Amethyst Dreams, the little shop in the back of the Old Store Building on German Street, doesn't have its own door to the street. It is reached by going through Blue Moon Antiques, so it could be overlooked, but a peek inside will beckon you to come in.

You are greeted by a huge geode filled with glittering amethyst crystals and a large slab of rock studded with fossil shells. "I've always loved rocks and things that come from the ground. They're millions and millions of years old," says shop owner Karen "Kay" Newberry. She added that the origin of the precious metals and gemstones from which jewelry is created probably explains her passion for jewelry.

The shop is a hodge-podge of the old and new, every nook and cranny filled with jewelry, vintage clothing, accessories, and knickknacks. Newberry says she has always collected antiques, and jewelry is her first love.

Amethyst Dreams has been open for a little over a year, but Newberry sold items in the building earlier, when it was a consignment shop. She has lived in the panhandle for 20 years and in Shepherdstown since the early 1990s. She worked for many years for the Frederick News Post in nearby Maryland and sold antiques on the side in a booth in a Frederick antique emporium. “I took care of the booth on my lunch time,” she said.

She started with vintage jewelry found at estate sales and auctions. Her specialty is costume jewelry. That is, it is not diamonds and rubies but rather the affordable finery that ordinary women wore for both special occasions and every day. This includes everything from rhinestones and semiprecious stones all the way to plastic.

Novelty pins in the shape of flowers, animals and insects have always been popular. They were usually gold or silver plated, often trimmed with fake gemstones. In the 1940s and 1950s, the well-dressed woman wore beads with everything. They came in all colors in single and multiple strands, made of colored glass, plastic, metal and even wood. The 60s with its “love beads” followed. Prior to the 1960s few women had pierced ears, and earrings either screwed on or clipped on (both quite uncomfortably).

Newberry noted that vintage jewelry is getting harder and harder to find, so she sells both old and new. Much of the new gemstone jewelry comes out of India and China and is fashioned in the delicate and elaborate styles popular in the 1920s and 1930s.

She observed that it is getting extremely difficult to tell old from new, and admitted that even she has a hard time, but most often the craftsmanship is a giveaway. “The craftsmanship is not what it once was,” she said.

She advises those with an eye for vintage jewelry, “If you can't determine if it’s old or new, just consider whether you like it. Ask yourself whether you are comfortable with the price for something you like and don't think of it as an investment.”

Vintage clothing is very attractive to young people, Newberry said. However, keeping abreast of what they want to buy is difficult, since trends change so fast. “Six or eight months ago, everyone was looking for things from the 1940s and 1950s,” she said. “Currently, there's a demand for stuff from the 1960s and 1970s.”

She added that it is hard for her to shop for things from the 1960s and 1970s “because I'm not fond of it,” she said frankly. “It's what I grew up with, and I got tired of it!”

Party dresses from the 50s are still affordable, but items much older are beyond the reach of teens and college students. Most of the ornate beaded and fringed dresses, scarves and handbags with the “flapper” look are reproductions.

Authentic items like a delicate flapper-era beaded dress and beaded and sequined sweaters from the 1940s and 1950s are kept behind the counter for serious buyers. “I don't leave them out because some people just like to come in and try things on,” she said. “They are much too delicate to stand up to that kind of handling.”

Newberry is fond of pretty things, and for her, they aren't necessarily to be worn. “If I can't wear them, I'll make decorations out of them,” she said.

She loves vintage hats. She explained that hats were essential accessories for women up until the end of the 1950s. Her grandmother always wore a hat when she went out, and her mother wore hats on special occasions until about the early 1960s. Newberry recalled that the last woman to wear hats who had impact on American fashion was Jackie Kennedy with her famous “pillbox” hats.

Newberry hangs vintage hats on her wall, and when she tires of them, she passes them on to her granddaughters. Following her example, she says her six-year-old twin granddaughters hang old hats on their bedroom wall as well, “and it becomes wall art.”

Figuring out what things are worth and pricing them, “takes more time and homework than most people realize,” said Newberry. She attends trade shows and auctions, reads trade magazines, searches E-Bay.

“I'm amazed at what will sell sometimes,” she said. “It's a business of surprises. That's what keeps it so interesting.”