Challenge Week 25

This week's challenge piece was a challenge, a pleasant but difficult one. 

A co-worker had this beautiful purple stone, it looks like an emerald cut to me, and asked if I could put it into a setting for her. I showed her a book with some examples and she chose this orbit pendant setting. I like that one also and had wanted to try it. So when I started to make it I realized that the author wasn't very good at writing directions.  I had not used this book before, I bought it because I liked the wire work in it. It seemed difficult as I was making it, however when I finished it I realized that the way the author described the steps it was just difficult because I was so confused.  Now that I've made it I know what to do and the next one will be easier.

The finished pendant looks beautiful. I used sterling silver wire for the whole piece. I didn't take measurements but it is approximately 2 inches long and sits about an inch high.  The stone is so beautiful that it would enhance any setting.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back next week for the next challenge.

Challenge Week 24

This week, for challenge 24, I decided to make a piece of jewelry that can be considered as a gift for the July birthday. The stone for July is the Ruby, and can be quite expensive. So I used a stand-in stone, a crystal that is a ruby color.

Red is one of my favorite colors and can be combined nicely with other colors. A popular color combination is red with black and that is what I did with these earrings. The starting point for the earrings is a laser lace silver plated fan, The fan by itself would be nice as earrings with the beautiful swirls and textured triangle at the top of the fan. I added Swarovski crystals in Ruby and Jet hanging from the edges of the fans.  These earrings went together so quickly because it was such a joy to make them, and they look great.

These will be posted in my store and I may make them in other colors too. If you would like a pair in another color just let me know and I can make them for you.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week.
Denise

Challenge Week 23

When I first started making jewelry it was for myself, then for family and friends as gifts. Then I started selling jewelry that I made and rarely made anything for myself. Which brings us to this week's challenge.

In my closet is a pink, no iron, oxford shirt that I love to wear. The only problem is that I struggle each time with what jewelry to wear with it. Yes, I make jewelry but don't have anything to wear with an outfit. So this week I decided to make a pair of earrings to wear with my pink shirt.  Swarovski has a lot of faceted rondells that I use to make earrings and I found the perfect color, it's called Vintage Rose. It's beautiful and I'm not sure that my picture does it justice.I only bought the 4 beads because I wanted to be sure they were going to go well with the shirt and if I would be happy with the color. I will buy more of these, they are beautiful!  They are a little on the expensive side because they are Swarovski crystals and they have an Aurora  Borealis finish. They look so pretty, it was worth every penny. The center spacer bead is  antiqued silver, complimenting the vintage rose, it's just enough to highlight the beads without taking away from the crystal. The earrings hang from fancy hooks with completes the look with style.

Similar earrings are on my website in black, red and red & black. I plan to make them in blue and peridot too.  So watch for them.  My website address is www.jewelrybydm.com

Have a great week, stay cool, and I'll see you here next weekend.

Challenge Week 22

This week a good customer asked me to make a birthstone bracelet for her birthday in August, which made this weeks challenge a pleasure.

The birthstone for August is Peridot, and it's a great color for the summer because it is cool and soothing. Although I am not a lover of the color green, this green is beautiful.  I used round Peridot color Swarovski crystals, mixed with clear bicone and saucer shaped  Swarovski crystals and antiqued silver spacers. The combination is like having sorbet on a hot summer day.

To finish off the bracelet I used an antique silver plated pewter toggle clasp that is in the shape of a leaf. Green just called for a leaf clasp - don't you think?

What is your favorite color for summer?  Let me know by leaving a comment below.

Don't forget the Christmas in July sale going on in my store. Use code cijs2011 and receive 15% off of your entire purchase. Use the code as many times as you like during the month of July 2011.

Have a great week, and come back Saturday to see another week of the challenge.

Challenge Week 21

Summer is here and it's time to add some color to your wardrobe, so for Week 21 of the jewelry challenge I thought I would use one of the summer colors in this new piece of jewelry.

Way back in week ten I made a pair of gold convertible earrings and decided that this week I would make another pair. These are antique silver star bursts on fluted ear wires. Then the inserts have blue and clear crystals on them. This way, you can wear them 3 different ways: without the beads, with the beads hanging in the front, or with the beads hanging in the back.  The picture on the left shows the beads hanging from the front.  These earrings hang 1 5/8 inches with the beads and 1 3/8 without the beads.

I was tempted to keep this pair of earrings for myself, they look so vintage because of the antique star bursts, but decided to put them on the website and share.  The last pair went fast, so don't wait if you want them.

This month I have a Christmas in July sale, all jewelry is 15% off. Just use code cijs2011 when checking out.

Challenge Week 20

Hi and welcome to Jewelry Challenge Week 20. The Swarovski 12 mm Rivoli crystals are among my favorites when it comes to making jewelry. They come in all different colors and I'm slowly building my stock with them. Just out of curiosity I went into the Swarovski store one day and saw similar earrings there, they don't call the stone a Rivoli but it looks the same. Anyway, when I saw that they were charging well over $100 for the earrings I was very happy that I make my own.

This week I made a pair of earrings with Rivoli crystals called Vitral Light.  This stone is so beautiful because it seems to change color as it moves and different light sources hit it.  As I look at it I see pink, light purple, green, blue and clear and you get the idea. I put them in a plain setting to highlight the stone. A more decorative setting would take away from the beauty of the stone. These earrings can be worn with just about any outfit because of the multitude of colors reflected in the stone. They hang from french hooks and are about 1 1/4 inches long.

This week I also made a pair of earrings with Swarovski Rivoli crystals in a jet black hematite color. Check them out on my website.

Have a great week and come back next Saturday to see another post.
Denise

Challenge Week 19

Hello, welcome back to my 52 week Jewelry Challenge. This week I made a pair of earrings that I call Plumb Cute.  There was no big inspiration here, I had placed a jewelry order and when it came in there were some new silver ear wires that I had never used before, so I wanted to try them out. The plumb colored crystal tear drops are from my NY shopping trip of several months ago and I had been waiting to use them. So the two came together to make these plumb cute earrings.

The silver ear wires are different, very stylized, they are 5/8" long and when the beads are added the earring is a total of 1 3/4 inches long. The crystal plumb bead is an inverted tear drop and is topped with a bi-cone clear crystal Aurora Boreas (AB)  bead. The AB coating on the bead gives it more sparkle. The bottom bead is sterling silver and finishes off the earring nicely.

Just received some new beads in peridot, pink, tanzanite and a beautiful chrysolite that is a lighter version of peridot, so watch for some new items on my website.

Thanks for reading, I'll see you next week...