Golden Heart

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission

Brand new design. Combo of mostly bought resources and a public domain handwritten letter. Mixed up in Photoshop. 

It's nearly Valentine's Day after all. ♥

On Redbubble:

On Society6:

Wild Wood Necklace

 

This is the necklace to go with my Wild Wood Bracelet.
Click on the image below to see details for the bracelet.

Necklaces and bracelets in this style are available for commission. Colour scheme can be to your requirements. Please contact me for pricing (click on the contact button in the top right-hand corner to send me an e-mail). I don't bite... :-)

Spring in Paris II - Spectacle Chain

I was asked to make a spectacle chain in a design similar to my Spring in Paris necklace. It's one of my favourite necklaces I've made. I thought it was time that I showed you how much effort and attention to detail goes in each of my jewellery designs. Here's the original Spring in Paris necklace, however, because I never replicate any of my designs exactly, I made a few changes.

In both cases I started off with a handmade verdigris finish for the vintage brass filigree:

 Here you can see the verdigris finish with a layer of varnish to protect it:

The organza flower is an integral part of the design. Here are the petals, cut and singed, ready to go onto the filigree.

Next, I selected the beads I wanted to use in the design. I always mix them up in a bowl so I can see how they all go together. Once I am happy with the mix I start putting it all together.

Here's a closeup of the mix. I've used fabric covered beads, vintage lucite and glass, jade, ceramic wood, paper beads and beads with all sorts of finishes and textures.

Here I've laid them out on a beading mat. You can see that I have started assembling the beads.

 This is the finished spectacle chain. Complete with little loops to attach to the glasses.

A detail picture.

A design like this takes me around 5 hours inlcuding all the prep work but excluding drying times and choosing the beads.

This design was a commission but Spring in Paris (necklace) is still available and I am happy to make other designs for you based on a previous design or on colour schemes etc. Please use the contact button at the top to send me a mail for more details.

I've also made some rings but haven't taken any pictures yet. I'll post them soon. :-)

Spring in Paris

Spring is here - three days (at least) of sunshine and here's my offering to the goddess of Spring, Persephone:

Spring in Paris

This is another long necklace, but this time I included a clasp so it can be worn wrapped around your neck twice.

And doesn't it look just like Spring in Paris? It's elegant, romantic and a little whimsical with a shabby chic edge to it. Lipstick and sugar pinks, pale fresh Spring green, soft cream with a floral theme set off against stark black and with the vintage touch of the verdigrised filigrees.

I've added another organza/tulle flower, with layers in mint green, dark brown, burgundy, pale pink and cream and lovely gorgeous watery green Miyuki beads.


The flower is set onto a filigree with three more watery green Miyuki beads as a counterweight and so it looks pretty just in case it does turn the wrong way round. The filigree has been hand painted with a verdigris finish in acrylic paints and covered with two layers of special varnish.



Below you can see the details:

Little filigree hearts - painted verdigris - set between beautiful floral fabric beads that have gorgeous leafy bead caps in matte black. The fabric beads have come all the way from France again from the little beadhive shop on Etsy.

The pale green beads are amazonite rounds and the black ones are gunmetal beads.

The sugary pink beads are reconstituted pink turqoise and the bright lipstick pink ones are trade beads from Africa.


I've used two types of chain: one is a gorgeous matte black chain (new) that has little crescents strung together with (soldered) jump rings. The other chain is a vintage chain with a very dark patina and teeny tiny links.

The chain has a dangle that overhangs the small clasp with more watery green Miyuki beads.

I've also made a commission, but since it's for Mother's Day I won't show it on here till next Monday... just in case.

Lover's Kiss Necklace and Twilight Series Review

A book review and a necklace may seem an odd connection, but read on and you'll see why...

Below is my latest necklace - and it's MINE - so don't get your hopes up. It's a prototype where I try out a new technique (or in this case several) and I need to wear it to make sure it works or if I need to modify the design to make it work. I am pleased to say it DOES work and it's great fun, although I am intending to make one little change. It needs a clasp after all, despite it's length as I prefer to be able to wrap it round twice if I feel like it. :-)

Below is a picture of the necklace in natural light. I wanted to show off the beautiful colours of the cherry and raspberry quartz, coral and the organza and tulle I used.


The picture below is the necklace wrapped round twice and with flash.


Most of the findings and makings are copper, although the filigree is antiqued brass. I oxidised the copper including the chain to 'harmonise' the colours.

Below you can see two of the different strawberry quartz beads I used plus one of the coral beads.


Each of the little organza flowers has been made separately from a layer of gold and wine red organza with a layer of burgundy tulle at the bottom. Holding everything in place are dark red Magatama drop beads and raspberry red seed beads. The flower sits on a vintage copper daisy bead cap. The flower is then sewn onto the brass filigree with a Magatama bead at the back to provide a weight to keep it straight when worn, and because this makes it look pretty even if it flips over.


Below you can see the third type of quartz beads, these are smooth in contrast to the micro facets of the other two quartz beads. I've used two types of chain - one a vintage Greek key design, the other a plain design.


So, here's where the Twilight series comes into this... I've just finished reading the series and it must have still been on my mind when I named the necklace - an extremely soppy name for me....

The series is about a girl who falls in love for the first time and her intended turns out to be a vampire. That's the gist of it. There's of course far more to it, but I don't want to spoil the fun.

Although the book is intended for young adults, it was a really good read. Each of the books is a page turner and I enjoyed reading them, although there were times when I wanted to shake some sense into the main character, however, in the end it turned out all right. :-)

The thing I thought was depicted particularly well was this feeling of first love, the confusion, the joy and the sheer bloodymindedness, which brings me back to my necklace. The lovely colours of the strawberry quartz - the soft pink of the large one, the golden hued and soft pink blush of the medium quartz, the romantic pink of the small, smooth beads and the deep intense red of the coral together - for me at least - show the facets of first love really well. The same colours are picked out in the organza and framed by the copper and brass.

I could have named the necklace Twilight after the first book in the series, but I'd just named a bracelet 'Forever Twilight' so it didn't feel right and 'Lover's Kiss' reminded me of a description of a kiss in the books.

So there you are. :-)

Happy Tears - Finally United

Now Paul from Firedance beads has sent me my lovely matching beads (see previous post) I had no excuse to not make the necklace to finish the set.

I wanted to make something that encapsulated the 'wedding spirit' and was still simple and elegant to work with the bracelet and earrings and to frame the lovely beads.

I've used rose gold wire to wire wrap all the beads and make the clasp; to show the wedding spirit I used to little vintage brass swallows flying towards each other and a lovely vintage design brass filigree with more beads hanging from it. The beads I used are the same as before:

Paul's lovely Bluesy Pinks, rose quartz, blue topaz, frosted rock crystal, cherry quartz, rose quartz and white new jade. The chain is a very delicate vintage brass chain.

The rose gold works well with the gingerbread patina of the swallows, filigree and brass chain.



Here are some of the beads and a swallow in detail:



This is the swallow on the other side in even more detail:


The centre piece with the gorgeous cherry quartz beads and a little dangle.



The handmade clasp and another little dangle hanging from the clasp to mirror the one at the front.


Here's the finally complete set, ready to go on Etsy.

More Designs for 2008

Been busy this weekend... had to play with all the new goodies that had arrived in the post. Just couldn't help it. :-)

I received some gorgeous forged copper and sterling silver findings on Friday from one of the many Etsy shops: E2SSupplies.etsy.com. I love the rosy glow of the copper as shown in the set below.

Sea Fire Set

I've used the rosy copper findings (headpins, forged rings and ear wires) with chalcedony. The colour of the chalcedony in the earrings is almost identical in natural light, however the flash has played havoc with the colour. Chalcedony is a natural stone, hence the (very) slight difference in colour for the earring drops. For the necklace I've chosen chalcedony in three different shades. I love chalcedony, especially the sea green shades next to the rosy copper. Not sure if this necklace will be for sale yet as I really, really like it. See if you can convince me to sell it to you.... ;-)

Cold Fire

More Chalcedony, this time teamed up with beautiful handmade sterling silver ear wires. All findings are also sterling silver. Again, the flash seems to have an odd effect on the chalcedony. I love the simplicity of these earrings.


Winter Green Earrings
These earrings are MINE. :-) I've used oxidised and polished sterling silver ear wires, vintage black enamelled chain with very unusual green garnet faceted squares. One set of garnet has black inclusions, the other is pale as ice. I love the contrast between the oxidised/polished silver, the black chain and the two types of green garnet. Very Art Deco I thought.


Unfinished Business
Below are a few pieces that haven't been finished - stations and pendants. I thought some of you might like to see this 'work-in-progress'.

This is a peacock coloured vintage cabochon set in gingerbread coloured vintage filigree. I have made four of these (I only managed to get hold of four of the cabochons). Not quite sure what I'll make with these. Possibly a bracelet or maybe a necklace and earring set. We'll see. Watch this space.


This pendant was made with a vintage bezel setting and sparkly blue vintage (glass) faceted cabochons. I think this would be lovely as a pendant, but since it is quite small it needs something extra. I might team it up with a butterfly or a dragonfly to make it into something more interesting.

The next one is a simple copper-wrapped rock quartz pendant. The rock quartz is quite a big nugget and I love the icy quality of it combined with the warm copper wire. We'll see what I am going to do with it.


I particularly like the next pendant. It's made again with a rock quartz nugget, but this time wrapped with brass wire (with a nice patina), a filigree bead (at the top), a vintage spiral dangle at the bottom through which I've threaded a bit of chain with Magatama drops in AB crystal, AB grey, and frosted grey. The whole pendant looks like dripping ice. I think it will look great on a simple, fairly short chain with the pendant dripping down the front.