Sterling Silver Wire-Wrapped Turquoise Pendant and Happy Mother's Day!

~Pendant Details on Top, Whole Necklace on Bottom Left, Clasp Detail on Bottom Right~

Before I get to the necklace, Happy Mother's Day! I hope you are all having a great day - you deserve it!

This necklace was a bit tricky at first, but once I got into the rhythm of it, it was an absolute blast to make. I took a Stabilized Turquoise pendant at about an inch long and wrapped it with over 7 feet of sterling silver wire to secure it in place and create the bail (the part that the pendant attaches to the chain with). I then took some beautiful sterling silver beads, silver plate beads, and Czech glass black beads and used the fine sterling silver wire to attach them to the front of the pendant. The entire piece is suspended from fine sterling silver chain with a sterling silver toggle clasp to finish it. I love this necklace - it feels very smooth against the skin and has a very earthy-oceanic feel to it...Like The Little Mermaid's necklace that she could wear from the ocean to the beach! This is one of those go-anywhere necklaces that could be worn with jeans while cleaning the house, or a very nice dress for an evening out.

Truly gorgeous, I even made earrings to match, but haven't taken pictures of them yet as my Fibromyalgia has been really bad these last few days. The earrings will be on the website soon, but this necklace is currently on the website for sale at: www.littlestudio.ca

I hope you like it!

Meghann

Desert Sands Necklace and Earrings

~Necklace on the Left, Earrings on the Right~

Here's a necklace I've had on the site for a couple of months, but I never get to tell the story about it. I was in a bead store last year and I saw this gorgeous, huge carnelian bead in the display case. It wasn't in my budget, but, of course, I had to have it. I had no idea what to do with it, but I bought it anyway and took it home where it sat on my dining room table all night. That night I had a dream. I dreamed of sand, hot under my feet and swirling on the hot wind into my face in golden colours of yellow, amber and brown. I saw the aqua sky, and burning red sun. I woke up at 2:30 in the morning and couldn't sleep - the necklace had planted itself in my mind and needed to be addressed. I drew it for an hour or so, went back to bed and created the necklace that very same morning (though at a decent time of day). I strung the carnelian for the sun with a small spiral of gold wire at the bottom (although I was envisioning the Sahara desert, the Celts see the spiral as a symbol for the sun) for the centerpiece. I then layered gold-plate beads, multi-hued amber chips and yellow aragonite for the sand and spaced them with Czech glass beads in an aqua shade for the sky. I created a custom toggle clasp with more gold wire and strung the aqua beads along it. I then made matching earrings with more Czech glass, amber, gold-plate and aragonite beads (with gold-plate daisy spacers for a polished look) on 14karat gold-filled ear wires. I love this necklace! It is long, about 18 inches or so and the carnelian pendant sits just at the decolletage. It feels really nice against the skin, even the amber, which at first I thought may be rough, but not at all. Very luxurious!

The necklace is available for sale with or without the earrings at http://www.littlestudio.ca/

Enjoy! I'm off to make more jewellery, blog you soon,

Meghann

Gold Spiral, Blue Glass and Swarovski Crystal Necklace

~Whole Necklace on the Left, Bead Detail at Right~

This necklace was in my head the moment I saw these lentil-shaped blue glass beads with gold foil in them. Normally, I buy my beads from a few very reputable online suppliers to get quality and good value that I can pass on to my clients, but a friend of mine knew of a little store in Ottawa that sold beads and jewellery supplies and had to show me. Good thing she did - I got these high quality beads and a few others too. It took a while to complete as my Fibromyalgia has been really bad pain-wise, but it was worth it - this necklace is stunning! The design for this necklace just popped out at me immediately. It's very Celtic in style - being blue and gold and spiral-laden - but I could picture someone (preferably myself!) in the sun on a yacht off the coast of Monaco wearing this necklace. Ho hum, nothing better to do than tan with gorgeous jewellery and hob-nob with the rich and famous. This necklace is so classy, but you really could just wear it to the beach with a bathing suit and towel, out to dinner with friends, to work to make you feel fabulous, you get the idea. The clasp is a custom-crafted spiral-based hook-and-eye closure that is very secure. The chain is comprised of 2 inch pieces of gold wire that are spiraled on each end with a blue Indian glass bead in the centre of each piece (the Indian glass beads are great because they occasionally have little silver flecks that actually look golden and match the foil-laden large blue beads - too convenient!). Each individual link ends up being about 1/2 inch in length. The links are then connected with gold-plate rings. The gold-foil blue beads, gold-plate beads and Swarovski crystals in "Dark Sapphire" are strung on jewellery wire, and then attached to the custom spiral chain, but first the gold-foil blue beads had 14karat gold-filled wire strung through them and coiled around the front for an extra bit of oomph. I really like how the gold wire frames the beads and brings out the gold foil embedded inside them. Over 5 feet of wire was used on this necklace!

This necklace is now for sale on the website, check it out at http://www.littlestudio.ca/

I have plans for the few remaining blue beads, so check back soon (hint - it'll be a bracelet!).

Take care everyone, I hope you have a sunny day! As always, I'd love your comments and suggestions.

Meghann

The Creative Process Lives On....

Welcome!
I am starting this blog to talk about my many varied jewellery designs. Often I am inspired months in advance of a piece's completion, but don't have the room to tell the story behind the piece in the description of the piece for sale on the Little Studio Photography and Jewellery web site. Now I finally have a place to explain the madness behind the method - and boy have I got stories for you :)
I have Fibromyalgia, and struggle with it every day. The only way I have found to keep the disease manageable is to stay at home, rest often, and make jewellery! I work from home, and I am trying to make a living making jewellery so that I am able to rest when I need to and keep this disease in check.
I try to make a few pieces a week and update the web page at least once per week, so this will be a new challenge - trying to update this as often as I make and photograph new pieces for the website.
I hope others will comment - I love getting feedback and suggestions for new pieces.
Check out my web page at www.littlestudio.ca if you haven't already.
Enjoy!
Meghann Gervais
Merrickville, Ontario