Christmas purchase order 2

Here is another “made to order” gift. I have been asked to make it to match with a necklace that I made before….

As for the necklace I used blue crystal, Korean Jasper, amethyst, red crystal and red/orange agate.

Matching earrings

Christmas purchase order

This year I didn’t only make gifts for myself to give to friends, but I’ve been ordered two pieces of my “jewelry” too!….

This is the first one: a cute necklace. The beads are yellow crystals, coral, howlite and jade (blue and yellow). It is long enough to wear it with two or even three rounds.

Made to order…

Sunday earrings

I have been thinking for a while to make these earrings and finally yesterday I scraped together all my energies (Autumn is always such a difficult time of the year for me that I have some bear helix in my DNA) and here they are.
They are made of hammered wire and some coloured jade beads. Very easy. I think I might make a bracelet or a necklace to match with them….

Bracelet for two

I made this bracelet for my friend Paola’s daughter, Marta, for Christmas, but by magic it ended up un Paola’s wrist!

I used Corean jade cubic beads and double elastic thread. To cover the knots I used some pink wire.

Corean jade and steel flowers

Cubic Corean jade bracelet

Yukio necklace

I was watching “The Wolverine” the other day when I saw one of the characters, Yukio, was wearing a necklace with a lovely pendant, and it came to my mind that I had a similar pendant that I used for this necklace here… but since I realised that I haven’t been wearing it that much, I decided that I could do a better use of that lovely pendant…

Yukio

Yukio necklace

 

Yukio necklace… quite

 

“The Wolverine”

Pink jade Chan-luu

Two weekends ago I went for a short break in Umbria with my friend Paola‘s family and friends and we were (Paola and I) supposed to carve out some time for ourselves to brush up on the Chan-luu tecnique and make a new bracelet.

Of course we didn’t have time to do so, but since I had all the material ready I decided to make one on my own.

I used some golden/bronze leather string along with pink Jade multifaceted 4 mm beads and gold plated glazed beads. I also modified the tecnique a bit compared to my first Chan-luu. Instead of starting with a loop (the button hole), I begun with introducing the button first. While I left some string unused in the end so to have an adjustable locking.

I think it works better!

Pink jade Chan-luu bracelet

Pink Jade and gold plated beads Chan-luu bracelet

Chinese jade

Some time ago I bought a lovely Chinese jade pendant and all this time I’ve been thinking about how to use it.

I’ve always loved jade pendants from the very first time I saw a Pounamu from New Zealand Maori tradition but I haven’t been able to go and buy one so far…. I actually bought a beef bone maori pendant called “koru” few years ago at the Manly Sunday market in Australia, from a kiwi guy who hand carved it himself. His carvings were so beautiful that it took me quite some time to decide what to buy!  Anyway, since my dream to own a maori Pounamu is still far I decided to at least get me a lovely Chinese jade pendant in the meantime.

So, in the end I decided to make a gold chain using 8 pink quartz beads on both side (see why 8 beads in this post here), and adding an upcycled gold chain from an old and broken necklace that I’ve been given by a friend. I also matched the necklace with a pair of earings made with the same pink quartz beads and a green fluorite rice shaped bead.

Chinese jade pendant and matching earings

Chinese jade pendant and matching earings

Korean jade

Last Friday me and my craft pal Paola  went to this new gems shop in her town. They were making sales and we took full advantage of it. 🙂

I basically bought stones and some crystals along with some findings. Here is the first outcome of my wild shopping: a necklace and matching earings made with Korean yellow jade and black crystals. 🙂

Yellow Korean jade and black crystals necklace and earings

Christmas collection 2: mother and daughter

Here are some other Xmas gifts I made for my friend Paola and her 10 years old daughter Marta. The mother’s gift is a parure of bracelet and earings. The bracelet is made with the same technic as those in my previous post, with golden wire, half-crystals pale pink beads and an oval jade stone. The earings are made with green jade stone and pink beads too.

The daughter’s gift is also a parure of bracelet and earings, but in this one we have a combination of a black plastic rose with fuchsia pearls and pink glass beads on a elastic string and a little chain with charms. The earings are also made with the same materials.

Xmas Collection: the mother’s gift

Xmas Collection: the daughter’s gift

Howl’s earings

I am a huge admirer of Miyazaki Hayao‘s works. I love all of his anime, they just transmit me hope and peace and they are of huge comfort especially in dark and rainy days. As yesterday was just one of those dark and rainy days I decided to cheer me up watching for the umpteenth time “Howl’s Moving Castle”- ハウルの動く城.

And while watching I decided to make a replica of Howl’s earings, hoping that they’ll bring a bit of his magic in my life too.

I used jade stones and red crystal beads.

my version of Howl’s earings

▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫

Howl (click on the picture to enlarge)

▪▫▪