Vintage Elegance with Twist of Contemporary

This design is described by many of my customers as a vintage or antique design with a classic twist of contemporary. The elegance comes in with the wooden pendant, hand-painted by a Russian artist. She leaves no detail unturned, the fine lines and intercut shades in each flower petal is just breath-taking. The scene is so real, you almost want to reach out and caress each one of the flowers.

A perfect balance to this pendant is crystals and lots of them. I started at the base making a bail of hand twisted faceted crystals in coordinating colors to support the pendant. Next the necklace strands are crafted using more faceted crystal in deep olive, lively blush and light golden topaz.

A little antique design of a lovely pendant paired with the contemporary faceted crystals….makes for a very striking and stunning necklace design that is perfect for that night out on the town or special occasion.

 

Visit Timeless Designs online to browse around our collections to find your perfect match of vintage, contemporary, bold or earthy.

Spring to Summer Rages Charms

Charms are all the rage this year; so for the big hit we came out with this charmed line last Fall and it was very well received. We brought it back again for Spring – Sumer and it has again been very popular. Most of these charmed necklaces feature Italian murano glass pendants and one that features a pink mushroom jasper stone pendant.

All the charms are faceted crystals, lampwork beads, cultured freshwater pearls,and natural stones; each charm is individually hand twisted and then looped onto the silk cord. For accents between there are an array of lampwork & cloisonne beads or faceted crystals. Each one is uniquely crafted as an individual piece that stands by itself.

They are all just beautiful…these are all sold quickly, but we will have more soon at our online shop!

 

Royalty in blue hues and purple (to the left)

Beach fun with octopus (to the right)

Spring time elegance of calilies (to the left)

Richly deep purples and amethyst (to the righ)

Pretty in pink mushroom jasper (to the left)

Modern in black and white (to the right)

Browse and shop our custom artisan crafted jewelry collection at Timeless Designs on Ruby Lane!

Pendants & Charms Coming Together

One of the new designs that I did this year is with many different kinds of pendants and charming. The charming technique takes quite some time to create, but the affect is most appealing. Using different pendants gave each one a unique look while using accents in stones, swarovski crystals, dichroic glass, freshwater cultured pearls, and some of my free form spiral or double coiled wire work.  The neat idea behind this is that each design is stationary on the silk cord, so the designs will not be lost and each comes with a matching pair of earrings!

In this design I used a puffy heart pendant in lapis lazuli and the charms include freshwater cultured pearls, swarovski crystals and black agate. Wire work is done in non-tarnish silver wire.

 

Turquoise is one of my favorite stones of nature to work with; here I’ve paired the blue teardrop pendant with a fold-over wavy bail and charms of swarovski crystals, white magnesite and black agate. Wire work is done in non-tarnish peacock blue and black wire.

Fossils are fast becoming one of my more favorites to work with in wire as they are so individually unique; here I’ve used an orthoceras fossil pendant with charms of swarovski crystals, freshwater cultured pearls and two cloisonné beads. All wire work is done in silver non-tarnish wire.

  

Browse our collection of artisan crafted jewelry, available for purchase at Timeless Designs Ruby Lane shop!

Turquoise Gone Charms

Blue and black are very striking colors and with the right combination of blue to black it can almost have a dramatic affect. The latest in my charmed necklace line is a mix of these two bold colors together and I really like how they turned out together. I just love this turquoise (stabilized) pendant with the deep color of blue and black veining hung by a gunmetal colored half-moon bail; it is the perfect focal to this necklace.


I paired it with the charms design that I’ve been doing for this fall collection. There are many hand-charms such as small chunks of white magnesite, black agate rounds, Swarovski crystals of blue, light topaz and cosmo. I also added signature swirl drops in teal blue non-tarnish wire with silver accents; however when I did the earrings, I did the base in black to match the necklace. It hangs stationary on a black 18” silk cord.

Turquoise: Spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity

Browse and purchase from our fall collections at our online Ruby Lane Timeless Designs shop!

Charms Are In Season

Who knew that charms are still the 'in thing' as a jewelry designs!!

I’m always looking for something new to try and keep with a trendy style for customers. This season I came up with something totally different, but seems to be hit so far! I took several different looks and created one design out of just a ‘thought’ for a new line of jewelry. What has gone from a ‘try and see’ has become a hit for this season!


The design incorporates many hand-charmed pieces; Swarovski crystals, freshwater cultured pearls, many natural stones, and wire work that then surrounds different types of pendants in natural stone, Murano glass, dichoric glass, and fossils.


These are all then captured onto coordinating silk cords or combination ribbon cords. The whole process takes several hours to complete just one necklace design; from design conception through labor development to completed necklace piece.

This is a new look that I’ll be doing this year for my collections; you can find them available for purchase at our online shop!

To Be or Not To Be – Lady Bug

Another new design in the charmed versions I’m doing. This one has been referred to as a “Lady Bug”; the center focal is a murano glass large puffy red heart with black pot-a-dots. All around are hand-charmed pieces in freshwater cultured button pearls, bicone Swarovski Fire Opal crystals that bring out the deep red of the crystal among the orange, black onyx smooth tube and round black agate stones.

Nestled among the pieces I done double twist coils in artistic non-tarnish wire; along with the stationary swirls at either end; with the nesting of the charms, you could wear this necklace either direction giving it two different looks.




I really enjoy making these new pendant necklaces; so watch out for more of these to hit our online shop soon!

Find adventure browsing through our wearable earth artisan crafted jewelry available for purchase!

Dichroic Glass Pendant Wonders

Dichroic glass is glass containing multiple micro-layers of metal oxides which give the glass dichroic optical properties. The invention of dichroic glass is often erroneously attributed to NASA and its contractors, who developed it for use in dichroic filters. Dichroic glass dates back to at least the 4th century AD as seen in the Lycurgus cup.

Multiple ultra-thin layers of different metals (gold, silver), metal oxides (titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, magnesium) and silica are vaporized by an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The vapor then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. This is sometimes followed by a protective layer of quartz crystal. The finished glass can have as many as 30 to 50 layers of these materials yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 30 to 35 millionths of an inch (about 760 to 890 nm). The coating that is created is very similar to a gemstone and, by careful control of thickness, different colors are obtained.

I love working with dichroic glass, just not really good at making any beads or pendants; however I’m in luck! A very good friend and fellow artisan Anna is a premier glass designer here in San Antonio, Texas. She makes some of the most incredible, gorgeous dichroic one-of-kind pieces (I know, I personally have quite a few of her pendant sets!). I buy her pendants and incorporate them into my own creative designs; accenting with wire, metals, crystals, or natural stones; drawing on the colors of the pendant to develop the jewelry.

These two designs are using Anna’s pendants as a focal and then using the different wire and charm techniques to showcase the beauty found within each individual pendant.

In the first design, I use a free form shaped pendant that is hung below the crystals from non-tarnish brass wire as a bail. I’ve then accented with individual hand-charmed pieces in black agate, beige freshwater cultured pearl nuggets, creamy white glass pearls, and faceted swarovski crystals in erinite and indicolite. The creation hangs from an eggshell colored silk cord in a stationary position. There are little hints of wire in hanging swirls also handcrafted in non-tarnish brass wire.

The second piece I chose a nice almost arrowhead shaped pendant with accenting designs in gold, green and hint of blue against a black background. Surrounding it again are hand-charmed pieces in faceted swarvoski crystals indicolite, cosmo black, gold/black Diablo, gold, citrine, ab smoky topaz, and metallic green-blue. The all are braided on a 6 strand ribbon cord necklace; I left them a little lose as this fit better to this type of a design, you can twist the crystals around to change the colors slightly. Hidden among the crystals are a few handmade wire spirals in non-tarnish brass wire.

Find these and many other uniquely artisan crafted designs at our online shop!

*Research from various websites.

Artisan Earring Blues

Expanding the limits into different things this time...…instead of just doing simple dangle, hoop or post style earrings, we’ve designed some different single pairs of earrings in shades of blue!



Southwest Flair in glass lampwork bead as a focal center and accented with copper, pictured to the right.





Another work in Southwest Flair, this one is with 9 different shaped teal/turquoise marbled Zircon beads; all single charmed in a cluster, pictured to the left.





Mystic Artisan in all shades of blue, glass lampwork pillow beads in swirls of blue and white and accented with cool white charmed Swarovski crystals, pictured to the right.


Browse our collections for custom designed stone and wire jewelry!

Mass Coil Links Go Simple

Yet another re-design for the studio; this particular piece started out with a mass of all coil links in black and brass and then I added charmed Sardonyx Agates. It got lots of attention and a few people even tried it on, but at over 24” and all the coil links it never really found a home.









So, back to the board with this one and pulled it apart; the black coil links and Sardonyx Agates were kept and met with faceted black Onyx and white glass beads. And I had two links left over to make dangle charmed earrings to match! It’s much shorter than the original and I still have the brass coil links and have another design in mind…so stay tuned!

Agates: Balancing physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies; perceptiveness, strength, inspiration, awakening talents.
Onyx: Self-control, decision making, intuition, recognition of personal strengths.

For more designs and handcrafted jewelry, browse our website.

Charmed I’m Sure

Charmed designs in jewelry are becoming popular in many places around the country. It’s a very easy, casual style that can be either dressy or classic depending on what you wear with them or how you wear the charmed design. Here’s I’ve mixed several different charmed designs from straight charms to wired charms to tons of charms on a bracelet.

For more unique natural stone designs, visit our website.