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Comments
· 10:21 PM by
Dain
· 1:35 PM by
Colleen Shirazi
· 12:43 AM by
Colleen Shirazi
The Lipstick Page Forums Fashion Blog: December 2006
More jewelry ramblings...
Posted by TheLipstickPageForums.com, Sunday, December 17, 2006 12:22 AM (Eastern)
It's Colleen btw. I switched my Blogger account to the beta version...mumbles...on the premise that the new Blogger features "labels." This is a feature that other blogging programs already have; at the least, it means we can categorize our posts (under, say, "Chanel," "grunge," "ramblings" etc.); same post may contain multiple labels. Ideally it would also mean our labels would be keywords, although I doubt it. Anyhow, I can't retrieve my "old" blogs from my "new" account until, I suppose, tomorrow, and I've been reluctant to switch these blogs over until the beta is out of beta.
I've ordered some more components...sighs. Perhaps the obvious tactic for me would have been to Google until I found jewelry I liked, and then duplicate it. After all I'm making it for my own use. My problem is more along the lines of my pre-Net cosmetic persona: I never really figured out what I liked in the first place. Sure, I like a big rock, same as the next gal, but so what? That's not a solution since I can't produce the big rock.
At least I've boiled some of it down. I like gold more than silver, faceted more than smooth, rondelle over round; I can't abide toggle clasps on bracelets (they look great and invariably drop off your wrist after a few hours), but find they work perfectly on necklaces.
I prefer bracelets that clasp over stretch pieces; for whatever irrational reason (it's a contradiction, but haven't you done things for irrational reasons?), they feel more secure. Box clasps are ideal for bracelets, being both decorative and secure, but most necklaces can do with the less-expensive toggle or lobster/spring ring clasp.
Crystals work for instant, affordable glamor; they are amazingly good. But I don't like most of the colored ones. They depress me...they just feel like fake gemstones.
Multiple strands tend to be better than single, depending on what you're working with.
All of that said...I'm working on a few pieces. One is the citrine and silver set I mentioned earlier. I'm not happy with it. To think I used to strive to make a new piece every day--what a mistake! It can take weeks to develop a design and find the components for it. There is no one source anywhere I've found, that actually has everything you need.
Another piece consists of pink "cornflake" pearls and pink tourmaline rondelles...a rondelle is what it sounds like, a sort of flattened round:
 Bali silver bead image courtesy rings-things.com |
 Rhodolite image courtesy firemountaingems.com |
 Swarovski crystal image courtesy artbeads.com |
I'm going to use vermeil Bali beads in this. I have it in mind to make a three-strand bracelet to "go with"; no idea if that's going to work (the pink pearls for this are drilled through the top, so it'll be an engineering feat if I can get them to line up).
I'm also making a simple strand of white square pearls, connected with goldfilled wire. Not wrapped, just simple loops. This is going to have a diamond-shaped vermeil toggle.
The citrine bracelet...needs a new clasp. I took the citrine drop off the necklace because I want to do this with it:
Image courtesy beadshop.com
For this you need "dead soft" wire; you can bring the wire down as far as you like (more decorative than the plain wrapped loop I had on it before).
If I can pull all of this off, I'll have several highly wearable pieces.
fashion, style, jewelry, beading
Resort: Part 4
Posted by Dain, Saturday, December 16, 2006 4:25 PM (Eastern)
Throw it on for warmth
Swim!
Nights Out
Alternate Forms
fashion style jacket Daryl+K-189 swimsuit sunglasses shoe sandals dress marc+jacobs
Resort: Part 3
Posted by Dain, Saturday, December 09, 2006 12:48 PM (Eastern)
Accessories?
On such a simple palette of clothes, it's tempting to throw on as many accessories as possible. What wouldn't work? I like these basic clothes, as a sort of palette cleanser, but it really lets you showcase your personality in terms of accessories.
For example, simple and earthy: A wooden bracelet, sleek leather sandals, and gold hoop earrings.
But I am going to take my cue from Grace Kelly, and opt for more posh fare:
1. strand of pearls
2. "big" watch
3. tough bag
4. black heels
Jewelry ramblings
Posted by Colleen Shirazi, Friday, December 08, 2006 9:24 PM (Eastern)
I've finished my second phase of making jewelry.
It's a process remarkably similar to figuring out makeup and learning to use it well, rather than in a default or exaggerated manner. Oh, here it is: Minimalism? (philosophical makeup use).
It's not quite the same in that I think of phase one of jewelry making as a combination of "gee whiz, I can make my own jewelry?" and "it's incredibly difficult" (unless you have the good fortune to learn it from someone else). Because there are so many new materials and techniques, available locally or on the Net, you can be up and running with a relatively low initial investment. i.e. you need not invest in metalworking up front, only in a few key tools and some wire and stringing materials.
The difficulty I suppose varies. I'm not crafty; it was difficult for me.
Phase two is when you can make things, and make them well, but there is still a lot of experimentation. The variables, may I say, are akin to cosmetic variables. If you have tens of thousands of lipsticks, eyeshadows, and blushes from which to choose, so you have tens of thousands of beads, which can be strung, or knotted, or wire wrapped...you can make a necklace from a chain, or make it on a chain, or make your own chain, or skip the chain and go for a leather, or suede, or hemp, or stretch cord, or memory wire...choose a spring ring, lobster claw, box (drools), hook-and-eye, or S clasp...the common materials are sterling silver and gold fill, but now we have Argentium sterling silver (which is slowly becoming more widely available), which reputedly can't tarnish. Oh, and there's vermeil too. And don't forget the crystals. :)
Phase three is when you no longer wish to make casual pieces. Each piece now has to involve...something elevated. It can appear to be more expensive than phase two, but, overall, it's cheaper. Just as you spend less on makeup once you've figured it out, but (most likely) more on each item, so each piece of phase three jewelry can cost more than a phase two piece, but there are fewer pieces to begin with.
I've done three pieces of phase three jewelry so far. The first is a pair of freshwater pearl earrings. These were not extraordinarily difficult, in fact they consist of an egg-shaped pearl, a square pearl, and a large coin-shaped pearl: that's it. They are connected by simple loops, with a few small gold-filled beads thrown in.
They're horribly simple but then they are the MAC "Sophisto" lipstick of my nascent phase three jewelry collection. It probably took me more time picking out those six pearls than doing the design and assembling it. It was the pearls themselves that made these earrings (that, and a hankering I already had for square and coin-shaped pearls); they are of a faint peachy pink hue (not too peachy, nor too mauve), with intense lustre and good size.
I used gold-filled wire to do the loops, and "made" a bronze niobium wire for each (the wires are already bent except for the front loop, so you can add a small bead or wire coil of your choice before making the loop).
What's great: they show. I don't put my hair up often, and it's long enough to drown out many an earring.
They're sufficiently lightweight so that I can wear them all day without wanting to remove them.
The color goes with just about anything, because they're not distinctly pink or peach. In fact (to stretch the makeup analogy until it begs for mercy), not dissimilar to a blush...the blush that looks perfectly natural on you. Not too warm, not too cool.
I debated about making them fancier with, say, vermeil daisy spacer beads. But I think that would actually make them look more ordinary.
The second piece is a citrine bracelet, three strands: two consist of faceted citrine beads separated by Bali sterling daisy spacers, one of citrine "points" (these are like tiny smooth long teardrops) with a Bali bead for every seven points. These are held together not by spacer bars, but by large handmade sterling beads shaped like flowers with a round faceted citrine on either side of the bead. The clasp for this is the same citrine one pictured here: This and that. As much as I rather liked the original bangle, it hardly showed on me (much like, hm, MAC "Jubilee" lipstick...okay, I'll stop now).
The third piece is a matching citrine necklace, two strands: one of the same faceted beads and daisy spacers; the other, the same points and Bali beads. In front is a third flower-shaped bead, with a large smooth teardrop-shaped citrine bead hung below it.
I actually had all of the beads for both pieces, except that last teardrop-shaped one, and for weeks I'd been trying to come up with a design using them.
Citrine is one of my favorite stones (I tried making a list of my favorite stones and it became depressingly long), but its color is subtle and the trick is to use a lot of it when you're making a piece.
So what's next? I have a few odd things I'd like to do, like a three-strand peridot bracelet, a "keishi" pearl necklace (these are "cornflake" shaped pearls), a white square pearl necklace...I'm going to restring my dancing pearl necklace and bracelet (I'd like to add some crystals to both) and my American turquoise necklace and bracelet (here I'd like to use crystal "wheel" beads). I'll need some leather cord for stuff...and I'd like to do some crystal pieces for my daughter and myself (crystals with Argentium silver).
I'll have some pictures later on.
Resort: Part 2
Posted by Dain, Thursday, December 07, 2006 9:14 PM (Eastern)
Softest shirts...
1. Weekend
2. Day
3. Night
It's funny, but these are all cool blue/violet shades. It's somehow a rethinking of the preppie aesthetic of blue shirt and beige khakis, but so much more... well, pretty. This is not, by the way, how the fashion industry is doing spring style for 2007. I am simply taking ONE trend (nude palette), and interpreting it as something I'd rather wear. It makes the hunting down of really interesting accessories really fun..........
Recent blog posts:
10:21 PM,
I suppose it's like any other thing, you learn as you go along. I've always thought that taste is the ability to know yourself very, very well, in whatever capacity. You learn what you like and don't like.
I would suggest looking at what people are doing contemporarily. I don't know any good jewelry sites, but I imagine there are shops that sell offbeat, upcoming designers--really inventive stuff. I figure, that's the best place to look for ideas.
Or maybe it would help to expand into other materials... like metalworking. I bet you could take art classes that would let you build up skills. Once you have new skills, new styles open up to you, I think.
I don't know, I barely know a thing about jewelry in the first place. But just some ideas.
1:35 PM,
Yeah...it's tricky. Ultimately I would like to do metalworking, because I would then be able to create unique components, which are key to unique pieces, after all. But I don't foresee doing so for at least another year. It's a money investment but as importantly, a time investment. What I'd like to do is figure out what I want to do first, before making the investment.
It's not too different from what you and I have done with cosmetics. We started out with less expensive cosmetics, to figure out what works and what doesn't. It's better than investing heavily in the $ stuff only to find out later that most of it doesn't work.
Hermmm...I do check out what other people are doing. Most of it, I can admit, I don't like. Some of it I like but can't see buying or wearing. It's...as I say, tricky.
Oh well I'm in phase three. This year (I'm starting my "year" around the time I started making jewelry, September 2005), I intend to make permanent pieces...the stuff you can see yourself wearing ten years from now.
Next year or thereabouts...that's when I'm thinking of going to only a few pieces, but expensive materials. You can buy 18KT gold components online, you can buy a lot of stuff...Tahitian and Akoya pearls, you can buy antique beads, yadda yadda... I don't want to do that yet, it's too soon.
12:43 AM,
My daughter just pointed out that briolette bead looks like Dior J'Adore.