Beach Inspired Jewelry

Ahhhh...   Me on the beach, being inspired to create jewelry. :)

Notice my necklace and cool hat...

For real, I do get a lot of inspiration from time spent on the beach, amongst my flower gardens and out on the water while water-skiing.  Our cabin and our family vacations have always proved to be a blessing and inspiring time for me to dream up new designs.  Below are a few inspired necklaces that remind me of the beach and family vacation time by the ocean.  What inspires you????

Golden Beach Treasure Necklace

SOLD

This necklace is filled with treasures that are beach related or found elements that helped the overall balance of this design.  The charm style necklaces such as this, are so fun to wear too.  This necklace is still available.

Magnified Treasure Necklace

SOLD

This magnifying glass and anchor remind me of the hours I have scoured the beaches looking for beach glass, shells and other treasure I can use in my jewelry designs.

Beach Hues with Sparkle Necklace

SOLD

The sparkle in this necklace reminds me of the excitement I feel when I find the perfect pastel piece of beach glass laying on the sand, a treasure waiting for my eyes to find it.  This piece is quite substantial and is still for sale.

Footsteps in the Sand Necklace

SOLD

This if a fun necklace that reminds me of the poem and photo of footprints in the sand.  The colors one finds on the beach have been used in this design, and the handle piece and vintage crucifix focal is a reminder that Jesus has a handle on our lives, and paid the ultimate sacrafice for each one of us.

I'm linking up with the blog party over at Faded Charm for White Wednesday.

Golden Charm Necklace & Camera Advice Wanted

A fun necklace I made a few weeks back.  Sorry about the photos, as I've still not repalced my stolen camera yet, and am contemplating what I might buy.  Any camera suggestions are welcome.  Would love to know what you've found to work for your blog.  Please leave a comment and suggestions.  Thanks!

A good friend of mine, Julie, found this cool gold perfume necklace for me to redesign with a few weeks back and I was able to get this necklace created during the last French Flea sale, and it SOLD during that 4 day occasional sale event.  It had a lot of great charms incorporated into it, which I've been saving for a while to put with the right necklace.

The front of the perfume vial had this clock on it.

The back side of the perfume clock face bottle.

I loved this fleur de leis vintage book style locket charm which I purchased online quite a while ago and had been saving this cool piece for the perfect design.  It is actually one of my favorite parts of this necklace.

The coolest little artist palette charm.

A cool two sided pearl charm.

A guardian angel???

Found charm...

Vintage filigree brass bead and vintage element off of a pocket watch fob.

The necklace featuring all of its elements.

"Life is too Short to Wear Department Store Jewelry"

Bird Necklace

SOLD

This necklace is sold.  However, with the garden theme in mind and nature and all of the birds in our yard and out at our cabin, this piece was inspired.  I just love birds and crowns too, so this combined two of my things I really like.  The color tones of this bird focal were a perfect mix with some of my bead stash I had in my studio.  These African turquoise gemstone beads, teardrop shaped mother-of-pearls, and the combination of the Bali silver accents as well as a vintage chain, is all I needed to complete this design.

Thanks to Julie, my friend that created some of these unique tags that says it all.

Filigree Girl Necklace

Available

The filigree floral backing on this piece, the gold and AB crystal dangle piece on the left and the gold cross with the floral accent on the right side, also worked well for the June monthly theme at the French Flea sale.

Again, these tags are the perfect addition to marketing my jewelry.

Birds in Flight Necklace

SOLD

The above vintage brass piece of jewelry had both a bird and flowers on it and makes it a unique and fun piece to design with and use as a focal for a vintage redesign jewelry piece.  You can see it here  in its raw state in a gallery of photos that the Minneapolis Star Tribune created during a feature they ran about me as a designer and my jewelry design business last September.  In the 10th gallery photo, it is shown in a stash of vintage elements on the upper left side above the #3, that I had purchased and had been collecting to redesign with.  I just now was inspired to use this element as a focal and to create and build a necklace around.  Sometimes, I may have an element for years before I actually design with it.

I chose to wire wrap the semi precious gemstones that I used in this design to create more interest.

This close-up shows the asymetrical design used in this piece.  The gorgeous green smooth gemstones, and the Swarovski crystals, as well as the leaf links and organic nature of the pearls creates a one-of-a-kind fun design.

Inspiration from Nature

I have a beautiful peony bush in my front flower garden area, and they have just been so lovely during the last couple of weeks while in their prime blooming season. These peony blossoms inspired me to create a few pieces for the French Flea shops June theme which was "Vintage Garden Party". So these photos above of the blossoms truly inspired these vintage jewelry redesigns, which are currently for sale at the French Flea in Anoka through this Sunday.

SOLD

SOLD

Nature so often is something that truly inspires me quite a bit in my jewelry design creations.  What inspires you?

June Jewelry

SOLD

So I've been missing in action, since its tough to do a blog without a camera, and mine has been missing for nearly two weeks now.  I've about resigned myself to the fact that it probably was lifted from my car while garage saling. :(  The loss of my camera makes for some expensive thrifting.

I'm dusting off my old faithful camera, the little used up 4 year old 3 megapixl Canon and will give it a whirl, so that I can at least give you a glance at what I've been up to.

We have a "Garden Party" theme this month at the shop I sell in, so these are a few of the creations I came up with gardening in mind.  Kind of fun!  What do you think?

Necklace #1

This necklace has a mix of techniques and unique elements used to create it.

This photo shows it at its longest length with the extension included.

This photo has the extension removed, so that it is shorter in length.

This photo shows the complete necklace with its extension chain.

Easily added or removed, this extension gives you great versatility.
SOLD

Necklace #2

This is another fun design I came up with one week-end while up at our cabin for the week-end.  Such a fun and inspirational place to create jewelry.  Hopefully, in a few years I'll be able to spend even more time up there being creative in the summer months.  SOLD

Necklace 3

Simply fun!
SOLD

Necklace #4

This pearl necklace is stunning in real life, but photographed poorly.

SOLD

Necklace #5

This necklace has incredible vintage details incorporated into it.  Lots of hours of labor and some awesome Peruvian opals that have been mixed with an array of fabulous vintage beads and unique finds.  Truly a one-of-a-kind creation that no one else in the world will ever have anything like it.  Fun!

SOLD

Won't you join us at the upcoming Garden Party at the French Flea in Anoka, MN.  It is next week on Thursday from 10-8 p.m, Friday and Saturday from 10-5 pm and Sunday from 12-4 pm.  Check out the blog here.  New photos should be added soon on their site.

Thanks for your visit, and please if you have time let me know what you think about these designs. The blog family can really help out designers to know if what they are creating is something to keep doing, or if one should change their designs. Thanks alot!

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