Coco loves vintage: August 2010

Swarovski- Under The Blue

It's here, and as stunning as ever, the new Swarovski Autumn/Winter collection- Under The Blue.

Pictured above, love it! The Maniac necklace.

This magnificent ruthenium-plated creation presents a stunning contrast of black and white, with sparkling Crystal Satin, Jet Hematite and Jet crystal beads. Wear it together with the matching bracelet to create a breathtaking ensemble that won’t go unnoticed.

At £310, it's a little pricey for me, maybe I could create one of my own???

Glamour Blue Earrings, want them!

Created using an exclusive beading technique. The entwined strands of crystal beads sparkle in a stunning gradation of blue and white.

Again maybe I could concoct something similar???

I'm not usually an earrings kinda girl, but am loving the new collection, particularly these Hyacinth Blue Earrings, think I'm in need of an early Christmas present :)

It's no secret I have a passion for charms, need this!

Eye-catching and original, this adorable pumpkin charm sparkles in bright orange epoxy with eyes in Jet crystal. The back is embellished with Jet crystals.

Get in the Halloween spirit, this one is named "Hook Charm"

This sweet rhodium-plated bat charm in dark blue epoxy with movable wings will fly straight into your heart.

Interville Tin Golden Bangle.

Now to me, Swarovski's are a girls best friend :)

View the new collection here.

What's your favourite???

Vintage rhinestone & marcasite hair combs

There is something special about blackened silver, it's not every-one's cup of tea, but whenever I'm on the hunt for vintage jewels to re-work, I am always drawn to the dirty dingy box of tit bits no one else entertains, I adore old rhinestones from the 1950's, now my Sister on the other hand, likes her rhinestones pristine, glistening and sparkly new.

I love the look of old rhinestones against a backdrop of discoloured vintage lace.

I created the comb slide pictured above using a vintage rhinestone necklace I picked up in a charity shop, they are pretty easy to get hold of, eBay's a good place to get them, but you will probably get them a little cheaper at a flea market, alternatively if you would like yours brand spanking new you could pick yourself a necklace up on the high street.

This one was really easy to make and only took about ten minutes, all you need is, a necklace, comb slide, length of silver wire 0.4mm is perfect, wire/flush cutters, and pliers.

Basically cut the necklace to the width of your comb slide, cut a length of wire, if you cut a piece four times the width of your comb you should have plenty, if you start in the middle you will have a better chance of getting it even, so from the middle (and the middle of the wire too), wrap the wire around the rhinestone necklace and the comb, pulling it tight, working towards the right side, then repeat the process to the left, to finish off the ends, wrap a few extra times, then squeeze down with the pliers.

I made this comb using the same technique, but here I used a vintage marcasite feather brooch (the pin was removed), and Swarovski pearls.

I will be taking part in my usual weekly link parties, please see my side bar for details :)

French inspired jewelry- book review

French inspired jewelry by Kaari Meng,

creating with vintage beads, buttons, and baubles.

I love this book,

so much so that it's fighting for my top spot with Amy Hanna's Rejuvenated Jewels, yes it's that good!

I can't rave enough about this book, it's beautifully put together, the lay out is superb, there's eye candy galore, each and every image is an artwork in it's self, truly inspirational. I have certainly learned a thing or two from this book, even if it hadn't taught me anything about the art of jewelry making (which it did), it gave me some insight on how to present and display my own creations!

If you love vintage jewelry this is the book for you, even for the non jewelry maker this would make a wonderful coffee table book.

The author Kaari Meng has been making jewelry for more than twenty years, she is the owner of "French General" a successful craft store in LA. French generals notion room is filled with old apothecary jars containing thousands of vintage glass beads, buttons and baubles.

For the purpose of this book Kaari designed a line of jewelry inspired by places that might of been a part of life in the 1880's, the garden, the sea, the market............

The jewelry designs revolve around the use of vintage beads and found objects. The front section of the book entitled "The basics" gives advice on- collecting and buying vintage beads, reproduction beads, colour inspiration, creating palettes, design inspiration, types of vintage glass beads, tools, adhesives, jewelry findings, stringing materials, and a brief look at wire wrapping techniques.

Now for the good bit, the projects, this part of the book is divided into eight sections, each with it's own theme- la mer (the sea), le marche (the market), le cirque (the circus), la voliere (the aviary), le vigne (the vine/vinyard), le chateau (the castle), le jardin (the garden), and la cimetiere (the cemetery/churchyard). There a total of seventy-five projects including- coral charm bracelet, cherry glass earrings, dripping berry necklace and millinery corsage.

One of my favourites from the book, the fruit watch bracelet, I love all the fruit salad jewelry that was popular in the 1950's.

The aviary.

I adore these vintage bird combs. I have been seeing a lot of the birds nest wire jewelry around at the moment, especially on Etsy, aren't they fabulous, must give these a whirl.

The garden.

This is the image I love the most, there is something very special about vintage millinery flowers, I am now on the hunt for bits and pieces to make one of these.

My concluding thoughts-

To sum up this book, to me I would say it is perfect in every way. I found the projects pretty easy to follow, but I am quite an experienced jewelry maker, maybe a beginner would find them a little more difficult, there are no step by step photo's with the instructions. I would say that the vintage bits and bobs are pretty easy to come by at flea markets and online, I buy loads of stuff from eBay. The beauty of making your own jewelry is that you don't have to stick to the plan, you can add whatever you have to hand, and everything is totally different and individual, so go on, create....

If you collect jewelry books, you must, must, must add this to your collection!

I give it a rating of 5/5.

Kaari has a blog- The warp and the weft.

French General- online store.

Mini disclaimer.

All the images used in this review, have been taken from my own copy of "French Inspired Jewelry" and are only intended as food for thought. Copyright laws maybe broken if these photographs are duplicated elsewhere.

I am a big fan of Kaari Meng, it is not my intention to misuse this book, only to promote it.

Vintage floral statement necklace

This Summer the high street shops have been full of pretty floral statement necklaces, muted neutral tones, perfect for weddings, I have had one at the top of my "to make" list for a while, so today I thought I would indulge myself.

I made the centre flower from a length of ribbon and vintage lace, and added one the pearl flowers I had previously made. There are tons of fabulous flower tutorials out there, I learned the hard way by unraveling a brooch I had bought, to find out how it was done, and kinda wrecked it in the process. If you pop over to Charm bracelet diva's blog she has a great link up post to loads of tutorials :)

For the outer flowers, I removed silk flowers from their stems, and added vintage buttons, rhinestones, Swarovski crystals and pearls. For the necklace part I used ribbon that you can then tie to the desired length around you neck.

I will be taking part in some link party love this week, you will find links to participating blogs in my side bar, come and join the party:)

Beautiful images, beautiful things.

I have such an appreciation for great photography, I simply adore beautiful images of beautiful things. Me, well I'm just learning, I have a long way to go. I have been looking to do a short photography course, but so far I have been unable to find one in my area :(

I have have stumbled upon a new blog, I'm quite exited, you must go and see, that's if you haven't already discovered it! it's called Everyday Beauty, and it's gorgeous, I love the images, the colours, it's all so me, and best of all it's got jewellery:)

Vintage rosary beads.

A vintage tiara.

Vintage lace.

A vintage cake topper.

A vintage buckle.

A handmade banner, love it.

Meet the very talented Andrea Singarella, pictured in her craft room, could you imagine being anywhere nicer?! So you wouldn't be surprised if I told you it had been featured in "Where women create" magazine. What is this magazine I keep hearing of? Can I get it in England? I have the book, I now need this magazine!

Read Andrea's where woman create post here.

For more of Andrea's divine jewellery, visit her shop One Hundred Wishes.

"Charmed, I'm sure"

My love affair with charms started at a very young age, whenever I would visit my Nan the first thing I would ask was "can I try on your jewellery" she would take me upstairs, I would be grinning like the Cheshire Cat as we sat on the bed rummaging through her jewellery box. My most favourite thing was her charm bracelet, it was so jam packed with charms I could hardly lift it, I loved listening to her stories about how each tiny treasure came to be, one particular charm that sticks out in my mind is that of a ship in a bottle, the bottle was all chewed up by me as a baby. I always vowed that when I was a grown up, I would have one of my very own.

My first charm bracelet was from a boyfriend many moons ago, like the boyfriend it was short lived.

Just kidding, I still have the bracelet, it is gold but I had developed a liking for silver.

A couple of years ago whilst surfing Amazon for jewellery books I came across three little beauties, A passion for charms, Charmed, and Charmed bracelets. Newly inspired and in a hurry I went on a charm buying mission. I love vintage charms, the best kind are the mechanical charms, either they move or have a tiny surprise inside. My first purchase was a vintage bracelet complete with eight charms (pic above). Then I began buying charms, I tended to go for charms I liked, aesthetically pleasing charms, but with no particular meaning, I bought them all from auctions, not places I had visited, then one day I took a step back and said to myself, this is all wrong, this ain't what it's about, where is the sentiment? where are the memories? So I am going to start from the beginning, and with each charm a story will be told.