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It was even accidental the way Evangeline, or "Van" as her friends call her, got started in this hobby. She is a student in home economics at Syracuse University, and the last hobby that she would have thought of to earn money with was costume jewelry making.

One day Van was sketching some patterns for fabric design in the living room of her dormitory when one of her dorm-mates walked over and looked at her work.

"Gee, Van, that pattern is very pretty," she said. "I certainly would like to get a pin like that for my new dress."

"Well, I've never made a pin," replied Van, "but if you like it so much, I'll try to make one for you."

The girl said yes, and that was how Van got started with her new hobby. She got some books from the local library and read about jewelry making, and then bought a jeweler's saw, a small ball peen hammer, a pair of long nosed pliers, and a small pack of emery paper at a hardware store. At a hobby store she purchased a three-inch square of sheet brass and a few ornament pins.

USING THE spare time she had from classes and homework assignments, Van cut the pin out and had it ready to solder in about two hours. She couldn't afford to buy a blowtorch right away, so she took the cut-out and the ornament pin to a radio repair store and the mechanic soldered the two pieces together for a quarter.

Back at her work table, Van polished up the pin with fine emery cloth and then went over it with crocus cloth to get a high gloss. When Van showed the finished pin to the girl, she was delighted.

"Gosh, Van, it's beautiful!" she exclaimed. "And it's the only one like it—how much do you want for it?"

"I'm surprised that it came out so well," Van replied. "I really don't know what to ask for it."

"I'll give you $3 for it," the girl said.

"Oh no, that's a little too much," answered Van.

"Not for such a beautiful pin, and the only one of its kind," said the girl as she handed Van $3.

Van was too amazed to say anything as she stared at the money in her hand.

What's more, when the other girls in the dormitory saw the beautiful work, Van had orders for six other different pins by evening. With the increase of orders, Van thought it wise to re-invest the three dollars for more tools and materials, and that decision launched her on a really profitable hobby. Ever since then she has been making and selling costume jewelry to pay her expenses at college. When she graduates this year, she expects to be able to continue making costume jewelry in spare time during evenings to supplement her income.

VAN HAS branched out now in the variety of items she makes. They include brooches, earrings, rings, bracelets and cigarette boxes. Now that she has gained more experience, it takes her less time to complete each different item of jewelry. A pin or a pair of earrings takes from three to five hours to make, depending upon the simplicity of the design; a cigarette box takes about twelve hours; and rings require about nine hours.

Metals used are brass, copper, silver, and sometimes gold. Semi-precious stones such as jade, turquoise and moonstones are used for ornaments. However, any odd inexpensive objects, such as those found on beaches, or plastics of unusual shape or texture, also make interesting ornaments.

"Dime store jewelry counters have a great variety of glass imitation stones that can be used in making costume jewelry," says Van. "Almost every general store carries some kind of artificial pearls, rhinestones, aquamarine, ruby and topaz at reasonable prices."

In purchasing such stones, the costume jewelry hobbyist must be careful to select stones without facets as these are the easiest to mount.

Personalized costume jewelry sells faster because it is distinctive. If the hobbyist can design her own jewelry, so much the better. But if she is stuck for ideas, all she has to do is thumb through the advertisements in some popular magazines, art books, metalcraft books, or just peek into jewelers' windows. It is best to add some variation to any copied design. Sometimes adding a set of initials is sufficient.

IN MAKING a lapel pin, Van picks out a small design or picture from an advertisement in a magazine. One of her popular pins is a copy of a medieval castle traced from a perfume advertisement. It is made in seven sections—the central castle, two towers, three parapets, and a base piece. Van transfers each of these patterns to a sheet of brass separately with carbon paper.

In the next step, Van uses a small rule and a steel scribe to scratch the doors and windows on the pattern. This is done slowly and carefully so that the scribe does not slip and mar the face of the pin. Then Van cuts along the outlines with the jeweler's saw. When she has all seven pieces cut out, she uses fine metal files to trim away the excess metal around the outlines.

The two towers and the small parapets are then rounded by tapping with a wood mallet on an iron ring shaper. The large parapet remains flat. Only the ends of the base piece are rounded on the ring shaper; the center part is left flat. Care must be used in rounding the towers and their parapets so that the parapets conform solidly to the curve of the towers in order to make a strong joint when soldering.

THERE ARE two types of solder, hard and soft. Hard solder is made of silver or gold, and requires a silver or gold flux. It is used in making more expensive jewelry, such as the jade earrings to be described later. The soft solder is made of lead and some tin. It requires a rosin or acid flux to make a clean, strong joint when soldering copper or brass.

All the edges of the pin to be soldered are cleaned with emery cloth first. Then the central castle piece is laid flat on a charcoal block which protects the table from scorching, and the edges of the two towers are dipped in flux and laid on the central castle section.

Pieces of solder are cut and laid in the crevices formed by the towers and central castle section. The flame of an alcohol blowtorch is applied to the joints until the solder runs and seals the crevices. The parapets on the towers are soldered on next, and the central parapet is soldered on after that.

Care must be taken that the tower parapets are level and in line, and parallel to the central parapet and base plate, which is soldered on last.

On the reverse side, the fastening pin is soldered on the central castle section horizontally at a point slightly above the center of the pin.

Finally, the flux is wiped off, and the soldered joints are smoothed out with emery cloth. In the last operation, the entire pin is polished to a luster with crocus cloth. This pin should sell for $3 to $5, depending upon the workmanship.

"I LOVE jade jewelry," says Van. "I've made myself three sets of earrings and two rings from some jade pieces mother had in an old jewel box."

This is how Van goes about making a pair of silver earrings set with jade. First, she lays the flat, rectangular piece of jade on a piece of sheet silver of about 28-gauge, and traces its outline with a scribe. This piece forms the base of the earring.

Using the jeweler's saw, she cuts the piece out, and then files it smooth with a fine file.

In the next step, Van drills two small holes at opposite ends of the small rectangle. These are made for convenience in poking the jade stone out of the setting easily in case some more work has to be done inside the setting to insure a proper fit.

Now Van takes a strip of bezel silver, 18-gauge and one-eighth inch wide, and holding the end of it up against any corner of the earring base, Van carefully bends the soft bezel silver around the circumference of the small rectangle. She then cuts off the strip at the point where the ends of the rectangle meet.

IN THE next operation, Van places the base piece on a charcoal block and slips the border of bezel silver over it. With a toothpick, she places silver flux around the inside joint where the bezel meets the base piece. Next, she cuts strips of silver solder the length of the sides of the rectangle. Applying the flame from the alcohol blowtorch to the joints, Van melts the flux on the metals and then she places the strips of silver solder over the cracks and applies the torch again. This time the solder, runs into the cracks and binds the joints.

In making an ornamental border for the earring, Van uses two strands of 58-gauge silver wire which she twists in a braid. Then she cuts off two strips the length of the long sides of the earring. Propping the earring on its side, on the charcoal block, Van puts the flux on the bottom part of the bezel mounting, and applies the blowtorch flame.

After the flux runs, Van lays one length of the braided wire along the bottom of the bezel and then melts some silver solder over it with the blowtorch. The solder runs into the braided wire and under it to join the wire to the bezel mounting. Van repeats the operation on the other side of the earring.

Turning the mounting over on its face, Van solders an earscrew on the base plate about one-sixteenth of an inch away from the top edge.

NOW, VAN is ready to mount the jade. First she scrapes away any uneven lumps of silver solder inside the bezel mounting. Then she inserts the jade and if it doesn't sit in the mounting evenly, she pokes the jade out with a hairpin through the holes she drilled in the back of the base piece, and does some more scraping.

If it sits in the mounting evenly, she begins to press the sides of the mounting in over the stone. She uses a homemade tool for this process. It is an old ice pick, snapped off in the middle, with the blunt edge rounded off.

This bevelling is done carefully so that the setting will not be pressed out of shape. When the jade is firmly secured in the mounting, only one more step remains to finish the earring. That is to polish up the metal parts with crocus cloth. Then the whole process is repeated to make the other earring for the pair.

"I have been offered $25 for this pair of jade earrings, but I wouldn't sell them because I'm sentimental about mother's jade, which is a family heirloom," says Van.

"I make imitation jade earrings now, and I've sold sixteen pairs of them at $5 a pair. More people can afford to pay this price, so there's more money in this kind."