Birthday Girl

It was my lovely sister-in-law’s birthday in late September so when we were over in Germany for the wedding I brought her present over with us to save on postage costs! Part of the pres was (of course) a handcrafted necklace which she wore to the wedding (it really was a very successful marketing day for Gingerbelle Jewellery with all of my beautiful life models mingling among the masses!)
Her necklace had to be young and a little bit funky so I chose these iridescent pearls and clear cube beads to make it a little bit more age-appropriate. I have since made this particular necklace two more times for craft sales (one in my college – youth-themed and one for the craft day that Spoon (of House of Spoon see:http://houseofspoon.blogspot.com/) and I tutored at last Saturday!)

And just for her I added in a rather coolio catch (though I must admit it is a little bit odd to use at first because it works differently to regular catches) a little heart to match the heart at the end of the extension chain. (Never enough hearts!)

And finally here is the lovely lady herself sporting the item in question and doing a stellar job at inadvertently advertising and promoting Gingerbelle Jewellery (aka GBJ)!! Good on you girl!!

Le Coeur Bleu

And last but certainly not least – I made a necklace for the eldest St Andre as Rachel doesn’t have her ears pierced. I asked her what her favourite colour is and she said ‘all of them’ – in French obviously! Which didn’t really narrow it down but she did say she liked yellow and blue so imagine my delight when I spotted this gorgeous lampwork heart pendant in Abacus Beads?! I snapped it up and then used the yellowy-greeny-bluey tinge as a basis and located a few of the cube beads in various shades of blue and green and used little goldy-yellow round beads as accents!

The heart was rather heavy so I used two lengths of Tigertail to give the necklace extra support (which it definitely needed!) On the day of the wedding (when I was giving the girls their presents) Rachel was actually wearing a beautiful heart necklace so at least I know it is a style she likes and she put it on right away and wore it the whole day – so I was really chuffed!

GoldFish?? (ok ok, I know! -but GoldMammal didn't work so well!)

So Sonia (or SoSo)'s fave colour is yellow (jaune) just like me (moi aussi)!!! So I loved making a yellow pair. SoSo was the only St Andre to have her ears pierced over the summer (Amandine and Deborah only got theirs pierced last month) and she had one pair of long dangly earrings so I thought I would change it up a bit and give her these little round pair. [With hindsight I think she might have prefered a long pair but these ones are definitely my favourite of the three I made.]

I used wee dolphins to add a bit of charm [haha - see what I did there?] And the wee golden balls and yellow crystals give the lovely sunshine yellow that we love!!

Be There Or Be Square

Soo for Deborah I made these wee square cascade earrings. They are copies of 'Shiny Disco Balls' that I posted earlier but using square beads. It takes a bit of time to make this style but they always look really good on people, probably because there is so much going on and they are pretty from any angle. Her favourite colour is also purple so I chose pinks and purples for this pair.

They are fun and young and I think the wee boxes work just as well as the round beads...in fact I fancy a pair myself!!!!

Oui, c'est l'amour

When I was in France over the summer visiting my beloved 'Famille Francais' Handsome Prince's youngest female cousin Amandine admired my earrings (which were bought in the Claire's Accessories shop in Dublin airport on the way over!) they are tiny dangly silver hearts with love written in joint writing in the middle. I didn't even know Amandine could speak English never mind read it (but apparently it is now on their Primary School curriculum)! But she pointed at them, squeaking with delight and said, "love". Anyhoo Prince Charming and I were in Germany last month at Yan&Dan's wonderful wedding, and as Miss Amandine was also to be in attendance, he asked me to make jewellery pieces for all his little cousins for all the lovely gifts his uncle and aunty had given us while we were in France.

Soooooo (after that very long intro!) here are the earrings I made for Amandine who just got her ears pierced last month. Her favourite colour is (purple) so that was the signature colour of the beads and I knew I wanted to make something simple (not too fancy) and yet not too childish either. But either way it definitely had to feature something to do with 'love' and when I saw these little charms online I purchased them instantly with her in mind.

In the end I think the style of these are slightly old for her but she adored them and immediately shouted 'love!' in her beautiful little french accent as soon as she saw them, so I'm thrilled that she likes them.

How Much Is That Doggy In The Window...Woof Woof??!!

So in honour of the beloved (and unbelievably naughty!) Amber I wanted to make a piece to commemorate her incorporation into the family. Now, obviously for anyone even remotely familiar with Gil's pill-ish pup, they will know that there is NO WAY ON EARTH that I could make something for the little scamp herself as she would undoubtedly have it broken, destroyed, decimated and, no doubt, swallowed within 2 micro-seconds of receiving it (which is such a shame because it would be such an innovative business direction to branch out into doggy jewellery...hmm...I wonder...) Anyway as I couldn't make something for Ambino herself I made something 'Amber-themed' for GG.

This wee charm bracelet contains every single dog-ish charm i could find in shops and online!! (They are: a food bowl with 'Spot' on it, a doghouse, a pink bone, a wee heart with 'I love my dog' on it, a puppy, a silver bone, 'woof', a 3-D doghouse and a bone with 'Number 1 dog' on it). I think this is the first time I've used one of my toggle clasps which are better suited to bracelets than necklaces I think... (oh I've just remembered Copper Heart - my first entry uses a toggle clasp!) and I think they really add to the overall look of the piece as bracelets are viewed from all sides there is no definitive 'front' and 'back'. My favourite charms are the heart, puppy and silver bone, especially the wee bone - I even get the urge to bite it!!

Again - apologies for the photo, I can't currently crop any images.

So GG (true to form) had this charm bracelet all of one day before she broke it - typical! So it has been patched up and past back with a warning not to use this chain to bungie-jump, tow her car, climb a tree with - or whatever, it is only a very soft metal chain so I am reiterating the warning - go gentle GG, now I know where The Ginger Whirlwind aka Amber gets it from!!! Enjoy you two!

Hey Peeps

Apologies for the lack of posts but my work computer has been changed and it is preventing me from editing my photos so I can't post them at the minute. Am still waiting for a resolution but in the meantime I will search through and see if I have any 'ready-to-go' pics that I can post here just as they are... hopefully I'll get this sorted out sometime this week. Love to all. Stay Sparkly!