New Jewelry Designs - Hugs & Kisses

It has been a long while since I have designed an original design.  With my Dad's passing in November, the grief and day to day demands have sucked hard at my creative stream.  Do you ever experience this?  I often feel as if there is nothing but the demands and dealing with them.  But with the new year it is time to get back in to the creative mode, shows are coming!  I designed this piece last night.  I started with an art pendant created by Melanie Brooks, Earthenwood Studios.  When I held it in my hand, I knew what the finished design would look like!  Does that happen in your world?  It rarely happens that way for my designs.  I added bunches of wire wraps with Chinese crystals and Czech glass beads.  There are also X and O letter tags added for a bit of whimsy, going for the hugs and kisses feel.  Those are from the scrapbooking embellishment aisle, made by The Paper Studio, Spare Parts.  I love hunting for the bits to add to a design to make it unique.  The letter tags match the matte antique silver finish on the chain also.

My Muse also urge me to create a couple pair of earrings.  When I did my end of the year inventory, I realized how many earrings I have in stock, yikes!  However, I get tired of looking at the same earrings, and they are so fun to make, I couldn't resist the siren's song!  The black pair are a matte finish Czech glass bead with peacock coating on the tiny triangle design.  I added odds and ends beads to pick up the colors in the peacock finish for the dangles.  The pretty hearts were made with Clay River Designs hearts and the dangles are Czech glass hearts and Chinese crystals.  Mina said she thought these look like Sweet Tarts candy, and would actually wear them!!!  I just about handed them over to her then and there!  It is a VERY RARE thing for my beautiful but low maintenance daughter to want anything to do with my jewelry!  I felt like she hugged me without even touching me!

Swarovski New Colors!!

 I love when the new Swarovski colors are released!  I am a big fan of Bling, and if you want the best Bling, Swarovski is definitely the way to go.  Their quality and selection are hard to beat.  These are the new color releases for the Fall/Winter selection.  The new crystal pearl color:

Petrol- (deep blue/teal)

Denim Blue

Antique Pink

My favorites of the Swarovski line are the pendants and shaped beads.  I love to make suncatchers and using the Swarovski crystals and Strass leaded crystals on them is wonderful.  One of the new items I am excited about is the diagonal drilled Wild Heart bead.

Wild Heart

Having the bead drilled this way, you can hang it on the diagonal of a necklace instead of just hanging through the pendant drill.  I love all of the heart beads, and am very excited to have these come into stock in the various bead suppliers so that I can get them in time for Holiday designs.  I only wish they had added a new color in the "opal" lineup.  I love all of the opal colors, and they add a different dimension of color to the design.  If Swarovski is listening, might I suggest a lovely lime green colored opal or a bright orange opal!  Imagine the Khaki or Peridot or Hyacinth in the opal line!  That would be awesome!