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.

Well, I have enough beads left over to...

Remember the freeform cuff from a few days ago? (and a year ago?)

These are the bead piles I worked from on Wednesday when I recreated the cuff (which sold yesterday morning).

I have enough beads left over to make this cuff again, and those of you who read this blog regularly will NOT be surprised to learn that I haven't put the beads away yet!

So - here's the deal. If you are seriously interested in owning this cuff, I will be happy to make one for you - just sign onto Etsy and send me a convo letting me know you would like one. This will be first come, first served - offer good while bead supply lasts only!


Once I receive your convo, I will create a custom reserved listing for you, which will have a picture of the bracelet I made earlier this week. Your bracelet will look slightly different - although I am using the same bead assortment, this is a freeform design, and the beads go where they want to go! Once I have received payment (in full) for the design, I will make your bracelet, and ship it off to you within 3 business days. Easy!

Please be aware that this cuff is not really adjustable. The cuff will fit from size 6 to size 7-1/4. The cuff form itself, being steel, is quite durable, but also rigid, so on a smaller wrist, it will be a little loose, and probably impossible to shape to the wearer's smaller size. Similar, it can't be opened wider to accommodate a larger wrist.

Pics of the first 2 versions of this cuff:

freeform wire cuff, 2013

 freeform wire cuff, 2012

If you'd like one of these almost one-of-kind cuffs, send me a convo on Etsy!

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."

Wednesday Worktable

Still working with the iolite fringe zombie project - and things are going so much better!

Last Saturday, I finished the first "fringe pass" - shown here:

The barely-visible red nymo was put on the necklace so I would know where the mid-point is, and the different spot where I wanted to vary the length of the fringe. When I first started (again) I thought this would come into play on this first pass, but I quickly changed my original plan (and love the result), but the red threads have gotten a little covered up (and one is completely invisible) so I need to remove them and retie them, and then I can start my second and FINAL fringe pass, where I plan to graduate the fringe length from short in the back to longer in the front.

I worked at the torch on Sunday, and took Monday completely off. Bead holiday! Sometimes you just have to, you know? And a customer ordered a custom beadwoven bracelet last Friday, so I started that yesterday, and hope to finish it sometime today, and then I will start fringing again!

And here is a fun postscript:
Kristi Bowman is hosting a copper focal blog hop - take a look. Sounds like fun!

Wednesday Worktable

This is what my workbench looks like right now:

I received a custom order for another Cubic Right Angle Weave (CRAW) bracelet, this one in black and silver. I have just finished the black base, and am ready to start embellishing with galvanized silver seed beads. Supposed to be finished today, but I'm not sure if I'll make it. Depends on how busy the shop gets!

That picture kind of looks like a face with a crooked smile (the bracelet) - weird. I just noticed that. Those are 2 stray lobster claws at the "left eye" from a repair I did yesterday, and the "right eye" is a copper bead cap I found out in the parking lot last week. And I wonder why my workbench is always so cluttered....I really, really need to pick up after myself! Old (lazy) habits die hard!

And speaking of cluttered workbenches, this is NOT what my workbench looked like when I arrived at the shop this morning - but that story will have to wait until 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!

I forgot to title this post!

I know some of you actually come here to read about my jewelry adventures, and I humbly apologize to all of you.

Truth be told, I hardly ever get to make something purely for me, or for fun, anymore.

I became a bead shop owner almost exactly one year ago - my "anniversary" was 8/1 - and ever since buying the shop, my jewelry making days have all but disappeared.

It takes SO much effort and time to run the shop, especially since the shop is not sustainable enough for me to afford employees.

I spent countless hours ordering inventory, sorting inventory, doing repairs, cleaning (Yuck! - I barely do that at home!), and teaching classes, that very little time is left.


And of course, there has been the whole millipede situation at the house, which I have been dealing with for 2.5 months. Ugh.


My absolute favorite thing to do, whenever I DO have time, is chainmaille - it is basically my obsession. If only the rings would appear, fully formed and ready to use - 'cause I despise cutting jump rings.

This is my latest creation - I just love this weave, and I like it in these 2 pinks:







These 2 pictures show the bracelet from the front and the back - I am amazed by how different it looks on each side.

But it takes about a week to complete one of these bracelets - that's a week of steady chaining- not just grabbing a little free time here and there to work on it. It is really a tough weave!


I got a huge new selection of gemstones in the shop 2 weeks ago, and have just finally finished getting them sorted and priced and out on display. Somewhere in these gorgeous beads I found this beautiful nugget of fluorite, and snatched it up for myself -




I have an idea of what I want to do with it, and hope to start on it tomorrow, if nothing else gets in my way first.

Remember this? The stunning turquoise and pearl necklace was something I dreamed up as a custom design for a customer, and the pink and pearl dangle earrings were made for a good friend who is getting married in just a few weeks. The 2 designs really had nothing to do with each other, except I made them both the same week.

But now my friend, the bride-to-be, has decided she wants her wedding necklace to be made in the same way as that turquoise and pearl creation, except all in white pearls, and rose and crystal AB Swaroskis. So she has been in the shop this week, working on it, with a little help from me - She is about halfway done, and it looks great, and will be perfect with those earrings!
I'll try to get a picture of it when it is done, to show here.

Big week for custom designs!

A good friend is getting married in September (in Jamaica, and I get to go!) - and this idea for earrings for her wedding popped into my head Monday night, so I got to the store Tuesday and just started making them - I lost count of the number of wrapped loops somewhere around 50......

And so she came into the shop on Wednesday, and I surprised her with them, and she likes them, so yay!

One of my regular customers came in with the sterling silver pendant you see on this necklace, and asked me to design a necklace, bracelet, and earrings to go with it, and I just sort of got carried away.

It took 3 days to complete this necklace, and it is such a departure from what I usually make for her, that I actually called her in to approve it before I completed it, and fortunately she loved it, so I kept on going, and going, and finally finished this gorgeous necklace.



I designed this multi-strand bracelet to go with it,






And had just enough beads left over to create these matching earrings.

She came in to pick up the set today, and was thrilled, so that was great!




My friend who is getting married in September saw the turquoise and pearl necklace while I was working on it, and decided she wants a similar design for her wedding necklace, so we are going to start putting that together, with several different sizes of pearls, and lots of 4, 6, and 8 mm Swarovski bicones in crystal AB and in rose.

And today is Bailey's birthday, so happy birthday, sweet pea!

Here's What's New

Happy New Year!

I decided to try a new beadweaving stitch called netting. I had never even heard of this stitch until the Etsy BeadWeavers November monthly challenge featured this stitch - I joined the group too late to hop on board that month, so I began my own personal netting challenge the week before Christmas. I found a couple of tutorials that were of limited use - it was like they assumed prior knowledge of the stitch in order to understand their instructions! So instead, I just followed the complex diagrams in the pattern, and 2 weeks (and over 120 hours of beading) later, this was the result:

This gorgeous cuff bracelet is 2.25 inches wide, and fits up to a 7.75 inch wrist. It's available in my Etsy shop right now. I probably will never do this stitch again, so this is a true one-of-a-kind for me! This just took waaaay to much time!

Here are pics of the Christmas commission I mentioned last time:

I think they're fabulous!

The colorblock herringbone bracelet I posted last time sold within 48 hours of being listed on Etsy! Very exciting! I am designing some new patterns now, and will be making some more herringbone bracelets soon.

Check out my websites - lots of great stuff! And I am always happy to take custom orders, too.