The Jewelry Blog

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Coral and a Contest!

Summer is here and with summer comes coral! Of course, I wear coral in the winter also (after all, my favorite colors are peach and coral), but coral just sings summer. I prefer my coral with gold although it is beautiful with silver, especially the lighter peach colours. Above is the newest coral bracelet, and it's made with gold and black onyx. Coral just begs to go with certain other elements - such as pearls - and anything black. Here I've added lampwork beads as well from River Oaks Lampwork.
The coral bracelet below is an example of just how beautiful peachy-pink coloured coral can be with silver. The borosilicate lampwork beads have a gorgeous glow and great depth of colour. The filigree orchid is from the Thai Karen Hill Tribes. The last coral bracelet features red coral, again with gold and just one lentil lampwork bead. It's very simple, but like almost all coral, it really looks great against darker skin.

Also, I'd like to spread the word about a contest that the online jewelry store, JR Dunn , is having. Details are below:

JRDunn.com, the largest designer jewelery store on the web, has announced a chance for bloggers to win a Swiss timepiece for Father's Day. Simply by sharing how great their dad is, bloggers will be able to enter to win a unisex Michele Deco Classic watch ( http://store.jrdunn.com/product-p/mw00mw06a00a0025jrd.htm) with a black leather strap.

HOW TO ENTER:
Bloggers should write a post on their blog about why their dad is the most deserving of this great Swiss watch and either direct message @jrdunn on Twitter.com, or email dsnyder@jrdunn.com with the link to the blog entry. Mashups of video, images, and other media are encouraged as creativity always wins points with one of the most creative jewelry retailers in the world, JR Dunn.

Submissions will be accepted from now until June 11^th at 7:00 pm EST. At that point in time, JRDunn.com will pick the top three entries, and post them at http://founder.jrdunnblog.com. The winner will be decided by Internet users as polling will take place on http://founder.jrdunnblog.com, as well as @jrdunn on Twitter.com. The final votes will be tallied on Friday June 13^th at 3:00 pm EST, and the winner will be announce shortly thereafter, so the winner can announce the gift and share their blog with their Dad on Fathers Day. As an added bonus, any bloggers that enter will receive $25 off of a minimum $250 purchase at JRDunn.com.

Hmmm, and if your father doesn't really need a new watch, ladies notice that that is a Michelle unisex watch!! Sing Dad's praises - and do it now!

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Friday, May 30, 2008

Back to My Bracelets!!

Serendipity strikes once again! A set of lampwork beads, oddly coloured with tones of brown, beige, olive and purple, carelessly placed on a desk next to some new strands of beads, and voila, a combination I may not have otherwise come up with. This matching bracelet and necklace (earrings will be posted soon) contains ametrine, moss opal, amethyst, and tiger-eye beads as well as those pretty, but oddly coloured lampwork beads. This necklace is very versatile (yes, despite the purple) because it looks great with neutrals such as khaki, black, browns, camels, and tans. I'm not selling them as a set, but I did make them together using all the same elements in each piece.

I've been making some bracelets this week (well, among other things); the unique bracelet above is one of my favorite combinations with the last of some of my favorite lampwork beads by Robin Weber. Fire agate and aqua Peruvian chalcedony may not sound like the perfect match, but with these lampwork beads - I'm in love! This is only the second time I've used this combination, but I think it's going to become one of my classics. Below is another classic: the labradorite bracelet with two strands - two strands so that there is always some blue flash showing! I choose my labradorite pieces carefully when I make a piece of labradorite jewelry so that each piece has "flash" and the stronger, the better. But even so, labradorite flashes with movement (the reason it's so great for dangling earrings and bracelets).

Below is a rainbow moonstone bracelet - also double-stranded for the same reasons as the labradorite bracelet. This one also has great lampwork beads in white and clear with a slight iridescent quality. I'll be making more moonstone jewelry since the modern birthstone for June is the moonstone (the traditional birthstone is the pearl).