Custom Earrings

I finally got my camera back (Yay!), and just finished creating these custom earrings for a friend I met on Facebook:

Sterling Silver and Copper Earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

I cut and pierced the sterling silver squares, then hammered and oxidized them. I added copper wire accents, and a champagne-colored Czech glass bead at the top.

I think she'll love them!

Custom Wedding Earrings

The granddaughter of one of my customers is getting married soon, so my customer wanted to gift her with some special earrings for her big day:

Custom Pearl, Swarovski Crystal, and Sterling Silver Bridal Earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

Custom Pearl, Swarovski Crystal, and Sterling Silver Bridal Earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

Custom Pearl, Swarovski Crystal, and Sterling Silver Bridal Earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

As usual, my pictures don't do these earrings justice: the iridescent white freshwater pearls, the shiny sterling silver, and the sparkling Swarovski AB crystals are so pretty!

My customer loved them, and I wish I could be there tomorrow when her granddaughter (the bride-to-be) sees them, because I had a hard time letting go of them! I love how they turned out!

Custom Prayer Beads

Here're the prayer beads I designed for the customer that requested them this morning:

Prayer Beads

There are 25 faceted agate rounds, connecting to a beautiful dyed agate cylinder, from which a sterling silver "Om" symbol dangles. I think she'll be pleased.

Custom Order: Jasper Necklace

Third custom order this week!

The customer selected the Jasper focal, and paired it with some fluted black and bronze Czech glass beads:

I added some 4 mm aqua terra jasper rounds for a pop of color, and this is the finished necklace:

Custom Order: Ceramic Necklace

This week's second custom order: a lady brought in some large ceramic beads that she made several years ago, and asked me to work them up into a long (36") necklace.

I love the colors and textures in these ceramic beads, and chose kyanite, sapphire, aventurine, and fossil coral to accompany them:

Here is the completed design:

I would love to keep this one for myself!

Custom Orders: Beadwoven Earrings

It's been a banner week for custom orders - here's the first:

Remember the flat spiral necklace?

A customer loves it, and wants to send her husband in to get it for her for Christmas, but she wants matching earrings.

So this is what I made:

These circular peyote earrings use leftover beads from the necklace (which I never put away ... duh, and yay! I didn't have to go hunt for them!)

And they match the clasp on the necklace:

I think she'll like them.

Custom Earrings

These are the custom earrings I created yesterday, using the customers vintage bamboo coral and Czech glass beads (and some added sterling silver spacers). Hope she likes them!

Custom Earrings (almost)

Today I'll be working on a custom order; my task is to turn this broken vintage bamboo coral bracelet into a pair of "long, dangly" earrings for the customer's daughter.

Earrings are always a challenge for me - everyone's taste is so different! I know what I like, but am never confident that the customer will like what I come up with.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see what develops!

Sold!

Yesterday, a long-time customer came in to the shop, frantically searching for earrings to wear to a wedding this weekend (today!) The wedding is in Tennessee (so it's a destination wedding for her); she's had the dress for weeks, but couldn't find earrings anywhere (except HERE, but more about that later!)

She tried searching for the earrings without bringing in the dress, but didn't see anything she thought was right. I told her I could make some earrings for her, if I could see the dress so we could find some matching beads. The dress was in her car; she brought it in, and the search was on - she wanted something dressy and sparkly.

None of the Czech glass OR Swarovski crystals matched the gorgeous cobalt blue of the dress. I had some enameled beads that matched perfectly, but she felt they were too casual. I found some beautiful 8mm lapis rounds (leftover from this project:)

The lapis matched perfectly, too, but she felt it wasn't dressy enough - so I asked her to just give me a few minutes -

And this is what I designed:

I know the pictures aren't the greatest - and I would LOVE to hear any tips you guys have on photographing Swarovski AB crystals - they look terrible against colored backgrounds - because they pick up and transmit whatever color you are photographing them against (I've tried blue, black, and red) and they disappear against a white background. HELP! If you have tips, please leave them in the comments! Thanks!

Anyway, I hung the lapis round underneath a 6mm Swarovski AB crystal, with some small Bali daisy spacers - all from a short length of sterling cable chain. Then I made some dangles using 4mm crystal AB Swarovskis, and hung them from the cable chain links, to give a staggered cluster effect.

The customer loved them, and mentally kicked herself for spending several weeks looking elsewhere for earrings, reminding me that she always finds exactly what she wants when she comes here - so nice to hear!

On her way out of the shop, she spied this right angle weave bracelet that I made several years ago:

I know you can't tell in the photo, but it really does match the earrings perfectly. I even took a shot of them together, but the match is lost in these photos -

She was delighted to find the bracelet, because it gave just the right amount of sparkle to her wrist. Yay!

Lapiz and Topaz necklace

Here is the completed custom-ordered lapis and topaz necklace that I was working on yesterday:

I had to change up the design a little bit from what I showed yesterday; I had originally grouped the lapis rounds in groups of 3, and the topaz cylinders in groups of 3, and was going to alternate them. But as I started to build the necklace, the 3 grouped lapis beads were too visually heavy in contrast with the paler, smaller, and more visually delicate topaz, so I needed to balance the elements better.

Good thing I had made all the links with simple loops as opposed to wrapped loops! I could simply open up a loop, remove one link, and add another. Yay!

The topaz is so pale, it barely shows against these white backgrounds. Sorry!

I don't make much dainty jewelry - I am more a bold, chunky, statement sort of designer, but I really like how this piece turned out. Hope the customer does!

And it feels so good to start and finish something over a period of a couple of days!

Wednesday Worktable

On today's worktable?

Absolutely beautiful lapis rounds with stunning gold colorations, and pale blue topaz cylinders.

This is a custom order for a lady who wants a "very dainty" 16 inch necklace. Her herbalist recommended she wear lapis around her neck area for a thyroid problem.

I never, ever make ANYthing with simple loops, because they are weak. One pull, and a project falls apart. So I had initially linked these beads together with wrapped loops, but there were 2 problems:
1) the links were way too long, because the wrapped loops took up so much space
2) the links completely lost any hope they had for daintiness - the wrapped loops are bulky visually

So I cut apart all the wrapped loops, and made the links with simple loops. I'll be connecting the links, alternating the lapis with the aquamarine, with some very fine sterling chain. I think the final result will be very pretty, and just what the customer wants!

And this will be the first piece of jewelry I've created with simple loops - proving, once again: Never say "Never."

Custom Mixed Metals Wirework Necklace

One of my regular customers requested a necklace combining copper and silver. She came into the shop and selected some beads she really liked, and then gave me carte blanche to come up with the design.

This was a really fun piece to design! I wired some of the beads to other beads, or inside of large connectors, and then hooked everything together into this long necklace.

Detail:

And best of all, my customer loves it!

Worktable Wednesday

Here's what's on the workbench today:

This is the peyote bracelet I started last week. It is slowly progressing; I have lots of stuff pop up that interrupts me, and I decided not to take it home last weekend, so I have only spent a couple of days on it since last week. It is now just over halfway stitched. Patterns like this involve lots of counting, so I tend to take frequent breaks - it tires my poor old eyes out!
I hope to finish the stitching of the bracelet itself by tomorrow, and then start stitching the clasp. Fingers crossed! Unless the shop gets real busy - which would be terrific, too!

This is a custom necklace I need to work on today; a customer who frequently requests custom work brought in 2 of her necklaces, and a brass pendant from a 3rd necklace, and asked me to combine all these pieces and beads into one necklace. There's some coral, some onyx, and some brass beads to play with here.

This is custom job #2 I need to complete today - these freshwater pearl crosses belong to a new customer, who'd like them made into 2 bracelets (one white, one brown).

So, once I complete the 2 custom orders, I can move on to my peyote bracelet! Gonna eat some breakfast, and some yummy Diet Coke, first though!

And BTW, I put earwires in all those earrings yesterday, so I'll post pics of the completed pairs tomorrow.

Custom Design

A good friend dropped by the shop about 3 weeks ago, carrying a garment bag.

Inside, she had a gorgeous, peacock-blue satin evening gown. Just below the plunging neckline was a diamond-shaped beaded design, about 3 inches square; the design had a hematite-colored background, bordered with peacock-blue bugle beads, with a beaded flower in the center.

My friend wanted a necklace and earrings to match the dress.

I took a photo of the beaded design, and gathered some beads together, and started stitching. I didn't have any peacock-blue bugle beads, but I had these size 8 delicas, which I figured would substitute nicely, once I got them lined up on the sides.

20 hours later, I had the beaded pendant stitched, and set out to design the necklace and earrings.

I chose 2 Swarovski square rings to bling it up, and hung them so that they mimicked the pendant.

My friend was really happy with the end result, so Yay!