Bunny Rabbits Necklaces

Here are a few photos of some Easter themed necklaces I made for my boyfriend's three nieces.  I had a hand full of adorable little vintage bunny rabbit charms in my stash so I decided to put them to good use.  I adorned the wee bunnies with wasabi hued Czech glass flowers, fuchsia candy jade faceted rounds, and ivory seed pearls.  I love them and secretly want one for myself...  good thing I have one more bunny charm! :)

Jewelry for an autumn wedding

I recently had the opportunity to create custom jewelry for a friend's bridal party to be worn in her autumn wedding.  It was a very fun project as I was free to create whatever I thought would look nice on her ladies.  I chose a palette of ivory, chocolate and citrine to compliment the brown, ivory and mango they would be wearing on the day of her early October wedding.

Each of the six matching necklaces were composed of yellow citrine faceted briolettes and ivory and chocolate brown freshwater pearls.  Each briolette is wire wrapped in 14 k gold filled fine wire. The trio is accented with 24 k Bali gold vermeil headpins and suspended from a delicate 14 k gold filled chain.  

The earrings feature a citrine teardrop and a cluster of ivory freshwater pearls hanging beneath gold vermeil French earwires.  

 

I am so pleased with how the pieces turned out.  The style is so different from anything that I've ever done, and I think that I would like to try other pieces using similar materials.  The bride was pleased too, and said they brought the ensembles together nicely. 

Polymer Clay and Vintage Brass Necklace

This past week I was finally able to string the handmade beads I posted back in July.  The finished product is a double stranded necklace composed of polymer clay beads and vintage brass components.  I blogged about it here.  Hope you are all enjoying Philly's autumn-like weather!  I know I am : )

This is a great necklace!

I've had great luck with this design because I can make it in any color with any kind of stone or ceramic or glass bead and it looks wonderful. In this case I used wavy snowflake obsidian squares with holes cut on the diagonal which mimics the asymmetry of the design itself. The dangle is a zuni bear charm of the same snowflake obsidian. This one is an eyecatcher.

First Post.

Hello there.  I thought I'd share a necklace that I made this past Saturday.  This is the first piece of jewelry that I have made in a long, long while and it felt really good to brush the dust off my beading supplies.  My typical work includes my own handmade polymer clay beads and a mixture of other media, such as wire or stones.

This one is composed of dyed Green Quartz, Red Jasper faceted briolettes and Miyuki Delica seed beads.  I'm not happy with the clasp- it's an old one that I used for convenience so that I could wear the piece that evening.  I intend to replace it with a handmade clasp of hammered sterling silver or copper wire.

I look forward to contributing to Philly Makes!

new necklaces!

Here are some of the necklaces I've finished recently. I don't really like this scan so I'm going to experiment with photographing them on different backgrounds, but I wanted to share anyway!

This is a custom tiara and necklace set that I created for a bride to wear for her masquerade wedding on Halloween. It was handcrafted from non-tarnish artistic wire and embellished with pearls and swarovski crystals.

Instant Faerie Kit

I made this gorgeous little outfit as a charitable donation for a benefit one of my friends held last weekend.
The "Instant Faerie Kit" includes a pair of small fairy wings (this is Anorra #14), a matching tulle tutu, a feather wand, a glitter fairy dust necklace, and a tiny sparkle tiara.
It turned out so darn cute I may have to start making them to sell, or at the very least start making order forms for sets in custom colors and sizes.

New Stuff

I didn't think I had a spark of creativity left in me after doing a two-day show last weekend at Flagfest. But opening up a box of stuff I haven't looked at in a while--well, that was all it took.

A Tree Necklace in Honor of Arbor Day 2009

For as far back as I can remember my family has celebrated Arbor Day. When I was little the festivities were orchestrated by my Great Aunt, a clothing designer and seamstress who grew up on a farm in a family of seventeen kids, and my Godfather, a writer and avid gardener. Every year we’d join the community tree plantings - I always chose white birch, dogwoods and fruit trees - and also work on our own gardens.

We usually started our seeds in February, and by April we’d be thinning them out, trading varieties, sharing with our neighbors… It is thrilling to me that I make a living as a jewelry designer, astounding even, but I am most proud of the fact that I can grow things. I recently planted a new fig tree, and the photo at right is a sampling of my heirloom tomato seedlings.

Some of my favorite jewelry designs combine my love of shiny things and gardening. In honor of Arbor Day I made the necklace shown above - it features an artisan lampwork glass bead with raised glass trees that have swirled brown and olive trunks and vivid orange foliage. A deep blue sky is visible through the leaves.

The bead is a hung from a necklace of lapis and orange carnelian rounds that perfectly match the tree bead, and I added Bali sterling silver accents to make the colors “pop”. I like for my jewelry to look good coming and going, so the back of the necklace is embellished too. You can see the whole piece here.

Arbor Day is this Friday, April 24, 2009 - go plant a tree!

More new necklaces

I finished some more new necklaces last week! Some are made from watch parts, one is another optician lens pendant but with a beaded chain instead of the usual metal chain, and one is beads recycled from other necklaces, and one is made from a little circuit board that I found. The one in the upper left isn't complete yet- more of an idea in progress.