Tropical Blossom Necklace

I had a dream - to create a necklace using mostly Swarovski crystals. Of course, with seed beads together! Artbeads.com declared October as their month of Swarovski, and I didn't want to loose such a great opportunity. They have over 5,000 different items from Swarovski including beads, pendants, rhinestones, buttons, chain and more. In other words, everything you need to design the most dazzling jewelry!

I received from Artbeads.com different Swarovski crystal beads (Margarita Bead Jet and Margarita Bead Siam of different size), rivolis (Rivoli Siam, Rivoli Padparadscha, Rivoli Black Diamond), and amazing Aquiline Pendants, added bicones I've already had, and started working.


I must confess, it was a pleasure to work with Swarovski! Though I'm not a fan of bright sparkling beads and elements, I can sometimes afford to work with such materials, right? The name was born easily: Tropical Blossom! I think, it's fine for my necklace.

My daughter as a model

It can happen not very often when I make pictures of my jewelry on models. Here my daughter Ivanna is serving me as a model. At that time she was just back from the Burning Man Festival, she grabbed my necklace and put it on! I called that free-form necklace Southwestern Taste because of its color combination.

Burning Man website: www.burningman.com

Alexandria Festival of the Arts

Annual Alexandria Festival of the Arts is voted one of the top 100 art festivals in the country by Sunshine Artist magazine. As usual, it took place in September.


More than $15 million in art was on display, and more than 200 juried artists have displayed and sold fine art ranging from paintings, sculpture, prints and photography to pottery, glass, jewelry and ceramics. This year we noticed less sculpture artworks, but much more jewelry of any kind. Anyway, festival made a great success!

Pictures: Festival of the Arts

Art Activated at the TFAC

I had to post that at least a month ago, but better late, than never! A great event took place in September at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, where visual art came alive during the Alexandria Festival of the Arts. Artists demonstrated throughout the day pottery on the wheel, drawing, bubble glass making, beading, spinning, weaving, knitting, limestone carving, etching, and much more. Visitors could try their hand at different art techniques including clay throwing, sculpture, and fiber art at special "Try Me" stations.


Hands-on projects also included Champagne Cork Chairs workshop, Bubble Gum painting, Create Your Own Button workshop, Screen printing workshop, Mask Making workshop and so on. Lots of fun for both, adults and kids!

Pictures: Art Activated

GLITTER IN THE FESTIVE SEASEON IN THIS FAUX ALEXANDRITE SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL VINTAGE SET BY SHERMAN!

It's been a while since we last had a faux alexandrite set of necklace and earrings by Sherman to share with our readers and customers but this time, we have a real beauty! Just click on that photo to see more pics and in large detail in our SHOP AT RUBY LANE.

Going by the construction, size of the stones Sherman used for this one, we know we have one of his much earlier sets. As tastes moved toward the finer, less chunky looks in costume jewelry, Sherman too modified his designs. So these days it's really great to find one of these older sets.

Even better, this set comes in its original box, and in that is another giveaway that this is an old Sherman: the later boxes all carried the "Sherman ... jewels of excellence" inside the boxes. Notice, that "jewels of excellence" is missing here but the inscription on that satin inlay is identifiably Sherman. So buying a set like this, in its original box, is a doubly valuable investment. Just the box alone right now would fetch $100!

Shown below is another photo of just the necklace as we subject it to different lighting so you can see the color change that occurs in faux alexandrite stones:


Isn't it brilliant! I'm always in awe of these crystals and get so excited when I find a vintage set, by any designer, with faux alexandrite stones. They're just so rare, and that makes them highly collectible.

It's intriguing to speculate what something like the set above would cost if these were real alexandrites. Quite honestly, most of us could never afford even one of those large stones in the necklace if this were the genuine gemstone. The large stones you see here are 5/8" long by 1/2" wide. That's big. Actually, because the stones in this set are larger, so is the weight of the pieces considerable. The necklace alone weighs over 60 grams!

Below is yet another view of the full set in its mauve color (ie. it changes from blue/green to lavender/mauve).


What a glorious color! By the way, the earrings are large. They run along your ear for 1 3/4" and are 3/4" wide at their widest point. Gorgeous, showy, glitzy but always beautiful Sherman! Buy it now from our SHOP AT RUBY LANE.

By the way, don't know if you watched the auction for this incredible Sherman cuff bracelet shown HERE. What a beauty. It went for over $1900 CAD. Just proves you can't really put a price on Sherman: it's worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it!

"Flex Your Creativity" Beading Contest

 
Poll: Choose the Winner!
There are two my items (one is below), contest is open to vote!


Bridal Flowers Necklace

Looking for colors

Last year when I worked on my Mermaids Garden Necklace I selected an unusual color combination of copper and aquamarine to pale blue - to express an ocean theme, and I haven't expected that many people would like that palette. From time to time I play with different colors - I love it!


Looking back at the Mermaid's Garden, I wanted to try colors like those, but of other shades. I got from AuntiesBeads.com Bronze Swarovski crystal pearls, Caribbean Blue Opal Swarovski crystal bicones, and Metallic Indigo Iris Miyuki seed beads, this combination seemed to be very interesting for me!


I was eager to challenge and when I received my order, I immediately started beading. Oh, no, I wanted just to try my idea! Look at the picture, here is my new necklace. I don't know how you like it, but yesterday at the Art Activation in the Torpedo Factory Art Center (Alexandria, VA), where I demonstrated beading to public, my necklace attracted a lot of attention. I guess, partly because of colors. Now I'm thinking how to name the necklace... Any suggestions?