The Jewelry Blog

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Sparkle and Gleam

The Austrian crystal earrings above (Swarovski Austrian crystal) are a perfect match for the Swarovski crystal bracelet that you see below. Both earrings and bracelet feature the ruby Swarovski crystals in the Graphic shape, perfect for earrings and bracelet. The Graphic shape is an elegant, dressy shape, perfect for bracelets since it will lie flat on the wrist, and the shape is a classic, timeless look for earrings. I find Swarovski's labeling the colour "ruby" interesting since it is not what I think of a ruby colour immediately. Swarovski's "ruby" has a pink, well, really, a fuschia tinge to it, while I think of ruby as being a totally clear but dark red. No matter what you call it, the colour is gorgeous as are the Graphic crystals.
Below the ruby bracelet is another Swarovski crystal bracelet, this one made with pale golden topaz crystals and morion crystals. I love the morion crystals; at first, they appear to be a translucent black, then maybe they have a blue tinge? Then you realize it's a teal-green, maybe? Whatever, I love the morion because it looks so great with the lighter Swarovski crystals.

The lampwork bracelet below has gorgeous lampwork with a partially pink opal look to it. Swarovski's pink crystals work well with them. The sterling silver disks are special beads I just received from Bali; they are completely covered with hand-decorated flowers. A Swarovski butterfly in pink hangs beside the toggle clasp.

The new gemstone bracelets posted are below. First, a smoky quartz bracelet made with some of Robin Weber's beautiful silver-laced lampwork beads. The faceted smoky quartz beads in this bracelet are especially pretty. Below, the smoky quartz bracelet are two bracelet sets (although they are sold separately, I will give a discount if you wish to buy them as a set). The first is a favorite gemstone of mine: sunstone. The sunstone bracelet and earrings are made with sparkling sunstones that glitter in the light - artificial or sunlight. The bracelet also features some more of those special sterling beads from Bali.

Finally, the amazonite jewelry that you see below is handmade from turquoise-blue amazonite of unusually even colour. Faceted teardrop earrings have special earwires with a rose decoration on the front. The bracelet has one of my favorite huge nuggets, faceted, as its focal; it is accented by lampwork beads by Suzette Celestin and sterling silver.

If you are considering buying handcrafted jewelry as a Christmas gift, now is the time to buy. You will avoid the worry of whether your gift will arrive on time, and you'll still have time to return it to get it resized or to exchange it if something isn't quite right.
Also, consider taking the pledge to "buy handmade" this holiday season. Go to Why Buy Handmade to learn how buying handmade articles can help the environment, the economy, and the satisfaction you receive when gift-giving.

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Saturday, November 01, 2008

A Potpourri of Pieces

For the most part, there is no rhyme or reason to the group of jewelry pieces that you see here although two were an experiment with colour (or perhaps the lack of it). I have been working on some custom orders and every now and then have to break from the gemstones and pearls I'm working with and use a completely different set of components. I don't use jade very often and since I don't I have an overflowing supply of some kinds of jade, so I truned to some rarely used colours for a change of pace. Above and below are a jade bracelet and a pair of jade earrings done with what is sometimes referred to as "candy jade." I had these wonderful lampwork beads by Suzette Celestin (I love the way that she combines colours and often has beads with a translucent effect in the middle of opaque) in colours that matched beautifully. I'm quite happy with the result - a bit too happy; I've already thought of two outfits I have at home that these would look great with!

I was intrigued with the lampwork beads, below, once again that mixture of translucent and opaque, this time in greens and aquas, and decided to mate them with faceted aquamarine rondelles. I really like these large genuine aquamarine rondelles; they have interesting faceting and colours; some are opaque and some a bit translucent, and because of their size they look great with lampwork beads, creating a very "even" aquamarine bracelet. The large gemstone bead is a banded agate that grounds the bracelet and picks up the taupe colour in some of the beads.

Below are two cloisonne bracelets I made for a real change. The first has cloisonee beads with a dark yellow background that I combined with vermeil and, happily, citrine nuggets. I really like this one! The one below is made with sodalite beads; these are a dark blue, almost reminiscent of lapis, but without the golden pyrite that one finds in lapis. This bracelet has especially good vermeil that I just received straight from Bali - very high quality.

Above is a lariat necklace made with pretty purple suede and the largest chunky amethyst nuggets that I've ever had on the ends. These nuggets have white banding on one side and then translucent amethyst on the other; I just love them! Below, two bracelets experimenting with all black with touches of white, and black and white and red. The bracelet with red has very shiny red lampwork beads laced with silver (by Robin Weber), black onyx, and white quartz. The bottom bracelet is double-stranded; one strand is an imprinted chain from the Thai Karen Hill Tribes; the major strand has banded agate (black and white) and some of my favorite matte-finished lampwork beads, and pretty Bali sterling.

Tomorrow may be a day of rest for some, but I think I'm probably going to spend the afternoon in the studio unless something unexpected comes up. Believe it or not, Christmas is looming close on the horizon!

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