Watching Bella

A new pair of earrings was completed while I watched a movie called Bella last night. The Isis uses the same textured hoops as the ones in the Rhonwyn earrings and has a very simple design with rainbow moonstone and snow quartz in graduated sizes. Overall, the earrings appear white, although of course the rainbow moonstones have beautiful blue and yellow-green flashes when light hits them at the right angle. I hope to post the earrings in the shop in the next week or two!

EotW: Joanie

Last week's EotW was Chelsea and this week's special is Joanie. Normally $50, they are $45 until Saturday, March 22nd. The stones are pink topaz, pink tourmaline, citrine, and morganite.

Colours: spring inspiration

I haven't yet had the chance to start the Drina or Isis earrings, but wanted to capture a colour swatch that makes me feel all girly and pretty. I hope to make something from these beads eventually:

When I wasn't photographing icicles at the lodge...

My trip to Vegas was a lot of fun, but now that I am back I have begun working on some new ideas. One piece is already complete and consists of green apatite chips, faceted moss aquamarine, and faceted smoky quartz. These earrings have been named Nicola and also use flat oval findings that I picked up in Hong Kong in the fall.

In the works are two more pairs of earrings: the Drina will have magnesite, sometimes erroneously called white turquoise, plus peach and orange aventurine, while the Isis will pair rainbow moonstone with snow quartz. The idea for these two designs came to me during my trip, specifically when I was at Bright Angel Lodge during my Grand Canyon excursion, so I can't wait to put them together!

New pieces: Paloma, Rita, Dana

Four new pieces were added to aileen.etsy.com yesterday. I've already written about the Carly, but the Paloma is neat too:


Then there is the Rita, a large pair of earrings with wood and cool sterling silver shapes:


Lastly there is the Dana, which was made with the O of two toggles because the bars were too short to be used as a clasp. I initially was going to leave the earrings free of any stones, but before I knew it I had rifled through my beads and found the pairing of smoky quartz and carnelian too pretty to pass up:

EotW: Talisa

The latest earrings of the week are the Talisa. The highlights are the vivid blue apatites that call to mind the clear blue waters of the Caribbean, but the unusual shape of the sterling connectors is not to be missed either. Regularly $25, the EotW price for the Talisa earrings is $22.


Note: Since I will be out of town from Thursday until the early hours of Monday, the next EotW will be announced next Monday instead of Sunday.

Design evolution: Carly

The Carly is finally done and below are some photos to show the design evolution...

When inspiration hit, I was somewhere between Istanbul and Vienna last fall and I did a quick sketch of the design on some Hilton notepaper:


When I decided to turn the sketch into something tangible, I modified the design a little:


And here is the finished piece:


Clearly things don't always turn out the way they looked in my head or on paper, and the Carly was no exception. I ended up going with the original length of chain for the large round beads between the draping, while the small beads connecting the draped chains had to be adjusted for the side drapes to take into account the way the necklace sits on the body. Regardless, I'm pretty happy with how the piece turned out and have to say that it looks much better around a neck than on a flat surface!

Adventures in CSS

The last few days were spent experimenting with the layout of this blog and I have finally settled on something I can live with. The most noticeable changes include moving the tags to the bottom of the page and the addition of a mini profile at the right. The rest of the changes are minor but took a long time because while I am fluent in HTML, the more sophisticated CSS confounds me at times.

The work-in-progress name for the black onyx necklace is Carly, but whether I end up going with that name remains to be seen since some pieces end up with a completely different personality when they are finished. I hope to complete it in the next few days so I can post it to the shop along with the Rita earrings (wood), Dana earrings (smoky quartz and carnelian), and Paloma bracelet (muscovite, champagne CZ, and pearls).

EotW: Regan

A new promotion debuted at the beginning of this month: a different pair of earrings is featured and discounted each week. The current pair is Regan, an elegant design with dark blue kyanite. They are normally $50, but are discounted at $45 until the listing is changed some time on Sunday.


EotW purchases are worth two tickets in the $50 gift certificate draw that will be held at the end of the year. Customers at the store get one ticket for each item purchased unless they chose an EotW item while it was the EotW! The great thing about the prize is that it can be made in the name of the winner or anyone he or she chooses, which means it can be given away as a present!

Born in the Balkans

Somewhere between Istanbul and Vienna, a necklace idea popped into my head last fall and I have finally decided to make it. The part that fits around the neck will be exactly 16" long and it's going to have several dangly bits of chain and black onyx. I miss having a black necklace around now that the Nancy has sold so this should fill in nicely.