31 May 2009

A little bit of sparkle and shine for the big day

Etsy has a "convo" feature to enable buyers and sellers to contact each other and my favourite type of message is the kind where a completely stranger asks whether something can be custom made for them. I got one just tonight and although it is too early to know if anything will come of it, I am excited all the same.

This potential client is looking for earrings for her wedding and wanted something like the Paige earrings, only in light pink. I wrote back and included a photo of my rose quartzes and morganites, as well as crystal quartzes, snow quartzes, and smoky quartzes. I hope this works out because I would love to turn the rose quartz onions I bought two months ago into something worthy of a bride.

27 May 2009

A green wedding

The lovely Rhonwyn earrings, as seen below, sold two days ago and will be worn by the maid-of-honour at a California wedding:


Prasiolite, also known as green amethyst, is one of my favourite stones to work with and can also be seen in the Ophelie earrings, Tiffany bracelet, and Mikaella necklace.

I have finished the earrings from last time and they are now a little shorter because I took away the two larger links at the top of the chain. They are super cute and pretty and I expect to post them to the shop some time in June!

21 May 2009

In the tropics

Here's a quick peak at something I am currently working on... It's got a blue mystic topaz briolette topped by labradorites, apatites, peridots, and aquamarines. The little beads are connected to the large links of a short figure eight chain and I have yet to decide whether I will fill the top two links with beads, leave them the way they are, or even remove them.

In any case, the pastel blues and greens remind me of the tropics and make me want travel somewhere with a white sand beach:

17 May 2009

Design evolution: Shandra

My newest design took a while to nail down, but I am quite happy with the final look. I knew as soon as I got the clover-like findings that I had to link them up somehow, but I faced the challenge of them collapsing downward until I added the horizontal bead to space out the upper clovers. From there, it was just a matter of using the right number of jumprings to connect all the parts together. However, my original design also had a large crystal quartz briolette hanging from the bottom (as pictured) but the proportions didn't look right so I went without. The Shandra earrings therefore have only three beads and three clovers.

14 May 2009

Goodies from aileen.etsy.com

After toying with the idea of setting up a supplies shop, I am one step closer to realizing that plan. That is, I have claimed the username ariasupplies.etsy.com and put up a banner:


There is still nothing in the shop, but that will gradually change. My plan is to post small quantities of some of my supplies to see if there is any interest. It isn't my intention to turn this into a full fledged business; rather, I often buy my beads in strands for the volume savings and because there is just no other way to get them, but don't need all of the individual pieces. This way I can unload some and hopefully use the earnings to buy more beads!

11 May 2009

It's a girl!

Seventeen new pieces have been added to aileen.etsy.com including the previously mentioned Juliette, Reina, Cherie, Tammy, Gloria, and Katerina.

Another one of the seventeen is a versatile piece that can be worn as a necklace or a lariat. The Monique features seven puffy mystic pink quartz briolettes plus a 20.6ct step-cut smoky quartz. It is the first piece that has been inspired by a name alone and my source was a baby girl born to my friend Margaret.

09 May 2009

Red, red rubies

My dear friend Elisse was over last night and we picked out the stones for her bridesmaids' earrings. She is going for a fall palette and we ended up with citrine, carnelian, brown and golden tourmaline, garnet, and beer quartz. She also took a look at the pieces that I will be posting to my online shop soon and fell in love with the Katerina earrings:

06 May 2009

Silver and orange

Here's another preview of an upcoming piece aside from the Juliette as seen in this post... This is the Gloria and is made of large citrines purchased just this past weekend:

Just one more

I have been on a crazy jewellery making bender lately and it must be because the new supplies have been so inspiring. The current plan is to post all of my new pieces by the 15th and there are going to be more than fifteen additions! It's going to take some time to photograph everything and write their descriptions so it just might take me until next Friday to finish!

I am currently working on one last pair of earrings before I prepare the pieces for posting. The Tammy has amethyst, pink topaz, and tanzanite, which gives it a pretty pastel colour range. In fact, the colours are similar to those in the assymetrical Charlotte necklace:

04 May 2009

New stock

The Whole Bead Show was in town this past weekend and I stocked up on gemstones and sterling silver findings on the first day. Some of my favourite purchases include peridot briolettes, tanzanite rondelles, large ruby briolettes, even larger citrine briolettes, ultra-saturated green amethyst onions, teeny tiny aquamarine briolettes, and rosy pink topaz rondelles. I have already made earrings using the peridots (Dallas) and pink topazes (Cherie), and plan to work on the citrines next. They are a rich orange colour and will definitely turn heads!

On a side note, the Dallas earrings are a special gift for a very sweet lady by the same name. She is my good friend Jessie's mother and has been very supportive of my jewellery. I know she loves the colour green and I have been looking for some pretty peridots for her for a long time. On another side note, Jessie loves hot pink and these raspberry quartz and pink tourmaline earrings were named after her:

03 May 2009

EotW: Ursula

Last week's Earrings of the Week featured the Nola and this week the special is for the Ursula. It has a cluster of peach aventurine, pink and yellow tourmaline, and jade in between garnet and ruby fuschite at the top and purple jade at the bottom. Now that is an unstoppable combination!