 1970s. The doll is dressed in white cotton with an eyelet jacket and black velvet ribbons at the wrist. A faded bouquet of flowers is tucked into her waistband. All that is missing is the wonderful hat with the organza butterflies ready to take flight.

Time has not been kind to the Arline doll. She was displayed in a glass-front case for many years where the light and air stained her gown and the painted porcelain. Poor dolly.

I’m enjoying my own 21st century memento of Arline, especially knowing that the photo inside the glass locket was printed from a digital image and the keepsake original is tucked away safely in an archival box.

If you are interested in keepsake lockets, please contact my niece to learn about the different options and styles available, including silver, gold, or bronze-tone. She can be reached through her website www.trinketsandcharms.origamiowl.com.

Official Disclosure: Of course, I do have to advise you that I am not under any undue pressure to ooohhhhh and ahhhhh over this piece of jewelry. I picked it out and paid for it myself because I like it! (And I’m pretty crazy about my niece too).