The Lipstick Page Forums Fashion Blog - Current This blog has moved. Posted by TheLipstickPageForums.com, Wednesday, January 17, 2007 4:05 PM (Eastern) The Lipstick Page Forums Fashion Blog Please update any bookmarks. 0 Comment(s)    Email this post MICHAEL Michael Kors Milan Posted by Dain, Tuesday, January 09, 2007 6:35 PM (Eastern) I'm thinking about this for the summer. It is the perfect sultry shoe to wear with breezy dresses, no? 0 Comment(s)    Email this post Want to look at something interesting? Posted by Colleen Shirazi, Thursday, January 04, 2007 1:37 AM (Eastern) Seaplane 0 Comment(s)    Email this post Year 2 of making jewelry Posted by Colleen Shirazi, Tuesday, January 02, 2007 4:20 PM (Eastern) Okay technically year 2 began for me last September, but it'll be easier to document if I start the year now. (This is the necklace on its shortest setting.) I'm pretty pleased with this...the pearls are good quality and the overall look is dressy because of the black and clear Swarovski crystals. Side note: are Swarovski crystals all that? I think they are. I've used Chinese crystals; some can actually be better than Swarovski's only because of the colors (I have some that are red, with this interesting yellow/orange edge, and some olive green ones), but I use Swarovski as my staple crystal. I have enough pearls to make a matching bracelet. Here is the original bracelet (mind you, nothing in that picture exists anymore though I do plan to redo the pearl earrings): The original necklace was similar, a plain strand of the pearls with small gold spacer beads. Here is double strand citrine necklace: mumbles... I didn't even use a flash with this, I suppose the light was too bright. The flower bead is quite nice; it's Indian sterling silver with a round faceted citrine on either side. The drop at the bottom is citrine of course. Pink Swarovski crystal, vermeil Indian beads, on goldfilled chain. I did use a flash here and it caught one of the crystals. Finally, some earrings: I tried photographing them together and it didn't really work. These are good earrings...I've worn them all day and they don't get heavy. (Usually the only way to tell is by wearing them.) The pink pearls aren't that pink...they're a sort of faint peachy pink color, good lustre. The vermeil beads on the right-hand pair are Turkish. 0 Comment(s)    Email this post More jewelry ramblings... Posted by TheLipstickPageForums.com, Sunday, December 17, 2006 12:22 AM (Eastern) It's Colleen btw. I switched my Blogger account to the beta version...mumbles...on the premise that the new Blogger features "labels." This is a feature that other blogging programs already have; at the least, it means we can categorize our posts (under, say, "Chanel," "grunge," "ramblings" etc.); same post may contain multiple labels. Ideally it would also mean our labels would be keywords, although I doubt it. Anyhow, I can't retrieve my "old" blogs from my "new" account until, I suppose, tomorrow, and I've been reluctant to switch these blogs over until the beta is out of beta. I've ordered some more components...sighs. Perhaps the obvious tactic for me would have been to Google until I found jewelry I liked, and then duplicate it. After all I'm making it for my own use. My problem is more along the lines of my pre-Net cosmetic persona: I never really figured out what I liked in the first place. Sure, I like a big rock, same as the next gal, but so what? That's not a solution since I can't produce the big rock. At least I've boiled some of it down. I like gold more than silver, faceted more than smooth, rondelle over round; I can't abide toggle clasps on bracelets (they look great and invariably drop off your wrist after a few hours), but find they work perfectly on necklaces. I prefer bracelets that clasp over stretch pieces; for whatever irrational reason (it's a contradiction, but haven't you done things for irrational reasons?), they feel more secure. Box clasps are ideal for bracelets, being both decorative and secure, but most necklaces can do with the less-expensive toggle or lobster/spring ring clasp. Crystals work for instant, affordable glamor; they are amazingly good. But I don't like most of the colored ones. They depress me...they just feel like fake gemstones. Multiple strands tend to be better than single, depending on what you're working with. All of that said...I'm working on a few pieces. One is the citrine and silver set I mentioned earlier. I'm not happy with it. To think I used to strive to make a new piece every day--what a mistake! It can take weeks to develop a design and find the components for it. There is no one source anywhere I've found, that actually has everything you need. Another piece consists of pink "cornflake" pearls and pink tourmaline rondelles...a rondelle is what it sounds like, a sort of flattened round: Bali silver bead image courtesy rings-things.com Rhodolite image courtesy firemountaingems.com Swarovski crystal image courtesy artbeads.com I'm going to use vermeil Bali beads in this. I have it in mind to make a three-strand bracelet to "go with"; no idea if that's going to work (the pink pearls for this are drilled through the top, so it'll be an engineering feat if I can get them to line up). I'm also making a simple strand of white square pearls, connected with goldfilled wire. Not wrapped, just simple loops. This is going to have a diamond-shaped vermeil toggle. The citrine bracelet...needs a new clasp. I took the citrine drop off the necklace because I want to do this with it: Image courtesy beadshop.com For this you need "dead soft" wire; you can bring the wire down as far as you like (more decorative than the plain wrapped loop I had on it before). If I can pull all of this off, I'll have several highly wearable pieces. fashion, style, jewelry, beading 2 Comment(s)    Email this post The scoop on all things stylish--from couture to ready-to-wear to handmade. Profile Site Feed (Atom) · Forums · Product Reviews · Image Library · Beauty Blog · New Releases Blog 10 Most Recent Articles ·· This blog has moved. ·· MICHAEL Michael Kors Milan ·· Want to look at something interesting? ·· Year 2 of making jewelry ·· More jewelry ramblings... ·· Resort: Part 4 ·· Resort: Part 3 ·· Jewelry ramblings ·· Resort: Part 2 ·· Addendum... 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