The designer's corner

[Adeline Leigh]

Oh and I came by to post these too.

Hello from cold, cold Salzburg (was -20 degrees celsius last night)! You know you are a true pearl fanatic when you travel with pliers, wire, headpins and loose pearls.

Since I brought along my grey-hued pearl arsenal, the snowy cityscape inspired these.

Pair 1: Simple SS baroques drops on gold vermeil pearl findings
Pair 2: (Not an original design, I tweaked something I had bought some time ago) Lustreful akoya blue-grey pearls dangling alongside trails of SS keishis. I've woven ethiopian opal and songea sapphires within for a complementary colour palette.

And allow me to show these pearls in a jeweller's showcase in Salzburg's Old Town including tahitian dove-grey rounds and diamond rondelles, 50 (!) strands of teeny-tiny FW seed pearls with 2 huge 18mm FW pearl accents and the most glorious showstopping Australian lightning ridge opal earrings and SS round pearls. The latter's to die for; I'm so stealing that design in time to come.

In the meantime, after this post, I am going to brace the cold and try to have some fun. Wish me luck.

 

[Ash]

Caitlin, & Adeline Leigh,


Thank you for sharing your pretty creations. They have been a real pick me up to see such loveliness.

 

[Marianne]

Love the flower motifs in the middle of the snow. And the pearls of course

 

[LouiseH]

Sigh. Your work is so beautiful, Adeline.

 

[Adeline Leigh]

Thanks, Marianne, Ash and Louise. It's snowing now as I sit and type in the lobby. . .

 

[Adeline Leigh]

Excuse the self-indulgence but here too are my first ever (and probably last) earshots of the earrings.

Considering it took about 45 vain (in both senses of the word) attempts and only these 2 shots I deemed alright. I must add it was terribly hard to get good shots as these were taken singlehandedly with my neck craned out of the hotel's window to enable the light to catch these pearls at the same time letting in sub-zero drafty winds

I have newfound appreciation for all those neck and earshots you good pearl people take! You make it all look so easy.

 

[BeadersSecret]

Hi Caitlin, love the pendant, it is very eye catching.

Adeline Leigh, stunning work, I particularly like the second pair.

 

[Katbran]

some stuff

some stuff

OK I'm biting the pearl and posting a couple of photos..be kind.. I'm a complete newbie!

Green Fluorite chunks with SS lumpy beads, matt Flourite rounds and FW 13mm-15mm or so.

FW 10mm pearls, Peridot tiny beads, Peridot nuggets, and Rough Citrine and two types of Citrine faceted beads and little rolled gold beads

Chinese kasumi style, rosy/lavender/platinum shades with little Amethyst faceted roundels and rolled gold (this one needs to be redone.. there's a fatal flaw)

 

[pattye]

Katbran,

All Gorgeous! Very creative! Lovely color combinations every one; the Chinese kasumi and amethyst are amazing together! I certainly understand about redoes, whether because of a fatal flaw, bored with design or needing certain beads for another project! Are you knotting or stringing on wire? Thanks for giving sizes and types of pearls and stones.

 

[Katbran]

Thanks Pattye, you are very kind! They are on the very fine softflex.

 

[Marianne]

Katbran, These are lovely and as Pattye said, great color combinations. Part of the fun of making jewelry is getting to do it over till you get just what you want! Keep up the good work (or play

 

[Ash]

Katbran,

Lovely stuff!! They are beautiful pieces! Loving the color combos.

Cheers

Ash

 

[Adeline Leigh]

I really like the raw chunks of fluorite and those pearls. That's a modern uber cool design. Has that gotten a wearing yet? Did those oohs and ahhs resound

As for the fatal flaw in the lookalike kasumis and amethysts, I can barely tell. But you would know... Pattye's right, once we fixate on that flaw, the hours that went into it are forgotten. Here's to an easier time the second time round.

 

[Katbran]

Ugh I hate the thought of all those tiny beads tho they weren't quite tiny enough!! lol I was all finished, picked it up to take a good look..and one little bead slid down over the tubes.....yup.. tiniest bit bigger hole and they can slide...sigh...I didn't have the patience to fix it...probably can deal with it now tho..

I need to stop being impulsive and actually plan a bit better! I just start fiddling with things and next thing you know its done...but the wrong length or there's a mistake in the pattern...lol .. no wonder I failed at knitting!

Thanks again for the kind words Adeline and Ash!

 

[Adeline Leigh]

Keshi pearls on ropes

Keshi pearls on ropes

A month ago, temperatures in tropical Singapore plunged overnight triggering the mass blooming of wild orchids in my garden. These epiphytes are pigeon orchids that produce the most deliciously scented blooms (think notes of creamy vanilla and frangipani) and I had to 'document' them in some way or another. Nature has her contradictions and unlike her hardier cousins whose blooms last for weeks on end, the highly scented wild orchids' (most orchids have nary a smell) beauty is fleeting as they perish by the 3rd day's daylight.

Given my mum needed cheering up as she's still recuperating from her knee replacement surgery, I made ropes (so unlike me and my penchant for earrings) and more ropes of cupped keshis and thick nacred baroque coin pearls. The findings were silver and this is my best attempt to 'capture' the shades of colour of the pigeon orchids.

The other picture is a photo-op I couldn't miss; some of the Chinese lookalike 'kasumis' in my collection with hues similar to those of the pigeon orchids.

I love my pearls and flowers so...

 

[Artpearl]

Hello Adeline,

Really beautiful earrings, I love the floral design. The pearls are very nice and have a lovely sway to them.

 

[Isabelle35]

Hi Adeline,

Again, I love your work. Those "cluster earrings" are fab! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Chameleon]

Lovely pearls, specially the earrings with the "flower" top! And the wild orcids . Are those cattleya type (can't tell from the photo)?

 

[Adeline Leigh]

Thanks, Chameleon, Isabelle and Louise. The akoya baroques and saltwater keishis with the etched flower findings are not of my own design, I'm afraid. But I'm happy to take credit for replacing most of the pearls that came along with it and I couldn't resist weaving in gems too!

The pigeon orchid is from the dendrobium genus. What is amazing about the masses of wild little blooms is how they thrive without any care. If you are an orchid grower, you will know how much effort it takes to coax a bloom out of these finicky plants and how rare it is to find an orchid with a scent. The wild orchid bloom cycle is triggered by sudden drops in temperature (at least 5.5 ?C or 10 ?F), usually as a result of rain, and the next 2 days, the garden is an aromatic wonderland.

Before pearls and gems, my other love was perfumes. My husband often jokes how I couldn't possibly use up the perfumes I own in this life time. Hah! He hasn't seen where I hide the pearls If only my favourite nose Jean-Claude Ellena can perform his alchemy and bottle this sweet, balsamic and yet delicate scent. And for good measure, he can grind some pearls into it as well!

 

[Chameleon]

Hi Adeline!

Your own designs are also wonderful. Specially, when I think how much time all the wrapings will take

I love the light scented orcids and have got a few. No dendrobiums thow. I guess, after your introduction to the pearls, you still have "some" parfumes . I always had too many too. Still have...