The Jewelry Blog: fashion

Saturday, October 06, 2007

In the Pink?!

I wanted to entitle this post "In the Pink", but when I consider how I've been feeling lately (see post below about remodeling and dust, dust, dust!), I thought it was probably more appropriate to begin with something green, and to put a question mark after the title.
My green is really wonderful though, as it applies to this bracelet, because I was fortunate enough to get some even more beautiful peridot gemstones than the last batch - in nugget form - and these are practically inclusion-free. I mixed them with lampwork beads by Reeves which also has a very pretty blue aquamarine colour in it, so I added the a few of the blue aquamarine nuggets I have that are really nice. Very happy results.

Otherwise, I have been working "in the pink" as far as gemstones go, with pink tourmaline (see bracelet above), pink Peruvian opal (below) and rose quartz (last bracelet). It has been a good week as far as jewelry is concerned, but the work to do at home (the work we have to do when the workmen leave and we have to get everything sorted out and back to its rightful place) is a bit daunting. The peridot bracelet is already listed and the tourmaline, opal, and rose quartz bracelets soon will be. A short post then as I try to put my closet back together (groan).

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Friday, August 31, 2007

Lariat Necklaces

I like to wear lariat necklaces myself, so it's a bit odd that I don't make them that often or make that many. I got started on these simply because I happened to catch a glimpse of one of the new Swarovski crystal rings as I was looking for some other beads. The ring was in one of my favorite colours - Copper - so I couldn't resist seeing what I could do with it. I decided not to do that much. I used 14 karat goldfilled chain and wire and attached the Swarovski crystal ring to one end, and a large copper bicone to the other with a few little bead accents. I put a Swarovski butterfly in copper to one side of the ring - and I'm in love with this lariat necklace.

Another of my favorite Swarovski colours is blue Montana and since to me it seems to be much more the colour of a real sapphire than Swarovski's actual sapphire colour, I used the Montana crystals to make a lariat that would also work as a birthstone necklace for September. This necklace is outstanding because of the wonderful Karen Hill Tribes chain with little links holding together huge hammered rounds and large flower shaped sterling. This is a rather long lariat necklace; one thing I like about it is that you can wear the back of it facing front during the day when you're at the office, then when you're ready to go out, you just turn it around and you have tons of sparkle! The large Swarovski crystals fit through the hoop, but I also added an almost indiscernible little ring clasp for those who may wear it out dancing.

Finally, a green aventurine lariat necklace made of aventurine disks, faceted olives, and carved flower beads. Here the loop that the other side goes through is made of the faceted olives, and because of the size of the loop, the other side can be looped through more than once to shorten the remainder.
All of these lariat necklaces can be found on the Lariat Necklaces page of the Cluny Grey website.