A colored pencil and gouache gold and diamond earring rendering along with some great tips on saving picture files in the .tif and .jpeg formats.
Tagged Champagne Diamonds
A Design a Day – Day 241 (Running with the Gazelles)
Gold and champagne diamond gazelle brooch design by award winning jewelry designer Joana Miranda
A Design a Day – Day 116
In keeping with my goal of designing and rendering more unusual stones, this next design features a large turquoise cabochon:
Because the turquoise cabochon looked very egg-like to me, I decided to design a craggy eagle making off with the egg. This fantasy eagle has black and champagne diamond wings, a white diamond head and tail, and an emerald eye. The body is enameled with yellow gold legs. Tomorrow, a star ruby evokes another dangerous creature…
A Design a Day – Day 104
In honor of it being New Year’s Eve, I wanted to pull out all the stops and create an extra festive design:
My inspiration for this design was none other than Erté, the Russian-born French Art Deco designer and artist. Born Romain de Tirtoff in St. Petersburg in 1892, Tirtoff adopted the pseudonym Erté (the pronunciation of his initials in French) to avoid causing his family embarrassment when, against his father’s wishes, he chose to pursue a career as a designer instead of going into the navy. His successful, long and diverse career in fashion, jewelry, costume/set design (theatre, opera and film), graphic arts and interior design, has continued to influence fashion and design in this century. I’ve always been drawn to his prints for their elegance, glamour, sophisticated style and nostalgia for a bygone era. To be half the artist that Erté was would be an honor indeed. At least we share one trait in common:
Erté said, “Look at me, I’m in another world – a dream world that invites oblivion. People take drugs to achieve such freedom from their daily cares. I’ve never taken drugs. I’ve never needed them. I achieve a high through work.”
(For those of you observant readers, you may have noticed that I signed this rendering “Gem”. My pseudonym of choice, the English pronunciation of my initials, is coincidentally apropos for someone who loves jewelry design as much as I do.)
Happy New Year!
Joana Miranda
Joana’s Champagne Tango Earrings Begin US Promotional Tour Today
Earlier this summer I was delighted to win the Champagne Wishes 2nd Place Award in the Rio Tinto Champagne Diamond Contest. My Tango Earrings featuring rose gold, champagne diamonds and Akoya pearls, were manufactured by D. Navinchandra Gems, a well established, award-winning diamond jewelry manufacturer. To learn more about the dates and locations of the trunk shows where these earrings will be appearing, please read on here.
The finished earrings:
A Design a Day – Day 45
Of all jewelry renderings, I find rings the hardest to do. The 3-quarter view perspective is challenging and although I have some good basic instructions in my design books, I’ve found that most of the books don’t teach beyond the simplest ring shapes. So I’ve committed to rendering more rings here. If I get a really good handle on doing the perspective quickly and without fuss, I’ll post my tips later.
I’m dedicating this rendering to my mother. She gave herself a black eye this week just in time for Halloween. Only it wasn’t the makeup variety, but a result of the shower head falling on her eye as she was trying to fix it from leaking. True to form, she told me she would tell her little piano students that she was hit with a flying pumkin on Halloween. I was going to send her Black-Eyed Susans in the mail, but sent her a nice bouquet of roses instead.
Here is one more flower to add to the bouquet.
Champagne…What’s Not to Like? A Toast to Diamonds of a Different Hue
Please visit Rio Tinto’s Champagne Diamonds Blog to see great pictures and descriptions of all four winning entries in the recent Rio Tinto Champagne Diamond Contest. My Champagne Tango earrings took the “Champagne Wishes” 2nd Place award and are currently being manufactured!
While you’re on the site, don’t miss the short YouTube video entitled Champagne Diamonds Inspire New Designs. Rio Tinto asked Curtis of Australia to design a fountain pen using champagne diamonds. The Colours of Australia Fountain Pen has over 500 hand-set white and champagne diamonds and features intricate hand engraving as well as titanium design elements that are evocative of the Sydney Opera House. In the video you’ll see the process from rendering to stone-setting, buffing and polishing, as well as the torch heating of the titanium to enhance its color.
JCK Press Release Features Winning Designs from the Rio Tinto Champagne Diamond Competition
If you are curious to see the other prize-winning designs in the recent Rio Tinto Champagne Diamond Contest, please see the nice article released today in the Jeweler’s Circular Keystone online publication.
Flying High: Champagne Tango Earrings Bring In New Award
In one of those “life must be going my way” moments today, I landed in Denver after a nice flight, checked my cell phone, and learned that I have won another design award. I am delighted to report that my Champagne Tango Earring design has won the “Champagne Wishes” Second Place category in Rio Tinto’s Champagne Diamond Competition. Rio Tinto will be sending a press release about the winning designs to jewelry trade publications and other media sources later on today.
My winning design features graduated color, brilliant-cut, round champagne diamonds in the C1 to C4 range. The lightest diamonds at the top of the earrings give way to the darkest shade as they meet the suspended peach color, pear-shaped pearls at the bottom of the earrings. A lever-back function allows the design to appear to twist magically through the ear. The diamonds are bead-set in rose gold.
My love for movement – the tango in particular – together with all things glittery, was the inspiration behind these earrings.
Special thanks goes to my husband, Andy, who encouraged me to burn the midnight oil and submit an entry to this competition after I discovered to my great chagrin that I had gotten the entry due date confused in my mind with the judging date.