Jewelry Making

I found some more jewelry that’s on the funkier side the other day at Lluvia Designs. Phaedra A. Torres makes unique necklaces, bracelets, earrings out of a kaleidoscope of different items. Some pieces feature “found” components such as shells and buttons, while others use handcrafted silver (often made by her family in Mexico) as focal points.

A lot of her items have a playful, bohemian flair to them, but I also get the sense of a deeper organic look to a lot of the pieces especially in the use of knotted leather cord and shells. There’s almost a sort of connection to the landscape in much of her jewelry.

Some background from her site:

I started selling my unique pieces several years ago after many requests for purchasing my handcrafted jewelry. I am based in Los Angeles, and began making jewelry as a hobby over 15 years ago. All items available for purchase are handmade and one of a kind. Most of the silver used is handcrafted by my family in Mexico, who have been metalsmiths for generations.

There are a ton of pieces from her site I wanted to show, but I’ll just show pictures from 2 of them here. The first is called the Paloma Necklace and features one of her family’s handcrafted silver pendants along with a large bone pendant carved in the shape of a moth. Completing the necklace are chunks of red coral, coconut and bauxite.

This other necklace features shells that she found with natural holes in them for stringing as well as buttons. Other accents include peach aventurine, carved bone, czech glass and even a japanese coin. This one is called the San Felipe Necklace, named for the area in Baja, CA where the shells were found.

You can check out the Lluvia Designs site at: www.lluviadesigns.com/