Posts tagged ‘jewelry’

After our Book Swap on Saturday, my family went to Art on the Square with Colleen and her family. There were quite a few craft vendors there, some food vendors (we had yummy wasabi sliders from somewhere, but I forgot the name. Sorry!) and live music on mulitple stages.

We were walking down the street, enjoying the weather, when I saw one of my favorite local Makers: Toony Jewelry. I keep running into Barbara and her wares ever since my first time vending at Oddmall where she was my booth neighbor. I have picked up, put down, and picked up and put down, etc. her jewelry a thousand times but had never been able to make a choice. But this time I was looking out for something craft-related and that made it so much simpler to decide. This necklace came home with me, and I must say, it love it.

I made these beads from pages of an old poetry book.  My inspiration is from a similar project in Playing with Books-The Art of Upcycling, Deconstructing, and Reimagining the Book.  The only difference was that they rolled up triangles & I rolled up rectangles, so my finished beads have more of a tube shape.  With either shape, the basic idea is to roll up a long strip of paper (leaving a hole for beading wire to go through), use adhesive to secure it closed (I used decoupage glue), cover the outside of the bead with glue (for a protective finish), & let it dry.

This beautiful vintage button belonged to my grandmother.  There’s only one, and I’ve been painfully particular about how to use it.  When guest blogger, Erica, wrote about making a vintage brooch into a necklace, I immediately thought about my button.  But since I’m on a hair-accessories kick, I thought I’d try it within a flower instead.

I used recycled shirt fabric & a vintage button for this flower.  It’s just like this orange flower one I made a while back.  The original pattern & idea came from a fabric flowers tutorial at Wise Craft.

I recently bought this thrift store skirt & needed a necklace to match.  I made this necklace without buying anything new, just finding things already in my stash.  Here’s how I made it:

I used a beading needle & strung tons of beads onto the string (while keeping the string in one long piece on the roll so I wouldn’t have to guess how long to cut it).  Then I crocheted the string, catching a few beads with each single crochet.  When the necklace was long enough I attached a clasp with crimps.

I just finished making bridesmaids jewelry for a friend’s wedding.  This is the second wedding I’ve designed for, and I’d thought I’d share the process in case you’re considering doing custom work.

1.  I talked to the bride about her vision for the jewelry.  We discussed colors, materials, necklace shape, earrings, budget, etc.   She gave me a fabric swatch & photo of the dress.

I also asked her to bring anything else specific to give me the most accurate idea of what she wanted and didn’t want.  I suggested bringing: a few bead strands (to understand size, shape, colors, materials) and sketches, photos or actual jewelry (to understand shape, size, and perhaps pattern desired).  This meeting took about an hour.

The bridesmaids dress, but in a different color. Image from Eden Bridals.

2.  A few weeks later I showed her pictures of necklace ideas, shapes, and patterns I liked & my ideas for beads.  For this dress, I worked to make sure the beautiful dress embroidery was the main focus.  I wanted the necklace to compliment it but not take spotlight.  And for the earrings, I thought there was enough going on with the embroidery & necklace, so I suggested something very simple looking. Read more »

I had a terribly difficult time figuring out how to get six chains perfectly aligned on the necklace Devona & I collaborated on.  I tried sewing them in place where I estimated they’d look good, but was never happy with the final placements.  I tried safety pins, but they moved too much.  I finally used thin gauged wire & wired them in place until they were perfect & ready for the final sewing in place.  FYI, this photo is the back of the bib necklace (necktie flower part) before sewing on a black piece of fabric to hide all the stitches.

Colleen and I joined forces to make this bib necklace. The pairing is perfect, as it uses my skills with fabric and sewing and Colleen’s excellent jewelry making skills. And check out the final result! Just the right amount of over-the-top to dress up a simple shirt and cardigan combo.

This was something we’d been talking about doing for a long time, but just needed the motivation to get it started. So, what was that motivation? We’ve entered our project in the ReadyMade magazine MacGyver Challenge. The challenge was to repurpose a necktie. Keep your fingers crossed that we win!

I’ve been craving this navy and white combo ever since I read this post on Darling Dexter, so I used some scraps from men’s dress shirt overhauls to make some flower hair accessories. They are so quick and adorable, I’d love to share the tutorial with you. Now we can all wear some springy and sporty nautical bliss.

If you don’t want to wear this as a hair pin, swap out a pin back and make a broach, or attach a jump ring through the fabric, and make a necklace pendant.  But I will showing how to attach this clip to a bobby pin, my favorite way to attach pretties to my hair.

Read more »

Vintage is in and has been for a long time now and my guess is that it is here to stay. Whether it’s clothing, jewelry, dishes or furniture, there is something truly lovely about beautiful vintage goods. The whiff of memory and nostalgia, the authenticity and uniqueness, the refreshing quality of something old made new again through use in a different age. Sustainability is also a factor – there are so many talented artists and designers recycling vintage into gorgeous new things and rescuing heaps of fabric, metal, woods and plastics from overflowing landfills in the process.

My personal style is quite simple and minimalist but within that I have a collection of elegant vintage jewelry, china and silverware, much of it gifts from my dear grandmothers. Jewelry is a popular topic here on Clever Nesting so I thought I would share a couple of ideas about how to wear vintage brooches.

The easiest way, of course, is to just pin them on. I love the look of a sparkly brooch on a coat or jacket and they are lovely on sweaters, especially as a substitute for buttons or clasps. Lately I’ve also been wearing several of my brooches as necklaces. This is such an easy thing to do: string a chain or ribbon through the closed clasp of the brooch, swing it over your neck and voila, a unique and creative accessory that will leave you smiling all day long.

If you already have a few prized hand-me-down brooches try looping them around your neck the next time you’re thinking of it. And if there’s nothing sitting in your jewelry box yet, ask around at the next family gathering to see what the generations before you may have stuffed away in their dresser drawers or start scouting antique shops, garage sales, consignment stores and other treasure troves. I highly recommend the latter as a fun, indulgent and inexpensive way to spend a day and spark your creativity and the former is a great way to share in stories from the past.

Read more about guest blogger Erica of Nest and Sparkle.

This week my sister-in-law gave me a box of clothes destined for the thrift store.  I found many tanks with beautiful lace trim & decided to make lace flowers.  Here’s my first attempt after watching this YouTube tutorial.

What other ideas do you have for crafting with lace?