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25 October 2017

How to create new Jewels

 I wanted to showcase how I actually come up with some of my creations. Some things are meticulous planned, drawn out, and then created. Other things are on a whim. I see a lovely jeweled scrap, and decide to plan a piece of jewelry around it.


This is an example of what my "scrap" bin looks like. When you start letting everyone around you know that you'll take old, discarded, broken jewelry, you'll start accumulating some really great stuff that you can take apart, dismantle, rearrange, and make something unique out of.



Many of these were cheap jewelry purchases made by myself. Some of the earrings were simply too heavy for me to wear.



These are some of the items I ended up selecting. My plan was to make a bracelet that matches with an existing jewelry set I made about a year ago. I selected one of my "map of California" cabochons, which is simply a map glued underneath a glass flat back marble. I chose some lengths of rhinestones, some brass bird charms, some chain from an ankle bracelet, and some little black and gold charms that were from a pair of vintage earrings. I also knew I'd be using a lot of beads, so I've got my pearls and glass beads out as well.



I cut a piece of felt that is the length of how long I want my bracelet. This one is about 7 inches, which is a standard wrist size. I glued the cabochon and birds down in the middle of the bracelet, since I want those to be the centerpoint of the bracelet. I also took my rhinestone scraps and glued them around the central cabochon. I use E6000 contact cement in clear.



Once the glue was dry, I hand stitched the little black/gold charms and the decorative chain down. Interestingly, I used some nail polish remover and removed some of the black paint from the charms. They were much more interesting when I could see more of their fine detail.


I should have taken some more shots before this, but this is after I have hand stitched all the beads onto the bracelet. I like things to be symmetrical (both horizontally and vertically) on a bracelet, so what I put on one side will go on the other. I did use some glue underneath some of the larger beads, while also sewing them down. Since I am using a sewing needle and thread, I am limited to a certain extent to what beads I use, because they need to fit over the sewing needle itself.

Once the bracelet has everything on it that you like, you're going to trim around the bracelet with scissors, to get rid of the extra felt. I also like to glue another layer of felt on, then trim that too.


I added a lobster claw clasp to the bracelet. These types of bracelets are going to be more fragile than not, and should not be worn if you are to be doing any active or messy activities. That's not to say you can't wear and enjoy it, and if a bead does get lost, it's easy to sew a new one in its place. As with any jewelry piece, your jewels will last much longer if you do not sleep or bathe in them.

20 October 2017

Jewelry Sets

I absolutely love matching jewelry sets. Every royal family in the past and present have had matching sets of diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and more. Not only do I collect jewelry, I obviously make it too, and I LOVE to match all my sets together.

These are some beautifully matching sets (or parures) from my own private collection that I have made over the last 4 years.


A set I made from beautifully jeweled stars from a collection of J.Crew jewelry, consisting of a necklace of 5 large stars, and a bracelet consisting of 7 small stars. I disassembled both, and made matching earrings, brooch, necklace and tiara. Just missing a bracelet and a ring, which are probably my least favorite items of jewelry to wear anyways!


My wedding set! Made from titanium coated quartz crystals and large crystal pink teardrops, this set is made up of a tiara, earrings, necklace, brooch, and a bracelet (I didn't make the bracelet).


This is a set I made for an employee art show at my workplace about a year ago. This is an almost complete set consisting of a tiara, brooch, necklace, ring, and earrings. I had a matching bracelet, but I lost it one day on the bus! I think one of my current art projects is to make a new bracelet that matches the set, and maybe a hair comb as well.


My most recent set, inspired by my visit to Oahu and the Big Island of Hawai'i back in August. The set is made from velvet seeds, pearls, urchin spines, and most amazingly, resin cabochons that contain little treasures of things I found on beaches. This set has tiny detail, and it much more toned down compared to the other sets. No dangly earrings or full tiara here. The set includes a hair comb, button earrings, brooch, necklace, 2 rings, and a bracelet.

Brooches and Beyond!

In addition to hair accessories, which I will always love, I have decided to expand my line to include brooches and necklaces. This is what I have come up with in the last couple of weeks:


Necklaces made with faux aurora druzy quartz cabochons, faux pearls, rhinestones, crystals. Everything is hand stitched to felt, and then chain is attached.



A nice Pisces fish brooch, complete with crystals, polymer clay cabochon mokume gane, brass fish charms.


My David Bowie tribute pieces. Here is Ziggy Stardust putting on his makeup.


I used various images of Bowie from the 1970s. I did faux distressed textures, sepia tone, and even some lyrics from Blackstar, typed in my favorite font of all time, Omikron.






This one is a pendant for a necklace, made with elongated mother-of-pearl beads.


This one uses real large pearls and aurora borealis rhinestones.


And some more classical ones, with a pink druzy quartz cabochon.