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.

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I came across some really beautiful jewelry through Stylebakery’s Designers on the Rise yesterday. The company in question is called Indulgems Jewelry and from their name you might be able to guess a little bit about what their philosophy regarding jewelry is. From their site:

At Indulgems we believe in something very simple: Indulgence should happen often, in small dosage or large, to add that necessary warmth and pizzazz to life.

Our one-of-a-kind jewelry creations are hand-made with this idea in mind. We want you to pamper yourself, to wear exquisitely crafted jewelry with confidence and joy. We also believe that indulgence does not need to come with a shocking price tag…

If you believe that indulgence is a necessity and pampering is a must; if you have the confidence to stand out from the crowd, to express your inner poise with outer beauty; if you aspire to adorn yourself with jewelry that makes heads turn, and to never shy away from compliments, then you have come to the right place.

I think that’s a pretty wise way to go… for while the pieces at Indulgems are not exactly your everyday affordable item, everyone needs a little something special once in awhile. As long as you don’t go overboard, these types of gifts to yourself are important!

Indulgems main jewelry designer is Grace C, who like quite a few designers is self taught and sort of fell into the profession through business school. She creates one of a kind necklaces, earrings, and bracelets that feature luxurious precious stones often wrapped with silver, gold and gold filled wire. Her pieces can be very ornate but for some reason I was really drawn to them especialy in their frequent usage of vibrant, multicolored stones (something I don’t tend to gravitate to usually) and twisted wire work sort of in the style of “French Beaded Flowers” that I mentioned in my previous entry.

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Creating a folded crimp is one of the most important techniques for stringing simple bead and gem necklaces. Generally, you will be using some sort of jewelry wire or cable for the stringing. While other materials such as silk can be knotted, you will need a strong enough termination point for wire. This is where bead crimps come into play.

In this article, I talk about the basic technique of making a simple folded crimp using crimp beads and crimping pliers.

Tutorial on Using Crimp Beads and Bead Crimping Pliers

I surfed into the Twigs and Heather website completely by accident, but decided to post about their designs here because they were so unusual. I’ve said before that I dig unusual jewelry, in particular interesting metal cast jewelry. And the work here certainly fits the “unusual” tag!

This is also pretty cool: Heather and Kerry Collins, who run Twigs and Heather, are TWIN silversmiths who create mysterious but beautiful silver castings out of the natural items around their home in New England. Their casting methods mix a bit of old school (wax and natural burn out casting) with some newer innovations. Here’s some information from the about page of their site:

Based in Kittery, Maine, Twigs and Heather uses twigs and plant life native to Atlantic Northeast. Born and raised in Nahant, on the North Shore of Massachusetts, Heather & Kerry’s profound love of the ocean, and the trees that grow around it, first fueled the inspirations for their work.

They are super imaginative in the type of materials they use. The resulting jewelry ranges from cuffs and rings cast from rolled Birch Bark to handcrafted Maple Seed necklaces that look almost like silver insect wings! They also make jewelry utilizing beach glass as well as more traditional looking silver charms.

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Here is a necklace we created for Bellaceti using material from our latest buying extravaganza at the Rings & Things wholesale bead show. This Pink Candy Jade used in the necklace that we found at the show is actually jade that is dyed a bright pink… it looks just like candy! We had been wanting to use some larger briolettes for awhile in designs, so we stocked up at the show.

Along with the jade drop we used up some pink crystal that are non-Swarovski to form the rest of this simple necklace. I know a lot of people swear by Swarovski bicone crystals because of their shape regularity and sparkle, but if you’re on a budget then they sell similar crystals for a lot cheaper in bulk. Just don’t expect the crystals to be perfect in shape… you will come across the odd crystal that is misshaped every so often.

We wirewrapped this briolette using 22 gauge wire… it’s been awhile since I wrapped briolettes that are top drilled instead of center drilled, so I had some trouble. I’ve been meaning to put up a tutorial for wirewrapping these things; right now there’s only the tutorial for wire wrapping briolettes that are drilled straight through.

The Candy Jade Necklace features a pink jade briolette as the focal point, paired with pale pink bicone crystal and white pearlescent Japanese seed beads. The briolette drop is about 3/4″ wide and wrapped with sterling silver wire. SoftFlex™ beading wire is used to string the crystals and it is finished with a antique silver toggle clasp and is about 16 inches long.

[Full disclosure: I personally help make some of the pieces at Bellaceti.com]

I came across some fascinating DIY jewelry from Better Through Daisy the other day. (Interestingly, Better Through Daisy is not run by someone named Daisy but by someone named Colleen!) Based in Wilmington, NC, Colleen has come up with a really creative idea to reuse items that might otherwise sit unloved in someone’s basement junk box.

The idea behind the necklaces is really unique. Basically, she takes porcelain pottery shards from antique vases up to 900 years old from China and sets the pieces in sterling silver. The vase shard pendants are then made into necklaces and earrings.

Much of the spirit of this original, handcrafted approach comes from her overall philosophy of jewelry design. From her website:

When I look around at all the jewelry in stores or online, I find much of it looks the same. The same earrings, the same necklaces. My inspiration comes from women who dare to be different. The jewelry on many of the high profile celebs often speaks volumes about their personality and that is something I want to reflect in my pieces. My jewelry is unique, no question about it.

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I came across a site by an Oregon jewelry designer named Angeline who has a cool take on unusual jewelry. Enchantment By Angeline specializes in necklaces, bracelets and earrings that feature actual real flowers, herbs, leaves and other plants that have been cast in precious metal. She combines this with precious stones and gems to form beautiful and elegant jewelry. I believe each item is one of a kind, by default, since each real flower or plant is definitely going to be slightly different!

From Angeline’s website:

Angeline has been designing jewelry for the past eleven years. Her jewelry is a part of collections all over the world. Inspired by nature and the gemstones that brought her to this amazing career you will find a little “magic” in her pieces … Angeline is not only a designer but also a certified jeweler, a certified master of crystology, she has faceted her own stones, and is a mother of three beautiful children.

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As the vibrant colors on her website suggest, Laurice Curran creates jewelry that utilizes striking colors from every corner of the rainbow but stops well short of appearing too gaudy. She makes earrings, bracelets, necklaces and rings using a wide variety of precious stones. Some of her more unusual pieces are her bracelets which employ materials such as chunky resin and vintage glass for a funky, fun look. Another unusual line is her “vine” earrings which feature an amazing array of wirewrapped tiny stones that cascade off of a long length of chain.

A little bit about Laurice, from her website:

In the fall of 2000, I returned home to New York after a number of years of living in New Orleans. There, I had worked as an apprentice for a family of jewelers who had worked in the craft for eight generations. During my time with them I was exposed to the intricate techniques of filigree and Etruscan design, and honed my skills at delicate metal work. This exciting working environment sparked a desire in me to apply these skills toward something of my own.

My inspiration to create a line of jewelry came in the spring of 2002, when I happened past a gemstone store in New York. I walked in and found it impossible to leave. The colors, shapes, and textures of the stones mesmerized me. I wanted to take all of them home. With a small selection of beautiful stones that I bought that very day, I made a few pairs of earrings, and I realized I was onto something. I started telling my friends I was starting a jewelry line, and soon enough I really was.

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From her studio in Richmond, VA, Rebecka Boyd creates necklaces, earrings, and bracelets that are infused with a retro sense of style but often include more contemporary touches and flourishes in her work. She often uses warm reds, oranges and yellow colors in her designs, occasionally offsetting them with touches of cool pastel blues and green.

From her website:

After graduating with a B.F.A from Longwood University in Graphic Design Rebecka moved to Richmond to start her career as a graphic designer but continued to pursue her passion of designing jewelry as a hobby. “I went to local bead store and fell in love with the various colors and cuts of stones and glass beads. They looked like candy… so yummy! That’s when I started making jewelry for family and friends.” She started making designs with recycled glass beads that were made from coke bottles in Africa. Working with the crude and primitive qualities of the beads intrigued her…

After receiving numerous compliments from people at work and strangers on the street, Rebecka decided to pursue her dream of becoming a jewelry designer. She began working art and jewelry shows for an acquaintance. Soon Rebecka was asked to showcase her own designs which encouraged her to enter other shows that concentrated on quality and design as opposed to the more craft-oriented shows.

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Rachel Lavin from Pio makes use of her metalsmithing skills to create unusual metal pieces that she uses in necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings. Although she is currently based in Austin, TX she has lived in a variety of places including New York, Portland, Boston and Mexico (where she originally learned about working with metal).

From her website:

After graduating from Brown University with majors in anthropology and Spanish, she led kids on mountain hikes in Maine, then worked as a clinic assistant at Planned Parenthood, then played with images on the computer for Hearst Publications’ Interactive Studios. After Hearst, she ran away to a town called San Miguel de Allende in Mexico that’s known for being heavily populated by artists and American retirees. It was there that she learned metalsmithing; she’ll never forget the first moment she melted a small piece of wire into a perfectly round ball - the moment that she knew jewelry-making was the ideal outlet for her obsessive nature and her need to constantly create.

Continue reading “Pio Playground” …