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The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty & Fashion Blog
On This Page
· Rambles...
· Necklace with three hoops and moonstones
· Citrine and labradorite earrings
· The Mom pendant
· Rambles...
· Better pic of Madeira citrine earrings
· Madeira citrine earrings
· London Blue Topaz necklace, sterling chain necklace
· Green amethyst and prehnite necklace
· Green amethyst and emerald earrings
· Labradorite necklace
· Pic of redone blue chalcedony necklace
· Rambles...
· "A" sapphire earrings
· Happy New Year! (pic of double strand freshwater pearl necklace, pearl earrings)
· 2007, the year in beading
· Various jewelry pics
· Shiana fine silver, lapis and Bali sterling set
· Prehnite and peridot earrings on Argentium sterling silver wire
· Hammered Argentium sterling "links" earrings
· Hammered Argentium sterling earrings
· Various pendants
· Aquamarine necklace pic
· Various necklaces
· Keishi pearl necklace part 2
· Aquamarine earrings, version 1.1
· Aquamarine earrings to go with the necklace
· Aquamarine and Bali vermeil necklace on goldfilled chain
· Sterling silver and Swarovski crystal "tulip" earrings
· Peridot earrings on goldfilled chain
· Coin pearl pattern
· Freshwater coin pearl jewelry
· Argentium silver ear wire thoughts
· Rambles and some pics
· Triple hoop earrings with square pearls
· Triple hoop earrings, hammered goldfilled wire and freshwater pearls
· Three bracelets
· Freshwater pearl multi-strand necklace
· Bali vermeil and freshwater pearl earrings
· Hammered sterling silver hoop earrings with blue apatite
· Version 1.1 of Swarovski crystal earrings
· Swarovski crystal and chain earrings
· End caps
· Venetian glass bead necklace on leather cord, handmade clasp
· Turquoise hammered goldfilled wire earrings
· Swarovski "light azore" crystals
· Green Venetian glass heart pendant
· Venetian glass bead, leather cord necklace
· Venetian glass on leather cord necklaces
· Turquoise necklace
· Black Swarovski crystal and vermeil earrings, turquoise and vermeil earrings
· Freshwater pearl necklace and bracelet set
· Aquamarine and labradorite bracelet
· Labradorite and vermeil necklace and earrings
· Bali vermeil cage beads and turquoise necklace
· Turquoise and labradorite bracelet
· Turquoise and vermeil bracelet
· Turquoise and Bali vermeil choker
· Freshwater pearl and tourmaline bracelet
· Citrine and silver two-strand bracelet
· Peridot and vermeil necklace and bracelet
· Peridot and vermeil necklace, version 2
· Peridot and vermeil necklace
· Three strand freshwater pearl necklace
· Swarovski crystal, Bali vermeil and colorless aquamarine bracelet
· Chalcedony necklace, then and now
· Black Swarovski crystal and Bali vermeil necklace, part 2
· Black Swarovski crystal and Bali vermeil bead necklace
· Jade bracelet with Bali vermeil beads and green apatite clasp
· Venetian glass heart necklace
· Venetian glass heart pendant
· Turquoise choker and leather cord end caps...
· More blogging here...
· Jade and pearl necklace and bracelet pics
· Jade necklace: then and now
· Wire thimbles...I love you!
· Jade and pearl bracelet
· Citrine/sterling necklace and earrings, rambles...
· More blogging here...
· Pics and more rambles
· Rambles and a few pics
· Turquoise necklaces
· More blogging here, with pics
· They always package so nicely...
· Latest projects
· Freshwater pearl earrings
· Michaels diving, carnelian and bronze pearl bracelet
· Carnelian necklace with bronze pearls
· Blue Japanese bead necklace and bracelet
· Braided bracelet
· Carnelian and gold-filled necklace
· More on half-finished projects
· More pictures...
· Jade necklace and earrings, labradorite earrings
· A pic finally
· Rose quartz, garnet set
· Turquoise, freshwater pearl, gold plated bead set
· Moss agate, freshwater pearl, gold plated bead set
· Rose quartz, lustre glass, lampwork set
· Turquoise, glass, silver and fluorite set
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Rambles...
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
April 2, 2008
at 5:37 PM (Pacific)
Hi! Haven't had much time to blog lately...
It's occurred to me...a new earring design usually takes me several days, at least. Sometimes longer. Once I have the design, it takes me several hours to actually fabricate the earrings.
I was thinking of that today...from the beginning, I had wanted to develop several designs and just use those. Part of it is sheer laziness, no doubt, but I believe in modularity anyway in my life. If I find a sweater I like, I'll buy the same sweater in as many different colors as I need, rather than try to find a different sweater. If it works, it works.
So far:
I've already made another of this pattern, using a tiny prehnite faceted onion as the top stone, and three green amethyst faceted pears on the bottom (the pears were too big to use five). I'm thinking of making a garnet pair as well.
This is good too. I'm planning to make a green pair...going through my clothes today, I realized how much green I wear. Blue is useful too. Thinking on it, I should make a green and a blue pair of every design.
This works, but a caveat: I got rid of the emeralds.
This is better for a larger stone...and might look nice with more unusual chains, like a figure-8 or textured chain. Even though I like this flat cable chain.
This is an efficient use of tiny stones! I have a gold version, but need to redo it--I tried putting gold beads on the outside of the stones, instead of just using them to space out the stones. That doesn't work, since the gold beads are too light weight, they end sliding up the sides of the hoops. Plus, I think I'll do a simple-loop headpin rather than a wrapped-loop one, for the gold version.
That's it so far! I have other earrings I've made, but those are more one-of-a-kind, I'm not planning on reusing the design.
I'm also thinking of a round hoop, with a curved bar in the middle...you hang stones from both the curved bar and the bottom of the hoop.Labels: beading notes, earrings, pics
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Necklace with three hoops and moonstones
posted by TheBroadroom.Net,
March 22, 2008
at 4:34 PM (Pacific)
Not sure about this one yet. It's experimental, because these aren't soldered hoops; they're strictly bent and hammered.
On a personal level, I like geometry, and therefore geometrical shapes. I've had the notion of making an abacus pendant for months, not because I know how to use an abacus :) nor even because an abacus is itself useful. It's the concept of making a square pendant that's attractive to me.
On my (never-ending) pile of pieces to redo, is a simple square coin pearl pendant:
I would do it differently now of course...but it's been sitting there since forever, and I still think about it. How nice to wear a simple white square of nacreous pearl. Otherwise, frankly, I find square pearls impossible to work with. You can't seem to do much with masses and masses of them; they stand out best individually, when you want the square shape somewhere.Labels: chain, hoops, moonstone, necklace, pics
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Citrine and labradorite earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 20, 2008
at 6:55 PM (Pacific)
Here's my first attempt at using a herringbone weave. I realize I linked to it earlier from the beauty & fashion blog, but now that I can get screenshot thumbnails of the posts here, figured it would be useful to post here for future reference.
Ultimately I was disappointed in using half-hard wire for the weave, because I found it impossible to bend the wire just so on the sides. I think the bezel ended up covering too much of the stone. I haven't given up on the weave itself, but I will wait until I can order some soft wire in this gauge.Labels: citrine, earrings, labradorite, pics, wire
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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The Mom pendant
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
at 12:06 PM (Pacific)
This is a pic of what I was blogging about yesterday.
As you can see, it was a bit of a bugger to photograph. You can get a nice still image by hanging the piece, but then the scale is unclear (plus you can't see all the stones).
I'm quite pleased with how this Mom pendant turned out. When you wear it, it looks different, depending on the light and how the stones have fallen. So sometimes the citrine becomes illuminated, and you see this little golden glow. Sometimes the moonstone shows more...it has the barest of flash, I passed over moonstones with blue flash in favor of this one. The sapphire sometimes shows and sometimes doesn't. At first I tried to get it to show all the time, by putting it at the end or in the front of the chain, but decided I liked how it was. The aquamarine has a small inclusion in the back. In a sense it's the prettiest stone in the piece, because of the light blue color, but the slight imperfection makes it fit in better with the other stones.
Our generous friends at artViper have improved their screenshot thumbnail script. Actually what they did in the case of this blog, is cut off the top banner in the image capture. Great! So I've implemented blog post thumbnails again. Here is a screenshot of the citrine page:
Labels: aquamarine, citrine, moonstone, pearls, pendant, peridot, pics, sapphire
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Rambles...
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 18, 2008
at 6:12 PM (Pacific)
...where was I? :)
I ditched the earrings...I can't make the herringbone weave work with half-hard wire. It'll make a bezel, but I'm not happy with it.
Latest projects:
Fashion Notes: Earring synergy (the ill-fated half-hard herringbone weave!)
Just Notes: What I've been into, lately (also featuring some pics I found on the Net of my home town)
Fashion Notes: Labradorite necklace
Today I'm making one of those necklaces...you've seen them...a small golden hoop, with some stuff hanging from it. It's a style I've been meaning to try for quite some time, but the challenge of course is to avoid a generic look.
So I started with my kids' birthstones--peridot and pearl--and thought to make a commemoration of my time with them. I added a small round citrine coin (smooth) to represent the sun, a tiny heart of sapphire (for the blue sky), a moonstone (for cloudy days), and an aquamarine (the sea). I wanted to add a tiny prehnite onion, for a grassy field, but it was getting to be too much so I had to take it off.
It occurred to me as I was making this, how much time it takes to make even a relatively simple construction. For me now it's less an issue of skill, and becoming less an issue of materials...I remember back when I found the entire process intimidating. Just making a wrapped loop was horrible, or a wrapped briolette. Now it feels quite natural.
Even so, as I say, it takes forever! The thing has to hang just right, it has to fall just right. The expensive stones have to show; they can't migrate to the back. It has to feel comfortable on. Even if everything seems right, I still have to wear it. I'll know at the end of the day, if it's something I ever want to wear again. Hence it takes at least two days to make a single piece, unless it's one of those freaky pieces that just happens to be right the first time around.Labels: beading notes, citrine, earrings, labradorite, necklace, pics, sapphire
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Better pic of Madeira citrine earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 8, 2008
at 11:41 AM (Pacific)
Not sure what to make next. Thinking of going ahead and making another copy of these frames, though I don't know what to put in them. I'm just thinking of "something symmetrical, using one or two chains, and a small stone."Labels: bali, citrine, earrings, hoops, pics, sterling silver
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Madeira citrine earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 7, 2008
at 4:38 PM (Pacific)
Been playing around with these for a while...had the idea of capturing this "winter tree full of robins" idea--not even sure they were robins? They weren't like East Coast robins, with vivid red-orange breasts, but rather a softer color.
Anyhow, because the citrines are wrapped to the chain, they move around a lot...rather like birds on a tree :) I tried this out initially with some bright silver chain I had on hand, but the oxidized one fits much better. (Using the same motif, it becomes like the dark branches of the tree.)
I was out of soft wire, so I went ahead and used half hard. It was, oddly, as easy to make the frames, because I'd started out using only half hard wire in the first place. lol! I'd had no real idea what temper to use for what, so I bought only half hard, in 20 and 24 gauges, figuring these would work for the most applications. So returning to this temper was curiously comforting.
I'd been trying for a long time to make this sort of frame. I'd say my earlier endeavors were typically too big and/or too heavy. And I've been trying lately to make more conservative styles, so again a smaller size is in order.Labels: citrine, earrings, hoops, pics, sterling silver
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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London Blue Topaz necklace, sterling chain necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 4, 2008
at 2:13 PM (Pacific)
Finished this today (top center pic). I added an extender chain in the back, with a small round citrine and Bali sterling bead at the end. I blogged about the development of the piece here: Fashion Notes: Something I've been fiddling around with if you'd like more detail.
I've come to realize...most of the time, what I'm looking for is a sort of industrial look. Or I should say, I miss the industrial concept. So much of what I see is...I don't know how to put it. Meaningless, unattached to any purpose.
Which I feel accurately reflects our U.S. society--we've lost our sense of purpose. The U.S. was always a place where people built stuff, made stuff, manufactured, innovated, pushed ahead. The end goal was never some bizarre life of leisure. The end goal was to make another factory, or railroad, or software program.
I'm wearing this chain today:
It is, literally, a length of chain. I bought it because I'd seen this beautiful, super long sterling necklace on a modern English tv show. I bought a length which I felt would surely exceed the length needed, just to be on the safe side...and yet, when I saw it, what a lovely chain. It's not heavy, it looks like more because the links are hammered flat. Today I used a fine silver jump ring...it was soldered, I had to cut it for something else...it's just, turn the angled end of the ring in a cup burr a few times, and join the chain together. I don't want to cut the chain.Labels: chain, necklace, pics, sterling silver, topaz
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Green amethyst and prehnite necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
February 9, 2008
at 4:10 PM (Pacific)
Playing around with backgrounds. The black background shows the structure better, but the white one shows the color of the stones.
Pretty pleased with the necklace...the key is the weight in back. Without adding extra beads, the weight in front would be too much.
Another idea I'm playing with is of making pieces which can be worn either casually or more formally. This one might do it. If you wear your hair down, you can't see the prehnites much, so it becomes a simpler necklace, just the front prasiolites. If you put your hair up of course you can see the whole shmeer.Labels: amethyst, earrings, emerald, necklace, pics, prehnite
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Green amethyst and emerald earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
February 3, 2008
at 3:17 PM (Pacific)
Quite pleased with these. The emeralds shown are really tiny, the ones that come at the ends of a graduated strand. Supposedly they're at least 2mm (which is already small) but some struck me as being even smaller. Stringing them though, they look quite pretty.
If you look at the right-most bottom pic, you can see the emerald "frame" is bent a little. I've fixed that since the photo.Labels: amethyst, chain, earrings, emerald, goldfilled, hoops, pics
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Labradorite necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
January 31, 2008
at 4:16 PM (Pacific)
I have this on the LP blog actually, only now I've worn it a few times. It's interesting, because often there's a problem putting a flat stone in front of a necklace. On many designs, the flat bead will turn sideways and stick straight out instead of lying flat. This is particularly true of a string of flat beads; it looks nice, but is impossible to wear.
This works somehow. I suspect it has to do with the stone itself--it's cut so there's slightly more weight on one side of it. As long as you face it correctly, it'll stay flat.Labels: chain, goldfilled, labradorite, necklace, pics
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Pic of redone blue chalcedony necklace
posted by TheBroadroom.Net,
January 24, 2008
at 8:28 PM (Pacific)
I didn't change much, it's just longer in the back (the two blue beads in back were too high before), and the wrapping is much nicer.Labels: bali, chain, chalcedony, goldfilled, necklace, pics, vermeil
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Rambles...
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
January 21, 2008
at 11:38 AM (Pacific)
Haven't been doing many new projects lately, aside from the aforementioned earrings. Mostly, I've been going back over old projects...the ones I want to keep...and fixing them up. It's a slow but steady process.
Traditionally (if three years' worth of anything can have tradition), I've been taking a month or two off beading every year. Now I don't need to do that. I suppose I've felt a certain amount of stress, in whether I could really make jewelry.
I'm not crafty by nature. My interest in making jewelry derives from my interest in the thing itself. But now I feel I have the capability, and it's simply a matter of keeping at it. So, instead of grinding to a halt, I've decided to do it more slowly, more introspectively, for the given month or two.
Here is a redo of a hoop originally designed with thicker wire. I ran out...of course...actually I was short in the neighborhood of a quarter- to half-inch of wire, and my supplier is out of stock of this gauge (and has been for quite some time). I don't want to switch suppliers, so I redid the hoop with the gauge on hand.
The golden circle is nice...I made it like a wedding ring in size. Haven't worked out the top 100% yet, I had to bend the loop over to get the pendant to hang straight. It's balanced, but I'd like to make the loop look more centered.
Wondering if these guys have something in common:
For this necklace, I had made some "moral obligation" earrings, plain hammered silver hoops with lapis dangles. Nice, but, the sapphire earrings are nicer. I haven't worn them together yet though.
Discovered I'd fluffed one of the Bali vermeil beads in the back. If I'm redoing it though, I'll probably add an extender chain.Labels: bails, beading notes, earrings, goldfilled, lapis, necklace, pearls, pendant, pics, sapphire, silver, vermeil, wire
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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"A" sapphire earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
January 17, 2008
at 5:32 PM (Pacific)
The bottom pic was taken rather hastily, I didn't have time to hang the earrings properly so I put them down on a white tee shirt. :)
Here I went for grade over size, so these sapphires are really very small. But they're not the opaque stones normally used in handmade jewelry; they're translucent, with small areas of transparency.
This is a hoop idea I got from Midori Jewelry. That was the first place I saw such a hoop. I'm getting better at making them although I've found I need to be very slow and patient while doing the wrap at the top. It's easy to fuddle it up. I added my own "touch" by hammering the wraps. Mainly because on some of my hoops, I didn't feel the wrap was secure enough, but I don't dislike the finished look. The idea for me is to produce something that looks a tiny bit rough, after all.
I can't wear 14KT gold earrings so you'll note, I used vermeil ear wires for the gold pair (from Shiana). Normally I don't think vermeil would work, but the Shiana vermeil, so far, is as superior as they claim. The gold plate is thicker than usual, plus it's over fine silver rather than sterling.
I went for the relatively inexpensive 14KT gold tiny beads to give the earring a more golden appearance. In fact it crossed my mind you could cover most of the wire with these beads if you wanted to.
It took me forever to come up with this design, because I specifically wanted to make smaller earrings. Tiny stones + smaller earrings...the stones didn't show well with my earlier designs. For example, I tried the one where you take a piece of wire and wrap it round and round the hoop--similar to this: Going Green Hand-Forged Earrings--and the tiny little sapphires hardly showed at all. weeps! I concluded the only way to get them to show would be to use a lot of them, all together.Labels: argentium, earrings, gold, goldfilled, pics, sapphire, vermeil, wire
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Happy New Year! (pic of double strand freshwater pearl necklace, pearl earrings)
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
January 2, 2008
at 1:09 PM (Pacific)
This is me wearing:
I would like to wish my fellow beaders a happy and prosperous New Year, with more and more people choosing handmade jewelry. :DLabels: argentium, bali, earrings, necklace, pearls, pics, sterling silver
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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2007, the year in beading
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
December 8, 2007
at 2:15 PM (Pacific)
For your reference:
2006, the year in beading
2005, the year in beading
Technically I should wait until January 2008, but I'm afraid I'll be caught up in something else by then.
From this point forward, I'm going to post the first image of the given year, and rip it to shreds write some commentary on it:
Neither of these exists anymore, although of course I've recycled the beads.
American turquoise nugget necklace and earrings...hmmm, same sweater. This is a nice set; I still wear it.
This is okay too. I've had better luck placing flat oval beads toward the back and sides, rather than doing them all around, because, in the front, they tend to flip around too much.
I've also become pickier about aquamarine. I still have the aquamarine from the first necklaces but the quality of it is pretty eh.
And now the last piece I've made in the given year (okay, I know I should wait until the end of the year):
These are really nice. I fell asleep wearing them...very comfortable. This is me wearing the earrings:
I can admit one thing that drives me nuts, is that no one seems to take pictures of earrings "on." I can dig the necklaces, because these are usually photographed on a bust, or at least placed in such a way you can guess what they'd look like on, but earrings really must be worn. jhmo
I've moved away from fancy premade clasps in the main. They're expensive, and I've found something simpler tends to work just as well. If I truly hankered for a fancy clasp, I'd make one, and I've been making my own extender chains too.
As far as the stones, turquoise is still one of my favorites.
Predictions for 2008:
I'm not planning anything radically different for 2008. I can't afford to start silver- or gold-smithing, that's off the table (although I haven't ruled it out for the not-so-near future). I've given a certain amount of thought to selling my jewelry, but the tax system tends to make me think it's not going to be worth it. I do bookkeeping for small businesses in California...we are, ah, a heavily tax-oriented state.
I am planning to continue making jewelry as I have been. I enjoy it even more now, both making and wearing it.Labels: argentium, bali, earrings, hoops, necklace, pearls, pics, turquoise, vermeil
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Various jewelry pics
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
December 5, 2007
at 5:28 PM (Pacific)
This is the lapis and silver necklace and earrings mentioned earlier. The bracelet ended up looking not so good, so I didn't wear it.
This is the American turquoise necklace and earrings from a while ago.
This is a new piece I'm fiddling around with. It's entirely personal, not something you'd make to sell (conversely, not something you'd be able to buy either). It is to commemorate the sea around Jamaica (the two above pics were taken there, as well as the background pic of the boat), which is just the most kick-ass sea you've ever seen.
Here I used American turquoise...the water there is turquoise. If you look out at it, you'll see patches of turquoise and deep blue. The turquoise sea is over areas of sand, the deep blue over coral reefs.
The labradorite has mostly greenish-blue or blue flash, and the pearl is a naturally pink keishi pearl.
The anchor is gold, actually. I went looking around for a golden anchor, and the best one was a 14KT gold charm. I found a sterling silver anchor at Target, but I really wanted a gold color (plus the sterling one was too big). In real life it looks almost like a fleur-de-lys rather than an obvious anchor.
It has an extender chain in the back, the kind you make using short lengths of chain and jump rings.Labels: chain, earrings, keishi, labradorite, lapis, necklace, pics, silver, turquoise
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Shiana fine silver, lapis and Bali sterling set
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
October 24, 2007
at 5:46 PM (Pacific)
I can't believe I didn't post this here? My brain's been fried lately.
This is a set I made from the Shiana fine silver pieces blogged about here: The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty & Fashion Blog
Beauty & Fashion Notes: this 'n' that.
The flower pendant, butterfly beads, and double-flower toggle on the bracelet are all from Shiana. This image came out a bit darker than how the stuff looks in real life; it's typical lapis, a dark-blue strand mixed with a strand that has more white inclusions and pyrite. The pendant is oxidized but looks "brighter" than in the picture.
The butterfly beads are quite interesting; they're not hollow the way typical sterling silver beads would be. They're two pieces of solid silver stuck together, with a small channel in the middle. Both the pendant and the beads are heavy for their size...my original design had two strands of lapis (was kind of interesting, engineering the front) but was too heavy for practical wear.
The double-flower toggle is bright silver, but it's true what they say on the site, it's not really bright or shiny. All of the silver has a beautiful soft glow.
The argentium sterling earrings are exceedingly simple for a reason: I've found even slightly elaborate earrings don't work with even marginally elaborate necklaces. The overall effect is too much, and I end up never wearing the two together.
Here are the same earrings with a different necklace (I didn't make the necklace, it's Iranian):
Labels: argentium, bali, bracelet, earrings, fair trade, hoops, lapis, necklace, pics, silver, sterling silver
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Prehnite and peridot earrings on Argentium sterling silver wire
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
September 12, 2007
at 6:28 PM (Pacific)
I'm writing a post about these in The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty & Fashion Blog, should be published in a day or two. :)Labels: argentium, earrings, peridot, pics, prehnite, wire
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Hammered Argentium sterling "links" earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
September 2, 2007
at 9:14 PM (Pacific)
I'm getting a bit better at this. Now I can tell, as soon as I put the earrings on, whether or not they'll start feeling heavy toward the end of the day. It's a fine line...on these, I had to change out one of the Bali sterling beads. That tiny bit of extra weight makes the difference between "featherlight" and "starts to feel heavy if you wear them long enough."
Pretty pleased with these.Labels: argentium, bali, earrings, pics
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Hammered Argentium sterling earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
September 1, 2007
at 1:10 PM (Pacific)
Been playing with these over the past couple of days. They're long, but lightweight (being only thin pieces of hammered silver, with two small rose quartz beads), and because they're neither hoops nor anything terminating in a loop, they don't get stuck in your hair or collar.
This is also the first time I've made earring wires, thanks to Argentium silver. Before that, I would have had to use niobium, titanium, or 18KT gold...procuring the first two kinds would likely be more headache than buying the blanks, and 18KT gold...hardly worth making this type of earring wire (for that, you would want either a readymade leverback, for a special pair of earrings, or else a kidney wire idea where you could interchange the dangles).
About the rose quartz beads...I've had these for a long time. I never actually got rid of the inexpensive materials I started out with...and if it's possible, I recommend you don't either. My daughter is managing them now. For these earrings, I started out using two small freshwater pearls instead of the rose quartz. But the idea of the earrings was to capture light, so I decided to look for something clear or translucent.
I had in mind to use glass, something like two small rough-looking glass beads (like Indian glass). I found some blue ones, but it occurred to me that making the two stones blue would limit these earrings to being worn with clothes that go with blue. I already have a fair amount of blue earrings. So I looked for clear glass, but it occurred to me the faint pastel pink of rose quartz was actually pretty versatile, almost like "blush makeup for the ears" (on the concept you don't have to match your blush to your clothes).
Anyhow there's the theory. :)Labels: argentium, earrings, pics, quartz
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Various pendants
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
August 28, 2007
at 4:55 PM (Pacific)
American turquoise
Citrine
Czech glass and a tiny red glass heart
Chinese millefiori
The top two are some experiments with handmade bails. The red glass one, I made specifically with red glass, but it hangs really nicely. It could easily be used with three small gemstones instead.Labels: bails, citrine, czech glass, goldfilled, millefiori, pendant, pics, turquoise, wire wrapping
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Aquamarine necklace pic
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
August 13, 2007
at 4:13 PM (Pacific)
Redo of this:
As you can see, it's a much simpler design. I knew the 3-to-1 was too busy, but didn't want to waste the chain or other aspects of it.
I ended up with three extra pieces of chain, but they're all long enough to do something with, say matching earrings (I'm going to redo the earrings too). As far as the aquamarine "bobbles," I was pleased to be able to rework some of those too...bend the top loop open, trim the wire a bit, pop the top Bali bead off, replace with a daisy spacer, redo loop, reattach.
I'll take a pic of the "tacky strand of diamonds" one after I've put the crimp covers on.Labels: aquamarine, bali, chain, goldfilled, necklace, pics, vermeil
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Various necklaces
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
August 9, 2007
at 2:47 PM (Pacific)
These have all been photographed before, in greater detail...I wanted a group picture of my current necklace collection. I didn't include the keishi pearl one, if only because it's too new...I may decide to redo it, once I get my metals catalog (hem hem); I may decide to make it with plain gold beads rather than the tourmaline+vermeil thing.
These have all stood the test of time, some more so than others of course...they've all been worn many times. I hate to hit y'all over the head with makeup metaphors, but I have the same philosophy regarding cosmetics: they have to be worn, they cannot just sit in the drawer. You have to show them some love.
Looking them over, I'm already getting ideas what I'd like to do next. For example, I'd like to redo my aquamarine and goldfilled chain necklace. This wasn't a total bust, but the three strand design in front isn't happening. I'd still like to do something with it though.
I'd like to do more chain and stone designs in fact, similar to the chalcedony y-necklace (top pic, third from the left). I wore this yesterday and was pleased with the overall look.
If I may say so, I think the trend now is toward either super chunky stones, or super delicate constructions with more expensive components. Consumers have become pickier--as well they should--the designs they seek have to stand out more.Labels: necklace, pics
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Keishi pearl necklace part 2
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
August 5, 2007
at 9:51 PM (Pacific)
Very pleased with this; it's a lovely piece. I tried photographing it in the usual way, but there hasn't been enough natural light, over the past two days, to do that. So I finally gave up, had someone else model it, and used a flash. And it came out better that way.
I'm still waiting on my catalog; it's a metals company, so I'm thinking now of buying some karat gold beads...you wouldn't need a lot of them. For this model, you would need six at most, and a small karat gold clasp, to make a perfect necklace.
Not that I'm thinking of restringing these pearls. But I can see now that keishi pearls work well. They're different from traditional round pearls, but better, for a single strand, than regular freshwater pearls. The lustre is high, plus the "cornflake" shape makes the lustre reflect the light from various angles.
Here's some info on keishi pearls:
Keishi pearls
How are keishi pearls formed?Labels: bali, keishi, necklace, pearls, pics, tourmaline, vermeil
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Aquamarine earrings, version 1.1
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
June 6, 2007
at 1:21 PM (Pacific)
Okey dokey, the version I did yesterday was too heavy. Too much silver at the bottom, stones probably too big...this one uses smaller stones and less than half the silver.Labels: aquamarine, bali, chain, earrings, goldfilled, pics, vermeil
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Aquamarine earrings to go with the necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
June 5, 2007
at 5:09 PM (Pacific)
Sorry for the less than stellar pics...I'm getting a bit tired. Soon I'll go water the garden. :)
Here the issue is how to "pop" the color of the aquamarines. In my experience, aquamarines are sold dyed, unless specified otherwise (and priced accordingly). i.e., when you wash them, you lose much of the color.
Yellow is a good color to pop blue (if you have blue eyes and "warm" coloring, you can enhance your eye color with yellow-toned eyeshadows: champagne, gold, peach, orange, brown with a golden tone, etc.), so I went with Bali gold vermeil for these stones.Labels: aquamarine, bali, chain, earrings, goldfilled, pics, vermeil
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Aquamarine and Bali vermeil necklace on goldfilled chain
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
at 1:03 PM (Pacific)
This is what I was noodling around with yesterday. The fun part is in getting the strands to lie correctly. I'll have to try out wearing it today, but at least in theory, the weights should be in the right places.
Going to make some earrings to go with it too.Labels: aquamarine, bali, |
