Thursday, July 23, 2009

A Series of Brooch Necklaces


Lately, I've been making things in threes. I like taking one type of component and making different versions of a design. I finally finished my series of brooch necklaces. I enjoyed these so much I ended up making five of them. I love off-center focals, and I knew I wanted to start with that basic design concept. I searched and searched for focal pieces that "grabbed" me. Then I searched and searched for matching beads and clasps that would play off the focal component. When I found this lovely, detailed Madame de Pompadour stamping, I knew I had my first piece to work with for this series. The brooch necklaces also include a shepherdess, a lotus, a romantic cameo and a sugarplum swirl.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Ribbon Bracelet Trio


I love making ribbon bracelets and, each month I try to set aside one week to work with treasures from my stash. I had been saving these trims for awhile and decided to design all three bracelets at once. Usually I work piece by piece, but I really wanted to see how each trim would look done up as a bracelet. I just loved working with the silky gold charm balls. I changed the charms on the rosebud bracelet several times. The mysterious face bracelet added just enough whimsy to the week.