Valerie's Wedding Jewelry

This is a custom bridal order I designed for Valerie from Massachusetts.  She wanted me to make jewelry sets for her 4 bridesmaids, 1 maid of honor, and 1 flower girl.  She wanted the Swarovski crystals to be a dark blue and then some ivory and/or dark blue pearls.  So I tried out a few different designs, using different colors and sizes of pearls, and we ended up going with Swarovski cream pearls, Swarovski Petrol blue pearls, and Montana blue crystals.

Here are some of my initial designs...

 

After some back-and-forth correspondence, Valerie was able to decide on the perfect designs for her bridal party members!  So for the bridesmaids, we decided on Swarovski cream pearls (2 sizes) and Montana blue crystals.

And for the flower girl, we decided on Swarovski cream pearls, Petrol blue pearls, and Montana blue crystals.  I just love this look!!



For the flower girl earrings, we decided on sterling silver posts with pearl and crystal dangles.  I offered 2 options, shown below, and Valerie decided on the one on the left, with 2 pearls and 1 crystal.  Just beautiful!  :)

For the maid of honor, Valerie wanted something a little different and unique, and decided on a double-strand pearl and crystal necklace and bracelet and fancier earrings, so I used teardrop pearls in the earrings. 

The double-strand pearl necklace and bracelet is made with Swarovski cream pearls and light Colorado topaz crystals.  I used 2-to-1 hole sterling silver connectors, which then attached to the heart-shaped lobster clasp, with chain extender and pearl/crystal dangle, which you can see in the pictures showing the back of the necklace.



And then, I had to take some pictures of all of the jewelry sets in their gift boxes...  :)

Thanks for reading...  Hopefully I'll get some wedding pictures from Valerie from the big day!!

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!  :)



Nadine's Wedding

This was my first wedding jewelry order for 2013, but I was also pretty swamped with selling lots of beaded and chain ID badge lanyards, for the first few months of the year. And doing my business taxes also took up a lot of time... Lesson learned... Don't leave all the bookkeeping until a month before taxes are to be filed, but keep up with everything all through the year!!  LOL

Ok, so the following is Nadine's wedding. Nadine contacted me from New Zealand, a first for me as far as international bridal jewelry orders go. And I was thrilled to help her out! After some discussion, we decided on Comet Argent Swarovski crystals (clear on one side and silver on the other side) and Mystic Black and Dark Lapis Blue Swarovski pearls.  I also added an extension chain with pearl and crystal dangle for each bracelet.  Nadine asked me to make 4 sets for her bridesmaids.

I am hoping to hear back from her soon to hear how her wedding went, and to find out how her bridesmaids liked their jewelry and also to get some wedding pictures to post on here!  :)

Shanna's Wedding

So I created the wedding jewelry for a beautiful Montana girl named Shayla, last year, and you can see that post here...
Shayla's Wedding Jewelry

Well Shayla's mom, Kris Schmitz, contacted me this year and said that her other daughter, Shanna, is now getting married, and asked if I would create the wedding jewelry for her bridal party. I gladly accepted!!

The most difficult part of this order was determining the right colors, as Shanna wanted a mint green pearl, and two shades of orange, like a coral, or lighter orange. I was a little worried at first, not knowing if I would be able to find the right shades of orange and mint green that she wanted. So I looked through my stash of pearls and I did have some of these pearls and then ordered more in different sizes. We ended up using all of the colors of pearls shown below, except for the really bright orange, shown in the upper corner in both pics below.



And then, she wanted some pearl studs for her earrings. And for pearl stud earrings, the best kind of pearl to use is a half drilled pearl with a sterling silver post that has a small peg sticking out of the base, for the half drilled pearl to nicely fit in, along with some strong jewelry glue. Well, fortunately, after doing some searching online, I actually found a shop in the US that had these half drilled mint green pearls, and I didn't have to purchase a minimum of 1000 pearls!! I must admit I lucked out on that scenario.

So here are some designs I put together for the bridesmaids and for the mothers of the bride and groom... First up is the 3-strand pearl bracelet, that Shanna chose for her mom, the groom's mom, and Shayla, her matron of honor, to wear.

Shanna wanted a similar 3-strand bracelet for herself, but with Swarovski white pearls and mint green pearls combined. Wow, it turned out so pretty that I may just make one for myself!! Lol

Post pearl studs with mint glass half-drilled pearls, for all members of the bridal party, including the bride... Soooo cute!!

And here is the necklace that Shanna chose: a 4-strand pearl necklace made with all white Swarovski pearls, in 4mm, 6mm, and 8mm pearls... I love it!! So elegant!!

 The back side of the bride's necklace. I used sterling silver 4-to-1 connectors and then an extender chain for adjusting or for a dangle in the back.

And then here are pictures of the bridesmaids' necklace, a 3-strand pearl necklace with the same colors of glass pearls used in the bracelets shown above...

For the flower girls, Shayla wanted a similar bracelet, but with just two strands and smaller sizes of pearls. So here is a pic of the one of the two flower girl bracelets...

And here are the finished jewelry sets in their chocolate brown gift boxes, ready to be shipped out to Shanna! :-)

Memorial Day Etsy Finds

It's been awhile since I have posted a blog so I thought I would do something a little different and post a Memorial Day Etsy Treasury, to include those Etsy sellers that have some pretty remarkable items on sale in rememberance of this special day coming up...

'Memorial Day Etsy Finds' by AWRdesigns

A variety of Etsy finds with a Memorial Day theme... Enjoy! And Happy Memorial Day everyone!! :-)

Patriotic 4th of July M... SewMuchtoSell $12	Camo, "My Daddy Se... angelabrice $7.99	Vintage Memorial Day Po... PetitePaperie $2.95	Folding the Flag a Memo... waterandcolor $20
Memorial Day or 4th of ... RoxterDesigns $18	MEMORIAL DAY Star Spang... PunkalunkPrin... $14.95	Home of the Brave Patri... PrettyPenguin... $17.99	Patriotic Bracelet Memo... LucidDreamsJe... $23
Memorial Day Sugar Cook... pfconfections $16	Memorial Day, July 4th,... ShayEliseBout... $9.25	Stained Glass Patriotic... GlassPizazz $40	American Girl Bow Flip ... DarlingLittle... $21.95
Stars and Stripes Patri... MontysWreaths $67	Ruffle Bloomer TuTu Ski... HottieTottieG... $55	Rustic Reclaimed Wood A... SoPurdyCreati... $35	Patriotic Necklace, Red... LucidDreamsJe... $24

Treasury tool by StylishHome.