Romantic vintage earrings

Hi everyone!

Today I want to show you my first creation made from a pattern I found in an amazing book by Lisa Kan called Bead Romantique. 

I have to admit I love his author’s work. She beautifully combines all the elements I like to use in my own jewelry: flowers, nature, vintage look and elegant styles in subtle shades. I think this is the reason why Bead Romantique makes it with no doubt to the top 10 of my favourite beading books. 

But now, let’s talk about the pattern (I will soon devote a full post to the book review)! It is probably the simplest one among the stunning creations displayed: a pair of elegant, yet quick-to-make earrings called Bohemian Drops (page 54). 

I loved it so much, that I tried 2 variations: the first one uses  bronze-tone findings similar to the ones  presented in the book, with size 11/0 seed beads, 4mm bicone and rondelle transparent Swarovski crystals, 8mm fire-polished beads and a mother-of-pearl 10mm coin. 

For the second pair, which I created  to wear with my Snow Samoa necklace, I switched to silver tone findings, combining transparent with pearl-colored seed beads, substituting the fire-polished beads with glass pearls and using a slightly larger (11mm) mother-of-pearl coin. 

I love to use both of them, but which one do you prefer?

 

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Letter from Paris necklace

Hi everyone! 

I am very excited to talk about this necklace, as it was my very first piece to arrive finalist at a Beadaholique contest, in February to 2012. 

I still remember the moment in which I saw the name of the month’s challenge: “Love is in the air”. Yes it was…because I just LOVED that theme! My head started thinking about 1.000 words: love, roses, red, pink, romantic, love letters, Paris…but wait…how to synthesize everything in one necklace? I didn’t have a focal piece representing all of this, so I decided to create one! 

I started by composing an image with different graphical elements: a handwritten text, an Eiffel tower, a butterfly and a rose, Then I printed, cut and glued it to a bronze cabochon setting. Once the pendant was dry, I covered it with the amazing Ice Resin, making sure no bubbles were being formed. After 3 days, I attached it to a bronze chain, adding some glass and cherry quartz beads, a Lucite flower, a filigree component and a heart-shaped toggle clasp. 

As final touch, I crafted a small bow with size 11/0 pink delicas…and here it is, my little romantic creation, enclosing all the emotions a letter from Paris can bring.

Have a lovely day!

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Peach sparkle set

Hi everyone! 

Today’s creation has a long story. Once upon a time, a magic newsletter from Beadaholique contained a link to an extremely inspirational video (which  you can see here). Watching it, I was immediately captured by the beauty and sparkle of that peach color Swarovski rivoli, so I decided to buy one (and, thanks to my impressive self-control, I ended up buying 4, just in case). 

Once I received them, however, I realized that their edges were very thin and if I used them to create rings as the one shown in the tutorial, I would probably chip them after 2 minutes of wearing (definitely, the stereotypical Italian tendency to not keep hands still while talking wouldn’t help me to preserve them). 

The beautiful rivolis were therefore hidden in a drawer for a long time, until, one day, I was charmed by a gorgeous, perfectly matching filigree component.I decided to dust one of my little sparkling gems, cage it with a bronze-tone bead cap and join it with craft wire to the center piece. To add some interest, I attached freshwater pearls, 8mmm red aventurine beads and Swarovski crystals. 

Of course, no pendant can be happy all by himself, so I made a matching pair of earrings with the same types of beads, which I then attached to a pair of beautiful flower findings I bought on Etsy. 

Once they saw each other, the pendant and the pair of earrings fell in love and they lived happily ever after! 

What do you think? Don’t they make a lovely couple?

 

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