Open for business!

I'm delighted to announce that my Etsy shop is now open for business! With items ranging from $28 to $288, it has something for everyone. I'm also eager to do some custom items! (Lastly - I will be adding more bracelets and necklaces in the upcoming days and weeks, so stay tuned.)


To celebrate mya Grand Opening sale, I'm offering free domestic shipping ($3 to Canada) and free gift wrapping with all orders.

I hope you enjoy browsing the shop, and if there are any items you'd like to see for sale, please let me know.

Go shopping!

Hopping on the DIY train

This necklace from Anthropologie called out to me, but it didn't say "buy me" as much as "DIY me."

If my experiments yield any sort of meaningful results, you'll see them here.

This has so many possibilities. Clear stones plus black ribbons, for maximum drama. Yellow stones with blue ribbons. Multicolored stones with white ribbons.

The Julia Child necklace

Recently I read a biography of Julia Child that briefly touched on Julia's fondness for "going whole hog" and encouraging others to do the same. I like this idea very much. Julia Child didn't accomplish what she did by being timid or doing things halfway.

Thus, I dub this necklace the Julia Child necklace. I ordered 75 headpins thinking they would be distributed across a variety of projects, but this necklace used up nearly all of them. See what I mean about going whole hog?

All materials (save the silver wire and chain) were ordered from Etsy sellers.


I uploaded more pictures of the necklace to my Flickr photostream.

More jewelry creations

The heat kept me mostly inside yesterday, and I took advantage of the time to make more jewelry. From L to R:

1. simple earrings made with gold rings and rose quartz. The perfect white T-shirt of the earring world...I like these so much, I'll probably replicate them using beads in various other colors.
2. Silver necklace with tourmaline briolettes and more rose quartz. Rather than having a clasp, you just loop one end over another.
3. A lariat made with rainbow moonstone and tanzanite briolettes.

I still have lots more ideas...dramatic earrings made with green and brown tourmline briolettes, a long necklace made with the remaining rose quartz nuggets, and much more! My confidence keeps increasing as my technique improves, which will mean more bright and bold creations. Stay tuned!

Jewelry lust: Bijoux d'Odalique

If this jewelry doesn't make you sigh with lust, I don't know what's wrong with you. Bijoux d'Odalique is an etsy seller who combines the finest gemstone beads with a wonderful eye for color and form. Many of her creations are inspired by works of literature, which just adds to the charm.


It's images like these that dance in my head when I spend way too much money on gemstone beads.

I also find it interesting how she favors gold chain, headpins, findings, etc. more than silver. It seems that gold actually sets off the color of the stones better than silver. Hmm...

Bijoux d'Odalique etsy store
Bijoux d'Odalique's Flickr

Unleashing my inner hippie

I spent all day on Sunday hanging with friends at the Earth Day festival at Balboa Park. It was great seeing all manner of hippies, stoners, punks and goths out to play. When I moved here from NorCal I was shocked at how homogeneous everyone seemed to be. Nice to know that freaks do exist in San Diego County (I say freaks in the nicest way possible).

I left inspired by all the uninhibited, colorful fashions and personalities I witnessed. A few years ago I probably would have left the festival irritated by all the outlandish, "look at me" get-ups, but time has granted me the maturity to notice the good while ignoring the bad.

Looking back, I wish I would have pulled people aside and snapped pictures of them. I got a few of paparazzi-style shots, but didn't think to actually ask all the snappy dressers to pose for pictures.

Anyway, after all the hippie-dippiness I found myself back at home, tired and sunburned and shopping for beads on Etsy as usual. Rather than faceted gemstones, I gravitated toward these earthy pebbly moss agates. I bought 32 inches worth, and plan to wear them as a simple double- or triple-stranded necklace (the stones are smaller than the picture might suggest). These pretty agates have all my favorite colors: sea green, teal, inky blue, and kelly green, with hints of olive and lime.

Another day, another bead crush

Etsy has some fantastic bead sellers. They undersell my local bead shop (duh), and often offer smaller quantities of beads rather than standard-sized strands. It's a wonderful world, I tell you. My Favorites list is swelling by the minute.

Perhaps my bead lust will calm down a little after my initial shipment of beads arrives, but I highly doubt it.

Apple green jade

Lapis lazuli

Black spinel

Mystic black spinel

(I'm not sure which type of spinel I like better - the mystic or plain black. I love how metallic and glittery the mystic spinel looks, but I can see it looking a bit cheesy. The natural black is a bit more mysterious and subtle. Opinions?)

I shoulda been a gemologist...

Now that my jewelrymaking endeavors are finally panning out, I figured I needed supplies. Ooh! An excuse to buy glittery jewels! And you know me - I don't do anything halfway - so I went for the real deal. Real gem-quality stones. I like my money where I can see it, ya know?

All goodies are from bestbeads, an etsy store that, for a person like me, is downright pornographic. Here's what I got:

Four of these mossy aquamarine pear briolettes:

A seven-inch strand of rhodolite garnet rondelles:

And the crowning jewels...15 of these multicolored sapphires.

I only hope that I can do these stones justice when I make them into jewelry.

I dream in colored gemstones

I am obsessed with gemstones. When I was little, I had recurring dreams in which I would come upon masses of gemstones spilling out of a treasure chest, or filling up every corner of a hidden room. I would throw myself into the piles of shimmering jewels - purple, pink, green, blue, all there in spectacular detail, to look at and touch and feel. I would pick up handfuls of the loose stones and feel their coolness as they slipped through my fingers. I would stuff my pockets with stones, but saved the very best ones for my sweaty hands.

I was thoroughly convinced that if I held the most beautiful rubies, sapphires and emeralds tightly enough, they would still be in my fists when I woke up.

Sadly, this never happened. Again and again, over the span of years, I woke up from the dream with balled fists and no gemstones.

Now that I'm grown up, I know that I can have those faceted stones, smooth and cool and winking in the light, in my hands. I don't have to dream about them - I just have to pay for them.

So I bought one of these bad boys today. It doesn't have the clarity of the gemstones in my dreams, but it will make a nice necklace.

And I bought a pair of these - yellow jade in an unusual shape. Reminds me of the flesh of a pear.

Both are from beadersboutique on etsy.

Then there's this other bead store on etsy, bestbeads. If you were to ask me to describe the colors and shapes of the gemstones in my childhood dreams, I would show these to you.






Now, I hate the phrase"I covet these," but...I covet these. They bring me back to the irrational, eternal excitement of dreaming about gemstones, and seeing their colors and feeling their shapes so vividly I was convinced I could take them with me.

It's an earring...it's a necklace!

These Anthropologie earrings were my favorite earrings for two weeks or so. I bought them online, loved them, and promptly lost one traipsing around Portland.

I put the remaining earring on my roadrunner tray on my couch (that tray is the epicenter of my life, by the way) and stared at it for about a week, then eureka! I realized it would easily lend itself to being reinvented as a pendant.

So I did. And now I have a pretty new necklace.

This week's theme is "reinventing stuff into cool things you can use," by the way.)

Current jewelry crushes

Here are a few goodies from my etsy favorites. I'm still on the lookout for another statement necklace to add to my collection, but it'll be hard limiting myself to just one!

Carnelian and pearl 'crush' necklace, $32


Mumbai looking glass necklace, $17.50

Chalcedony and antique brass necklace, $19.50

Saffron pop Victorian necklace, $30

Rusty pink chalcedony necklace, $32

Falling rain lariat necklace, $30

Ugly/pretty

I'm entranced by this choker from etsy seller ballandchain. The rhinestone arc is from a flea market, and it looks like it's seen better days. I can't decide if the necklace is really interesting and cool, or really uggo.

Am I crazy or is this necklace kinda ugly-cool? And am I crazy for wanting to wear it, like, now?

"Blue is the new green"*

Haven't you heard? Blue is going to be the big, big color of 2008. Pantone (bless their hearts) named Blue Iris - a deep blue with an undertone of purple - as Color of the Year, and blue featured prominently on runways - which means blue is set to trickle down to retail stores in a major way. So get ready!

Color trends are a bit silly. If a certain color makes you look putrid (for clothes) or doesn't work with your house's light (for paint colors), it's not going to magically look good if it's a "trendy" color. (People who paint their walls a trendy shade of lime green, I'm looking at you.)

However, I think blue is one of the most versatile and beautiful colors. It can be fun, funky, soulful or classic. Everything from teal, aqua and sky blue to cerulean, indigo, slate blue and navy are fair game.

As always, expressing a trend in accessories is the way to go. Wearing a blue necklace (featuring stones like lapis, tanzanite, sapphire or chalcedony) with blue jeans and a top in any color will give you a classic, balanced look. Blue is also lovely when it's popping against a background of white, gray, and especially orange, yellow and pink.

Here are a few ideas to get you on the blue bandwagon:

Aegean necklace, $58

Ocean blue chalcedony earrings, $16.50

Sapphire sky blue chalcedony drop necklace, $16

Ode to Summer necklace, $22

Dark blue sapphire necklace, $24.95

One-of-a-kind repurposed necklace, $18

My Blue Heaven necklace, $32

[The necklace at the top of the post is Blue jade toggle necklace, $28.50]

I hope you enjoyed this trio of posts about jewelry. Here are the previous installments in case you missed them: Aged metal jewelry and bitchin' statement jewelry.

* Quote courtesy of JWT, a marketing and advertising company quoted in the New York Times. I wasn't aware that companies can speak, but apparently they can.

Bitchin' Statement Jewelry

Dainty jewelry has its place. But for day-to-day wear, throwing on just one piece of jewelry - one that adds a significant dose of color and style to your ensemble - is often a really good strategy.

It's easy to buy a large bead/pendant (I love big, irregular, faceted stones) and string it on an appropriate chain. Try poking through your local bead shop or buying raw materials on eBay or etsy. I've also found that Macy's is a decent source for chunky, fun jewelry, as long as you have a strong sense of what works on you and what is cheap crap that's not worth buying (avoid plastic; look for real stones and strong construction).

Or, you can find tons of inexpensive, handcrafted, readymade statement pieces on etsy. I don't think I'm the only person who's been gravitating away from mass-market jewelry and toward one-of-a-kind pieces, especially when they feature such gorgeous stones, expert construction, cool vintage elements, and amazing prices.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Fuschia jade, $26.50

Faceted labradorite, $28.50

Vintage Brazilian amethyst, $38

Chrysoprase, $22

Vintage heart, $22

Chalcedony and gold lariat, $23

Vintage Odysseus necklace, $40

Periwinkle collage necklace, $40

Topaz chandelier necklace, $58

Amelia necklace, $42.50

Statement jewelry is fun because it's all about playing with proportion and scale.

A piece of jewelry that's overwhelming on one person will be relatively miniature and insignificant on someone else. Keep this in mind if you're buying a gift for someone (or for yourself).

It is possible to go TOO large, especially if you're young - many style experts say large statement jewelry is best for women over 50, as large pieces sometimes look too gaudy or costume-y on young women. For the most part, though, I think this rule can be bent in today's free-for-all fashion landscape; I tend to believe that a big, beautiful gemstone, bead or pendant is beautiful on nearly anyone, as long as it complements the person and her outfit, rather than overshadowing it. If you're petite and have, for example, delicate collarbones, a chunky piece of jewelry may make you appear all the more petite and delicate - or it may overwhelm you. Get a feel for what makes a statement without going overboard, then go nuts with your favorite colors and gemstones.

Resources: Bitchin' Etsy Jewelry Makers

The following etsy sellers all sell great statement pieces. Many feature vintage elements, because I'm biased toward a vintage look and recycled/found elements.

• thatjewelrygirl
• vintagefiligree
• militiacouture
• opulentoddities
• pequitobun
• wireyourworld
• gomeagan
• talula
• twiststyle
• jennytrinh
• redcreations
• nutraj
• ballanchain
• laurrose
• 1express
• ancany
• portobello
• mmefortuna

Did I miss any great etsy jewelrymakers? Tell me in the comments!