Jewelry Making

Billed as “Jewelry With Soul”, Pieces of a Girl is run by Lizzy Carter who lives in the New England area. Although she does make a seasonal line of jewelry that you can order straight from her website, a big focus of her site involves custom designs on commission. You basically contact her to set a price range and other parameters such as the desired look and style, and the design progresses from there.

The custom pieces also get the full star treatment as far as packaging goes. Items over $100 come in an elaborate box along with a full set of story cards - these include custom greetings and sentiments that are behind the actual jewelry which are sure to tickle the fancy of the lucky recipient of the item.

Her seasonal line for Fall 2006 includes a beautiful assortment of necklaces, pendants, earrings and bracelets. I feel like her pieces have a lighter, airy touch to them.

Here’s a little bit about Lizzy, from the Pieces Of A Girl website:

lizzy carter is an artist, entrepreneur and texture junky. she launched pieces of a girl in 2002 after eight months of strategic planning and a lifetime of daydreaming about a career made from her own creativity. she has more than 1,000 pieces of signature custom jewelry to her credit, and her collections are available in exclusive boutiques nationwide…

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I found out about Blend Creations through the Mighty Flirt site. The Canadian husband and wife team of Eric Jean-Louis and Vivian Cheng have created an array of interesting and unusual pendants. Using modern stainless steel as an exterior housing for more traditional Asian-inspired designs and materials, they create a unique, organic contrast in their jewelry.

Some of the different types of items used for these pendants inner designs include bone, bamboo, coral, mother of pearl and Japanese Washi paper.

A little blurb about their work from the Blend Creations website:

“Eric and Vivian find inspiration for their work in the design of everything from furniture to housewares to graphic art. By fusing hand-drawn design with automated manufacturing — imagery from the East with technology from the West — the creators of Blend Creations have become a rare blend, indeed.”

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I found some interesting and cute stuff over at the UK jewelry site (that’s actually “jewellery” for many sites across the pond!) Aurora Bloom the other day. Jenny Hudson designs all the pieces and has been making bracelets, brooches, earrings, necklaces and phone charms for a number of years, but only set up her online shop this year.

Although the color scheme of many of her pieces tends toward the more pink and/or girly (which is usually not a style we gravitate toward), I liked her choice of unusual components such as shells, cameos, polished stones and vintage plastic in the work which makes it a bit different than many other DIY designers who have similar items.

From her site:

The findings and beads used to make our jewellery have been carefully sourced from a number of suppliers. The current range is made up of components from the USA, Africa, Czech Republic, Austria, Bali, Japan, Germany and the UK. There is a strong emphasis on ‘the unusual’ and mixing the past with contemporary styles.

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Some really cool inscribed metal jewelry can be found at Amy Peters’ Studio which is located in Avila Beach, California. Amy designs and inscribes both large and small metal charms and uses them in necklaces, bracelets, and even rings. She is no stranger to designing jewelry, having started at the ripe old age of 8 years old. Although she was always involved with beading and jewelry making and even went on to receive a degree in Metal Arts and Jewelry Design, she never thought about actually making jewelry design her main profession until moving back to the West Coast. Here’s a little bit about her philosophy on jewelry design from her website:

It is important for Peters’ that her jewelry be affordable and accessible to everyone. “I want the designs to be inspirational and to be keepsakes and talismans for everyday life” states Peters. “I especially love the time in a girl’s life when she is just finding her voice, My hope is that my designs can help them along their voyage”

She credits her love of inscribed jewelry to a good luck token machine at the local Woolworth’s store during her childhood. It was called the Harvard Metal Stamper and for 25 cents you could put your own special message on a good luck coin that you could put on a keyring or wear on a necklace chain. Peters’ chain of choice was always ball chain. After searching antique stores all over the United States for over 2 decades Peters’ finally has one of the rare arcade machines in her home game room. Thanks to Ebay!

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I came across some really cool looking jewelry from Vintage Faerie the other day. Amanda Kane utilizes antique vintage photos to create unique handcrafted jewelry such as pendants and charms. She also creates hand-stamped “wish” bracelets along with more traditional items like necklaces and earrings. But it’s her photo charms and pendants that really make her work stand out from the pack. Rather than trying to explain exactly how they are made, here is Amanda’s description of the process from her website:

Vintage Photo Charms and Pendants are art, or photographs, behind glass and framed to be worn as jewelry, or perhaps, placed in a special spot to be admired. The purpose of each charm or pendant is to invoke feelings to the wearer, or admirer. Feelings of dreams, creativity, imagination; endless possibilities… or feelings of special moments in one’s lifetime.

Uniquely handcrafted, each charm and pendant goes through a number of processes before it is completed. We begin with a high-quality photographic print of the original. All image designs are from our extensive personal collection of antique or vintage images, text and documents dating as early as the late 1800s. We then cut glass by hand to insure quality and size accuracy. Next we expertly frame the glass encased print by melting a silver metal over high heat to create smooth and thick frames. Lastly sterling bails are added to make the designated piece into a charm or pendant.

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