Friday, December 07, 2007

Swarovski: Playing with Sparkle


Sometimes working with Swarovski seems like playing with moonbeams that gleam and sparkle, only moonbeams that come in every colour of the rainbow. The past couple of days, I've been taking breaks from other work to scoot the crystal around my desk and see if they formed themselves into any kind of cohesive design - that's how working with Swarovski often is. I realized that there were certain colours that were not at all represented on my Swarovski Crystal Bracelets page, so I set to work to remedy the situation. I realized I had very few pinks and purples, so I created the bracelet above and the one immediately below. It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but almost all the crystals are 8mm, 10mm and over. I love the larger sizes of Swarovski crystals, and I also like to use the newer colours. The bracelet below features palace green opal (one of the newest Swarovski colours) and rosewater opal, as well as my favorite, Pacific opal.
The pink bracelet below has a focal of Crystal Moonlight and the majority of the bracelet is rosewater opal. Finally, I worked with the light red Siam , a colour I rarely use although I love, and I mean love, to work with red and red-toned gemstones. I mixed the red Swarovski with the more muted silver shadow and included a little silver shadow butterfly. The last challenge was photographing these so that their sparkle showed - and I am still not satisfied with the results - especially with the opal colours!

Don't forget to shop our Holiday Gift Ideas!



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Sunday, December 02, 2007

Swarovski for the Holidays and a Happy Birthday!!!

First, I want to wish a Happy Birthday to my younger sisters (twins) who turn 50 today! If you don't have a least one sister, you don't know what you are missing. Sisters are the touchstones for who we are; they are our past, and good sisters are our encouragement for our future. So a big Happy Birthday - and a cliche, but it's true nonetheless - you're not getting older, you're getting better!

I've been working on Custom Jewelry this week, but some new Swarovski caught my eye (I made the mistake of opening the package) and I just had to do a little with it. I've been know to get Swarovski shipments and leave them untouched until I had the time to work with the crystals, since when I open any Swarovski crystals I am immediately entrapped by its sparkle.
The first Swarovski that really caught my eye in this package were the Galactic pendants (shown at the top). But, I thought, why use them as pendants when they would be so much more striking and beautiful as earrings? So that is what they ended up being (also a picture of the pair at the bottom of this post). The Galactics have wonderful movement and of course, their sparkle is gorgeous. Perfect for these oddly shaped crystals are these modern looking earwires from the Karen Hill Tribes, so that the result is a very modern earring. I put them in the Holiday Gift Ideas section.
Below the Galactics are earrings made with Swarovski's new green opal crystals. It is a great Christmas green.

Alexandrite Swarovski crystals in their changeable colour are featured in these Swarovski crystal earrings. These earrings have earring posts made of sterling silver; these domed posts are great if, like many of us, you have unsightly holes from years of wearing dangling earrings.
The earrings below are created from huge 12mm bicones, then hung from sterling silver earwires with a flat diamond shape on the front. They are wonderful for a holiday party.
Below those is another picture of the Galactic earrings from the first picture in this post. Most of our other Swarovski crystal earrings can be found on the website in the Austrian Crystal Earrings page or on our Swarovski Bridal Jewelry page.

I hope that everyone is getting on with his/her Christmas shopping. I'm trying to order a few things online, trying to get a head start this year! I adore shopping online, avoiding the crowds, aching feet, and that long drive from this small Arkansas town to Memphis (where most of the Christmas shopping in this area is). While I like people, it's sometimes much easier to keep the Christmas spirit intact when you don't have to circle mall parking lots 3 times to find a parking space scrunched next to someone who is probably going to dent your car or wait for a salesperson who decided to go to lunch just when you were ready to pay for 15 items that you've painstakingly shopped 4 hours to gather together.




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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

After Thanksgiving



I have the post-Thanksgiving case of nerves I always get at this time every year. With Thanksgiving over, Christmas is breathing hard at my heels, and from now until Christmas Day actually comes, I feel as though I'll be playing catch-up. At least this year, I'm being a bit more disciplined about the situation. Of course, to make things even harder, we're usually out of the country every Christmas although it looks as though this year we may be in Washington - away from home, but not that long aching plane ride away from home.
I've been working mostly on custom orders lately and am finishing a wedding that will go out tomorrow. Lots of amethyst! Then, I have several other custom orders to get made (most for Christmas, so I'm doing okay there), but I've either sketched them out or know what I'm doing and where I'm going with them.
I've been working with different elements. The lampwork earrings above with lapis and carnelian (found in our Holiday Gift Ideas section match a fantastic bracelet on my Handcrafted Bracelets page.
The bracelet is made with freshwater pearls and Swarovski's newest crystals in a wonderful grey opal colour that I love. The silver freshwater pearls are perfect! The bracelet will be on our Swarovski Bracelets page.


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