Where Do You Find Inspiration?

 Last spring my husband and I spent a month in La Quinta, near Palm Springs and I took advantage of all the beautiful window shopping available in the area.  One of my favorite  pieces of eye candy was a stunning bracelet in the design studio of Denise Roberge.  Her workshop is on the premises of her showroon and as I understand it , she personally picks all the gemstone and all her designs are hand forged and cast in pure 22k gold.  She's an incredible artist and her jewelry is a work of art.  My mother has collected some of her work over the years and the pieces are timeless classics.  The bracelet I fell in love with had three humongous barrel shaped tourmalines set in rich heavy yellow gold--a piece worthy of an Etruscan princess, with a price tag to match.   I wish I had a picture of that gorgeous bracelet to share, so you could drool over it with me, but alas I don't. (at the bottom of the page I will post one of her stunning designs so you can see what I mean by stunning art)

I've thought about that piece ever since, so when I came across a strand of large carved flourite beads I knew I wanted to try them in a bracelet.  These might be the prettiest colors of flourite beads I've ever seen--one is aquamarine, another a teal blue (almost the color of blue tourmaline) and the third bead is the same rich aquamarine color with amethyst color in one corner.  I don't think I would have thought that size of bead was suitable for a bracelet without my 'inspiration piece'.  Of course what I did  has nothing in common with the original inspiration except perhaps that I used three large stones.  I have to say thank you though for putting the seed of inspiration in my head and giving me the courage to plunge ahead with a new idea.

I combined the stones with hammered gold vermeil toggle clasp and a single hammered vermeil bead and linked them together with goldfilled chain.  The bracelet is easy to wear and flexible and I really love the way it looks on the wrist. To give you an idea of the size of the stones--they weigh over 42 carats per gemstone,  and each stone is almost an inch long, and the yummy colors, oh my!  Now I'm off to try another idea--there's inspiration everywhere.


This is not the piece that inspired me, but the same designer--this piece would inspire anyone.  Gorgeous to the max!

Three Little Gems

One, Two, Three simple 16" necklaces.

 Labradorite rondelles with silvery sparkle.sterling silver accents and a multi-labradorite dangle.  Rondelles are 4.5-5mm.  Total length 16"

Pale transparent watermelon tourmaline rondelles strung with a sweetheart sterling clasp, 16" long.  3 to 3.5 mm rondelles beautifully strung. 

Apatite rondelles combined with sterling chain and a Saki sterling silver clasp 16" total length. Rondelles are 4mm-4.5mm

Sooo...Are you Curious????

Here are the fruits of my labor yesterday--after playing and playing and playing again with the limited stash I had, this is the neckace I made from the beads in the picture I posted yesterday. I was going for something quite long--36" long in fact that was playful and modern. I wanted more artisan lampwork, but I just had to make do with little accents I had. So cinnabar, Bali sterling silver and onyx had to fill in the gaps. Wouldn't it be fun someday to give a half dozen designers the exact same supplies and see what we all come up with. I'm sure there wouldn't be a similar piece in the bunch. That is the really fun thing about jewelry design to me. There is no right or wrong and you can let your own muse sing, as much or as little as you like. Life is like that really, we all have the right to choose our path and wouldn't it be boring if we were all exactly the same??? I certainly think so!

Who said "The world is so full of a number of things, I think we should all be as happy as kings!" Find something to be grateful for today! My list is overflowing.