Word of mouth is amazing. I still consider it – hands down – the best method of marketing. I wouldn’t have a web development business if it wasn’t for word of mouth. The same goes for my jewelry business…

Recently, thanks to “word of mouth”, I was recommended by one of my friends to one of her soon-to-be-married friends to get custom necklaces created for the bridesmaid party. There’s something about making bridal jewelry that I find puts me in a good mood. I guess it’s the thought of the celebration. How can you not be happy when two people are committing themselves to true love?

Back to the jewelry…the bride requested I make illusion necklaces. I can’t remember the last time I made illusion necklaces…mainly because once I worked with wire, I never looked back. I still had tons of the illusion cord and other components. All I needed to purchase were the large quantity of crystals and pearls. After a quick trip to the local bead store (researching colors for future wholesale purchases is a must), I sat down to the task.

As I worked the individual pieces of this initial necklace, I was reminded how much fun they were to make. It also made me think that I would like to get back into pearl knotting. I enjoyed that a lot as well, but I think I’d like to take it into a different direction other than the traditional pearl knotting you think of when someone mentions Akoya pearls and the sorts.

Maybe I’ll sit down this weekend and create a new pearl knotted piece. Time to find my silk cards!

In the meantime, I thought I would share a necklace I just made for a last minute Mother’s Day gift for one of my girlfriends:

Just noticed that I took these on a white background…It’s been quite a while…maybe I should go back to a white background. What do you guys think?

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That doesn’t mean that I’ve been doing nothing, though! Check out the earrings I just finished for one of my customers:

Much darker than the pair of earrings they are modeled after, but as far as I’m concerned, they are even more captivating and exotic. Can’t wait to hear back from her when she sees them!

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While we were there, she asked me if I could make a necklace for her mom for Christmas. I, of course, was excited at the prospect and said “sure!”

So here we are! I call it “The Betty Rubble”. Fitting, right? I love how it came out. Almost makes me want to make chunkier pieces of jewelry…but my love is dainty at heart. :)

Now the question becomes, what do I do with the remaining pieces of fire cherry quartz. They’re awfully big! Any suggestions?

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(I couldn’t remember if I had shown those on the blog or not.) So, when she said she needed a few more gifts, I was pleased to oblige:

I do think they came out great! I’m sure she’ll be excited as well. :)

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So quickly, I thought I’d show you a custom order based off my Turquoise and Carnelian Cluster Bracelet. However, instead of sterling silver, this one is in 14kt gold-filled components:

I call it the “Alter Ego”. Isn’t it lovely?

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Choker – Fire Rose: View 1

I may have mentioned that in one of my previous posts and sadly that was the case here. However, I was able to find these fantastic fire opal agates with great faceting work. They are extremely beautiful. Here’s another view of the choker:

Choker – Fire Rose: View 2

I’m very happy with the way the choker came out. I hope the customer is as well.

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Notice, I also used the Hessonite I purchased on my previous spree. What do you think?

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Swarovski doesn’t make the same saturation of colors in the smaller sizes of pearls as they do for the next size up. However, the necklace still looks fantastic! I’m very happy with the results and excited that she gave me free reign again to create a piece for her. Hopefully she will like it just as much!

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When we had some down time, I did pull out the supplies I took with me to make some new pieces of jewelry and work on a custom order. Wouldn’t you know, aside from the custom order, I made not a single thing. On top of that, once I got home, I realized that I didn’t like the outcome of what I had worked on, so I started again from scratch.

Re-reading my customer’s email, she said she liked the style of the Amazonite Criss Cross Cuff, but was looking for something a little more low key with a mix of fire opal agates and rose quartz. She also gave me some ideas on what she envisioned. Then she gave me free reign to come up with a design.

However, due to the size and color of the rose quartz, I felt the bracelet would work best as two separate bracelets. She did mentioned that I could go that route. My hunch was that incorporating the stones into one bracelet would have made for a good looking piece, yet separately, but stacked, they would look fantastic. So, I chose to make two bracelets.

This is the first one with rose quartz rondelles, Swarovski crystal rondelles, Balinese spacers and findings and a Thai leaf bead. The bracelet is on a wire base, with a handcrafted enclosure and a chain extension to accommodate any preference for bracelet wear.

The second one is made with smooth fire opal agates and Balinese spacers and findings. This bracelet is also on a wire base, with a handcrafted enclosure and a chain extension to accommodate any preference for bracelet wear. With slightly more length in the cuff itself, the chain is shorter than that of the rose quartz bracelet.

The thing I like most about these bracelets is that they act as a cuff. With the wire base, they can be molded to fit the wrist tightly, like a cuff, or more loosely, like a strung bracelet. There’s lots of versatility in that. The best part? The thinness of the bracelets does allow them to be worn stacked and yes, they do look fantastic! One can never have enough jewels on the wrist when you’re in the mood…

When my customers give me free reign, it always makes me a little nervous, in a good way. So I’m hoping she loves the bracelets as much as I loved making them.

Recently, I mentioned that I had a customer ask me to recreate a criss cross bangle into a ring. After spending several days in search of uniform 4mm freshwater pearls in various colors, I finally decided to abandon my quest and move forward with other suitable solutions – in this instance, Swarovski pearls.

The first thing to tackle was getting an array of colors for the ring. Swarovski traditionally selects more muted and toned down colors for their pearls than what I originally used for the cuff. Since I wanted to make sure that I had colors that matched each other in tone and saturation, I bought 9 different strands of Swarovski pearls to play with. I’m glad I did as some of the pearls I originally selected would not have worked well with each other! Luckily, I already had the gold pearls from a long ago project.

After selecting 6 colors to work with, I have to say I’m very happy with the outcome of the ring. It’s absolutely beautiful and I will definitely be adding it to the listing of available rings made-to-order.

(As an after thought, it occurred to me that this would be a great post for this week’s Etsy Bloggers Street Team theme of Carnival of Colors, hosted at Bead Jewelry by ShopGirl. So there you have it!)

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An absolutely beautiful pair of earrings, I was fairly sure I wouldn’t be able to find the focal stones from the same supplier I purchased them originally. It has been over a year since I purchased them and the likelihood of finding the same stones was pretty slim.

So, imagine how happy I was to have found the last 2 stones in my stash! (I try to be fairly organized, but there are some things that just get lost in the clutter.) The only other obstacle to making the earrings was that I no longer had the same chain (mainly because the price is so cost prohibitive) – same with the earwires.

Luckily, the customer was open to my using a different chain. (I forgot to ask about the earwires.) After doing some more scouring, I found just enough left over chain from another project that I felt would be a better fit for the earrings.

I’m glad I was asked to recreate them. I definitely think this pair is much prettier than the originals. And if you have anything you want me to recreate from my Gallery pages, just ask!

This particular order was from one of my martial arts instructors. By her own admission, she’s not one to wear a lot of jewelry, but when she does, she wears down to earth colors. She fell in love with this piece.

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It’s always a great feeling to be able to tell someone that I can make what they are looking for. Their face usually brightens up. It does the same thing once they see the piece for the first time.

I won’t be able to see my customer’s face when she finally sees this piece, but I am sure that it will brighten her and bring a smile to her face.

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Let me know what you think!

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The latest piece I was asked to create is an eyeglass chain. After suggesting a combination of shell beads to keep the piece colorful, but not too fancy, I could see it in my client’s face that she was having trouble visualizing the final outcome.

My solution? Assembling a portion of the piece! Sketches are great for this purpose as well, but for this particular request, I offered to make a portion of the piece and send a picture. Here is the bit I made:

Here’s to imaging the final product! :)

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This past weekend, I got to see that reaction from two different people. After showing some of my latest pieces to both, I got commissions for 3 more pieces. I thought I’d share two of them with you now:

The thing I love about this criss cross bracelet and the coordinating earrings is the color combination. For some reason, while I can see the purple tones in peacock colored pearls, I have never thought to pair them with amethyst stones. So I’m very glad the color scheme was requested, because I feel the final result is surprisingly complimentary.

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So, guess what appears in my mailbox the other day? Her package with a note that says “Undeliverable as addressed”:

She and I got a good laugh out of that, even more so since the package was addressed correctly. :)

As it turns out, my style has slow been morphing into something that is uniquely mine. And while little drop earrings are still my first love, I knew that I had to do something different with the pearl drops. Very inspired by nature, leaves and flowers (since I spend so much time inside staring at my computer), I decided to make these sweet but oh so fabulous Flower Drop earrings. I told my customer and she said she wanted to see a sneak peek, so here it is:

I hope you like these Annie. I see the little pearls and they remind me of you. :)

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So, here are pictures of the earrings I made for her to select from. The others will go into my stock for sale.

I have one more pair, not pictured here, that she may like (having made mention to a pair of earrings I had made previously.) In any case, I hope one of the three pairs will be to her liking. :)

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The first piece is made with natural Chalcedony squares. The variation in shades is so nice with these faceted squares. I paired them with them with sparkly Swarovski bicones in white opal star shine. The crystals have the slightest blue tinge to them, which makes them a perfect match. They are set on sterling silver beading chain and decorated with Bali spacers. The necklace was made to match these earrings.

This second piece is a little less flash, as they were made to match this necklace. (One of my favorites, hands down.) Small yet somewhat rugged, these earrings are made with Swarovski rondelles in light colorado topaz (one of my favorite colors, if you can’t tell), Thai silver beads with a flower imprint, Bali spacers (yes, I mix my silvers) and these fantastic triangle ball headpins…or at least that’s what I’m calling them.

I really hope she likes them all.

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