Silver wire wrapped pink flower enamel pendant with crystals

For most of this semester I've been making champleve pieces in my enameling class. However, a few weeks ago, I went back to designing a simple enamel and cloisonne pendant. I hadn't made one in a long time and I wanted to make sure that I didn't forget how to do that particular technique.

I arranged the cloisonne into a classic flower design. It may look pretty simple, but setting the flower petals turned out to be trickier than I imagined because cloisonne wire sometimes moves a bit when the piece is fired in the kiln. With abstract pieces this isn't that big of a deal, but it can be a pain when you need the cloisonne to be in an exact position -- like with a flower. I solved the problem, though, by firing a bit of the cloisonne at a time. This way, the remaining pieces of wire could lean against the already-fired cloisonne and would stay in place.

To get this particular shade of blue, I did some color combining and mixed water blue enamel with nitric blue. Just to be clear, you can't really mix enamels when the glass is in the dry powder stage -- but you can layer colors to get some shading. So I fired the water blue first and then layered the nitric blue on top of it to get this rich hue.

The flower's color is called raspberry. I love it because it's such a deep shade of pink and it really stands out against the blue. In its powdered form, it doesn't look like the raspberry will be very bright -- in fact, it's kind of pale -- but it looks a lot different once its fired and glossy. This is the case with a lot of enamels, actually; they look different once fired and cooled, which is why it's important to make a test strip of colors.

My finish for the necklace is pretty simple: I made a silver wire wrapped chain and added a few blue crystals... but I think the end result makes a nice showpiece. This is the kind of necklace that you wear for special occasions because it's so eye-catching, though it works with casual outfits, too. And flowers will always be fashionable in some way; they're a very classic design.

To purchase my jewellery, head to Naomi's Designs or MayaGirl Creations.

Enamel Pendant With Pink Flower Design

As expected, my enameling class is turning out to be a lot of fun. I like that I'm now considered to be an "advanced" student and am pretty much lft alone to do my own thing. Even better, everyone is really nice and we have a lot of laughs.

My teacher keeps a lot of old jewelry magazines around the studio -- partially so we can look at the designs and partially so we can use the pages. When sifting the enamel, you want to save as much of the leftover as possible (it's expensive!) so we sift over a torn-out magazine page. Once we're finished, we dump the excess enamel powder back into its jar. This way, we're not wasting any of the glass.

Anyway, this last week, my teacher had a German jewelry magazine that was simply called "Schmuck." Now schmuck means "jewelry" in German so that was the magazine's title: "Jewelry." But, well, it means something a bit more saucy in Yiddish (think a part of the male anatomy) and the naughty term has been picked up as such in English. So, of course, we all turned into 12-year-olds and laughed and laughed at this title. Silly, I know, but it was fun!

We then had a very spirited discussion about Dancing With The Stars and for whom we are all rooting this season. Most of us are impressed with Kelly Monaco. NO ONE in the class wants to see Bristol Palin win!

With all the joking around, I did get a lot of work done. I played around with some brown shades of enamel because I'm looking to make some warm, earthy pieces of jewelry. I also think I'd like to use those shades for my parents' tray. Meanwhile, I made this flower pendant for my mother-in-law, who's birthday is this weekend:

I was going for a natural look so I didn't use any cloisonne wire in this piece, but now I'm wishing I did. When the enamel is in its powdered glass form, the color doesn't look quite like it does when it's fired. So the light brown and pink looked very similar and I found it difficult to paint within the lines. I kept painting over the pink petals of the flowers or I'd be too cautious and leave too much white space between the flowers and the brown background.

Still, I think it's pretty and hope that my mother-in-law likes it. If anything, I think that she'll appreciate the fact that I made it for her. Next week, definitely back to using cloisonne!

To purchase my jewellery, head to Naomi's Designs. To purchase my children's jewelry, head to MayaGirl Creations.

Bridal Necklace: Swarovski Crystal Pearl Necklace With Silver Flowers

I was inspired to make this necklace by a friend who loves antique jewelry. She asked if I could make something that looked vintage, which is when I came up with this idea.

I originally set out to make a bib necklace comprised of wire flowers with Swarovski crystal pearls in the center. However, as I created it, I decided that the wire daisies would look better as a smaller pendant. With the way they're connected, they resemble a lace doily -- which to me, always reminds me of my Grandma's home.

The rest of the necklace is fairly simple; I strung some Swarovski crystal pearls and connected them with floral accents. I really like how it came out, though, and think that it does look like a piece that my Grandma would've worn or that you'd find in an antique shop. It's a pearl necklace plus.

What's great about this piece is that it works as a wedding necklace or with a casual outfit. It would work really well with a sweater set. Pearls are great because they're so versatile, both in wearing them and when it comes to incorporating them into jewelry.

To purchase my jewelry, head to Naomi's Designs.