Susan Reeks has embarked on a new journey of bringing life back to lost and forgotten pieces of jewelry, giving them a new purpose and restoring the admiration they once held. 

The full-time mother, writer, author and now jewelry designer has turned her interest of vintage and antique shopping into a successful business, Widows and Orphans. 

“This jewelry line has been the most peaceful, easy and laid-back thing,” Reeks said. “It’s just like it’s meant to be. I’m looking for things that give me peace at this stage in my life. I think a lot of people are even if they don’t know it.”

The name of her line came from the pieces she uses to make her jewelry items; the widowed, orphaned and forgotten vintage jewelry that are found lying around in people’s drawers and old jewelry boxes. Reeks takes these kinds of items and reconstructs them with new hardware to create a unique, one-of-a-kind piece.

The jewelry line started with one type of piece in particular – rosaries. Reeks began only using vintage and antique rosaries, ones made only before the 1950s and mostly from the 19th century, as well as Art Deco pieces. 

“It started when my husband and I were in Fort Worth at the stockyard, and we were walking around when one of the little shops had a rosary in there,” she said. “I’m not Catholic; rosaries had never really interested me before, and it was $900, but I fell in love with it. But I said to myself I can do better; I’m a shopper; I can find it myself. I came back to Shreveport, and I looked in all of the antique shops and couldn’t find one rosary anywhere.”

Reeks started buying rosaries off eBay about a year and half ago and began to learn more about the trade.

“I started to hone in on what I liked and what style and quality I preferred, like the kind of finish,” she said. “For me, it’s all about the character, these old rosaries and old jewelry are made by artisans that aren’t alive anymore, and I don’t think there are even people alive today who know how to really make [that quality of work] like those people did.”

After finding some dealers in France, Germany and Belgium, Reeks began to expand on the type of hardware and accessories she would add to her pieces. 

“Meanwhile, we were in New Orleans, and I started seeing all these key necklaces that were using reproductions, and I liked the idea, but I thought no, the real patina is on these authentic brass and skeleton keys,” she said. “So I started looking for those, and they are really hard to find, but once you do find one, they really make that piece of jewelry [special].” 

That patina quality on the jewelry, which is the result of oxidation on bronze and other metals over long periods of time, is the key component for Reeks. 

“The big draw for me is vintage patina, the finish is what’s important,” she said. “That’s the finish that time gives the world.”

“So I started putting those things together with new things that kind of feminized them a little bit, [adding things] that people don’t really wear anymore, but will when they see it in a new way,” she continued. “I love it when I have somebody who wouldn’t even look at those items laying in their junk drawer, but then fall in love with the necklace.”

Reeks, who has had a long love affair with all things vintage, said the key to being a good shopper is doing the research for quality products and bargain prices. Recently, however, she has had clients request customized items with their own personal rosaries that once belonged to a loved one who has passed. 

“There’s something so special about how something from long ago was discarded, for whatever reason, is brought back to life with a new purpose,” she said.

Her pieces can be found at shops around town like The Agora Borealis in downtown Shreveport and Timeline Antiques. 

Mostly, however, Reeks operates through social media on her Facebook page, found at www.facebook.com/WidowsandOrphansSusanReeks.