Turquoise Patina Necklace...Pt. 1

I've starting designing some pieces in turquoise. The ideas came to me during the February January Project.

Turquoise is often paired with silver or red (or both), and I've been working on a few pieces with those combinations, but I also wanted to try to think of a different way turquoise could be used.







Serendipitously (the way many good designs happen), I ran across a photo of a garden fountain covered in woven copper patina.



The 2 colors go together naturally--and I mean that both figuratively and literally!



I chose to use both genuine turquoise beads and chalk turquoise beads, as well as genuine copper and copper-finished pewter beads, to keep the price reasonable. That said, this was not a cheap necklace to make. Turquoise is very popular and much of it is purchased before it ever sees the open market.



Above is a shot of the end of the necklace. This features genuine turquoise barrel and rondelle beads. Used together, these shapes constitute the "southwest style." I think the blue-green color of these stones is beautiful and mixes well with the copper and copper-colored elements.

I shot these photos using natural light, so you'll see shadows, but I think that lends something to turquoise beads. Turquoise is often mined in the sun (and not underground, as some gems are).

This Just In: Confetti-Glass Bracelet

Remember how I said the confetti-glass beads were gone? Well 5 of them are wrapped up in sterling silver and joined with a sterling clasp over at VIX Emporium, for those of you in Philadelphia who expressed an interest which is...let's see...none of you...But still, I thought this public service annoucement was important.

Browser Disaster

Just now, I happened to check my blog using Firefox (I usually use IE). It's a total disaster. Many of the photos won't display and those that do often don't fit inside the lines, as it were. My apologies if you use Firefox as your browser--I swear, I'm not crazy. I don't know that I'd buy any privately-designed jewelry from a woman who can't design a simple blog entry!

Letters, We Get Letters! Pt. 1

I wanted to include some customer feedback in the blog, so here we go:







Stan is a friend who told me he wanted to get his wife some jewelry for Christmas, and so together we hatched a plan for something from the 3 Coins in the Fountain collection.



His wife has beautiful red hair, and that meant 1 thing: green.






I asked Stan if he would take some shots of the pieces ON, and he kindly did so and sent me these. He got a bit creative, saying he likes the way my jewelry photographs on something metallic.




And, the set.



Thanks, Stan, and I hope your wife wears her jewelry in good health. To my friends who have bought, or proudly wear, my jewelry, I truly cannot thank you enough.

The March Birthstone

The birthstone for March is Aquamarine. It is named, not surprisingly, for the blue waters of the sea. Aquamarine is a form of the mineral beryl, and the color varies along the yellow/green/blue spectrum. Unlike many other gems, it is usually internally flawless. It ranks a 7.5 to an 8 on the Mohs hardness scale. It is a fairly common gem with large deposits in Brazil, and smaller deposits in China, India, Australia, Africa, and the United States.

Aquamarine's association with water led to the belief that it was powerful when immersed. Water with an aquamarine in it was used to heal illnesses of the mouth, throat, stomach, heart and liver. One legend holds that sailors wore it to keep them safe and to help ward off seasickness. It's one of my favorite stones, because of its associations and because I love the color blue.

Easter and Spring Greetings from Jericas Jewelry

For those of you who celebrate Easter, have a good one and eat an egg for me. Here are 2 shots of the tulips I bought myself this year. The other day I read an interview with actor Kathleen Turner. In it, she pointed at the roses in her dressing room and said she'd sent them to herself because, as she put it, "a woman should always have roses." The idea is a good one, but I swapped out roses for tulips.

Exciting News!

Ok, all, I'm not quite sure what this means to those of you who follow my blog, but I've bought a DNS and linked the blogger blog to it. I imagine you can still read the blog the way you always have, but from now on, you can also dial up www.jericasjewelry.com and get to the same place! I don't have separate content at the site, though I may at some point in the future.

I wanted to be sure that I got jericasjewelry.com before anyone else did, so that's why I made the move. When I started searching, jericas didn't turn much up online, but in the last month or so, jericas.net and jericas.com have suddenly appeared, but with no content associated with them. Meaning, if I'd wanted either of those domains, I would've had to buy it back from the company that registered them. Beware of the internet--it's very tricky!

It's funny how everything builds. I'm such a big-picture thinker and I can find it tough to break things down, or think of doing things in small steps, but thanks to the person who suggested I start a blog for my creativity and business, I've gotten to the point of wanting to have a site and at least buying a place holder for it. Things really do build...like making a snowman.

Also, you may have noticed that I've dropped the word 'Designs' out of the name. When I first thought about naming and branding, I wanted a general name because I made several types of things and didn't want to think about different names. But jewelry is the thing I spend most of my time and energy on, and so I was always having to add 'Jewelry' to the end of the name, and really, it's redundant and a bit confusing. Also, I think some people read it as a sentence or as a possessive (Jerica's...). I'm not sure where Jerica's comes from, actually. I've never once written it that way, but people see what they see, I guess.

Finally, I'm working on a logo as well. I have some ideas, but I'm very thankful to a few friends of mine for taking the time and the skill to help me with this. I truly don't know how to do any of it, and it's too much to learn if what I want is the end point, not anything in the middle. My strength is mastering jewelry, not photography or MSPaint or any of that, so I have to respect my limits. Thankfully, my friends have talents in this area and are very giving of their time. My ideas revolve around the shape and color and font of the logo, and I'm also working on a tag line. That's harder than one would think...

Suggestions? Expectations? Ideas? Concerns. Please leave me a note!

Thanks,
Jennifer
Jericas Jewelry

Inch By Inch...

Today, something different. I'm going to drop some knowledge on you all. We're going to talk about some jewelry terminology--descriptors for necklaces. Necklaces come in various lengths but they are usually standardized. Each length has a name, and this naming practice originally started with the different lengths of pearl necklaces.

Collar length is the shortest length, running just long enough to circle around the middle of the neck (usually less than 14 inches). The length calls attention to the neck and can be worn with almost everthing as it rises above all but the highest neckline.

Choker length is 14 to 16 inches long and works well with every style of clothing and every event because its short length is visible with almost every neckline.

Princess length is 17 to 19 inches and also works well with various necklines because it can be seen with a collared shirt and can also fill in the negative space created by a v-neck top. An 18 inch necklace is a very common length and is a good choice when buying a gift for someone, as it's very versatile. Pendants or charms hang well on this necklace length.

Matinee length is 20 to 25 inches and works best with high necklines because it will fall over the neck of the top. Matinee length is a bit more dramatic than shorter length necklaces, but also works well with business attire as it can be seen over the top of a blazer.

Opera length is 26 to 36 inches and can be worn as a single long strand with a high neckline or doubled to mimic the choker length. Again, this is a more dramatic look than shorter length necklaces.

Rope length is 37 inches and longer and can be worn long, or doubled (and even tripled). It's often knotted in the middle and worn long, and can also be worn in the reverse--meaning, tight against the neck and worn down the back with a backless gown.

Lariat length is can be as long as the wearer likes. Often, it does not have a clasp, but merely winds around the neck and then hangs, not unlike a scarf. Or, one end of the necklace can loop through the other side, in the front.

Remember that ultimately, while roughly standardized, the appearance of different lengths of necklaces will vary because neck size varies. Many shorter styles will not fit around a larger-sized neck, but some necklaces come with extenders or can be fit with them by a jeweler.

Confetti-Glass Bracelet

I love this bracelet. It's very simple--just 5 big silver-foil-lined colorful confetti-glass beads strung together with sterling silver. I don't know if confetti glass makes sense; it's another term made up in my own head.




The beads are about 1 1/2 inches long and 1/3 of an inch thick.




Very colorful, like much of my work.

Very often, the origin of foil-lined beads is India. The artists there have mastered this style.



This bracelet sold during the opening night of the UCAL 2007 Holiday sale. I never saw who bought it, unfortunately, and I don't have any beads left over, so I can't make another.

Price: $20

Birthday Cake Necklace

Can you guess why I call this necklace Birthday Cake? To me, these square glass lampworked beads look like slices of birthday cake--with stripes of icing and sprinkles on the sides. A friend thinks they look like pieces of candy. I'd be curious to know which side you come down on.






This necklace makes me think of the bullseye necklace, which is also made with lampworked glass beads. As my friend Heather says, a lot of my jewelry looks like candy.





Like many of my pieces, the beads are linked together with thick sterling silver wire and soldered jump rings, and finished with a sterling silver lobsterclaw clasp. The beads measure approximately 14 mm in each direction. The finished piece is short, and meant to be worn close to the neck. Just like all of my necklaces that use jump rings between beads, this piece can be shortened at any point.


On the opening night of the UCAL 2007 Holiday sale, a woman who had bought one of my 3 Coins in the Fountain necklaces the year before snapped this necklace up right as we opened the doors. She told me that she tends to wear very simple, solid-color clothing, and that she tries to pick colorful jewelry to perk up her wardrobe. I imagine this necklace fits the bill! I also sold a bracelet in the same style, but to another customer.



So, birthday cake, candy or something else? You tell me!

Price: $32

The Set

The set.



While I did make the 2 pieces together, they're not an exact match and that was intentional. I like the idea that you can buy 2 pieces together but have 2 different sytles, which makes it look like perhaps you collected them on your travels separately, and that they happen to 'go.' It's like jewelry Garanimals, but for adults. Do you all remember Garanimals?

From their website: The kid-friendly Garanimals mix-and-match separates provide a simple, coordinated system that makes clothes easy to pair and fun to wear.


So, the pieces weren't identical matches for one another, but they all coordinated to make a collection. I don't always like matchy-matchy in my work. It limits your creativity at times (in that you're making a copy of your work). I like the variation on a theme idea.

I also made a pair of earrings--african turquoise rounds atop a pewter daisy spacer atop a carnelian tumbled stone, on silver earwires--but didn't seem to have taken a photo of them. They sold along with the bracelet, I believe. ($8? $10?)

The Finished Carnelian Bracelet

And, the final shots of the bracelet.


This bracelet also sold on the opening night of the UCAL sale. A woman bought it for her boyfriend's mother, saying she thought the woman would really like it. The woman who bought the carnelian necklace thought she wanted the bracelet too, but didn't get to it early enough and told me she was annoyed with herself for missing out on it. You snooze you lose at a one-of-a-kind craft show, as we all know.


Price: $26.

The Pricing Game

Now, to go back to a few days ago in the blog, I want to thank everyone who gave pricing feedback. It was actually very interesting for me to read. Let me fill in the prices I removed before I posted that entry on price. The woman who bought the carnelian necklace told me that the prices for necklaces at the sale she'd been to a week earlier started at $90. Now, I want to be clear, here. I'm guessing that the materials used, the artistry and experience that went into each piece, and the style (in that the items were in a museum gift shop because of a jewelry-related event and were supposed to be reminiscent of historic jewelry) of the work was of a higher quality than my work. Add to that the fact that there's usually more of a mark up at a place like that, so the artist has to price his or her work accordingly.

Ultimately, the price I put on my necklace was $40. Because the Arts League takes a certain percentage of every sale price, I walked away with $28. And, in looking back, I think that was cutting it pretty close to the bone. It certainly paid for my materials, but there wasn't a LOT left over for me, and when you need to buy materials to make OTHER things, you need your profit margin to allow for that. And price isn't just about materials, but about the fact that you're spending time designing something in your head, doing the work of finding the materials to fabricate that design (often from more than one source and requiring legwork and/or shipping fees) and the time spent actually doing the work, as well as the legwork needed to find venues from which to sell, pricing materials, and time spent staffing a sale. But of course, I'm also relatively new to this, and don't have many places to sell my work, so I'm not unhappy with the decisions I made. You live and learn, especially in the pricing game, which is so not the same game as the creativity/design game! Creating and selling work really does blend art and science in interesting ways.

Again, thanks to everyone who tendered feedback. I may ask you to do so again. In the next entry, I'll show you the final photos of the most recent bracelet.

The Carnelian/African Turquoise Bracelet

But what's a necklace without ... a matching bracelet? That's right, I had enough carnelian beads left over to make a bracelet to go with the necklace.


But this time, I mixed it up a little, using pewter daisy spacers in between the beads and larger African turqoise rounds.

The spacers add a punch of color and make the bracelet more chunky, still. You can go busier with a bracelet than a necklace, I think, because it's a smaller piece.







I particularly like this toggle clasp--it's big and bold and the antiqued finish lends the bracelet that southwestern feel.

Here's a closeup showing the detail on the clasp.

The End of an Era

Well, it was a short era! The February January Project has come to an end. How did we all do? For myself, I can admit it was hard...it was very hard. There were days that I missed altogether, in terms of coming up with a new jewelry design. Sometimes, I didn't feel motivated. Other times, I simply forgot. I think I felt moments of real failure, but every day was a new chance to try again, and that's one way of looking on the bright side. I did come up with some new ideas and some new possible ways of using materials I haven't been able to come up with a plan for, so that was constructive. And, I also started looking online and through my catalogs and magazines, at materials and colors, for inspriation. I've come up with a bunch of new ideas in my head and I'm going through catalogs and writing down item numbers of the materials I'll need to turn those ideas into finished pieces of jewelry. I've really been enjoying working with gemstones, and I think I'm going to keep going in that vein, but with new types of stones that I haven't worked with before.

In the end, while I can't say I produced something every single day (even though that WAS my intent at the outset) I don't think the project was a waste. Not at all. It has renewed my creativity which was on a bit of a hiatus after the Holiday Sale workload in November/December. I think I'll give myself a B grade.

What about all of you who tried the project last month? What did you take away from the experience?