She is... a Jewel

I'm finally getting around to going through some photos here.  I spent some time working on my external hard drive, it had been impossible to find anything on there, now at least I hope things make a little more sense.  Sure seems like I'm missing a chunk of photographs but maybe they are here somewhere.

I wanted to show photos of Rachel, she's a lovely friend and a gifted soprano who specializes in Opera.  Her phrase is: "She is... a Jewel."  And it's absolutely true, she is!

She is wearing a necklace that I designed in two parts.  I think the one section is beautiful in her hair, but it can also be worn on the back like this:  This opens up the front of the piece to cascade all over her shoulders which looked really lovely on her.  It's loaded with all the exotic kinds of freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals with tiny little teardrop earrings.  Each section works beautifully as a necklace in it's own right, I wore one to an event Friday and it was lovely. 

It was a pleasure to work with Rachel again!  She's a vibrant creature, a natural model, and a dear friend!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Studio B is Santa's Workshop!

Today Studio B is Santa's workshop!  It IS that time of year and I like being one of the elves from time to time.  I wanted to make earrings that were kind of color neutral so that they could be worn with anything and be worn with jeans or something dressy.  I spent a little time in my jewelry design studio and here's what happened:

Smokey silvery colors with jet crystal.  Swarovski pearls and crystals, sterling silver SOLD

The bottom bead is a Swarovski pearl, it's a smokey dark gray with a hint of purple, VERY pretty in person!

Cool silver rope hoops, sparkling Swarovski bicones and cool silver spacers with granulation and rope.  $19

These really cool Bali Silver Pendants have a pretty flower on them and pair up nicely with

Swarovski pearls and bicones in smoke and jet.  This photo doesn't show that Swarovski pearl very well, it's actually a smokey charcoal color with hints of purple, SO pretty!  $24

These lovely pendants have an intricate design that is really lovely in a teardrop shape.  I paired them with a Swarovski crytal teardrop that sparkles lots of pretty colors.  I like the double teardrop silhouette, so clean but so pretty.  $38  They are laying against the crystal wineglass, so that left one looks like it's shaped funny but it's actually fine.

  A pair of faceted smokey quartz coin beads at the bottom, then a sandwich of Swarovski crystal bicones and a cool silver spacer bead, topped off with a pair of jet Swarovski crystal bicones.  $29

The large silver bead on this pair is the star of the show, four cool colors of Swarovski crystals and rope hoops and a cool sterling spacer.  $38

This will give a feel for the various lengths and shapes.

And remember, a great pair of earrings should match the woman, not her clothing.

More jewelry photos coming when I get the chance and there is a quilt on my design wall that is calling my name, so "Chop Chop!"  Back to work! 

Thanks for dropping by my blog, if I can help you play Santa,

then email me: CarmenRose at comcast dot net.

Happy Creating and Happy Santa-ing

New Earrings! (Plus a discount coupon code!)

The lovely folks at Artbeads.com dropped by my blog a while back and noticed some of the jewelry design work I have posted in the sidebar. They offered me the opportunity to choose some of their inventory that they’d send me for free if I’d blog about it and them. I can always use $35 worth of crystals so of course I agreed. I looked through the Swarovski crystals (check out this selection!) and chose these drops first:

It's the Swarovski 6100 24x12mm faceted teardrop pendant in "crystal volcano" and they are SO cool! When the package came in the mail it looked like this, all pretty in purple!
I opened it up to check out my loot! Yay!
I also picked up some of these lovely lil buggas, a small oval crystal in the same "crystal volcano" color. These are little delicate thinga-ma-bobs!
So I went searching through my stash of Swarovski crystals to find something to go with them and found some fuchsia bicones.
I looped a fine wire through the crystal and back up into the bicone and put a loop on the top and trimmed the edges.
I made some small "S" shaped curls and folded them over the ovals and dangled some bicones from them and then put them all together.
I added the ear wires and that was it. A very easy and quick pair of earrings that are really fun to wear!

I went to a costume party on October 31st. I went as a character from a black and white movie trying to break into the world of full color. I wore full black and white makeup, even my shoulders and back were white (which could be a post all itself) these colorful sparkling earrings, a crimson scarf and matching crimson lipstick (sadly this photo was taken before I put on the bright lipstick.) I enjoyed wearing the earrings a great deal and got lots of compliments!
I got a little card in the mail from the folks at Artbeads.com today, they've given me a little treat to pass along to you. If you go there and make a purchase before 12/31/09, you can use this coupon code and get 10% off your order. Feel free to pass this along to your beading friends! The coupon code is: "SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424" At holiday time a pair of earrings is a lovely gift, even nicer when you can pick up the beads at discount prices. Thanks to Artbeads.com for the lovely beads!

Happy creating my lovely readers, keep up the good work!