Bohemian Inspired Jewelry by Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel

I was totally thrilled to be asked to review Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel's new book: Bohemian Inspired Jewelry. I've been a fan of Lorelei's for some time now—her assymetrical designs—all her jewelry designs actually—really are amazing! Through Lorelei's blogging I discovered Erin and wow!—she does some incredibly neat things with fiber—love them all! Lorelei and Erin have been such an inspiration to me in my own jewelry making.

Bohemian Inspired Jewelry is both beautiful and informative. The photos and of course, the jewelry in them are absolutely gorgeous! As you turn the pages, you'll be wanting to reach out and hold the jewelry in your own hands. The instructions cover everything you need to know—from all the basics of using leather, ribbon, and cords, up to more advanced and complex techniques—but they are all so well explained that anyone, even a jewelry maker who's just starting out, could jump right in and be able to follow any one of the examples and get fantastic results.

If you've seen any of my recent jewelry you'll know I love macrame and tassels and have just started adding more fiber and cords to my designs. So, my review really wouldn't be complete without making a design from the book. I couldn't pick just ONE favorite, so I pulled together some elements from a few different ones and here's what I created:

I used hemp cord, lace, czech crystals, my own ridged rounds, antique brass findings, and an assortment of seed beads.

I had SO much fun!
I'll definitely be recommending this book to everyone I know who loves jewelry making!


Go here to join the blog party celebration and meet the authors and contributors. And you'll be able to enter to win jewelry from the book and a free copy of Bohemian Inspired Jewelry!!
 

Have fun!

Pretty Roses in My Garden ~ 52 Earrings: week 22

Oops! I was so busy that I missed making earrings for week 21... yikes! The theme was "sea". I had some good ideas going, but didn't get any of them finished in time. So I'll try again next week and hopefully get caught up... and show you TWO pairs! :-)

Here's what I made for this week (week 22, if anyone's counting)...

If I had a flower garden, it would be full of roses in all colors. I love roses!

I made these rose beads using the same mold I had made for my Scattered Roses earrings a couple weeks back. I cast them in a deep red clay and painted them in layers of copper, purple, and light blue, which gave them a look of patinated copper. I combined them with czech glass, antique brass, and tufts of blue fabric.


These beads were really fun to make and I got a little carried away and made some more for you all to use in your own jewelry creations!

See them in my shop here.

Check out the Flickr pool here to see what everyone else mixed up for week twenty-two.

See you next week with another pair TWO pairs!!

Spirals and Stars ~ 52 Earrings: week 20

Today I was feeling very uncreative. (I'm not the only one that gets that way sometimes, right?) I wasn't in the mood to make some new beads, so I thought I'd try for something that was easy. I dug through my box of unused and "nearly" discarded beads—beads that hadn't turned out as exciting as I'd expected and had been saved for a later date in hopes of gaining new life. I found two discs with a carved spiral. They were originally a blotchy yellow and brown. I quickly changed that with layers of blue and copper paint. While the paint was drying, I searched though drawers of glass and gemstone beads and found some sodalite rounds and stars, opalite, and some iridescent faceted crystals. I simply wrapped them in a circle with brown Zebra Wire, hung them on some brass earwires... and that was that... my result of a very uncreative day.

I think I like them. :-)

Check out the Flickr pool here to see what everyone else mixed up for week twenty.

See you next week with another pair!