Challenge Week 27

 Getting your wardrobe ready for fall and winter in the heat of summer always seemed a little crazy to me. I usually want to buy summer clothes in the summer. Lately, however, I realized that to get the new styles easily, without searching through every store, I have to start the fall and winter clothes shopping early; which leads me to this week's challenge.

This necklace will look great worn with a plain or turtle neck sweater. It is long enough to carry the bulk, yet delicate enough to be feminine. I used turquoise color Czech glass beads, (also used in challenge week 4), chain, and a beautiful medallion that you can see up close in the bottom picture. At first when I looked at this medallion I thought it was 4 little hearts in the center but I think it's a 4 leaf clover. The clasp is beautiful too, it has little Swarovski crystals on it. 

The original design for this necklace was inspired by a customer that wanted a necklace to wear with one of her sweaters, so I had purchased 2 of the medallions. After making her necklace I used different beads and chain to create this one.

Don't get me wrong, this necklace is very flexible and can be worn with a summer top, and even into the fall with a long sleeve blouse and jacket. Since I just made my first sweater purchase I'm in the winter wardrobe mode - not winter weather though.

Have a great week and enjoy the rest of the warm weather, fall is just around the corner.

You can see more of my jewelry on my website.

Challenge Week 26

Week 26... wow, half way through the challenge.  I wasn't sure I was going to make it this far.  In the beginning it was difficult to discipline myself to get the jewelry and blog done. I made sure that the jewelry was done so that Saturday morning I could post it on the blog, and now it's just part of my Saturday routine. Recently I watched the movie Julie and Julia and saw that a weekly challenge was a piece of cake (pun intended) compared to her challenge which was a daily challenge. Although cooking each day using another persons recipes is easier than creating a piece of jewelry. Just to have the stamina to come home from work every day and cook and then write a blog - I give her a lot of credit. She also ended up getting a book deal and a movie out of it so it paid off.

The piece of jewelry that is being used for this week's challenge was actually made last week along with the pendant that I did.  My co-worker asked me to make this ring and another one that is similar, one having her birthstone and the other her daughter's birthstone.  It is from the same book that the pendant was in so I can't claim the design, only the skill of reading the directions and bending the wire.

The ring is called the wave ring and the little waves that go off the ring on either side of the stones really make this unique.  On one side the wires are twisted to give it even more texture.  The ring in the book used smaller stones so there were 3 across the top; I like the larger stones because you can see them better and also it's easier to thread the wire through them.

If you would like a wave ring just send an email to me at denise@jewelrybydm.com - it is a great ring to give as a gift because I can customize it with birthstone colors using crystals and being unique the gift won't be duplicated.

Have a great week and I hope to see you back here next week.

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.