Pearly Crystal Earrings

Just listed in my Etsy shop.

As I state in the description, Swarovski pearls are the best "fake" pearls in the world! Their luster is second to none, except for the real deal. And even then, it takes an exceptional real pearl to out-luster these.

I love to make these sort of earrings. They are simple and elegant, quick and easy to make, and they can be customized to the color preference of the buyer.

One of my blog-buddies from Entrecard (visit her blog ... she's a very talented artist!) asked me in a comment left on the preceding post about where I get my design inspiration. Most of the time, I get it from the components themselves. Whether crystals, pearls, stones or metal findings ... the shape, texture, color, size "speaks" to me. Sometimes a particular object remains mute until another time, but all the things I gather eventually tell me what to do.

I was blog-hopping last week and stumbled across a blog by another jewelry artist who wrote about a book he appreciates and refers to quite a bit. I do not remember his name, the name of the book or the author but he mentioned 6 principles of jewelry design which I copied into a Word document. I found them compelling and a good metaphor for life in general, not just for design. I'll be discussing each point in the future, as soon as I find that blog again so I can give proper credit to all involved.

I was pleased to see that I instinctually follow all 6 principles!

My target market is the business woman so all of my designs are geared towards her whether "formal" or "casual" or "cocktail." So design inspiration is never lacking.

I do see things in my wanderings that inspire. I saw a painting of Queen Elizabeth I once in a book that inspired a gorgeous necklace, the prototype which I kept for myself and often wear to my networking events.

I am always looking at fashion magazines and internet sites/blogs for inspiration. I avoid looking at jewelry specifically, but look to the clothing to see if I could make something that would harmonize and complete the look.

I realize I need to count myself fortunate in that the medium I chose to express my art is never lacking for inspiration! However, it is a struggle to avoid the mundane and the mediocre.

Fall 2008

I've been avoiding thinking of the fall season. When the temps stay around the three digit levels, even looking at the upcoming fall fashion lines makes me break out in a sweat! But as a designer of handcrafted jewelry, my head keeps telling me to stop delaying! So this morning I went to the Pantone Fashion Color Report Fall 2008 and printed page 2. The ink is still wet on the paper. Good thing I installed a new color cartridge earlier this week!

What a pleasant surprise! I love the colors and it will be a joy to start designing pieces to suit ... once the temps outside dip below 95F. It looks like I'll be using a lot of amethyst and lapis lazuli and smokey quartz. I need to replenish my lapis supply.

The Pantone color reports are important for the small-time designers to consider. Fortunately for us, we can wait until the freebie report is released on the Pantone website. If you're a designer catering to the retail and boutique market and sell at the accessories shows in the major market areas, you need a head start. Pantone offers "membership" to obtain reports well in advance, but it's expensive. Since I sell direct to the wearer, I can afford to wait.

Pantone is the leading manufacturer of dyes in the world so if they say Blue Iris, Royal Lilac, Shady Glade, etc are the colors for this upcoming fall, they will be the colors you see in the stores for fall. Withered Rose is my personal favorite. It looks like a Dusty Rose which was the best matched color for my eyes, hair color and skin tone when I had my colors done all those decades ago. (I wish I was very html-savvy so I could use colored text for the color names I just typed!)

How about these handcrafted earrings? I think they "read" Withered Rose. They are red aventurine and Golden Shadow Swarovski crystals made with 14k gold-fill. I have more red aventurine in my supply so I'm looking forward to putting out new pieces featuring that stone. Aventurine isn't an expensive stone, but it's beautiful. Colors range in green, peach, reddish, brown and blue. It's a quartz with inclusion of mica so there is a subtle shimmering effect called aventurescence.

I'll need to be heading over to Elle.com and check out the runway shows for Fall 2008 (which happened in February 2008) to see what all the trends are showing. Hopefully there will be some Withered Rose!