Fleur Jolie Shabby Chic Necklace

Months ago, Kashmira of Sadafulee...always in bloom, sent me a pretty crochet flower she had made herself. She said she'd be interested to see what I would create with it. Well, how could I refuse a challenge like that! And, so below is the crochet flower, as Kashmira sent it to me. Isn't it beautiful? I wish I could crochet something like that!

 

Initially, I had a few ideas about what I was going to do with it. My first necklace design idea didn't work out too well. I took that necklace apart and set the flower aside, thinking about what to do next. It certainly would look fantastic as the focal on a cuff bracelet, I thought. I was more than a little tempted to stitch it right onto this leather cuff bracelet I bought from Ornamentea and call it a day....

 That would have been all well and fine, but just a little too easy. I wanted to make something more challenging and create something with more interest and fun.  

Lately, I've been captivated by the idea of shabby chic jewelry. I'm feeling a bit surprised at my attraction to the esthetic of shabby chic style. The usual pastel color palette and frilly, girly style is a little out of my comfort zone, which I find intriguing.  I do absolutely love the contrast of elegant, refined elements mixed with earthy, rustic elements, which this style is known for and shabby chic is sort of another flavor of bohemian style. And of course, being drawn to that is no surprise at all. So, I wanted to design a piece of jewelry with a shabby chic look and feel to it. Below is my finished necklace. I call it Fleur Jolie, which means "pretty flower" in French.

 Fleur Jolie Shabby Chic Necklace 
Kashmira's flower really wanted to be a focal piece on a necklace, so the first thing I did was create a flower "stamen" in the center with some red Irish waxed linen cord. It adds additional interest and a pop of color. The flower is fairly large for a pendant, so I wanted to balance it by creating a statement, multiple strand necklace. Since there is so much texture going on with the crochet flower and the multiple strands, I kept the bead colors muted and neutral. Faceted Czech glass beads in grey and glass pearls in peach-grey keep the focus on the focal. For a pop of color, I knotted the beads on 2-ply red Irish waxed linen cord. Yes, I hand knotted in between every one of those 4mm beads! The small scale of the beads keeps the necklace feeling airy, feminine and light. For a touch of rustic, the crochet flower pendant is tied on with a soft piece of suede lace and the necklace is finished off with a leather button. 

Kashmira, thank you for your lovely crochet flower. With your flower, I was able to explore a new design style that I love. I hope you enjoy the necklace I created!

October Jewelry Designer Interview

I am truly humbled and honored to be this month's Jewelry Designer Interviewee over at jewelrymaking.about.com. Click here to read my Q&A and what author, Tammy Powley had to say about me. Come join us for a jewelry chat!

Also, you can read a book review Tammy wrote about our book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry on the website, here. Thanks for having a looksy!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

 My Nora girl turns 2 years old! I planned an Ocean-themed kids birthday party for her this year. Fish, sea stars and penguins are some of her favorite things. We held the party at the New England Aquarium in Boston. I think I had just as much fun as the kids. After all, I did get to make cutesy, sea-life-themed cupcakes for all our guests! Here's a few pics from our day at the aquarium.

 Happy 2nd Birthday, Sweetie!

Nora at the Pumpkin Patch

Not a ton of jewelry being made around here lately. I've been concentrating more on Nora and finding fun things for her to do. She's fully mobile, super spunky and active. She's a little ball of energy that runs around here and I have to find more ways of keeping her busy and stimulated.  Since we're still fairly new in town (we moved in last year), I'm still getting acquainted with the area and what there is to do around here for a baby and also I don't know a lot of folks here either, let alone other moms with kids around Nora's age to play with. So, I recently joined a local moms group I found on meetup.com. So glad I did that! We've been to play dates around town, kids activities at the library and last week we went to a local farm to enjoy all that the Autumn season has to offer. We both had so much fun! Here are a few pics of Nora picking out her pumpkin in the pumpkin patch...

Jewelry Accord Shop

The Jewelry Accord Shop is now OPEN!

My jewelry friend and co-author, Lorelei Eurto has recently opened up a new jewelry-making supply store based on our collaborative book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry: 50 Designs Using Leather, Ribbon and Cords. The Jewelry Accord shop is inspired by our book, but is also it's own separate entity as is our collaborative blog by the same name. I see the potential of her shop and our blog to go way above and beyond what we explored in our book. How exciting is that? Lorelei's online supply store will be a ONE-STOP-SHOP for all your jewelry fiber needs. You will find many quality materials we both love and use in our own jewelry as well as items we reference in our book such as Greek leather cord, Irish waxed linen cord, 100% silk ribbons, Sari Silk and much more. Plus, more materials, supplies and findings are coming soon!

I'm looking forward to possibly collaborating with Lori on this new venture in the future, but until then, I wish her all the best with her supply store. I think it's a fabulous idea to have all our favorite fibers available in one place! I think she's really onto something with the concept of the shop and I'm excited to see it go far. Check it out, if you haven't already. I'm sure Jewelry Accord will be your new favorite spot to shop. I know it is for me. Happy Shopping!   

ArtBLISS 2012

 Last weekend I had one of the best weekends of the year. I got the opportunity to attend and teach at artBLISS Workshops hosted by creators, Cindy Wimmer and Jeanette Blix. I've wanted to be apart of this event ever since Cindy and Jeanette founded it back in 2010. I had only experienced it through blog posts and pictures of past years and even then, I had felt it was a special place I wanted to be. A community of creatives I was drawn to and I felt a strong urge to be apart of it somehow. There are people there that I greatly admire. Ladies I wanted to connect with. And it sure did look like a ton of fun!

Reading those blog posts and looking at the photos of years past, I would daydream about attending the next future event. Early this year, I even seriously considered mustering up enough courage to apply to teach a class there. Then, something truly amazing happened...I received an email from Cindy Wimmer inviting me to come down and be apart of artBLISS! I was just over-the-moon. I couldn't believe this was happening. I would have been happy to just attend, but the fact that I was on Cindy and Jeanette's radar and they wanted me to be apart of their fantastic line-up of authors and instructors, made me so happy and grateful. I am truly so grateful when things like this come my way. I don't have much in the way of photos, but I'll share what I have with you.

Me and my Mother-in-Law, Nancy Siegel. She is my travel companion and assistant. I don't know what I would do without her! Photo credit: Cindy Wimmer.

On Saturday, I had a table set up next to the artBLISS Annex, where I demonstrated macrame knotting. I also had supplies, tools, kits, tutorials, books and jewelry for sale. In the photo, I'm demonstrating a macrame square knot, as used in my Macrame Flower Bracelet. I use a macrame board and T-pins to hold my work as I knot.

Lori Anderson tying the knot in class! :)

 Macrame flower bracelet project made in class. 

It's now available as a PDF digital tutorial in my Etsy Shop.

Saturday night, I held my Macrame Flower Bracelet class. I felt completely at ease with a class full of friendly familiar faces! I'm honored I had Lori Anderson, Cindy Wimmer, Jeanette Blix, Kelly Fogle and Nancy Siegel in my class. These ladies handled the square knot very well. They made my job pretty easy, even though they were working with fine waxed linen cord and making the tiniest knots!

I'm thrilled to say artBLISS was everything I imagined it would be and so much more. What impressed me the most was the loving and supportive atmosphere and vibe. It seems to be the smaller, more intimate event that helps facilitate that experience for everyone. The sense of camaraderie is incredible. I met some of the sweetest ladies and I was excited to see some familiar faces as well. Everyone is warm, friendly, inviting and genuine. I was shown lots of love and generousness both emotionally and financially. I am thankful to all the lovely ladies at artBLISS for their kindness and support! Also, a gigantic THANK YOU to Cindy and Jeanette for having me there. I feel so BLISSED and I just hope they will want to have me back again next year.

Knotted Friendship Bracelet TUTORIAL

 Knotted Friendship Bracelet TUTORIAL

It's time to show off my first project tutorial designed for Ornamentea.com! Wear and give these adorable friendship bracelets. I'm so excited about these colorful lil' cuties. They are made with my favorite Irish waxed linen cord and Swarovski rhinestone ball beads that add just the right touch of sparkle. I had a blast creating them and playing around with the rich-hued linen and glittery rhinestone beads. I know you will, too. They are simple and oh-so-chic and stylish. These bracelets are a great way to add just a touch of those trendy bright colors for Fall and they are wonderful projects to make for the holiday season. You will want to make a whole stack of them. Find all the supplies for them and the FREE tutorial HERE on the website. Plus, with the quantities of the materials on Ornamentea's  website, you can make exactly two of the same bracelet. That works out perfectly! You can keep one and give a matching bracelet to a friend, hence the friendship part. I love that you can make a whole bunch of these and give them as gifts. Absolutely ideal for any gift-giving occasion.

 Knotted Friendship Bracelet

Ingredients

- 2 ½ yards of 4-ply Irish waxed linen cord
- 1 Swarovski rhinestone 8mm ball
- 16 antique brass 2mm beads

Tools

- Scissors
- Ruler
- Macrame board and T-pin or clipboard

1. Cut a 16" piece of cord. This will be your "core" bracelet cord. The remaining long piece of cord will be your "working" cord you will be knotting with. Bring one end of each cord together.Measure 3" from the ends and tie an overhand knot with both cords as shown.

2. Pin the knot to your macramé board with the T-pin or clip to a clipboard. Use the "working" cord to tie half-hitch knots around the "core" cord as shown. Hold the "core" cord taut as you knot and pull the knots tight. The knots will twist, creating a spiral pattern as you go along. Continue tying
half-hitch knots around the "core" cord for 3". Use the "working" cord to tie an overhand knot after the last half-hitch knot. Trim close to the knot.

3. Use the "core" cord to string 1 brass bead, the rhinestone ball and 1 brass bead. Tie the "working" cord back onto the "core" cord with an overhand knot just under the last bead as shown. Trim tail. Use the "working" cord to tie half-hitch knots around the "core" cord for 3". Tie an overhand knot with both cords after the last half-hitch knot. Trim both cords 3" from the overhand knot.

4. Place the left and right bracelet tails parallel to each other with ends in opposite directions as shown. With the remaining piece of your "working" cord, you will create the sliding knot closure for the bracelet.

5. Place the "working" cord on top of the bracelet tails. Loosely wrap the "working" cord around the bracelet tails and the tail of the "working" cord. Wrap the cord around your finger to keep the wraps loose and to help keep track of the wraps. Wrap about 5 times around, moving towards the
tail end of the "working" cord as shown. Insert the end of the "working" cord through the wraps you just made, exiting through where you started wrapping. Pull the ends of the "working" cord tight.


6. String 1 brass bead onto the "working" cord tails; tie an overhand knot and trim as shown. String 3 brass beads to each of the bracelet tails; tie an overhand knot and trim.