Jewelry Designs For Sale - June 2009 - Part 1

Two Strand French Perfume Bottle

(SOLD)

I began this design with this fabulous small French perfume bottle. I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into a necklace design, so started with it. I included the lovely crucifix, Eiffel tower and crown as well.

Paris France is on the gold label. Note how ornate this little bottle is.

The choice of metal is gold for the chain to go with the label on this bottle.

Detail shot of the vintage Italian crucifix, Eiffel tower and crown.

This is the longest strand of the two stranded necklace.

I chose to mix gold and silver metal elements together for this design.

This is the shorter strand of this design.

The necklace chain has some gorgeous marquis shaped stations with a
yellow crystal inside each of them and these are throughout both strands of chain.


This is truly a one of a kind design, and would be so fun to wear.


Pink Delite

(SOLD)

This is a very fun and playful necklace in a silver tone chain and accented with pinks and a vintage clear teardrop crystal. It is long and these items jingle jangle and hand so fine.

The entire necklace.

Pearl/Gold Bracelet
(SOLD)

This bracelet is quite lovely in person, but the photos do not capture it. The main portion of the bracelet is made up of small faux pearls and brass floral stations. I've attached this gorgeous faux with gold flower to the top of it. The bracelet is quite small at about a 6".

The entire bracelet design.

Pearl/Gold Necklace
(SOLD)

This floral/gold flower focal is a perfect match to the previous bracelet. It is a classy design, but yet simple.

Asymmetrical design with one side gold chain and the other faux vintage glass pearls. The flower focal has set in stones, so that there is no worry of losing any of the rhinestones or pearls on it.

This photo shows the pearl/gold asymmetrical chain of the previous necklace.

Bee on Time Necklace

(SOLD at JB)

A wonderful vintage bee has received a make over with a vintage

watch face and rhinestone flower. Love the detailing of this piece.

This is a layered piece with a large gold medallion in the back, layered with the bee watch time piece with a vintage green dangle as well as the cross dangle with the colors on it.

This necklace lays just right and really is a cool piece.

Key to Time Standing Still

(SOLD)

This design is a very fun and playful. I just love all the jingle/jangle it creates.

Multiple layering with many lovely elements have all been added to this piece.

Multi strand silver tone necklace with lots of fun and

great pieces create this one-of-a-kind design.

A Time in Paris

(Sold)

I just love this necklace. I have been for years hoarding this wonderful vintage brass rhinestone pin that I've used as the connector of the chain in this necklace to the fabulous vintage watch face. The dark burgundy numbers are so unique, as is the patina of this watch face. I've added my trademark Eiffel tower to the center of it. I usually use either an Eiffel tower or flying bird in most of my watch face designs, thus it has become a trademark of my designs.

A close-up of the wonderful patina on this Waltham watch. I am always searching for watch faces, so if anyone would like to sell some, please let me know, as they are one of my favorite design elements that I enjoy using.

The main portion of this necklace chain is wonderful milky glass baroque beads as well as

heavy gold chain with a wonderful patina to go with the focal elements used in this design.

This is the details of the clasp closure and this would hang down as an accent.

Cameo Locket Necklace

(Available for purchase)

This is a lovely piece with lots of great bling to it. Starts with a wonderful triple strand gold long chain, with a great large ring for a connector to the cameo locket. From the back of the locket there are wonderful design elements that flow down from behind the large locket.

Details of the cameo.

A wonderful vintage tassel, a fabulous woman's watch and lovely vintage glass beads are some of the elements used while creating this fabulous piece. It is truly a "Wow" take notice type of necklace.

Details of all of the cool flowing design elements.

A Dear Friend Sue Whitney of Junk Market Style

Sue Whitney at "the French Flea" Shop of Anoka doing a book signing.

Kimberly (Junk Market), Lanette & Gretchen (contributors to Junk Market Style & vendors at "The French Flea", Sue Whitney (Junk Market). Photo is at the Anoka shop May 16th at a book signing Sue did for our shop. Thanks Sue!

A Little Background on Sue

Today has been a shout out to some of my blogging friends. Very early today I did a feature on a mixed media artist, Shannon, and now I'd love to blog about my friend, Sue Whitney. She is an incredible lady, not only professionally, but as a person. Honestly, I've admired Sue for years from afar. You see, she was part of a team that used to have fabulous sales in the Long Lake area where 100's of women would line up outside of their warehouse style shop and wait for their doors to open for their occasional sales. These were held seldom enough to create quite a buzz and excitement amongst the throngs of women that would attend. It was one of those kind of deals that if you saw something you wanted, you had better have it in your hands or another gal would snatch it up so fast that you wouldn't even know what had happened. I first became acquainted with this shop purely by accident while attending a children's clothing sale in a nearby outlet and saw the signs "Junk Market". I stopped in and was a devoted follower ever since. They were about 7 months into this venture when I discovered this great place. Through a process of time, these gals became regular contributors to Country Home magazine on Junk Style re purposing projects, wrote several books, created a magazine that sold out quickly, gave seminars at Home shows and were on TV shows educating the US on Junking Style of decorating. Flash forward about sevens years of admiration afar, when I received an email from Sue's new website inviting me to become a member of it. I checked it out and quickly became an early member and began regularly posting projects I had completed for eithe our cabin or our home in the cities. So one day while working in my gardens at the cabin late last August, I was honored when Sue called me and asked if I would become a contributor on her site, which you can visit at Junk Market Style and thus a friendship was established. Through the contributorship I have had a number of opportunites to spend quality time with Sue and I've got to say this, Sue is a top notch lady and one extremely talented Junker Girl. She rocks!

Sue and Kimberly came to our new shop in Anoka last month and Sue graciously did a book signing for their latest book on this Junking movement which you can see a project idea on this site: MSNBC which Sue teaches on the Today Show.

Then more recently, Sue was back in New York with Matt Lauer doing a segment on garage saling which is fabulous. View this link showing it here.

Something pretty exciting and fun for me is in the above link with Sue and Matt, Sue chose to wear one of my jewelry designs (you can see it on my blog here ) on the set in New York while filming this segment. What an honor for me to see one of my creations on her while watching her do this fabulous segment.

For more great garage sale tips there is another fabulous link with more information here . It definitely is the season for garage saling here in Minnesota and I noticed dozens of them this week with fabulous finds.

Please comment and let me know what you think of this post and the links it is linked to. I'm sure you'll find some great new information on these links, as I know I sure learned alot from viewing them myself. Sue is a wealth of information, and I'm honored to call her my friend.

Sue is infamous for re purposing items such as a rusty bed spring. This is a re purpose that I've done and have for sale in our new shop "the French Flea". Would you believe this is bed spring from my Grandmothers bed from about 1960's. My husband and I just tore it apart last Fall and harvested 42 of these rusty springs for projects such as this. Pretty fun idea and thanks to Sue, there are a lot more great ideas in the world you can see on her Junk Market Site as well as her fabulous books.

Artist Friend - Shannon

"Be all that you dream to be."

Good Morning my friends! It is an overcast day here in Minnesota, but I just know that it will be a wonderful day! Do you ever wake up and just feel that? Well, today I'm claiming this day to be as such. I woke up at 6 a.m. and decided to read my emails and catch up on a little blog reading and discovered a comment from my blogging friend, Shannon down in Gold Canyon, AZ. She is hosting a competition on her blog for those of us that are followers of her blog and is trying to increase readership and followers on her blog. Check out her fabulous artwork and encourage her with a comment. http://saturdayville.blogspot.com/ I haven't included any of her artwork to entice you, as it is copyrighted and I didn't want to infringe on that. You'll just need to go take a look on your own.

She is very talented and has been published in many magazine publications and deservingly so. If you are interested and able to leave a comment of encouragement, please let her know how you heard about her blog (that would be Gretchen Schaumann of Mimitoria's designs), and I just might be the lucky girl to win her give away. Please, give her a few minutes of your time. You won't be disappointed and you might even be challenged to do some artwork of your own.

I especially love her post from this date: http://saturdayville.blogspot.com/2009/06/dream-house.html . In this artwork she used the theme "Be all that you dream to be." I just love this phrase. I am working at accomplishing this in my own life. How about you?

"The French Flea Market of Anoka" June 11-14, 2009

"The French Flea" June Sale Dates and Times

Thursday/June 11; 10-6

Friday/June 12; 10-5

Saturday/June 13; 10-5

Sunday/June 14; 12-4

I wanted to get a blog post on my blog this week about the upcoming June sale event at the shop I am selling in called "The French Flea" in Anoka, Minnesota. I was at the shop setting up my wares on Sunday afternoon, and it wasn't photo ready at that time, so I wasn't able to take any pictures except of my jewelry display area, which was completed at the time. However, I did want to share with you my blogger friends a few photos of this months wares, so I have borrowed them off of the monthly email newsletter that is sent out each month. I give the photo credits to either Lani or Kimberly, as I'm sure it was one of those gals that actually took the photographs in this blog, so thanks.

June's theme for the shop is - "Lady Liberty Enlightening the World", which was a gift to the United States from France. The French meaning for this theme is "La liberte eclairant le monde."

Another vignette in the shop.

A couple of great vintage wicker pieces at the shop. The chaise on the left is in pristine condition.

This picture has a great faux fireplace mantle, a wall of lovely white mirrors and lots of vintage silver pieces displayed across the mantle. Silver has been a great seller at the shop, as we rediscover the beauty of silver with a patina on it. I'd choose the patina over the shiny silver any day. It is just so useful.

I will post again later or tomorrow photos of my jewelry that I created for this sale. I have 23 new vintage redesigned pieces for the sale, as well as lots of other great finds. Come on in and say "hi".

Next Month's Theme -"Lazy Days of Summer"

July 9-12

Anoka is hosting their annual Riverfest. Come visit with the locals and enjoy the history of this unique small town. Don't miss the historical homes tour on Sunday, July 12. The French Flea will be featured in one of the homes. For more info, contact Julie at jpdesigncafe@yahoo.com. The French Flea is located at 211 East Main Street, Anoka, MN 763.427.1837 between Peterson Shoes and Avant Garden. Check the website for store hours at www.frenchfleamarketofanoka.com.

Wedding Jewelry for Michelle

Hey blogger friends, some of you have been awaiting this post for what may seem like a very long time. Well, I wanted to keep it a secret until after Michelle and Drew celebrated their special wedding day, which took place May 16th, 2009. Michelle, happens to be a friend of our families, and her Mom happens to be one of my best friends. Some of you know Carolyn, and this is about her lovely daughter, Michelle's wedding day and the jewelry I created to enhance her day.

Michelle and I first met last Fall to discuss and start working on ideas for her wedding. She is a rare twenty something gal that knows exactly what she likes, wants and this really helped with all of the plans for her wedding day, including the jewelry.

Michelle wanted something unique and special for her wedding day and she found it in vintage jewelry. Just look at this fabulous necklace she found late December of 2008. She saw it, she loved it, she slept on it, she brought her Mom, my daughter, Emily, and myself to see it for approval and then she purchased it. I told her it was fabulous and you'd not find something new quite this unique and go for it. My assignment then became to come up with new earrings for her wedding day attire to go with this fabulous vintage bib style necklace. Take a look and see what you think. I also designed and created simple, but stunning on the bridesmaid necklaces to go with Michelle's jewelry, but to not outshine the bride. We decided to go with similar beads, large in size Swarovski crystals as well as the AB finish for the gals jewelry.

Michelle's necklace is a vintage necklace. May be a Julianna design, but it was unmarked so we really don't know. It was purchased at a bridal shop, and it was a very unique piece to find. It is simply stunning on her.

This photo was taken with Michelle modeling one of the bridesmaid dresses before the wedding, so that I could get a close up shot of her wedding necklace. The base of the necklace is set in vintage black diamond rhinestones in a V shape that flows down and then the rhinestone base had soldered loops where all of the large Swarovski beads dripping off of it were attached. The black diamond AB crystals were a unique choice for her wedding day and were gorgeous! There's no copying this girls style with this piece.


Michelle made for a stunning bride, and this photo shows how lovely her attire truly was. When she walked down the aisle there was a train, but I don't have photos at this point showing that.


Michelle, with my daughter, Emily right after the wedding.

Again, gorgeous necklace.

This is the simple earring I designed for Michelle to wear with her elaborate necklace. We knew that we wanted something simple, since the necklace had so much going on. I had the exact vintage Swarovski crystals beads in my stash, and I mail ordered for the Sterling Silver posts to glue the new Black diamond crystal rhinestone base to it. I then ran a Sterling silver headpin from the top down to the bottom of the rhinestone and wire wrapped the vintage crystal to it to create the dangle. My daughter, Emily is modeling the earring here.

Here are part of the bridesmaids for Michelle's wedding.

Three more of the bridesmaids. The gal on the right is Michelle's cousin and was her Jr. Bridesmaid. We decided to make her necklace a size smaller in Swarovski since she was young and petite.

Everything looks so great together.

This is a close-up of the bridal party jewelry that I created. It is simple, strung, but made a nice impact and didn't compete with Michelle's more elaborate necklace style. We decided to use Fushia 10mm Round Swarovski crystals in an AB finish so they catch the light and set the larger crystals off with alternating them with 4mm bi-cone crystals.

Michelle Adoring the Two Men in Her Life!

Drew & Michelle during their first dance. Adoration of her new husband.

Check out Michelle's eyes. They have such a cool look of adoration for her Dad! So very cool!

A back shot of Michelle's dress. What a great body for this style of dress.

Extra Photos

My two favorite people in the world.

Our 14 year old daughter, Emily and my sweet husband, Jon.

Emily with two of her new friends, Michelle the brides two 1st cousins.

Thank you Michelle & Drew for allowing our family to be a part of such an important

day of your life. As friends and neighbors, we look forward to many years of friendship.

A Frenchie Swap - "I'd Rather Be In Paris"

Hey guys, just a quick little blog post to keep you up on the ins and outs of what is going on here in Minnesota. I am participating in a small Frenchie swap with some other bloggers through out the United States and am very excited to be included in this group. My swap partner will be Lisa from http://la-rustique-market.blogspot.com/ in Texas. I am so looking forward to this swap and couldn't be happier with the theme - "I'd Rather Be In Paris".

Shelley of www.sweetpeahome.blogspot.com is hosting this swap. Here's what she has organized. Shelley chose the ladies that are involved in the swap, and then she let each of us know today whose name you have and you put together a package of found objects, vintage items, etc that have a French theme and mail the package to your partner on a designated date. The spending limit is $20-$25 and that doesn't include postage. You may submit a list of "wish items" or likes and dislikes to your partner, or let it be a surprise!

I'll post again when I send out my partners items around the 22nd of June about this swap and after I've received my items from Lisa in Texas.

What a great opportunity for me, and to think I'm selling in a French Flea shop in Minnesota, now a part of a Paris swap, and do you think maybe a trip to Paris might be in store for me next?

One can dream, right!

Bridal Shower Jewelry

I hope you all had a great day of rest and relaxation over the last week-end. Our family was out at our cabin and I was able to spend some uninterrupted time in my flower gardens out there planting new flowers, weeding and watering. It was a nice change.

I've been meaning to blog about a recent shower I helped with as well as Michelle's wedding day, but my last two weeks have been so busy that I've not gotten to it yet, so finally with some time off from my day job, I am hoping to get caught up with my blog as well as get creatively inspired with designing new jewelry.

A Bridal Gift - White/Black Necklace

The first photo shows the focal portion of this necklace that I designed especially for Michelle. She is the sweetest gal, and I wanted to make something beautiful, sparkly and feminine for her shower gift from Emily and I. Emily is my 14 year old daughter and she as well as I think pretty highly of this bride-to-be, Michelle. She has since been married, but at the time this was the shower we were helping give for her.

The special bride, Michelle with her Mom, Carolyn, my best friend.

I think of these two gals as family.

This necklace has a lot of fun elements mixed into its design. I kept it white, black and clear to keep it very versatile and something that could be grabbed and worn with most anything.

As you can see the entire necklace is hand wire-wrapped. This time consuming process really adds to the overall beauty when using white and clear, as it is really show cased with the black wire-wrapping. A girl has to have sparkle, so several rhinestone elements were included in this design.

A hand wire-wrapped hook clasp was created for the closure and is used with a mother of pearl open circle.

Included in her bridal shower gift from Emily and I was the necklace I am modeling in this photo, a pair of post earrings to match the necklace and the black headband with vintage rhinestone brooch. Michelle will look stunning with any or all of these pieces. She is a beautiful girl and can really pull of the look of my jewelry as well as any vintage jewelry she chooses to wear. Take another look at the Mother/Daughter photo of her and the fabulous Great Aunties necklace she was wearing. Awesome!

My 14 year old daughter, Emily was a great help with the shower. Thanks Em! You're the best-

Carolyn, the mother of the Bride has a lovely home, so the shower was at her house. Between Carolyn and I we had most of the crystal pieces that were used to set up this luncheon for the shower. We merchandised it ahead of time to see how things would look and used boxes and different items to give us multiple levels to make the serving pieces show cased better.

Lots of healthy great food was served with the help of a lot of hands helping out with providing food and beverages. It was a group effort and turned out to be a lovely shower.

The table all ready for presentation and being consumed.