Melisandre Necklace

It's finally done! After about three weeks of intense labor the Melisandre necklace is finished and I am so pleased with the way it came out. Now that I have finished the fifth book and season two of the show has just ended I am going through Game of Thrones withdrawal so this was a fun piece to make. At first I was a bit worried that it would be too heavy but it actually has a really nice weight to it. I wore it comfortably for the whole day so it's not too heavy but not so light that you forget you are wearing it. And the weave is so nice it feels like fabric in your hands. Anyway here are some pictures so enjoy! I'm gonna go give my fingers a break for a while!

Blue Branch Necklace

I know it has been so long since my last post. I have been really busy with my internship at Alzerina Jewelry but I love it and Alzerina is teaching me so much. Check out her website to see her beautiful jewelry!

I am currently working on a really big project inspired by the Melisandre character from Game of Thrones. It its not finished yet but here is a photo of the work in progress! I plan to expand the bottom so that it is wider at the bottom and gradually thins out to the clasps on either end so there are no more weird spaces.

For those of you who did not read the books or watch the show Melisandre is a pretty intense character and she wears awesome jewelry. Her necklace in the show is a giant ruby but since I do not have the means to obtain such a special stone I chose red jasper witch is more earthy looking and a bit more my style. I will post pictures as soon as it is done but it may be a while. The weave I chose is pretty intricate and time consuming. 






But I did feel the need to step away from this huge endeavor for a moment to make a quick crystal necklace.  I used blue and gold crystals to create the sides of the necklace and gold plated chain for the center. I have never made anything like it before. It's really different from what I normally do but I love it anyway! Hope you do to!

Byzantine Revisited

The Byzantine weave has always been one of my favorites. It is super easy to make but looks really intricate and impressive when finished. So this year for Christmas I bought myself a little gift. It was a book about chainmaille and beading and all of the patterns were based around the byzantine weave. I had used this weave in many of my necklaces but never realized all of the possibilities. The book illustrated many different ways to attach small segments of the byzantine weave to create very interesting designs. So I flipped through the pages and found a pattern that I really liked. It was super fun to make and now that I have experimented with lots of different ways to use the segments I can't wait to come up with some more original designs!

Excuse Me Jessica Simpson, Stop Stealing My Ideas.

For the longest time I had refused to get my ears pierced. Not for any reason in particular. I wasn't afraid that it would hurt and certainly didn't find pierced ears offensive, I just felt no compelling need to do it. Finally one of my good friends said, "enough is enough" and took me to get them pierced. As a jewelry designer I was so happy to have a brand new variety of jewelry to make and kicked myself for not doing it sooner. So this year, before Christmas I was browsing the Macy's jewelry counter for my first pair of big girl earrings!
I wasn't able to find a pair that called out to me but as I was looking I found something else that made me stop in my tracks. I looked up at a rack of necklaces and came face to face with the necklace that I had just finished working on the night before. It was a necklace of bugle beads tied in a knot connected to a chain. I looked at the label and saw that it was from a Jessica Simpson collection I couldn't believe it. A few days before I was shopping at AC Moore and the bugle beads caught my eye. Since I had never used them before I figured it would be fun to experiment. I played around with the design and eventually settled on the one pictured on the right. I was so proud of my new original design. Turns out Jessica beat me to the punch. At least she has good taste in jewelry!

Crochet Jewelry

A little while ago I was browsing in Etsy and came across a cuff made of crocheted wire. I was so excited when I saw it because it combines two if my favorite hobbies, crocheting and jewelry! Of course I had to try it. The cuff that I saw was made with gold filled wire. Since I didn't feel like spending a flobbity gillion dollars on this project I went to AC Moore and picked up some 24 gauge silver craft wire.



Next I had to choose a hook size. The stitches in the cuff on Etsy were fairly large but since I wanted to use crystals in the design I needed a smaller stitch. I chose the F hook and it seemed to work well. Although I would suggest using a metal hook. I made the mistake of using a plastic one and the metal wire chewed it up and I ended up having to throw it away.
I started with a bracelet. To begin I chained a row of about twenty. I started adding the crystals on the second row. This part was a bit tricky. Before making each stitch I had to string a crystal. This means I had to unwind the whole spool of wire to string the crystal from the end. I crocheted about five rows making the bracelet about an inch wide. When I finished I cut the extra wire and wrapped it around the last stitch. I added two thin chains on either end of the bracelet and attached a clasp.


I loved the bracelet so much that I decided to make a matching necklace. I made the pendant a bit shorter than the bracelet and added a crystal tassel and a simple chain.

Not Your Grandmother's Pearls

Most of my recent work has been with rough cut semiprecious stones like amethyst or agate. I love the natural and raw look of the stone chips but lately I've been exploring something a bit different. I was recently given a book  "Simply Pearls" by Nancy Alden. It contains loads of information on every different kind of pearl as well as beautiful photos of pearl necklaces, bracelets, and earrings and detailed instructions on how to recreate the pieces. Needless to say, after reading this book I ran right to the bead store and grabbed some pearls! There was one necklace in the book that I loved and wanted to recreate. She used a snake chain and attached clusters of small pearls in the center. The snake chain reminded me of the Full Persian weave. First I fabricated the chain. A Full Persian chain is a fairly time consuming endeavor but completely worth the time in the end. After a few days of intense mailing, I began with the pearls. First I attached the pearls to rounded head pins. Then I made a gazillion tiny little links and used them to attach a pearl to a link in each segment of the chain. This was also very time consuming but the result was better than I imagined. I was so happy with it that I made matching earrings and a bracelet! The pearls I used for these projects were glass but I hope to eventually graduate to real cultured pearls. 

P.S. Sorry for the blurry pictures. When I get my new smartphone today I will have a far better camera and will post new clearer pics!

Hygge Blanket

Alec recently got a new kitten and he is the cutest thing ever. His name is Hygge and before you judge the silly name let me explain why Alec chose it. A while back Alec was studying in Denmark and stayed with a host family. The family has a cat and during his time there Alec really enjoyed playing with her. You can imagine how excited he was to hear that she had had kittens when he went to visit the next year. When he met them he loved them so much that he decided to keep one of them! Since the kitten came from Denmark he wanted to give it a Danish name. The word hygge is a big part of Danish culture. It's hard to translate but I suppose the best English word to describe it is cozy. Naturally he thought this would be the perfect name for the cat! He is super cute.

 Since Hygge makes us feel so cozy I thought I would crochet him his very own blanket so that he could feel cozy too! I used my favorite yarn of all time Vanna's Choice. It's really soft but still very affordable. The colors I chose reflect the colors of the cat so that when he curls up in it, it will look like a giant cuddly ball of adorableness! I used a pattern from Red Heart Yarn that I have used in the past for larger blankets. It is called Country Home Crochet Throw. Here is a link to the pattern. http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/country-home-crochet-throw

I altered the pattern a little bit to make it an appropriate size for a cat. Instead of 85 rows for each strip I made 31. Other than that I followed the pattern. Its pretty simple and went fairly quickly. I made the whole thing in a day. In fact I had yarn left over and decided to make another one for my cat Jelly! She really likes it!

(by the way this is my new favorite photo of my girl)