65 freshwater pearl designs

[suzannelowrie]

Matching earrings

Matching earrings

Dear Friends of the freshwater pearl:
I wanted matching earrings too because my next-door-neighbor in Thailand always buys sets for his wife and told me to make sets. However, the Italian designer scoffed and said (in Italian) something like "matchy, matchy." I talk to him in Spanish and he slowly responds in Italian so we communicate in a broad-brush sort of way. I got the idea that he thought pearls were the ideal earring. Light weight, classic and beautiful. He thinks pearls close to the face make women more lovely (imagine at this point lots of arm waving). He did make one set for me-- the most expensive necklace has a matching bracelet and earrings. The bracelet is beautiful. Lots of rubies and pearls. I think the earrings are too heavy, but then.... I'm spoiled. I wear very small earrings. I'd wear pearl studs with the necklace and bracelet, just because that swinging leaf is solid silver. I imagine it jouncing up and down. Ouch! I've photographed it, it seemed heavy, but I never put it on. I could be wrong.

 

[callire]

Those lily earrings are GORGEOUS! I love them. Oh, with my obsessive-ness I noticed that you used the picture of "Our Matte Silver Lily" for "A Matte Silver Tropical Flower."

Weird thing is... some of them I thought I didn't like, but now I keep staring at them and they're starting to really grow on me.

(edit: I just pm'd you)

 

[jshepherd]

The designs are cool. Definitely a brandable line.

One thing on the Web site though. It is not live yet so I would strongly suggest changing the template. You might have Blue Nile coming down on you hard if you go live with what you have currently.

 

[SpaceNeedle]

Lovely designs

Do you have a shop in Thailand? We will be visiting Bangkok in March 2009 and would love to see the actual pieces.

 

[aggiep]

Well I bought a necklace. I look forward to getting it. I just wish the lily earrings could be redesigned to make it a set.

 

[Amrita]

Gorgeous designs, Suzanne! I am sure all your hard work will pay off - hugely so Good Luck!

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I could see your pieces in high end museum gift shops!

 

[GemGeek]

Most has been said, but I love the Meet our Team page, and, of course, the jewelry.

Rhodium plating is really only good for items that are already shiny. The brushed or granular textures will not have the same glow after being plated. Your pieces sure do make the most of silver as precious metal.

 

[Nathan Reed]

Excellent work! I think you have something for everyone in your wide variety of styles. I took forever to pick my top ten favourites, mainly because I kept getting over 20. Regardless, I think these are the finest:

?Polished Silver Swirl?, ?Sixteen Natural Rubies?, ?Twenty Five Natural Rubies?, ?Five 2-point Natural Rubies?, ?Fourteen Royal Blue Sapphires?, ?Four inch wide symmetrical sculpture?, ?A Vision of the Night Sky?, ?A Single Tropical Flower?, ?A Blazing Silver Star? and ?A Matte Silver Flower?

 

[Sueki]

Ooh, yes, Jeremy's right. Do heed his advice Suzanne.

 

[pearlescence]

Blue Nile?
Isn't it an oscommerce?

 

[Miriam Reed]

I like the collection. One of my favorites is the bracelet ("Eleven Natural Rubies"). I agree with Wendy that several of the pendants would look really good as enhancers. Is there a difference between "Matte Silver Tropical Flower" and "Our Matte Silver Lily" other than the size of the pearl?

 

[aggiep]

Last night as I was falling asleep your comment about doing the line in gold struck me again. You can do a partial gold/silver setting. If not a marriage of different metals in full, you can do Kum Boo where you literally adhere gold foil to the surface with high heat. I personally like gold and silver together. I also like Mokame Gane as the base metal used. Mokame would would look spectacular in some of your pieces. OK this is just me. I can't look at anything without my mind thinking of how I would change it. That is what I love about pearls. They give me such possibilities with their varied shapes.

 

[DFrey]

Hi Suzanne,
Great looking collection! If you rhodium plate everything you will lose the feeling of depth and contrast that is present in a number of the pieces now. This look is created by the contrast of high polish and matte finish on these pieces and rhodium will make everthing look chrome like and high polished. You will also lose the "handmade" look, the attention to detail that the current finish shows, and I think the current finish enhances the organic feel of the subject matter you have chosen. On the upside if you rhodium plate things will not tarnish, but there are ways of dealing with tarnish on silver.

You indicate that your rubies and sapphires are heated only. By there look especially the orange and yellow stones that they are not simply heated but are berylium treated to get those intense colors. In these silver pieces with the prices as they are I am not sure if this disclosure is essential, but if you want to disclose everything about the materials used you might want to check this out .

DFrey

 

[waimeamomi]

I love the idea of mixing some gold into the designs. I can see the anemone piece with gold orbs on the end of the spines. I have to decide on one, and it may take a while, but the looking is so much fun!

 

[jshepherd]

Blue Nile?
Isn't it an oscommerce?

I don't think so. I would be very surprised with a company their size. But I'm not referring to the e-commerce solution. I'm referring to the design. In the Web-world, such a close copy can get a new company into hot water, especially considering the product mix is similar.

http://www.lajollapearlcompany.com/catalog/
and
http://www.bluenile.com/

There is a real chance of having Blue Nile go after the site for infringement. I think it would be a lot safer without the "floating" script in the header. Then it would not seem like such a copy.

 

[Heidi]

I don't think so. I would be very surprised with a company their size. But I'm not referring to the e-commerce solution. I'm referring to the design. In the Web-world, such a close copy can get a new company into hot water, especially considering the product mix is similar.

http://www.lajollapearlcompany.com/catalog/
and
http://www.bluenile.com/

There is a real chance of having Blue Nile go after the site for infringement. I think it would be a lot safer without the "floating" script in the header. Then it would not seem like such a copy.

I'd add to this consideration the color scheme. The layout is too close for comfort, as Jeremy points out, but a different main and secondary color will help to distinguish your site.

 

[pearlescence]

It would be an international passing off action - very tricky. And if both sites are based on the os commerce platform (La jolla clearly is, though there is no acknowledgement and there should be - tisk to the webmaster) Both sides may simply be using a standard template, in which case Bluenile hasn't got much of a case because lots of others may well have used.
The blue nile one doesn't look like much of anything special and would there really be confusion - Blue nile is mostly about diamonds
American law may be different - infringement of what?

 

[CLICLASP]

Does american legislation allow to put pictures of Mrs Obama n McCaine ?

 

[jshepherd]

Blue Nile's site is definitely is not a template. Blue Nile is the Amazon of the online jewelry biz. They are more than 10 times the size of our company. They are a public company and the world's largest online seller of diamonds. In 2007, their revenue was nearly $320 million with only 195 employees. They are part of W3.org and very involved in everything virtual.

I don't know what they have trademarked, but things such as color schemes can certainly fall into that category.

We come down pretty hard when something has been copied from our site. It is a matter of protecting the brand. One has no choice in the online sphere. The least we do is file a DMCA complaint with Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are no courts with DMCA. We just have to show that something copyright or trademarked of ours is portrayed in a similar fashion on another Web site. The site is yanked from the SERPs within days. Once, we had a site pulled because they were using our name in their meta tags.

I'm only pointing this out because it is a big new-site faux pas that can really destroy a company before it even gets started. A successful DMCA complaint (for which there is little recourse) is the end for a new Web site.