Inspiration - Song Titles

First Row: Hush, Chelsea Morning, Shelter from the Storm

Middle Row: Good Day Sunshine, California Dreamin', It's a Jungle Out There

Bottom Row: Coconut, Heart and Soul, Rainbow 'Round My Shoulders

Since each of my jewelry pieces is unique, I try to come up with a different "name" for each of them. I  realized recently that very often when I look at the finished piece, whether it's because of the shape or colors of the beads or their arrangement, the first thing I am reminded of is a song. I only hope, since my taste in music is very eclectic, that other people "get" the references.

A Little Rain Must Fall Necklace

A Little Rain Must Fall Necklace

This necklace was inspired by a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway in Northern California. Enough said!

Memories of Provence - Fields of Lavender Necklace

Memories of Provence - Fields of Lavender Necklace

The second in the series of 'place' necklaces - this one inspired by a visit many years ago to the flower-growing region of France - wish I could also capture the scent of the lavender for you!

Jaybird Designs - New ETT SOTW - 20% Off through 9/11!

Jennifer J. Cirka from this week's new ETT SOTW Jaybird Designs, is a professional crochet designer who has been recognized by every major crochet magazine including: Interweave Crochet, Crochet!, and Inside Crochet.

Her etsy shop offers lovely custom crochet items and unique and original crochet patterns if you'd rather "do it yourself." Jennifer is inspired by the colors of Western Colorado where she lives and by the trends in ski wear and winter sports she finds in her Rocky Mountain community.

Jaybird Designs is offering 20% OFF

purchases through September 11th, 2011.

Use discount code EtsyTwitterSOTW.

You can learn more about Jennifer and her work by following her on Twitter or by reading her blog.

PS Don't you just love Jennifer's models and photos as well as her lovely items?

Pretty Whimsical - ETT SOTW

The new ETT SOTW is Pretty Whimsical, run and owned by Stacey. Stacey makes scrabble tile pendants that are clever, funny, inspirational, pretty and/or topical. They make wonderful gifts for graduates, teachers, teens or treat yourself to one! You can even "channel" the elegant Audrey Hepburn.

Also, Stacey uses reclaimed vintage Scrabble tiles so her lovely pendants are also eco-friendly!

To receive a FREE 24" silver ball chain with each pendant ordered,
use coupon code: FREECHAIN

Learn more about Stacey and her work by following her on Twitter and Facebook and by reading her blog.

Remember Creamsicles?

I do...fondly. I had these wonderful orange and white frosted glass vintage donut beads and when I saw them together I immediately thought of the Good Humor truck and creamsicles...so I added some more orange and white beads and dark brass chain and voila....except...no stick!

Inspiration - French Sailors?

Well, not the sailors themselves...but their soft, striped shirts in off-white and navy blue. Apparently, Coco Chanel, who introduced women to lots of items of men's clothing, started wearing the shirts as early as 1917 (She is pictured above in 1930).

I can't remember exactly how old I was when I got my first sailor shirt but it was the softest thing I had ever worn. And the boat neckline was flattering and the 3/4 sleeves comfortable. So when I found the off-white vintage hoop beads and they reminded me of lifesavers (REAL life savers not the candy) I mixed them with navy blue beads in homage to those classic French sailor shirts! It's not quite as soft but it's as comfortable and casual as a necklace can get! PS It's called Nautical Necklace!

Take Inspiration Where You Find It!

I really have to look at my stored supplies more often. A few days ago, while searching for something completely different, I came across several feet of vintage brass rollo (don't ask me where the name comes from!) chain I purchased at least a year ago. When I saw it again, I remembered why I purchased it. It's a good weight that can support both light and heavy beads, the links are large enough for the chain itself to be part of the "prettiness" of the necklace and its dark patina goes with every color. I was afraid that if I didn't start using it right away, I would forget about it for another year so I created:

An Angel's Share of Cognac Necklace

with some light and dark topaz colored plastic beads that came from a broken vintage necklace and then I made:

Three Wishes Necklace

which mixes the chain with some amazing blue vintage lace and felt beads and then, inspired by those intense colors, I finished up with (and finished the chain):

Pinknic Necklace

Whew!

A Beautiful Treasury by Dragon House of Yuen on Etsy

'recycle - reuse - reinvent' by dragonhouseofyuen

from top to bottom, left to right,simplificationdissipationdeconstructionand, er, I'm all out of 'tions for the last one so it's just mouse and crow appreciating the moons :)all inspired by threepeats Suzanne's beautiful necklace!

One Handsome Buck jannartphotogr... $10.00	Unique Gramercy Square ... threepeats $22.00	Hare Brooch ohmyclumsyhear... $5.00	all tangled up - Fine A... Susigrafie $18.00
Expecting Christmas. cecageorgieva $7.90	Snowflake so Delicate spirithelpers $3.95	First snow - winter-Ch... kaleda $28.00	In winter with warm tea... Raceytay $30.00
Antique French book end... frenchfancies $100.00	redpoll greeting card -... MaggieHallam $5.00	vintage peacock blue he... 5gardenias $24.00	Mice With Bells On - Fr... tialys $19.50
Transparent and white D... Iwannabe $15.00	Fragment: Winter Walk I 88editions $125.00	Woodland Felted Soap Ki... Fairyfolk $18.00	BLACK CROW PIN - Brooch... blueridgemerca... $4.50

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Not only is this treasury so lovely that it almost makes me wish Winter wasn't ending soon....I said almost...it was inspired by MY Gramercy Square Necklace! And check out the poetic way this collection was tagged!

What's In A Name? More Than You Think!

Sometimes, the name for one of my jewelry creations comes to me before I even start working on it. Sometimes, the name comes to me while I'm putting the beads together and sometimes the name comes to me only when I go to list the necklace or pair of earrings in my etsy shop. My newest necklace, which I ended up calling Hint of Nostalgia caused several days and one sleepless night of thinking...about colors, inspirations, memories, phrases in common use, song titles, movie titles, places I've been, places I haven't been...you get the idea. To me the name of my pieces should give an idea to customers of my creative process and because each of my pieces is unique, their names should be too. When I've been completely stumped, I've run "naming" contests on this blog and I've been fascinated to learn (duh?) that what other people see in the finished product sometimes has little or nothing to do with my idea or inspiration.

I almost called this necklace Midnight at the Oasis (song), Black Butterscotch (????), Chelsea Evening (place) and Corner Candy Store (memory). Since the black beads reminded me of licorice sticks and the butterscotch colored beads reminded me of bit o' honey candy I thought of all those stops I made on the way home from school to the corner candy store to purchase bonomo's taffy and jaw breakers and red hots and pretzel sticks and egg creams and comic books.

Then I realized those kind of stores don't exist anymore....hence, Hint of Nostalgia.

Long, light, eco-friendly, affordable and SOFT!

About a year ago, I started seeing scarves made out of t shirt yarn on etsy. I liked the fact that they were made out of recycled cotton t shirts and that they were soft against the skin, especially the skin at the back of the neck! I found some wonderful suppliers of t shirt yarn and started fooling around with using pieces of it to anchor vintage beads in my necklaces. The only thing it limits me from doing is including several heavy beads in any one necklace....but I don't like "heavy" anyway. I have plenty of fun, colorful vintage plastic beads that are very light in weight and I can also include some of my favorite handmade felted wool beads which are light AND soft.

I now have enough of these necklaces listed in my etsy shop to create a special section for them. Please take a look. They make great gifts and are particularly popular with teenagers, college folk and anyone who likes casual, affordable, eclectic jewelry.

Inspiration ~ NOT Barbara Bush

No offense intended! Barbara Bush is the admired matriarch of an admired political family. She radiates "warmth," "charmth," traditional style and common sense, like June Cleaver and Donna Reed and other 50's moms. Several of the vintage beads I have acquired over the years are "plastic" pearls in various sizes, shapes and colors that came from broken vintage pieces. I decided to create a trademark "pearl" necklace with a quirkier design for the modern mom (or non-mom or teen!). The beads aren't graduated or symmetrical...hey, they don't even match! And that's exactly why I like the way it turned out...it's unpredictable, it's casual and it's fun. I decided to use recycled cotton T shirt yarn (a modern material that fits my overall creative mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle and repeat) to anchor the beads instead of vintage metal chain!

For the rest of July, I am offering FREE SHIPPING on the "Not Barbara Bush's Pearl Necklace" and everything else in my etsy shop!

Inspiration ~ A Place

The Blue Mountains, Australia & Summer Morning Mist Necklace

We were traveling from Sydney to Melbourne (via Canberra) and looked forward to seeing the Blue Mountains, Australia's famed wine-growing region. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast (I now understand what the expression "thick as pea soup" means) and we didn't get many photos of breath taking mountain views. However, the eerie, spectral effect created by the fog that got heavier as we climbed in altitude, did provide some special pix. I was looking through the digital album from the trip last month, saw this photo and was inspired to create a necklace "capturing" the effect.

Inspiration ~ Movies

Mamma Mia - NOT an ABBA fan, didn't see the show, but I will see any movie with Meryl Streep in it! I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised and loved the Greek Isle setting with its sunlit blues & whites!

The Big Lebowski - these vintage blue beads reminded me of bowling balls and when I think of bowling, I think of The Big Lebowski (who wouldn't?), one of my favorite quirky films from the Coen brothers.

Inspiration ~ Camille Brown Dancer/Choreographer

Thing a Day ~ The Last Day!

Whew! The TAD (Thing a Day) challenge is over. I got a bit of a late start (March 4th) but tried to do something interesting/creative every day and write a blog post about it. The interesting/creative part wasn't hard...but writing about it was. I appreciated the impetus TAD gave me to think about my creative process and then to write about it in an informative and comprehensible way.

I ended the month creating The Dude Necklace (can you see where this is going?). After seeing Jeff Bridges' amazing performance in Crazy Heart, my husband and I decided to watch the cult classic from the Coen brothers, The Big Lebowski, again. The bowling alley scenes, especially the ones with John Turturro licking his precious, personalized bowling ball, made me think of a pack of vintage beads that I had stored away. They looked, if I remembered correctly, just like small bowling balls, in a deep blue with splashes and marbling in grey and white. When I found them, a long story in itself, I was right....so I put them together with some other vintage beads and chain and voila, The Dude or Dudester or Duderino!

Inspiration ~ Upcrafting

photo from House of Mirth

Lily, who blogs at House of Mirth, created this amazing wall art using recycled garments and fabrics and her "top secret" felting technique.

Thing(s) A Day ~ Day 10

So, rummaging around in my stash of vintage beads and chain remnants resulted in the creation of these two pairs of dangle earrings. The colors of the glass beads shouted "Spring" to me and since it's going to be a rainy weekend in NYC without any natural sunshine, I had to make my own!

Thing a Day

Amanda of Geek Details gave me the idea to do TAD (A Thing A Day). Yesterday, I heard the expression, "If life hands you lemons...," twice, once on TV and once on the subway. The expression is a bit quaint and old-fashioned so hearing it twice in one day was unusual. I took it as a sign. I got out all the round, yellow vintage beads I had and instead of lemonade, made a "Lemon Drops" necklace.

I won't be able to list it in my shop for a while though. There is a pigeon couple taking turns sitting on two eggs mama pigeon laid in a planter on my terrace. That's where I always take pictures of my jewelry because the natural light is so perfect. They are being such diligent egg-warmers I don't have the heart to disturb them!

What Do Grown-Ups Do On Snow Days?

What do you do when you're grown up and have a snow day? I used the unexpected time off yesterday to go through my stash of vintage chains.

I found three delicate snake chains (from the 1940's probably) that I had put away because, as beautiful as they are, they could not be shortened and used in my three section necklaces. When I looked at them again and admired the workmanship again and saw how they "pool" in such a lovely way again...I just had to use them. So I came up with a new design (for me at least). I am using only the snake chain to support one section of recycled vintage beads. The necklaces are still made without clasps and slip on over the head. They are long and light like all my necklaces are and they look good worn with the beaded section centered or slightly askew.

One of the necklaces is already in my etsy shop. I called it Condiment Love because of the colors of the beads: mustard yellow, ketchup red and mayonnaise white! Someone has already marked it as a favorite. It must be person who likes to put ketchup AND mustard on hot dogs like I do!