Jewelry Design to the MAX !!!

A few months ago, I realized that to really be taken serious in the extremely competitive jewelry market, it would be a great idea to take a course to become a "Certified Jewelry Designer". I've been designing jewelry for several years, but it never hurts to learn new techniques and also look at your business from another perspective. What an adventure this has been so far! I'm almost finished. One of the last tasks required is to create an entire collection (about 18 pieces) of jewelry. This means each piece should have the same overall style, using similar design elements, etc. I created a "story board" to use as inspiration. This included some pictures I came across from Africa, and they were just beautiful.






My inspiration involved the colors found in Africa, and it included many of the techniques learned in the course.

One of the techniques from the course was to make a forged, heart-shaped connector. Combining the heart connectors with the colors of Africa, the name of my new collection is "Heart of the Serengeti". Here are a couple of photos of some of the first pieces in the collection:





I'm also having my logo completely redesigned by Marilee Jacobi Popovich of POPovichDESIGN, and it's going to be incredible!! I can't wait to get my new cards ordered.

Ready for Spring !!!

With this cold, rainy weekend, I felt inspired to create something more spring-like. I pulled out my Pantone Color Forecast Guide for Spring/Summer 2011 and started plundering. I came across a necklace I made a couple of years ago that had the right colors for this spring. I really liked the necklace when I first made it, but it was always getting tangled so I decided it needed to be cut apart and re-designed.

The beads are strung and knotted on lilac-colored C-Lon thread. The beads on the necklace are spaced apart to make the necklace light-weight. It has four strands, each at a different length.

The bracelet is strung with the beads right next to each other, except for a knot in between each bead to make it extremely flexible. I put a really big silver-tone toggle on it to keep the chunky look. It's about 15-1/2" long to go around the wrist twice.

The earrings are also very light-weight, even though they are pretty long.

Danish Cluster Copper Earrings

Earrings I recently made using a technique called "Danish Clusters". Copper, gold and turquoise beads on copper wire with copper kidney earwires. They are very light-weight and delicate.

These are going to get listed on etsy TONIGHT !

Where did the last year go ????

Wow, I had absolutely no idea it had been so long since I blogged. Just after my last post, our daughter got engaged, so I apparently spent the next year planning a wedding.








It was a beautiful wedding!





Just about the time the wedding ended, my church choir began rehearsing for our annual "Living Christmas Tree" performance (which meant rehearsals from August to the first of December).

So I've been very negligent in blogging, creating jewelry, and everything else under the sun. The Christmas performance is now two months behind me, Christmas holidays are over, and now I can hopefully start being creative again. (I do have to manage to find time to do my taxes soon, however - UGH!)

Moving On

This past weekend was the last of my craft shows for the year (WHEW !). I love them, but they absolutely wear me out. I came home and slept for over 14 hours, which in my world is absolutely unheard of ! So, now I have a huge mess to sort through and re-organize and get listed on etsy. Also, at one of the shows I was approached by a woman opening a new gallery in Dublin, Georgia, so in my spare time (LOL) I need to start making items for when she opens her gallery December 1st.

I tried out for another community theater production. I've never been in a musical before, so I was thrilled to be cast in the chorus. We'll be performing "It's a Wonderful Life-The Musical", opening the day after Thanksgiving. I'm so excited about doing this play! We started rehearsals a couple weeks ago and the music is amazing. So, here it is the end of September and I'm singing Christmas carols all day long.

Craft Shows !!

Now is the time of year that I really look forward to. Let the craft shows begin !!! Due to the economic situation in the country, this year I have cut out all out-of-town craft shows, so that doesn't leave much. However, in this wonderful city that I live in (Aiken, South Carolina), we have a fantastic show that's going on 33 years. The show has 180+ vendors and about 30,000 visitors. I love being a part of this show. This year it is held on Friday, September 11th from 9am to 6pm, and Saturday, September 12th from 9am to 5pm. I'll post my booth location tomorrow when I get my registration packet. Please stop by my booth, even if it's just to say hello !

Custom Orders - LOVE 'EM !!

One of my favorite things when designing jewelry is to create a piece for a particular outfit. My voice teacher has a beautiful skirt that she hasn't been able to find jewelry to match, and it occurred to her that I could probably make something to match perfectly. She specifically requested that I primarily focus on the oranges with a little bit of green. I used Fire Agate, Apple Coral, Czech glass, Pearls and Mother of Pearl.

Here's her beautiful skirt, and the finished product: