Charming to be 13!

Kaitlin & Breana's dear friend, Julia, celebrated her 13th birthday last week. We pulled out our pearls & beads and took a moment to feast our eyes on all the open cases. Thankfully when you have a certain purpose or a special person in mind the creative process flows easily. Kaitlin designed the necklace above and I knotted the silk thread between each pearl. I hadn't knotted pearl necklaces in quite some time which made me a bit clumsy in the beginning but once I got started I got into a smooth rhythmn and the necklace was finished in no time. We made the necklace 17" so that it will sit right above a crew neck. I wanted this jewelry to be a piece that Julia could wear for years to come. I even added a bigger sterling silver ring at the clasp to help make it easier to put on.
The necklace is truly Julia ~ sweet & classic.

Breana chose beads from her own collection [she has quite the array of beads!] She made a single charm that hung from clear elastic. I suggested hemp yarn or colored yarn but Breana wanted the piece to be sweet & simple, "like Julia" she said. If you don't know Julia you were just given a solid glimpse of her by the 2 necklaces that Kaitlin & Breana made for her. For the 'clasp', I double-knotted the ends and glued them into a red bead.
The girls also wanted to add a Harajuku bag that we found the afternoon before her party. I was a bit embarrassed that I didn't know what a Harajuku Lover bag was {I was told by my 12 & 11 yr olds that everyone knows what harajuku is!} - I googled 'harajuko' and came up with the website above...how adorable! Ah, to be 13!

It's as blurry as my memory...

I use to make a lot of jewelry. In fact, 8 years ago my two sisters & I started a children's jewelry line, "Three Little Wishes" - getting the idea from what our parents refer to us as, 'their 3 gems', which is from our birthstones - saphire, ruby & diamond. When the granddaughters were babies and going through baptisms and family parties, my Mother couldn't find fine jewelry to match the affair or outfit so she found beautiful pearls from a gem & stone show and set us to work. Soon we perfected knotting silk thread in a timely manner and each granddaughter had a necklace and matching bracelet. {Oh where, oh where, are those pictures?}

Our Classic/Heirloom line consisted of gray, pink or white pearls for a 4 year-old to a premie. The line was delicate in style, sweet, simple & high quality = Classic. We were filling special orders and making all our gifts until life got busy with our little ones, we lived 1 1/2 hours from each other at the time (oppose to 1 1/2 blocks as we do now) and our enthusiasm & energy dwindled.

The inventory is in my studio which my daughters & I use to create our own jewelry and gifts from. My studio right now is a complete joke - ahem, use to be an art studio but now is storage - ahemahem, screaming to be an art studio again! Everytime I get created I have to shimmy between & climb over stacked boxes and feel my way around praying that my fingers don't meet a spider by accident!

Somewhere in the studio I also have a bowl of buttons. I call these my 'MunkiMunki' buttons because they were used on that adorable MunkiMunki children's clothing line back in the day when my girls wore sweet dresses w/ bows in their hair - sigh...

With the pearls & MunkiMunki buttons mixed in with thrifted buttons and wire, I made the above bracelet. There's even a button (the one facing the opposite direction) that came from a favorite old thrifted men's blazer from way back in the day when a thrifted men's blazer was from the 1950's and sold for $2-$3 tops.

I originally made this for a friend but it had such sentimental value that I had to keep it. I did make her another bracelet that I put just as much as love into but filled it with stories that she could carry around as her own.

Oddly enough this bracelet kept following off this particular day (ok, maybe another reason why I didn't give it as a gift - this bracelet, in a sense, was my tester. After this one I had a better idea on how my clasps should be - bracelets made after this one were much more secure and non-MacGyver looking.) This day whenever the clasp would come undown I'd feel the bracelet slip off my wrist except at the end of the day while I was walking away from my daughter a cute bracelet caught my eye in her backpack - hmmm...how adorable - looks familiar...hey!!!

Made with love...and laughter

I really wanted to make a special bracelet for my friend. I wanted it to symbolize the 6 years we dedicated to this Violin Program and mark the end of our relationship as Violin Teacher & Piano Accompanist. Days would go by without a single bead out of its case as we got closer & closer to the day I should give it to her. You know how it goes, the creative desire has to be in your blood. The chosing of beads and materials have to come naturally, not forced. I had to get into that space in my head where the creative juices were flowing...
It wasn't until the night before, of course.
Breana's G & A string needed to be changed on her violin. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to changing violin strings; everything needs to be pointing in the same direction, the strings need to be wound so that it's spiraling around the peg not overlapping each other, etc...it's a meticulous task but not only helps the notes ring perfectly but makes the violin look, you got it, pretty.
So I'm changing the strings when it occurs to me...bing...I should make bracelets out of the string! I chose the A string because of the two it's smaller so I thought it would be easier to string beads on. The first bracelet was quick & easy. I let the color of the Dominant A String be part of the bracelet and I went from there - quite simple. For the second bracelet I attempted to use the rest of the A string but hit a few snags of unraveling string which didn't leave me enough to for a second bracelet. So I frantically started looking for the other string.
"Breana! Where's the G string? I can't find the G string!" is what Dan walked into.
His look was priceless. I didn't know he could raise his eyebrow!
"In your dresser drawer?" he cautiously but facetiously answered. :)
The second bracelet made with the VIOLIN G string (mind you) was made using letters simulating old typewriter keys from Michael's to spell out "Violin". It fit so nicely I was tempted to keep it! It's that same old thing with me - I wanna keep everything I make.

When I gave the bracelets to Lisa I shared the "G String" story with her. We had a grand laugh. Funny, we never ever thought of that string in that way and never will I ever ever be able to go to the music store and say "I'd like to buy a G string, please" without a little smirk! ;)