Mixed Metals Design

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Mixed Metal Necklace

$59.00 (SOLD)

The focal on this piece is a mixture of metal tones and makes this necklace a fun overall necklace.

Many fun and unique elements have been used in its design.

It is a generous length.

Details of some of the fun elements I've chosen to use to create this one-of-a-kind design.

Lovely detailing in this vintage key and wire-wrapped elements.

More elements.

Religious medal of Jesus always there to remind you of your faith.

I'm joining in on the White Wednesday fun blogging party with this post.  Thank you to Kathleen at Faded Charm for once again hosting this party.

Beauty at its Finest

To me these two photos below of the religous pieces are "Beauty at its Finest".

Have you ever come across something that was just too beautiful to use in redesign?  Well, for me that was the case when I found these two lovely necklaces while buying supplies for my jewelry business.  I am a lover of white chippy items as well as a touch of aqua in my accessories while decorating my home and cabin, so these were wonderful finds for my style.

Isn't it fun when you come upon that perfect little something that makes your heart go pitter patter?  These necklaces drape at the edge of a hand colored photo of my only child, a daughter, whom I had a photographed at age 5 with feathered angel wings.

The photos below are examples of some found objects/elements that I've chosen to redesign with while creating my vintage redesign jewelry.  I just love to use different shades of whites, wether it be a vintage watch face, gorgeous mother of pearl vintage buttons, luminous strands of faux glass pearls in varying shades of neutrals or this precious vintage creamware pitcher from a childs set of dishes.

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I'm linking this up with  at Faded Charm for her weekly White Wednesday blog event.

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.

Tutorial - Transforming a Window into a Business Sign

Welcome to my window transformation tutorial.  I will show you how to take an everyday tossed aside window and turn it into something once again useful and functional.

This is the finished sign.  I am a jewelry designer that recreates with vintage elements and was in need of a sign for my business when I do special events.  I will be participating in an upcoming event called AA/JMS here in Minnesota next week, with Sue Whitney, aka Junk Market Style owner.  I did a post about it here.  So when I found this great window at an occasional sale store, I knew I had to have it for this re purposing.

My window in its before state.  Loved the 4 slats of glass and thought words when I saw it.

I took extra foam core from another project and cut it into 4 strips to fit inside of the window panes.

At JoAnns' I found the perfect material for this project.  Kind of an oatmeal color with flecks of neutrals in it for texture, but yet smooth enough to paint on.  Used a 50% off coupon for the fabric and bought extra to also make some jewelry frame boards with the same material.

Tools of choice...paint palette, acryclic black paint, paint brush and stencils of choice.

I taped my stencils together to spell out my words ahead of time with masking tape and than made sure I had them even before starting to paint the letters.  I also taped this word down to the material to keep it in place.

It was time consuming, as I've a tendency towards perfectionism sometimes, but well worth the time and effort.  I didn't have any over runs of paint under letters, etc., which can happen if one rushes a job such as this.

My sign with just two of the sections completed.

Each of these panels fit in tightly, so they just pop in from the back side.  I however chose to carefully tack the individual panels in better with small nails.  I also trimmed off the excess material on the edges of the back panels too, which I do not have a photo showing.

Here's the sign hanging in our home, so that I could take a photo of it.  I am considering making four more panels with French words or something else that I like and use it in our home like that,  in between the special events that I would just normally get to use the busines sign for.  Just a thought!

Here I have the sign up at the AA/JMS event and waiting for the rest of my props and jewelry to get put together too.  I have a sale this Friday and Saturday at our French Flea shop, and than can get set up totally at the AA/JMS event for the May 5-9 sale.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and it maybe gave you some inspiration of what to do with a window you may have laying around the garage or basement.

Here is another window idea I did for our cabin decor with a six pane window.

I'm linking up today with:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm 

Transformation Thursdays at The Shabby Chic Cottage

DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

White Wednesdays at Faded Charm Cottage

Its so Creative Mondays at Its So Very Cheri

2nd Time Around 

Mannequin Make-over - from Ugly to Fun

This room is an inspiration (idea) room.  Part of a display in a local home that is an idea house.  I have been working in my mind on our master bedroom redesign and the colors you see here is very much what I've had in my plan.  However, the real inspiration piece I'd like to talk about today is the mannequin on the right in this photo.

You see last week, my friend, Carolyn had spotted this mannequin at a local antique shop and had given me a heads up about it.  The day I went to view it, the shop was having a storewide 20% off sale.  She was quite dusty, lop sided, wobbly and of needing some tlc.  I've been looking for mannequins to feature my jewelry for quite some time, and the price was quite good too.  Thus she is now part of my display props for my jewelry business.  However, she needed a make-over badly.  What to do?

Weapons of choice... I mean tools of the trade, used on my make-over.

I bought this Friday, and viewed the idea home on Sunday.  A light bulb moment for sure...

Do you see a resemblance between the two mannequins?  I did, so away I started to working on removing her ghastly overlay that was quite outdated.

Have you ever looked inside one of these ladies?  They are filled with hinges and screws.

I had to remove portions completely in order to fully remove the outer layers of fabric, but when I was done with each section, it was a small victory.  It took about 4 hours of tedious work to remove the fabric and put her back together again.

Here she is partially dismantled.

This photo shows all of the bluish/purple stretchy material removed, but the black fabric is still intact.  This is what I first thought I'd do, but I didn't like the condition (dirty) the black material was in.

I also didn't like how distracting the black fabric was when trying to photograph my jewelry, either, thus I began the process of removing the black fabric as well.

Here I'm removing the fabric.  The bent nose needle nose plier was invaluable, as was the scissor on most of the fabric removal.  I only used the exacto knife for removal of the black portion of fabric, as I already had the mannequin tightly fit together and would of had to take it all apart again without it.

Yeayyyy!  The finish results...and I'm quite happy with them.

My latest "White Wednesday" jewelry design.

Lots of fun details, and I'm loving photographing on this lady.

Beach theme necklace...

Lots of fun surprises and treasures make up this necklace.

More unique pieces collaborate to make this one of my all time favorite designs.

This is the back side portion of the necklace.  Details flow throughout the piece and is something I always strive to do with each of my one-of-a-kind designs.

Thanks for visiting me on this "White Wednesday" event and for taking the time to read my lengthy post.  The name I've chosen is Carolina, as my dear friend, Carolyn is whom found her for me.

This necklace, as well as others from my Mimi-Toria's Jewelry line will be available at the upcoming Remnants Of The Past event in California in Sue Whitneys booth.   The show is this coming week-end, April 24th from 9-4 pm in Nipomo, CA.    The remaining pieces will come back to Minnesota and be offered along with many other designs at the Arts+Architecture/Junk Market Style show/event being held in Minnesota in May from the 5-9th.  Check out the website and won't you plan to join us?  We'd love it if you can.

I am linking this up to Thrifty Tuesdays event, as everything used in this blog post was found while thrifting.  Thank you to Linda for hosting this fun event.
Thanks once again Kathleen of Faded Charm for hosting the White Wednesday party which I linked up to, and to Suzanne, the Colorado Lady, and her blog which I'm linking up to for the first time for her Vintage Thingies Thursdays she hosts.  Be sure to check out all of the rest of these blog parties participants, and leave a comment for them.
I am also linking up with Kristin Duke through her blog "The Idea Room".


Also, linking up with Trash to Treasure Tuesday for the first time.