Wedding Challenge. Day One.

Welcome back for my Wedding challenge.

I did it ! First day and new piece of handmade wedding jewelry.

Natural Rock crystals and sterling silver oval links necklace.

When you need to add some more sparkle to your neck line this necklace will be great fit. Faceted natural gems will shine under the lights.

If you are with me during this Wedding jewelry challenge you are more then welcome to take part in this challenge. Please read the rules how you can be a part of FUN !

Wedding Jewelry Challenge

What is the biggest dream of most women? Typically it is the dream of finding a perfect love and a white wedding. In Russia most common month for weddings is September. So, I asked myself the other day :

“What is the most popular wedding month in USA?”

After searching I found out that the most popular wedding months in United States are May 13.21%, June 15.97% and July 11.53%.

I need to encourage myself to design as many handmade wedding jewelry pieces as I can by wedding season, I will challenge myself to make at list one new piece a day. Our life is very unpredictable by nature and I don’t know if I can accomplish this, but I’ll aim to do most of it.

My goal is to design jewelry using most popular wedding colors, most common dress styles, and to enhance different body shapes etc. Every day I’ll be posting one new design of jewelry here and directly to my website RitaSunderland.com where you can find those pieces for sale at the Wedding collection.

If you are artistic and are making jewelry, then would like to take a challenge with me? Feel free to post your creations, it’s not necessary to post every day. Even if you will make 2-3 nice designs it’ll be great to share with the world.

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To submit your link I will ask you to share this banner into your blog and let’s spread the word about this challenge. It should be a fun wedding season for all!

At the end of each week I'll make a collage with all submitted handmade jewelry.

Day ONE

My Thrifty Finds Malachite Bracelet

The other day I was so happy when I saw this malachite bracelet in our local Value Village store. I’m not an avid customer when it comes to jewelry and I will seldom wear something that has belonged to somebody else. Maybe it is that I simply believe that jewelry, clothes etc. carry remnants of the previous owner’s energy.

This particular malachite bracelet called my name sitting there in the display case and my dear husband purchased it for me. When I arrived home the first thing I did is to polish and clean it. It is a sterling silver and malachite bracelet, with the oval shape malachite surrounded in a simple silver bangle bracelet.

As a jewelry designer I truly believe in a gemstone’s capability of containing power. Later the same evening I took a look at the magical meaning of malachite as a stone and I was very surprised with what I found... Malachite is not a stone I usually work with. So to find that it has been used to aid success in business and protect against undesirable business associations was like it was meant to be made for me, especially considering events in my personal life as of late.

I also found that malachite can be used to identify step-by-step ways to achieve a goal. Malachite is a perfect aid in building wealth, or improving our lot in life both material and spiritually.

Now I know exactly why this bracelet and stone called my name. In some of my Russian collection of Books they tell that if you put malachite stones in corners of your retail shop that it will bring more customers to your business. Well I son't have a retail shop yet, so I just will wear this bracelet and smile about what it means to me.

I will consider to make some handmade jewelry with malachite for my on-line jewelry shop at RitaSunderland.com

Macrame and gemstones jewelry

Macrame jewelry is not only about hemp and funky beads. Now days many designers are trying to make macrame jewelry using wire or other thin threads or cords. I'm also with them on this path. I like experiment with different textured string materials while I'm creating something using macrame or how they also call it knotting.

I already showed you my latest find gold and silver threads I used to make MACRAME BRACELETS After I made those macrame bracelets I was thinking to make some earrings with beautiful gemstone beads.

This beautiful and light Sterling silver and smokey quartz earrings were made using wire and silver color thread. First I made a teardrop shape using 24G sterling silver wire. Then I used thread and made a lot of little knots over the frame.

Those lovely Sterling silver and lilac pearls earrings also made with wire and silver thread. Don't you think that the bride will look beautiful in those earrings. I put them into my Wedding jewelry collection for those who will love to have modern wedding but with the vintage touch.

I'll be happy to here what do you think about macrame jewelry in present time. Welcome to post links to your macrame jewelry so we could looks at your handmade macrame jewelry.

Valentines Gift Ideas

Love is in the air. Do you feel that St.Valentines holiday is around the corner!? February 14 has become the date for exchanging love messages and a celebration of St. Valentine, the patron saint of lovers. During this day people sending gifts, cards, flowers to loved ones and secret loves.

Handmade Valentines gifts will be great memory and will keep special warm thoughts for many years. Browsing etsy shops I visited one of my favorite shop and found this cute Lavender Sachets with LOVE SYMBOL

Many on-line stores having Valentines Day Sales you can find great deals on handmade jewelry, cards and other cute little gifts. Start shopping for handmade gifts and make you loves one happy

During Valentines day I'm offering 20% off on my handmade jewelry at RitaSunderland Beautiful free gift wrapping with your purchase. Limited edition jewelry with rare cut gemstones. Hurry This sale ends February 8-th. 2012.

Look What I Made

Welcome to the new 2012 year and my first blog post. This year I will start with Look What I Made . I've been pretty busy the last couple months and as a result not so many posts here. But Let's start new year with the new hopes to make my blog more interesting.

So Look What I Made and for today it'll be handmade gemstone earrings and awesome bracelet.

One of my most popular style with hammered wire and gemstones. These are mystic blue topaz and sterling silver. Don't you think that they remind you waterfall ?!

Next one I named Go Green with Green Onyx and 14K Gold Filled wire. Yesterday when I was making photos of them the sun was so bright and each side of the stones were reflecting bright sun.

And the last for today is my favorite. As only I found those gemstone links in vermeil (gold plated over sterling silver) I fall in love with them. Great size and shape for my style jewelry. After I made this SMOKEY QUARTZ BRACELET I got a couple request on making chokers in the same styles. Well now need to get those supplies and way to go.