WHITE LILY - more innocent white jewelry

Today I´ve been struggling with making my tiniest earrings with this technique ever. Just be happy the ugly words I used while doing it are´nt wrapped into the design.

First I had the intention to make the swirls a bit differently. But I couldn´t manage to get the wires to fit into these tiny drop shapes. So I used a very familiar design in the end.

I´m pleased though. They look so fabulous on and I´m proud to have achived this even though they are so small. The drop are no more than 0.66"!

I named them White Lily due to their innocent appearance. Actually my name, Susanna, is hebrew for white lily. At least I´ve been told so... :)

Material:
925 sterling silver and 999 fine silver wire and findings. Oxidized and tumbled to a nice shine. Freshwater pearls and rock crystal rondelles.

Size:
1.77"/4,5cm including earwires. The focal part is less than 1"!

How to name your company or brand

Lately I´ve been reading a lot about how to name companies and brands.

I´m thinking about opening a jewelry store in Sweden and need a great name. I´ve browsed the web and found a bunch of things to consider when picking a name.

Here are some of the ideas I´ve found useful.

• Get an “umbrella” name. If you are going to sell jewelry, don´t have a name with jewelry in it. What if you want to start selling scarves too? (That means my current name sucks :)) The name should still work if you want to expand.


• Search the web to see if the company name is free as a domain address.


• The name doesn´t have to have a meaning. You can always fill it with meaning with an underline, that you can drop when your name is established. That means nonsense names are OK.


• Short names, and names with hard sounds are remembered more easily. Google, Kodak, Plurk are great examples.


• Make sure your company name is easy to spell.


• Brainstorm to find your name. Start with what you want your name to be associated with. Mix letters and give the words new endings like –ax, -ex, -or, -er, -ac, -oc.
  

Still can´t find a name? Try Breadline Design Naming Machine! :)

Dreaming of summer meadows

I´ve added a new necklace to my Etsy shop. This necklace really is an expression of my dreams of summer and spring.

Last night it fell another 4" of snow so the winter keeps holding a tight grip of Sweden. My kids love it though. The snow castles they´ve built in the garden are amazing. But yet, my cat and I agree upon one thing - it´s enough now. Let the spring arrive!

Well, back to the necklace, I´ve tried to wove all that longing for warmer days into this pendant.

It´s a medallion like pendant with a beautiful butterfly, surrounded by a swirly pattern set with spring colours. The pendant is very light weighted though it gives a dense expression. It looks gorgeous togheter with anything purple. And I guess a plain white shirt will go nice with it too.

I had many thoughts of adding more tiny pearls and beads to the chain, but I decided to keep it plain, not to loose the medallion feeling.

Do you agree with me on that decision?

Material:925 sterling silver, oxidized and tumbled to a nice shine. 925 sterling silver butterfly charm from Bali. Pink amethyst, peridot and white freshwater pearls.

Size:Pendant 1.2"/3cm, 1.6"/4cm including the bail. Chain is 16"/40cm

What´s up with www.suzyq.se?

"First I have to appologize to my English speaking readers. But I have to add a post in Swedish here. My Swedish homepage have stoped working due to the program that build the page. So while waiting for my new Swedish page/webshop, I´m re-directing the traffich to my blog. And here is some information about it in Swedish - you might catch a word or two :)"

Vad har hänt med www.suzyq.se?
Min svenska hemsida har upphört tillfälligt. Det webbhotell jag har stödjer inte FrontPage längre, så från och med nu måste jag hitta en annan lösning.
Och jag jobbar på en kombinerad hemsida/webshop på svenska. Med andra ord kommer det att bli möjligt att köpa mina smycken där också. Och kanske även andras...

Preliminärt kommer den nya sidan att vara klar i maj. Fram till dess kommer du alltså att hamna här i min engelska blogg när du knappar in http://www.suzyq.se/.

Länksidan då?
Ärligt talat har den uppdaterats dåligt :)... Men jag vet att den är omtyckt och fortfarande har mycket besök. Jag tänker så det knakar...

Jag kan fortfarande kontaktas på info (snabela) suzyq.se.

Côte d'Azur earrings

Quote from Wikipedia about Côte d'Azur:

"The Côte d'Azur is one of the first resort areas in the world. It began as a health resort for ailing British tourists at the end of the 18th century.
With the arrival of the railroad in the mid-19th century, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales."

Imagine all the beautiful clothes and jewelry women brought with them to wear at their walks at the beaches during those eras!! And the French Riviera have continued to attract the rich and beautiful. Just look at the Cannes Festival. A parade of beautiful clothes and jewelry.

With this pair of earrings I tried to make something small and dense - like some 19th century earrings. And the dangling part are no more than 1".

I can easily imagine a beautiful woman wearing these, sun tanned, with bare shoulders sipping a colorful drink. Perhaps a

Material:
925 sterling silver and 999 fine silver wire and findings. Oxidized, handpolished and tumbled. Beautiful sea blue apatite and fresh green peridot.

Size:
1.57"/4cm including ball post, the dangling part is 1"/2,5cm high and 0.70"/1,8cm wide

Visit my shop for more pictures: www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com

Grand re-opening of The Wire Artisans Guild Etsy team store

♥:♥:♥ VALENTINE SPECIAL ♥:♥:♥

HAPPY VALENTINE!!!
My husband surprised me with some hidden gifts. He´s off with the kids skiing, but he had hidden his gifts under my pillow. So sweet of him!!
I´m having a ♥:♥:♥ VALENTINE SPECIAL ♥:♥:♥ in my shop too. Some of my favorites has been put down 50%. So treat yourself!
♥:♥:♥ Love to you all! ♥:♥:♥

Link to my shop: www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com

One month with Google Analytics

Now I´ve had the possibility to view my visitor statistics on my Etsy stores through Google Analytics for a month. And I love it! It’s perfect to see the response to my shop activities.

I can see from my figures I´ve been having an average 100 visitors a day to my http://www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com/ shop. And during this month a total of 2780 visits. I have nothing to relate to, but it feels like a good enough number for me.

My bounce-rate (the number of visitors who just visited the front page of my shop) are 40%. Same thing here, don´t know if the figure is good or bad.

The best part of the statistics is to see referring sites. A great way to note if a marketing or social networking effort paid of in visits. Hardly surprising Flickr and my Swedish web page are the major sources for my visitors.

The visitors I have almost covers the world map when I look where their IP addresses are registered, apart from the west of South America, Africa except South Africa and Zambia and most parts of the Arabic world. The biggest source are USA and of course Sweden.

Share your figures if you want to! I´d love to see which countries you attract to your webpage, let it be a blog, Etsy shop or ordinary home page.

I´m still amused by my only visitor from Zambia...:)

Lady Una - bangle

This is a bangle made for The Wire Artisans Guild challenge Stardust and our great re-opening of our Etsy team store on Valentines day.

The movie Stardust begins and ends with the beautiful Lady Una living in the magical world of Fairie. Lady Una is kept as a slave for Madame Semele. She gives birth to the main character, Tristan, but has to leave him to his father who lives in "the real world". Lady Una is very much a charachter in the background, but the end of the movie reveals her well kept secret.

The colours of Lady Unas teal dress and the yellow/red carriage of Madame Semele (Ditchwater Sal) inspired me to make this bangle.
I loved the movie. It was so full of both beautiful scenes and humour and of course all the elements to make it a wonderful feel good story. Don´t miss Robert de Niro playing the tough captain with a little secret hidden in the closet....

The bangle and focal, together form a clasp. One of the images show to open and close the bangle. The trick is to angle the focal. I managed to do it myself with one hand...But you can always ask someone else to help you with this...

Material:925 sterling silver and 999 fine silver wire and findings. Alex topaz briolettes (heat treated), ruby leaves and rondelles, citrine briolette and smooth rondelles and white cultured white fresh water pearls. Oxidized and tumbled to a nice shine.
Size:The bangle fits an arm between 6"-7"/15-17cm. It moves around a bit on a smaller arm.

Be sure to visit the grand re-opening of The Wire Artisan Guild Etsy team store on Valentines day: http://www.wireartisansguild.etsy.com/

Source of my style PART II

I recently wrote about my great grandmothers necklace as a source for my love of intricate designs. But something of equal importance to the origin of my style, as the necklace, is my period as a guard and guide at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. This was something I did while studying for a masters degree in Art.

The palace in Stockholm was built in the 18th century and is fully furnished with a lot of treasures from that time. Everything from the decorations in the ceilings to details on doors is so delicate. I also worked at the Royal Armoury where all armours and clothes from past monarchs are kept. The museum displays the most beautiful gold-embroidered wedding clothes and coronation pieces. They even have a stuffed horse, Streiff, which belonged to the king Gustav II Adolf who was murdered at the battle in Lützen 1632!

One exhibition at the Royal Armoury have etched itself into my memory more than any other. It was the exhibit of jewelry from the court jeweller WA Bohlin, a colleague to the more famous Fabergé in Russia. WA Bohlin choose to escape Russia to Stockholm when the revolution started 1917. In Stockholm the firm soon became court jeweller and are so still today.

The jewelry exhibition showed masterpieces dated back to the 19th century. As a guard I had plenty of time to enjoy and study all the jewelry. I was totally enchanted buy the precious gems, shapes and the intricacy of the designs. I still have the exhibition catalogue and now as a jewelry designer myself (playing in a totally different league though) I look at all the beauty even more impressed.
If you ever visit Stockholm you must see the Royal Palace and the Armoury!

Dresses I would love to make jewelry for

My favorite type of custom orders are when a customer wants something made for a special gown or dress. Nothing triggers my creative engine like that kind of request. I love to come up with designs that fits how the dress is cut, the textures and the colours. Just like I did for sweet Erin who had the most beautiful vintage 50´s gown for her wedding.

Erins dress is all cream coloured and wrapped up in lace and finished with a chocolate brown ribbon. I´m very happy with the earrings I made for this dress. It´s a swirly designs that captures the expression of the lace and the texture of the fabric. And the smokey quartz, brown and cream coloured freshwater pearls I put on the earrings match the colour of the dress nicely. Do I have to say the photos from Erins wedding was like a dream! She was so beautiful!
Here are some dresses I would love to make jewelry to go with. First is a dress by Anna Sui with (again) a beautiful lace pattern. I think I would choose tiny spinel rondelles for this one contrasted with one single bright coloured stone. Earring would be best for this dress. With a dramatic design.

Anna Sui also designed this psychedelic paisley patterned dress with vibrant colours. For this one I would love to make a cuff with fuchsia and tangerine colours sprinkled with details in 14k gold filled.

Finally I would feel blessed if I could make something for this 1940´s vintage dress. Or actually it feels like I´ve already made it! Don´t you think the FIRST LOVE necklace would look lovely with this dress? If you feel really romantic?

Vintage Textile sells this beautiful dress.

FIRST LOVE - romantic necklace

This necklace is made for the monthly Wire Artisans challenge, and the theme for the month is Affair Of The Hearts. My jewelry are normally very romantic, but this time I went all the way and made a VERY romantic piece. It´s all about that wonderful first love we experience where the world are seen through pink glasses and will never be the same. It´s like someone found a key to our most inner chambers.

Originally, as you see on the sketch, I had the idea that I would tie a velvet bow onto the bail. I tried but never managed to tie a nice bow. Think I got to find ready made tiny bows for next project.

You can also see from the sketch that I´ve changed some details. The scrolls are a bit different. These are things that I´m aware of will change when I sketch. It´s hard to grasp how large the finished piece will be – and how many and big details will fit.

What I managed to achieve is a necklace with a “locket feeling”. Almost like a heirloom piece. The oxidized greyness adds patina and looks great with the pink tones. I´m also very pleased with the twisted wire I´ve made by myself. It wasn´t as hard as I thought at first.. JMaterial:925 sterling silver and 985 Karen hill tribe silver details. Natural pink cultured freshwater pearls, pink tourmalines, rhodolite garnet and tiny peridot beads.Size:Pendant 2"/5cm, chain 16"/40cm

You can see more pictures in my shop: http://www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com/

I´ve also started to take pics in a new way. With details of nice fashion adds as background I´m trying to add the feeling I think suits the piece. Not quite sure yet what I think of the result. So I´m trying not to use these pics to much.

What do you think?