Stormy blues

I hope everyone is staying warm and toasty over the holidays! I am taking advantage of the time at home to prep photos for the next batch of jewellery. Below is a look at the custom Yany necklace I made not long ago - the stones are pyrite, grey moonstone, aquamarine, and a large labradorite:

Where have they gone?

Curious blog visitors may have noticed that some of the links to specific pieces of jewellery do not work. Why does Etsy say they pieces can't be viewed? It's because they were sold off the site, such as at a craft fair, and the listing had to be taken down.

Don't fear though - if a particular style interests you and I can get more of the same materials, I can make a duplicate! For example, the Io earrings (pictured below) sold at the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair and I made an identical pair for another customer:

Carla and Roksanda

My most recent custom order was for Carla McNeil of Butterfly Networking. For several years, she had worn a half-black and half-white string around her wrist as a reminder that she could choose to see things in the dark or in the light, but the string broke recently and she needed a replacement. Carla liked the style of the Letitia bracelet so we reviewed stone options together and selected obsidian and black onyx for the black half, while snow quartz and white mountain jade made up the white half. Here is the stunning result, named Roksanda...

James and Elisse

It's been two years since my friends James and Elisse got hitched and this lovely interview with the bride recaptures the magic of the big day. There are also many photos including this shot of the back of the custom James necklace that I made for the special occasion:



Happy arrrrrr-nniversary! (It's also talk-like-a-pirate day today!)

Photo by RAD Studio

Lilyana and Julia

Did you know Aria Industries does custom work? A few months ago, a client contacted me about creating earrings for a gift. She loved the simplicity of the Lilyana earrings, but thought the crystal quartz briolettes were too large. We discussed options and she ended up picking smaller versions of the same stone. Here are the original Lilyana and custom Julia earrings:

Goodbye Elaine

When one of my coworkers informed us she would be leaving us for a job closer to home, the rest of us wondered what departing gift to give her. We knew she loved necklaces so it did not take long to decide! We hammered out the details: it would be a little bit like the Carmen, but would use smoky quartz, green amethyst, and crystal quartz. These are the notes I made at the time:


When I started to work on the necklace, I realized that having two smoky quartz beads next to each other would not look great because there would be too much darkness surrounding the crystal quartzes. Thus, the design was modified and the resulting Elaine necklace has alternating light and dark elements with beautiful green amethysts added to the mix:

First Olympic gold and customization

The last of the Olympian earrings is the Maelle, named after the first female Canadian to win a gold medal on home soil. There are magnificent giant citrines, matching golden tourmalines, mystic pink quartzes, and lemon quartzes:


One of my coworkers loved the cheery colours but wanted something shorter so I substituted citrine coins from the Salome earrings for the large briolettes. We also agreed to use one golden tourmaline and one hessonite per earring to liven things up and here are the resulting Kathleen earrings:

Just in time for the holidays

I love it when there is a custom order and the customer gives me some general guidelines and then lets me go wild with the design. My friend Voula liked the stones used in the custom James necklace that I made for another friend's wedding so I worked them into a different design. Here are the signature three rubies and single crystal quartz of the new Voula necklace:



Don't forget the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair is only a week away on the 28th and all of the items in the shop at aileen.etsy.com will be at the fair. It is inside the indoor tennis court behind Steveston Community Centre (4111 Moncton Road, Richmond) from 10am to 4pm and there will be goodies... The first eight customers receive a free gift, valued between $20-50, and all visitors can enter their names in a draw for a $20 gift card. I hope to see you there!

Love and marriage

My dear friends James and Elisse got hitched on Saturday, September 19th and they had a lovely ceremony and fun reception. Elisse wore a crystal quartz and three-ruby necklace called James and bridesmaids Hannah, Pam, Sam, and Fumiko wore their specially designed custom earrings. Here is a shot of Elisse signing the register, with Hannah showing off her Mare earrings:


Until the end of September, three pairs of earrings using the wedding colours are being highlighted in the shop at aileen.etsy.com. The Lorna, Talula, and Demelza use spessartites, garnets, tourmalines, and beer quartzes, and earn double the entries toward the year-end gift certificate draw!

New supplies and Arleigh mock-up

I spent a good portion of the weekend shopping in the Seattle area and naturally, one of my stops was at a bead store. Located just minutes from the I-5, Alexander's Bead Bazaar has a large selection of beads including some of the nicest high end semiprecious stones available. I was only in the store for half an hour, but I left with strands of amethyst, smoky quartz, prehnite, rose quartz, white topaz, amazonite, and vesuvianite. Pretty mint green prehnite is new to my inventory and I can't wait to make some cluster earrings with them!

A recent customer in California liked the Arleigh bracelet but found that at 7.25", it was not long enough. Several convos later, we had agreed on a sale whereupon I modified it to her desired length. Below is a mock-up I created to show her the lengthening options:

Blushing bridal jewellery

Here is a look at the custom Lila earrings I have been working on since yesterday. Leverbacks have been chosen over regular shepherds hooks for security.

A little bit of sparkle and shine for the big day

Etsy has a "convo" feature to enable buyers and sellers to contact each other and my favourite type of message is the kind where a completely stranger asks whether something can be custom made for them. I got one just tonight and although it is too early to know if anything will come of it, I am excited all the same.

This potential client is looking for earrings for her wedding and wanted something like the Paige earrings, only in light pink. I wrote back and included a photo of my rose quartzes and morganites, as well as crystal quartzes, snow quartzes, and smoky quartzes. I hope this works out because I would love to turn the rose quartz onions I bought two months ago into something worthy of a bride.

Red, red rubies

My dear friend Elisse was over last night and we picked out the stones for her bridesmaids' earrings. She is going for a fall palette and we ended up with citrine, carnelian, brown and golden tourmaline, garnet, and beer quartz. She also took a look at the pieces that I will be posting to my online shop soon and fell in love with the Katerina earrings:

Zadie last dance...

Five pieces have been added to the shop: Ceili, Shefali, April, Celeste, and Nala.

I also made the Antonia last night, but it will not be added until the next time I add pieces to the shop. It uses materials that have never appeared in Aria Industries pieces including shiny brushed oval hoops and large CZ rondelles. It is simply stunning and a preview will be posted soon.

Meanwhile, I had previously written about a pair of earrings I was making for my friend, Ying Ying. The Zadie earrings feature iolite, hematite, smoky quartz, and rough diamonds, and tonight, Ying Ying is celebrating her birthday with drinks, dinner, and dancing!

Red, white, and pink

My box of supplies is a little fuller courtesy of a mini shopping stop on Sunday. I picked up some gorgeous giant crystal quartz briolettes because I might be able to use them in a custom necklace. My dear friend Elisse is getting married in September and I'm making the jewellery for her special day (except for THE piece of course!).

She has asked for something clear and burgundy and cut out photos to show me the necklace styles she likes. We have settled on having it very simple in the front with a single clear briolette, while the back would have three hanging briolettes similar to the way an extender chain dangles. I'm in love with the idea already and just had to find the right stones!

Although I already had some long skinny deep red cubic zirconias (as seen in the Lavinia earrings) and some teeny tiny rhodolite garnet briolettes, I suspected they would not be the right size or shape. My shopping trip did not yield any burgundy stones, but I did find the crystal quartzes, which would look wonderful with my pink mystic quartzes:


I also spotted some solar quartz beads and got one, which I turned into a necklace called Kylie as soon as I got home! Here it is with morganite, vesuvianite, and golden rutile quartz: