June Challenge: Designing with Pearls

The Starving Jewelry Artists Monthly Team Challenge is a way of encouraging one another to grow as artists by stimulating our minds and our creativity to move in a new direction.

There is no voting.

There are no prizes.

There is fun, the joy of creating, and the pleasure of seeing how other jewelry artists interpret the theme.

June's traditional birthstone is the pearl. Pearls don't just come in ladylike strands anymore. They are sold in countless shapes and in every color of the rainbow. Is your style demure and understated or wild and bold? June's challenge was to show us what you can do with the gift of the oyster and mussel.

Pearls in a multi-strand bracelet by Galadryl.

Sylvia finished first with a beautiful multi-strand bracelet that combined soft gleaming pearls and sterling silver. There are some crystals in there for the perfect dose of bling.

Cat's use of texture makes this a stunning piece.

Cat gave us a feast for the eyes with a seven strand fine silver wire crochet (chain stitch) necklace with dark beads, lava stone in two shapes, peacock freshwater pearls, and hematite in different sizes and shapes. 

Pearls are a perfect wedding adornment in these earrings by Beadsire.

Caron provided us a glimpse of these elegant pearl earrings made for a wedding party in England. Don't they make you wish you could see the pictures of the ceremony?

Bonnie added pearls to a vintage rhinestone shoe clip for this bracelet.

My contribution from The FamiLee Jewels mixed vintage rhinestone jewelry with the softness of freshwater pearls in a seamless combination of old and new.

Beaded bead earrings by Island Girl

Lynne made beaded beads using pearls. She suspended them from delicate ear wires with fine silver chain for a feminine fashion statement.

As you can see from our accomplishments artists love a challenge. Won't you consider joining us in July's Fly me to the Moon Challenge?

Old Photographs and Fashion

I've been going through the huge pile of photographs in my den. To my horror some had bonded with the plastic film on those old "magnetic film" pages in a couple of albums. Fortunately the ones lost were mostly sightseeing pics. But 25-year-old pics of my children were starting to brown around the edges and the colors were fading and the deep darks were lightening. This is ironic because I worked for Kodak in the 1980's. So, my big project for this long and snowy winter has been to scan and fix photos that will soon be useless and nothing more than bits of paper.

Oddly enough, the old black and white baby pics of my grandmother (1898) and other family members were in better condition. The images were fairly clear, although they still required a bit of adjusting, mostly the shadows. Well, while looking through 115 years of photos, including tintypes (yes, those photos were actually on tin), I came across some very stylish ladies. Some I knew and some I didn't. Then I wondered what they might have worn as jewelry? (Or not, depending on the situation.)

The photo at the start of this post has a date of 1919. I have no idea of who she is (please, please mark names on the back of your photos, people!). This was probably a school graduation photo since she's all dressed in white. The only thing she's wearing is a flower corsage and a really big bow in her hair.

Fast forward to the 1920's. This lady appears to be wearing another corsage or maybe a fabric flower. (Fabric flowers are seen often in today's fashions.)



Now to the 1930's. Here's my grandmother wearing in a typical streamlined suit. Notice the the hat has a brooch or pin in it:

I got to thinking what she might have worn, so here's a typical pin (from "Vintagecostumejewelry"):

This reminds me of the color forcasts in previous posts.

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with jewelry but it's simply too cute not to post here (my mother, late 1920's, she's about 4 yrs. old):



Last but not least, for all the men reading this: be glad your baby photo didn't look like this: my grandfather is the baby, his brother is in...the dress. This was common among middle class families at the turn of the century.

(At least the older brother didn't have long curls like my other grandfather had to wear! He was still embarassed by that photo until the day he died. But he had really nice hair...)