"Reflections of Paris" - SOLD

This necklace features a large vintage crystal as its focal. A technique has been used to permanently put this Eifel tower image onto the back of this crystal. I have added many vintage faux pearls to add the cluster around the top of the crystal. Necklace overall length is 33 1/2".

Necklace is now SOLD.

This is what the large vintage crystal looked like before I transferred the image onto it.

A full on view of the necklace.

A body shot that shows the longer length of this necklace, which allows for layering with other necklaces, which is a look I love and am known for wearing on a daily basis. The person wearing this necklace is 5'7".

Another close up view that shows the gold twisted metal circle that is attached to the two chains and at the bottom to the crystal focal.

Details of the one side of the necklace which shows the exquisite three vintage brass floral filigree pieces that have been added into the pearl chain and plain chain to break it up and add character to the overall necklace.

I love to design jewelry that is asymmetrical, so on the other side you will note that just one of these great vintage brass filigree floral findings have been used.

The closure is a vintage brass filigree floral finding that was original to the vintage necklace that had the brass filigree pieces I used on this redesign.

I will be making a variety of necklaces using this transfer style of images onto vintage crystals, so stay tuned for more unique one of a kind pieces.

What I've Been Up To , as Well as Two Necklace Giveaways

I haven't posted for a while, but I've been very busy wrapping up some much needed tasks. I completed the jewelry for a May wedding of some dear friends of mine. I will do a complete post on the jewelry and the wedding after the big day, which is May 16th. I don't want to take anything away from the bride by posting ahead of time, so stay tuned for that. I was asked to design and make six bridal attendant necklaces and earrings to go with them. The bride is wearing a gorgeous vintage bib style necklace, so I created pierced earrings to go with her vintage necklace as well. The brides Mom also had me make jewelry for her two dresses out of vintage beads as well. Two of the bracelets and earrings were designed from her Great Aunts jewels and the other two bracelets and earrings were designed from another vintage piece of jewelry. In all there were seven necklaces, four bracelets, and eight pairs of earrings that I made this week for the May wedding. Stay tuned for future post on these items.

I've also been working on some vintage button style pins that are a custom order for a lady that liked the pendant button necklaces, but preferred them as a brooch style. I spent last night working on a variety of choices for her to choose from. She had sent me a Girl Scout brownie pin to incorporate into one of the designs, as well as colors she would like her brooches to be. I will post about them later, after I have the pin backs on them and they are completely finished. It can take quite some time to get the elements to look just right, and these pendants and pins aren't a thrown together in a hurry project when they come out of my studio.

I also have finished up a couple more of the vintage redesign necklaces, which I've been waiting on a sunny day for photography reasons, but looks like we may get one yet today. I see blue sky and the sun trying to peak out, now if it would just move along to the south window, I could do some photographing. It has been suggested that I invest an ott light for this reason, and I will be looking into that today as I plan to go to Jo Ann's and check them out.

Now, for the giveaways. They both are ending March 31st. One of them is here on my blog site, and the other one is at the Junk Revolution site. The link for that give away is http://junkrevolution.com/ . Same rules apply there as do mine, leave a comment and you're entered into the giveaway. Please tell your friends about it and spread the word.

Ki has graciously offered up this Junk Queen dog tag style necklace to one lucky winner. Now, I'm hoping it would be me (lol), but invite you on over to get in on the contest fun as well. I will be selling my jewelry and wares at Ki's "Junk Bonanza" event this upcoming September 17th-19th down at Canterbury Downs in Shakopee, Minnesota.

I've been a shopper at this event for three years, and this will be my first year as a vendor. I am very excited to be a part of this event. It is a fabulous venue to shop at, so come on down and be sure to look me up if you do. I will be sharing two booth spaces with three other gals, and it should be a great combination of items for sale. To find out more about this event you can check it out here: http://www.junkbonanza.com/ .

Be sure to leave a comment on my blog site for a chance to win this pendant necklace shown above. It is in the grey/black tones with a beautiful white hand carved mother of pearl button in the center as its focal.

Also, if you see any jewelry that you'd like to add to your collection, you can always contact me at gretchen.schaumann@comcast.net to inquire and find out if the item is still available for sale as well as pricing information.

Have a blessed day! Please keep those in Minnesota and North Dakota whom are struggling with flooding conditions in your prayers as they fight the clock against the uprising flood waters in their cities and homes.

Waiting on Spring

Happy Spring!

The Midwest has finally received some warmer weather for several days now, and we can now be rest assured that Spring will come to us once again. It has been a long cold winter, so we are all anxiously awaiting and anticipating some fresh green in our landscapes, buds on our shrubs and trees and signs of new life sprouting forth in our yards.

This big Easter bunny surely would put one in the spirit of Spring!

Tulips are always a sign of Spring in Minnesota.

A lovely still life with flowers, nests, and weathered wood.

Heavenly -

These were stunning and oh so gorgeous. Just spoke Spring time to me.

How can you go wrong with a bucket filled with tulips.

I adored this urn filled with lily of the valley.

As a young girl, each Spring I would pick daily boquets of this scent filled flower and my mother would always put them in the same aqua hobnail petite vase. She loved the scent that would waft through our farm house, courtesy of these delicate blossoms her youngest child would bestow on her.

- Roses are gorgous any time of the year -

One can never have too many tulips to bring on the Spring time feeling we all are craving.

All of these photos were taken last week at "Nature's Harvest in Wayzata, MN, while I was out celebrating my birthday with my friend, Carolyn. The store was packed with fresh and silk flowers and was just such a breath of fresh air, as it was still cold and snowy just five days ago.

My birthday celebration for the free necklace is still going on, so be sure to leave another commnet and be entered again for another chance on the free give away. The contest ends March 31st, so stay tuned to see who the winner may be. It could be you!

"A Beautiful March Thaw"

I was at a couple of cool shops this week, and these were the features that were outside. As you can see the snow and than ice create quite a magical look to these objects.

I love this vintage bicycle!!! The amount of ice dripping from it was so stunning and grabbed my attention before I could head inside the door of "the Round Barn Potting Co." in Andover, Minnesnowta. On Tuesday we had a snow/ice storm and on Friday the 13th, much of this snow was melting. This bike was lined up just right to be catching the run off from the roof and it created a delightful sight.

This is a fabulous entrance to the lovely shop in Wayzata, Minnesota called "Natures Harvest". The statues outside of it on Thursday were still showing signs of that Tuesday snowstorm, and the meltdown hadn't quite begun yet.

This lovely lady statue had a basket of fruit and an extra dosage of snow she was sporting. Statutes make for a lovely display outside of shops, and are a delight to the shoppers to view.

Another beautiful statue of a cherub covered with freshly fallen snow is on display outside of this lovely Wayzata shop. It is an invigorating shop for ones senses.

Inside Sneak Peak Photos

I took lots of photos of the inside of this shop, and will do a feature blog on this store in the future, but for now, here are a few cool photos of statues being used for interior design. Aren't they lovely with the Spring like flowers and greenery.

The below statue was covered with fresh greenery, wish made for a delightful Springtime display. This shop was so fun to go to as it was still cool out on Thursday when we went to it and had just had the nasty snow/ice storm earlier in the week.

Birthday Give Away Starts "March 13th-31st "

http://mimitoriasdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/03/birthday-give-away-starts-today.html

Birthday Give Away Starts "Friday the 13th"

I've been wanting to do a giveaway, but with so few people currently following my blog, I've been putting it off, hoping that my little blog would grow. Since that may take quite some time yet, I thought I'd do a giveaway to celebrate my Friday the 13th birthday. I'm hoping that if I'm extra generous, than maybe all will go well on the 13th and they'll be no bad luck! lol I don't believe in bad luck, so just wanted to have fun on my birthday, and thought this would be a good way to get the word out about my blog existence and maybe pick up some new followers in the process.

In order to be entered into the drawing you must leave a comment for me on one of my posts. Please take your time and look around my blog and see what you might find that interests you. Don't forget to leave a comment in order to be eligible. Leave as many comments as you'd like and for each comment you leave it will count as an extra entry into the contest. The contest will last for the rest of March. I will plan to draw a lucky winner on Aprils Fools Day!

This will be the necklace that the winner will receive.

Give away: vintage button pendant necklace with silver colored ball chain. Grey background button is layered with a black filigree button, then a vintage mother of pearl hand cut flower shaped button has been added and the most tiny petite mother of pearl child's button is the focal top piece.

Please spread the word about my give away and tell all of your blogger friends to come on over and visit my blog. Thanks for spending some of your valuable time with me, and letting me know your thoughts through comments. These comment feed backs truly do help those of us designing art, so I truly appreciate each of you that have left them in the past and thank you to all that leave them in the future.

"Spring in Paris" "SOLD"

Well, a girl can dream, can't she? I'd love to be spending time in Paris this Spring, but it isn't going to happen this year, so I'll bring Paris to Minnesota instead through designing jewelry with a Paris theme. Sometimes, a girl just has to improvise, and the necklace below is the results.

I found this great Paris Eiffel tower a few months back and thought it would be a fun addition to a necklace down the road, so at last it is being recycled into something that will be hopefully much more loved than it was in its previous life as a neglected key chain. Note the warm colors I chose to use in this necklace. They all just compliment one another, and add to the time worn feel that I'm attempting to give my "Vintage Redesigned Jewelry".

This necklace has recently sold, and was a one-of-a-kind creation. My favorite type of jewelry to design.

This necklace is another one of those wonderful long and flowing types that are so popular right now, and they are great fun to wear, but not so fun to try photograph. The long length (24") really makes it difficult to capture the whole necklace. SOLD

Details shot of the entire focal section of this necklace shows that it has five dangles dripping from the jump ring, which flows from another one of the great faceted olivine oval beads included in this piece.

There is another pretty olivine faceted bead that has gold filled bead caps on either end capping it off to accent and add to the overall design of the piece.

One of the more petite of the focal drops falling from the center piece of this necklace.

This vintage glass bead has wonderful swirling through out it, and I bought a small stash of these many years ago from an antique dealer that I used to buy beads and misc. findings from. Love these beads. And they are a perfect addition to the other vintage elements in this necklace.

A very pretty vintage redesign element that gives a bit of that extra flair I like to add to my designs.

Another olivine oval faceted bead to go with the one that is the connecting link between the chain of this necklace and the fun tassel part of this Paris themed piece.

This is one of my favorite redesign elements in this entire necklace. I found it a few months back and knew I had to buy it for a future piece and build around it. I like its new life in this necklace much better than its former life as a key chain. Wouldn't you agree?

I used a combination of five different necklace chains to incorporate into this one necklace and added two more of these wonderful vintage flat smooth rectangle swirled beads into the chain section to add a continuity with the one also used in the tassel part of this necklace.

The two beads are off set on either side of the chains.

This necklace has since SOLD from the blog post.