Fresh from the desk: Biker chic

The hills are rumbling with the sound of Harleys.  It's that time of year again and for the next few weeks all the little towns throughout the Hills will be swarming with bikers on their vacations.  Of course, I hope to get in on the action a little. ;)  However, that means I need to gear a few pieces towards them, without looking like everything else they can find at any gift shop anywhere in the area.  Behind the leather and spikes they're all just normal people, dentists and such, so maybe I shouldn't worry about it too much, but there are specific styles and motifs that biker style tends to gravitate to.  Namely, chunky silver chains and skulls (the more skulls the better lol) mostly in black, silver, gunmetal, red, orange.  A lot of them go for the more tribal look with leather, bone beads, feathers, teeth, claws, etc.  Problem is, all of those things are all over every store in the area, so how to make mine different?

My plan, if you can call it a plan, is to stay with the same style sensibility I am used to working in but use the darker colors and keep everything on the masculine side with just a touch of femininity.  The fire agate hemp necklace I made last week should do well.  Last night I made this one, with a carved bone pendant, leopard jasper, rose quartz, and hematite strung with black seed beads and gunmetal silver bugle beads, with the metal-free closure I had basically abandoned for too long just for the ease of using a toggle clasp.  It's strong, a little tough, a little frilly, hypoallergenic, and I hope it bridges the gap a little bit.  If nothing else, I like it a lot!

 This one was simple enough.  Carved bone pendant in the shape of an acorn, hematite beads, red horn beads, black and white bone beads, and glass  beads with a slightly greenish mottled finish on sterling silver memory wire.  The acorn came in the same package as the other black bone pendant above, so I guess we'll see if anyone is interested in that one at the show.  I have other pendants I can switch out, or just leave the pendant out entirely.  We'll see how it goes.  As the evening goes on, I'm toying with the idea of switching it out for the other that was in that package, which is carved to look sort of like a claw.  Maybe I should do that, it would probably appeal to more people than the acorn does.

One more on memory wire.  I'm not sure what the stones are exactly, but the large center stone is dyed turquoise with goldish veins throughout.  The silver spacers jangle a little on the sterling silver memory wire and the white stone chips have grey veins throughout.  This one is definitely something I'd wear regularly, but it's not overly girly.  It's a simple but slightly chunky light statement piece that should make people take notice without being too loud.  I just wish I knew what the stones were... people do ask about that.

I'll make more tonight to get ready for another Saturday sale tomorrow.  Have a great weekend everyone, and enjoy the Rally if you're headed North!

*UPDATE*  I did end up reworking the acorn necklace with the carved bone claw and replaced the seed beads with all hematite beads.  Much better, yes?

Fresh from the desk: Ideas for Fall/Winter designs!

I've been doing a little bit of trend research for Fall/Winter jewelry and I've got some ideas.  Several of the trends are just horrid, I think... like the chunky neon chain thing... bleh.  I won't make anything like that, I'm sorry.  I try to use as little metal as possible most of the time and that would be entirely counterproductive.  I saw a crochet pattern for large chain links that could be strung together, but I didn't like the look of that either.  I'll stick with what I know.

There are a few things that did sound good though: Mixed media is huge.  Wood and pearls on leather with a ribbon, braided denim cuffs, feathers, you name it.  That's very good news for me considering the materials I like to use.  Stacked bangle bracelets and cuffs are big too, and while I can't do the metalworking to make bangles I can figure out how to crochet cuffs with beads.  I have a couple of patterns I'm playing around with to get that to work.  Statement necklaces are still in, and while some of them are gawdy, that still leaves me with plenty of room to experiment.  My statement pieces usually end up smaller than what's on the runway anyway, just because I know so few people who would actually buy something like that, but it does mean I can still use color.  While I work on crocheting cuff bracelets, I'll work on crochet chokers as well.  Vintage-made-new is something I should look into... maybe a couple trips to some local flea markets are in order.

Clothing trends are surprisingly bland.  Lots of colorblocks, mostly with variations of beige, with occasionally something in red.  Runway fashion makes me crazy... so little of it is actually wearable.  A lot of it reminded me of a large taupe square paper sack that even makes the model look stupid.

This next batch of jewelry I'm working on is for the Sturgis Rally that's coming up.  Soon, the Hills will be swarming with motorcycles and they will definitely be around town at the next Saturday show, so I have some ideas for biker-chic pieces to cater to that crowd.

We'll see how this one does... It has a fire agate center donut, hematite, bone, horn, and glass beads, strung on hemp 20" long when tied.  The differing textures of all the beads didn't quite come through, but Mom took the good camera with her to Cleveland so this is what I'm stuck with.  Oh well. 

The heat has finally lifted a little.  Finally, opening my windows lets in the cool evening air like usual!  That hasn't been the case this last week or so.  Hope you're all staying cool and hydrated!

Fresh from the Desk: New pieces listed on Etsy!

My Etsy Shop now has double the listings it had before!  Go check it out and see if there's anything that needs to go home with you! :)

Among the new pieces is this one, a slightly tribal carved bone pendant on Sterling Silver memory wire.  I had a little trouble with what to do with this pendant.  It's quite a statement piece, isn't it?  My boyfriend looooooooooooooooves it.  I love the nautilus spiral, but when I got it home I was at a loss for what to do with it.  It sits slightly off-center just because of the shape and the placement of the drilled hole and I didn't have anything that would really complement it on a beaded or hemp necklace like I've been working with previously.  I figured it was time to get the memory wire out again and I'm glad I did.  This slightly tribal pendant needed a stronger treatment than hemp or a beaded chain, but I didn't want to go wild with colors either because it is such a strong piece on its own.  I started looking through my black beads to see what I could come up with and came across my black iridescent Czech glass dagger drop beads that I haven't used in far too long.  The fire polishing gives them a distinct green-blue iridescent shine on one side so it's been a little difficult for me to find an effective use for them as well.  But, once I paired them with the pendant, it all started to come together.  I got out the green shell spacers I used for the custom turtle necklace a while back, some black resin beads, and some silvery shell beads and strung it all on some memory wire so that it sits just at my collarbones.  It could be stretched out to sit a bit lower, but I won't worry about that.

It's now available for $15 on my Etsy shop so go take a look if you'd like!  Again, Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely Mamas out there!