Meet my new jewelry model

Photographing jewelry is a difficult task. I often take dozens of pictures until I get the results I want. Over the years I've developed my tricks and accessories to help me get the best results. However, sometimes you just can't express the beauty of a jewelry design unless you see it on a real person.


I have been asking my beautiful sister for some time now to model for me and she finally said yes! It's amazing how different it makes some items look. I just hope everyone can stay focused on the jewelry designs and not on the pretty model :-)
 
Here are some "before and after" pictures. What do you think represents my jewelry better? Let me know in the comments below.
 

Top 5

I was looking at my statistics for the month of November and noticed an interesting fact. It seems all the top 5 items that were most popular in my store this month, were rings! No earrings, necklaces, bangles, just rings. So thought I'd share with you what my top 5 popular jewelry items were:

5. Bubble ring.

4. Black rose ring

3. Square opal ring

2. Set of 3 hammered gold-filled rings

1. Branch ring

Wonder which items will be most popular next month.

Black Friday goes international !

It has been a while since I last wrote in my blog. I had a lot of things on my plate and I just didn't get around to it. But I am back now!

I wanted to share some thoughts about black friday. Black Friday is basically an American thing. A few years ago I didn't even know that it existed. As I live in Israel where most people are jewish, Christmas is not celebrated here and there is no shopping frenzy.

But as the world becomes more and more of a small global village, in recent years several shops here in Israel started having black Friday sales and this trend seems to be catching on. After all everyone loves a good sale and you don't even need a special reason for it right?

So far I have seen these sales mainly in electronics stores which is not very helpful since I don't need any new electronic devices right now (I always want new devices but I really don't need any). But who knows if this trend continues to spread, maybe I will also be able to enjoy great sales without having to travel overseas!

I am also having a black Friday-cyber Monday sale in my Etsy store. Use coupon code "cybermonday" when you purchase something from my store and you will get free shipping. No limit on the number of items you can buy, everything ships for free worldwide. Happy holidays and happy shopping!

Variations - same design in different colors

Being a creative person I don't really like repeating myself. I enjoy making new jewelry designs all the time and re-inventing myself. On the other hand, since I became a professional jewelry designer and started selling my designs I understant that I sometimes need to think about things from a buyes' point of view.

One good example for this is offering various color options for the same design. In the past I used to make each jewelry piece in one color only. I picked the gemstones that seemed best for the item and that was it. Then one day it hit me - this was not so smart. If I was a customer looking for a pink ring to fit my outfit and I found a ring I liked but was in the wrong color, what would I do? Most likely I would go on looking somewhere else. So wouldn't it be much smarter to offer the ring in a variety of colors so that anyone who likes it can find a color they like and fits them?

It just seems logical. After all, different people like different colors and why shouldn't they have a choice?

Some artists might see this as a compomise but I think it is just me thinking of my buyers needs. After all if I wanted to make jewelry just for myself I would not be selling them!

What do you think?

Stackable Turquoise flower ring



Set of 3 sterling silver stacking rings - red, pink and purple



Stackable Perinite flower ring



Metalsmithing in hot summer days

I love my work. I enjoy sitting in my studio and working on new jewelry designs. Watching as simple wires and sheets transform into wearable jewelry pieces.

The only exception is summer! Summer is a real joy killer when it comes to metalsmithing. Soldering with hot fire is the last thing you want to do in such hot summer days!

In my previous studio I had no air conditioning so this was even more difficult. When I moved to my new studio, air conditioning was the first thing I installed. But even with the air condition, working with fire is still hot. So I find myself only working on orders I've received. New jewelry designs will have to wait just a little bit longer - until fall arrives.

Here are a few items I've created before the summer hit:

1. sterling silver and red Agate circle of flowers pendant

2. Big asymetric flower earrings with texture

3. 3 petals leaf - sterling silver long earrings

The funny story of my dragonfly earrings

I wanted to share a funny story about a dragonfly design I've been working on. To be honest, I don't like dragonflies too much in real, life but somehow in art forms they are just adorable. I have created several designs with a dragonfly center. I have a pendant, some hoops and a skinny bangle. For a while now I have been wanting to make a pair of dragonfly earrings with some dangling beads to add some colors to them. But the funniest thing happens every time I try to make these earrings. Every time I start working on a dragonfly I get a sale of one of my existing dragonfly designs. So I end up using the dragonfly I made to fill the order I received and the earrings don't get done. Once I tried making 2, just in case this happens again and guess what? I got 2 orders for dragonflies. What do you think is it just a strange coincidence or is someone trying to send me a message?

No picture of the earrings since they remain unfinished. If I ever manage to get them done, I promise to post a picture. 

My jewelry washing machine!

Ever wonder how jewelry gets it's beautiful shine?

Friends who visit me in the studio are often surprised to see how my jewelry look like before they are finised.

I make most of my jewelry from scratch. This means I take raw material like silver wires or silver sheets and work with them to create my design. I cut, drill, bend, solder etc, as needed to create the design I have in mind. When I am done, the metal has the shape and form that I intended for them to have but not the color and shine of silver jewelry as you know it. Not yet.

To make them shine and sparkle they need to be cleaned and polished.

For the final step I enter my jewelry into a thumbler. There are many different kinds of thumblers, mine is a rotary thumbler. Basically it works like a washing machine - for jewelry.

I put in my jewelry with a spcial soap, set the timer and press start. The machine then starts turning and thumbling and when it's done - my jewelry comes out clean and sparkling!

I love taking the items out of the thumbler and seeing how beautiful and shiny they look. Don't you?

Thin stackable bangles

My latest favorite jewelry items are thin stackable bangles. The idea to start making them came to me when I was making an order for a thin stackable ring. I started thinking this would look nice as a bracelet as well. So I made a few and listed them in my store.

I have made some colorful ones with various gemstones and some others with silver elements like a butterfly, teardrop, leaf etc.

Usually I am not a bracelet fan. As I once mentioned, I am more of an earrings person. But these bangles are really fun. You can hardly feel you are wearing them and they look so cool and chic. I suddenly find myself enjoying wearing bracelets!

You can wear these alone or stack a few together if you like a chunkier look. I will be developing more variations and designs to expand this line of bangles. So if you like them, be sure to check back soon for some new stuff!

New bubbles line

After a long time of absence, I am resuming my blog. So what's new?

Summer is almost here and I have been working on many new designs. One of the motifs I have been working on is - bubbles!

This is such a fantastic motif for all seasons and especially for summer. So I've been making jewelry designs that are made of or filled with lots of bubbles in different sizes.

In some of these new designs I focused on metal only. Summer is the time of year where you might wear very colorful outfits and a neutral, sterling silver item can fit perfectly with anything.

In other designs I have included gemstones as well that compliment the bubble design.

So, hope you like my new bubbles jewelry. More designs in this line will follow soon as well as other new designs that I will be listing shortly.

See you soon!

Wire crochet jewelry

I learned to crochet when I was a teenager. A few years later I found myself mixing this technique with traditional metalsmithing and creating my line of wire crochet jewelry. This was one of my favorite lines. When I opened my b&m store people seemed to share my love for this collection and many of the jewelry items from this collection were best sellers.

For some reason I stopped making these crocheted designs. Maybe I got a bit tired and needed to explore a few other techniques for a while. Anyway, enough time has passed and I am now resuming this beautiful technique and making some new jewelry for my stores.

Here are a few examples: