exclusive jewelry

I do not want to make light of our troubled economy, but I had to shake my head when I read in my WWD (Women’s Wear Daily, the insider rag for fashion retail) about a scenario reported on by one of the editors of the paper. Apparently, a woman was looking at two sweaters, one very trendy and wildly patterned and one plainer in a neutral colour. According to the editor, because of the economy, the woman chose the plainer, neutral sweater – and this was a bad thing. Now, I fail to see this as a sympton of our problem economy at the moment, and more as evidence of the woman’s savvy as a good shopper and possibly a true fashion lover; I would have done this in the money-flowing ’80s (and did) , the ’90s, and I still do.

For the most part, there is no rhyme or reason to the group of jewelry pieces that you see here although two were an experiment with colour (or perhaps the lack of it). I have been working on some custom orders and every now and then have to break from the gemstones and pearls I’m working with and use a completely different set of components. I don’t use jade very often and since I don’t I have an overflowing supply of some kinds of jade, so I truned to some rarely used colours for a change of pace. Above and below are a  and a pair of  done with what is sometimes referred to as “candy jade.” I had these wonderful lampwork beads by Suzette Celestin (I love the way that she combines colours and often has beads with a translucent effect in the middle of opaque) in colours that matched beautifully. I’m quite happy with the result – a bit too happy; I’ve already thought of two outfits I have at home that these would look great with!

I’ve been making bangles, a form of bracelet that I’m quite fond of myself. I always have some sort of bangle on whether it’s a smooth band of gold or one set with gemstones. The bangle is an especially versatile bracelet since it can be extremely casual or very formal.
The Swarovski bracelet above is the epitome of bling with its huge Swarovski crystals, two Cosmic crystals on either side of a Graphic. It is definitely a bracelet that will be noticed. The bangle bracelet below is a bit more sedate than the one above, but combine rubies and emeralds, and you’ll always have a piece of jewelry that will be noticed. The focal point of this bangle is a carved, fluted emerald surrounded by rubies; a toggle clasp has a cabochon emerald set in it.