Wednesday 4 August 2010

It started with a dress....

I am often asked how I get inspiration for my jewellery designs so I thought it would be interesting to show one of my recent pieces through its design stages.

My oldest dearest friend Karen has a "special" birthday coming up and I wanted to make her a necklace. It was quite funny as I initially had thought of making something in secret and then at lunch she asked if she could commision something to wear at her party.
Perfect, that way she would get something she would enjoy wearing.

So...........it started with a dress................this one infact.

 A very pretty M+S Per Una dress and Karen emailed me the photo.

The photo does not really show it's true colours that well - what may look green is actually grey. It is really a lovely print and I even checked it out in store so that I could see it in the flesh.

Karen liked the oval mother of pearls which I was wearing in another necklace (below) and that was where we started. I decided that as the background for her dress was white I needed to stay more with white than cream so I chose to use the white ovals shown in the bottom of my necklace.



This was my necklace
Mother of pearl oval beads with Swarovski pearls

 
I then looked in my bead stash, yes it is pretty big! I also felt that the necklace needed to be quite simple so that it did not detract from her beautiful dress. Karen also wanted to wear it with other outfits. I chose  some lovely Czech facetted beads, Rose quartz and Swarovski white glass pearls.


Here is the selection.

Then came the creating part!

Karen likes quite short necklaces so I came up with a short repeat using little facetted beads inside the ovals which gives a lovely sparkle. The Czech beads are very sparkly anyway.
After several changes my final necklace came to life and after approval from Karen I have also made a matching bracelet.

 So here is the final piece all made up with lots of love for Karen to wear at her birthday party in a few weeks time.


And yes........

it started with a dress!   
 Jx

7 comments:

  1. I LOVED this post, it is always so interesting to see where and how people get their inspiration to their beautiful things!

    And some beauty this is, Jane! That jewelry and dress are so beautiful together, just a perfect match! And what will you be wearing ;) ?

    Yours,
    Mia

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  2. That's so pretty Jane! Lovely to hear how it came about. I'm sure your friend will be delighted with it! :)
    Vivienne x

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  3. Hi Mia and Vivienne,

    Thank you both for your kind comments. It's not long now til the party, I am really looking forward to it. Karen has asked that everyone tries to wear something pink. I'm not normally a pink girl but I will try to find something. If not I will make some pink earrings and perhaps paint those toenails pink!!

    Enjoy your evenings.

    Jane x

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  4. that is a beautiful dress and gorgeous complimenting jewellery. If it helps any, I have some raspberry ripple coloured glass and some pre-prepped mandrels!! ;O) have a great party, lovely blog, Laney x

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  5. LOL - thanks Laney. I did actually show Karen some lampwork beads but she really liked the sparkle of the Czech faceted beads for this one!Raspberry ripple glass does sound yummy although I have a rather large bead stash at the mo, it's so addictive buying beads.
    The party is in 3 weeks, I'm really looking forward to it.
    Take care and have a great weekend.
    Jane x

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  6. Hi my dearest Jane

    I just read your blog whilst inside for a few minutes from the lovely but unrelenting sunshine of Clearwater! You brought tears to my eyes, my necklace and bracelet are beautifully perfect. They are so absolutely what I wanted and I can't wait to wear them.

    I am just hoping that I can still fit into the dress!

    Take care and I will see you soon.

    Best love, K xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

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  7. Wow how great to get your comment from Clearwater...the wonders of the internet eh!

    Have a wonderful rest of your holiday my dearest friend, that blog was dedicated to you....
    JxxXOXO

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