When looking for jewelry design inspiration, it helps to look at patterns and motifs in nature and the world around us. Here is an example of a bracelet that was inspired by the knots and grain lines in a wooden wall.
Tagged bracelet
A Design a Day – Day 308 (After the Rain; Giving Thanks for Small Miracles)
A colored pencil and gouache flower link bracelet in celebration of the sun coming out to dry everyone and everything off!)
A Design a Day – Day 201
How is it possible that my computer, loaded with anti-virus software and Webroot Anti-Spyware, is infected with a virus?
Do computers get the swine flu?
Here is a design taken from my files (yes, I back up my files regularly) since I can’t scan or do any photo-editing until I get my “baby” back:
Two days without my computer is about my limit. I’m looking at perhaps another two more…
Aack!
A Design a Day – Day 198
I found an Easter bunny in our garden today…
That led me to work up some bunny sketches as inspiration for my Design a Day:
Just above, you can see how the outline of the bunny (bottom left) gave me the idea of mirroring this outline both horizontally and vertically to create a chain-link pattern. The bunny ears morphed into part of a toggle clasp.
Here is the final result:
HAPPY EASTER!
A Design a Day – Day 180
I’m not Irish
(not even distantly)
but I had some “luck of the Irish” today…
♣
I got a hand-written congratulations note
from my state representative
(on a design award I won earlier this year)
who also thanked me for bringing beauty into this world.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
A Design a Day – Day 167
The bracelet I designed for today was inspired by the top I was wearing – a silk fine-gauge knit with black and white print interspersed with several red and fuchsia splashes of delicately sequined roses:
The top has “bracelet” sleeves (3/4 length), so this design would be a smashing way to accessorize it. For now, unfortunately, I’ll just have to dream since diamond bracelets are not likely to be coming my way anytime soon!
A Design a Day – Day 72 (A Thanksgiving Week Tribute to Those I Love)
The final charm in my Thanksgiving series dedicated to those I love, is my signature charm, a ladybug or “joaninha”. I lead a charmed life in many ways (if you backtrack over the last 6 days, you’ll read why), so I felt like I deserved a place on the chain as well:
The bracelet in its entirety follows below:
The placement of each of these charms was not accidental. Neither was the fact that I designed fully 3-dimensional charms. I wanted the charms to be beautiful seen from whatever angle they fell when the bracelet was worn. And, while my husband’s “Pisces” and my ladybug charms are stationed at opposite ends of the chain when the bracelet is open, when clasped together we are side by side again.
All my gratitude and thanks go to the friends, family and kindly strangers who have made such a difference in my life.
A Design a Day – Day 71 (A Thanksgiving Week Tribute to Those I Love)
Today’s charm is dedicated to my soul-mate, my husband Andy:
I’ve naively wondered why my husband is a Pisces when he’d rather be eating meat than fish; furthermore, water, whether it be for swimming or showering, has to be precisely a certain temperature before he’ll even test it with his little toe. Since he didn’t come with a manual when we got married, I’ve learned how to combine my sign (Taurus) with his somewhat by trial and error, the school of hard knocks, and lots of love (which has always been reciprocated equally.) Today I researched Pisces for this post and had one of those “ah ha” moments.
Traditional Pisces traits are:
Imaginative and sensitive
Compassionate and kind
Selfless and unworldly
Intuitive and sympathetic
On the dark side…
Escapist and idealistic
Secretive and vague
Weak-willed and easily led
While I won’t reveal which of these traits jumps off the page at me most, I will say that my husband is one of the kindest, gentlest, and most compassionate creatures inhabiting my earth.
(If you are curious to read more about Pisces, please click here.)
A Design a Day – Day 70 (A Thanksgiving Week Tribute to Those I Love)
This charm is dedicated to my father, Gil, who also happens to be celebrating his birthday today. I designed the charm as a top since my Dad has a fabulous collection of spinning top toys:
My father, who often comes across as very serious (degrees in law and music, a European upbringing, and years spent teaching as a professor in academia certainly foster that image), has a very impish side as well. He has played his share of practical jokes on his family, and I never tire of hearing of the funny escapades he had with his Portuguese nephews and nieces when they were little.
One of my favorite stories?
One summer when the family was traveling to the south of Portugal to vacation, he stationed each little nephew and niece at one of the windows in the train compartment. When the train rolled into the stations along the way, he coached them all to yell out the windows to each other (in Portuguese), “Oh no! you spilled the wine!”, “Pass the chicken!”, and other such rowdy comments. Like this, he insured that the family had the entire train compartment to themselves for the trip!
Happy Birthday!
A Design a Day – Day 68 (A Thanksgiving Week Tribute to Those I Love)
Today’s charm is dedicated to my sister, Marta:
My sister has traveled the world, seems to survive any difficult situation she encounters, has an uncanny knack for picking up not only the customs but the specific accents of different regions, and is fluent in three languages. Some people say we look like twins; others, that they can’t tell that we’re even sisters. The way I see it, she is a uniquely beautiful, intelligent and very special person.