Monday, March 16, 2015

Sheryl's bracelet

A while ago, I received a phone message out of the blue from a woman named Sheryl. She was given my name and number at one of the galleries I sell my jewelry in. She really liked my style and wondered if I'd be willing to take her broken jewelry and create something new with the parts.
This is not something I had done before, but I agreed to meet her, and look at her broken jewelry. I knew that if she liked blingy, shiny things, I'd be in trouble (I do a little bling from time to time, but I really don't do shiny). I probably should not have been nervous. After all, she said she like my jewelry in the gallery.
We set up a meeting. She is really a lovely woman, and she loves jewelry, especially jewelry made with natural stones. While that's up my alley, it's hard to make stone jewelry on 20 gauge wire, since the holes are usually too small.
She also really likes the necklaces I make with Mahjong playing pieces. I am "famous" in her circle of friends..."this is the jewelry designer that makes the Mahjong necklaces..." she says. Her friends reply knowingly "Ahh".
I took on 4 or 5 projects and she was happy with them all. I made 2 Mahjong necklaces for her, with my mahjong piece and her beads and a few other necklaces using her beads.

So, over the last several months, I've made jewelry for her. And I did some minor repair work on a couple pieces. I really wish I'd taken photos of the jewelry I made, so I could post the photos here.
But I forgot. (with my head lowered in regret)

But I have finished a bracelet re-design for Sheryl, and, believe it or not, I took photos!!
Here is the before photo, sorry it's not great. I took this photo, to get her feedback on the surrounding beads. This bracelet was heavy and had two clasps. There is a carved Sterling clasp that is lovely, but it felt a bit too curved to fit a normal wrist. The focal, which is Sterling and Lapis, is also a clasp. I decided to only use the focal as the clasp (that leaves the other clasp for another project).
Here is the before photo...
 
 
Here it is "after". I looked through my stash of blue beads to see what matched the Lapis focal. It took me a couple months to firm up my idea. I knew it had to be at least 3 strands, so I made one strand chain, one strand beads, and the third strand chain and beads. There's lots of Czech glass, some lapis and sodalite beads, some cloisonné. While the clasp is Sterling, I did not use any other Sterling components, which was fine with her. (this would have been fabulously expensive if I had) And I added in some green beads with the blue beads.

 We met a few weeks ago, so she could see it and try it on. It was a tad too big (she has petite wrists!) I switched out some larger beads for some smaller beads and removed a couple links of chain.
We met up again this weekend. It fits her wrist like a charm! I hope she is happy with it and will wear it often.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for leaving me a comment!