Jewelry Making

Whenever I’m surfing around on DIY jewelry sites and come across an interesting piece, I almost always file it in a “Check Out Again Later” bookmark folder. I was going through my folder the other day and I came across Bella Jolie Designs again. Tricia Miller, who has been designing the jewelry for Bella Jolie at her home studio in Washington state for the past four years, creates elegant and fun necklaces, bracelets and earrings using hand picked precious stones. She uses a wide variety of gem materials including Tourmaline, Peridot, Citrine, Amethyst, Rubies, Garnets and Sapphires. These are combined in her jewelry with a choice of 14k gold filled or sterling silver findings and wirewrap.

Some information about her design process and philosophy from her website:

I create jewelry because I have a passion for the process. From selecting high quality tools and materials to completing a piece of jewelry- I love every bit. I am inspired by beautiful gems and stones. I hand select them much like most people would a diamond: in my case for richness of color, the cut, and quality. By the time I get these treasures home, I am already excited to begin creating. I love putting different shapes and colors into my hand admiring the beauty of them. Next I spend hours happily working these gems into the finished products you see on my website.

There are two styles which I though were pretty interesting in her work and sort of set it apart from more common techniques. The first is the usage of “wrapped wire hoops” for things like earrings that feature a larger center stone hanging in the center of the hoop but have a myriad of smaller stones wirewrapped around the hoop.

The second style is a sort of free-form curvy, “serpentine” look with hanging precious stones but with the addition of wire wrapped around the wire curve. I’ve shown one of the earrings here that employs this technique. This is the “Twigs Earrings” which feature brilliant Fire Zircon along with hand wrought 14K gold filled wire (also available in Sterling Silver).

I just thought this item was a pretty striking piece of unusual jewelry. There was also another piece using a similar style on her site, aptly called the Serpentine Earrings, which uses Lime Zircon, silver chain, and hand wrought Sterling Silver.

You can check out the Bella Jolie site at: www.bellajolie.com/