Archive for July, 2010

Wedding Bells

Its Tuesday morning and the best day of the week well working week anyway, as my little boy goes to nursery for the day and we can get stuck into the business. I thought i would do a bit of blogging while i have the chance as I am never sure if i will get the time later. I am working on a few designs aimed at weddings at the moment and have just finished making a lovely bracelet and necklace set as you can see in the photo which i managed to take in between all this lovely British weather (RAIN) i thought this was to be the ice cream summer!White freshwater pearl necklace 7White freshwater pearl bracelet 5I guess you could say that this is the usual template for pearl necklaces but its how you add your own little extras that makes it your design and for me i like my pieces to look elegant and alive if you get where I am coming from if not don’t worry I am just mad. I have used AAA white freshwater pearls on the necklace and bracelet which measure 9mm which is a great size, not to big so they don’t look over powering but big enough to get noticed. The luster on these pearls are fab and they really glow with a warm and colourful feel to them. I love to make pieces with the best components i can get my hands on and i love these pearls. I have used only a couple of Swarovski crystals just to add a little more sparkle because i didn’t want to take anything away from the pearls. I have put sterling silver spacers in between the pearls as i think it just looks more elegant and gives it that look of quality. The little extra i have used is a sterling silver solid heart toggle, this toggle was handmade in Bali and has lovely decorative touches added to it. I have decided to do this set in gold vermeil as well as it looks even better in gold, I think its the beautiful colour of the pearls i just need to get all the components together and I’ll take a few snaps of them and show them at a later date so for the mo au revoir.

White Freshwater Pearl,Aquamarine and Blue Iolite Mystic Quartz Earrings, Necklace

Well it was nice to get some hot sunny weather back again yesterday as it allowed me to get a few photo’s of my earrings and necklace to complete my pearl and gemstone set which I am now pleased to have finished and put on our site for sale as this is a stunning piece of jewellery if i do say so myself and would grace any bride walking down the runway. I have made the necklace in a very simple way but it looks very elegant so as not to be over powering and in your face.The dangle measures about 3 inches long and consists of white freshwater pearls which are in two sizes, 3mm – 3.5mm and 5.5mm – 6mm and are gorgeous. I then added Aquamarine rondelles which are 4mm in size and interspersed amongst the pearls and then we have the stunning blue mystic Iolite quartz which measure 6.5mm – 7.5mm and absolutely sparkle. I put four blue Iolite stones on the dangle as i didn’t want it to be to top heavy and become a mess so that it just has that elegant look. It took me a while to figure out what design i wanted for the earrings as i didn’t want to put to much on them otherwise it would look a mess and ruin the whole set so i decided to go for just one blue Iolite stone which would dangle at the bottom of the chain and be the main focal point. I used the biggest stones which were 7.5mm so they would stand out which i think looked right, your eyes are drawn to the sparkle they transmit. As for the pearls i left more of a gap between them as i felt to cluster them like the bracelet and necklace would be a mistake and they would look to bulky and lose that elegant look that i was looking for. I used  beautiful ornate sterling silver stud ear pieces to hang the earrings from which i think just complete these earrings.

Hanmade Pearl, Aquamarine and blue Iolite Dangle Earrings 3Handmade Pearl, Aquamarine and blue Iolite Dangle Earrings 5Handmade Pearl,Aquamarine and blue Iolite Necklace 4

You can see when the natural sunlight hits the jewellery how beautiful it really is.

Jewellery update

Evening all, I see we are back to the normal British summer time with all the rain. I think I am having one of those periods in life when things continue to go wrong if that’s the right word. I have been laid up for the past week with a  very sore back thanks to my little boy in which i have not been able to do any work up until yesterday when i managed to get a full day in the workshop and finish a few projects i had going  which is very rare for me or Sue as we have our 2 year old son to look after and the fact that Sue is 7 months pregnant so time is a little short. Well that’s enough of the sob story and back to the jewellery,  I managed to make the necklace and earrings to go with the new pearl and gemstone bracelet which is made with freshwater pearls,aquamarine rondelles and blue iolite mystic quartz and which is on our front page of the website so please check it out. I have no photo’s to show you I am sorry to say but with all the bad weather and my bad back i haven’t been able to get outside which is how i like to take my pictures if possible as jewellery looks so much better in natural sunlight but even that doesn’t do the gemstone jewellery justice.  I also finished off one of my wedding/bridal necklace and bracelet combo’s again i have no photo’s but hope to show them tomorrow. I have also nearly finished my necklace and earrings to go with my fairy-dust bracelet which is made with rose quartz onion briolettes, pink mystic topaz and white freshwater pearls but i must have been having another off day as i ordered the wrong size rose quartz which is what i have been waiting on and because i buy most of my luxury gemstones abroad it takes time to see if i can get them and then get them shipped. We have been working on a new personalised bracelet which should be ready for photo’s sometime this week and hopefully we will have it for sale on the website as well as i think its a lovely piece and i cannot wait to get it on. Its pretty hard to write about jewellery when you do not have the photo’s to show people as your describing it so i will finish there for tonight and hopefully be back blogging tomorrow with some pics, But i will leave you with a few of our holiday pics so i bid you bonne nuit.DSC_0062DSC_0059DSC_0102

White Pearl & Gemstone Bracelet

Aah Sunday night and have managed to get a few minutes to write some words of wisdom i hope. Since we got back from Holiday it has been chaos with orders and getting back into work mode which isn’t easy for me at the best of times as Sue keeps pulling me up about all the tea breaks i have, I keep telling her that my genius comes from my thinking time. At the moment i have about ten projects going on at the moment which probably isn’t the best way to work but it suits me, and the one I am going to blog about tonight is my new white pearl cluster bracelet. I actually got the idea for this bracelet from our holiday destination which was Brittany which is in France for those of you who would not no that. I had been looking at photo’s with  beautiful soft sandy beaches with water crashing off the rocks which makes that white foam and is surrounded by patches of lovely clear blue/green water and then the darker blue water further out and having been there its even better first hand. I used two different sizes of AA white freshwater round pearls, The sizes of these pearls are 3-3.5 mm for the small ones and 5.5-6mm for the bigger ones which give it a fantastic style. I then added some 4mm AA aquamarine faceted rondelles which i interspersed along the bracelet which just made the bracelet glow and give it beautiful contrast to the pearls. I do like to add contrasting colours to my pieces but you have do it in the right way or it just looks a mess so for my second gemstone i used AAA blue Iolite Mystic quartz which were 6.5-7.5mm which to me just made the bracelet complete. I did add one last item to the bracelet which was a sterling silver Fleur de Lys charm which i thought was appropriate in more ways than one. This bracelet looks very suttle but has that eye catching look which i think is a must for pieces like this. I am working on the matching necklace and earrings for this bracelet so it will be a lovely set but that’s for another time and blog  so i bid you bonne nuitWhite Freshwater Pearl & Aquamarine Cluster Bracelet 2