English Rose Choker: PDF Crochet Pattern (Customizable in Color and Length and Perfect for Weddings!)

Another new pattern is ready to go! This one is a graceful floral choker. I made the model with an English winter white rose, but you could customize this with any color rose you liked!
This would be so cute as a bridal or bridesmaid accessory, don't you think?
I found these cute little antique bronze rose buttons to go on the back, but you could use any type of button you wanted. Mother of pearl, shell, or vintage gems type buttons would look especially lovely! As usual, you can find this at my Etsy shop :)

Hever Castle Rose Garden fromWikipedia.

Here's an inspiration shot of the gardens I have seen that inspired this choker design. This is at Hever Castle. Lovely, isn't it?

Photo from David Austin Roses

Here's another inspiration photo. Our poor rose tree is on the decline, but I love having roses in the garden. This Huntington rose is one I've been eyeing as a replacement. Old world Rose characteristics (means great smell!) and hardy enough to survive in my garden. So beautiful! I think this would look very nice next to the porch!

Evolving at Last: Romantic Lace Crocheted Chokers

Yeah! I'm so excited to finally have the first few of these up! I've been working on my romantic crochet choker line for a long time and this is a big milestone for me as I move into crochet patterns and develop a more distinct look as an artist. I'm no stranger to crochet, been whipping up crocheted goodies for 18 years. Have always loved those super romantic eras, the Gilded Age, Art Nouveau, the Jazz Age, etc. And I've always dreamed of creating crocheted glamorous chokers. Always. In fact I have doodled sketches of them in almost every art notebook I've drawn in.

I went back and forth on designing patterns (the original idea) vs. actual product, but finally decided to produce mostly patterns with just a few pieces of each design available to purchase as a finished product. I've also decided to produce items from the patterns on demand for weddings, both for brides and bridesmaids.

First up is L'Amour, an actual lovely lace choker with ribbon tiebacks and pearl accents. So soft and lovely!! Available at Etsy.

And here's Victoriana! This is the first pattern I am offering, available at Etsy as a PDF pattern emailed to you. Would make a gorgeous bridal choker! I've had this pattern tested numerous times, but I'm still a little nervous about selling my first design. Big step!! If anyone makes this, I'm always open to feedback.

It's exciting to be evolving as an artist! Those who know me know that family medical issues have nearly derailed this artistic evolution several times , but I have persevered and am so happy to have finally reached this point :)

Life-Like Driftwood Horse Scupltures

Sometimes I come across an artist just too cool not to share. Heather Jansch uses driftwood to craft magnificent horse sculptures. Despite their graceful, airy appearance, each horse weighs three quarters of a ton and is free standing. The structure is strong enough to not only withstand public display but also heavy winds without falling over. Each scupture is totally unique and can take up to three years to complete.Can only imagine how awesome these look when the tide comes in and they "play" in the waves. No surprise there is a long waiting list of buyers.

Photos fromSomethin Wonderful.

She also has branched out into stags! Hmmm.... well, if I win the lottery I think a few of these hidden around my new mansion's grounds would look pretty cool!! :)

Help Needed With Oregon Spider Identification

Look at the beauty I found in the garden today! Well, actually I first became aware of it when my two little boys started screaming to save the beetle from the Big Spider. I sprinted right over and sure enough, a hapless beetle was being pursued by this large, fat, but absolutely beautiful spider. We dutifully saved the beetle from becoming spider lunch (spider now very hungry, I'm sure). But I'm wondering what kind of spider this is? Usually the power of the internet comes to my rescue when identifying bugs, but this one must not be dangerous because I can't find a picture of a similar one anywhere. Anybody know what it is??? I'm in Oregon and this was about the size of a half dollar.
Spider Update: I forgot to mention that I did get a quick look at the underside and I didn't see a bright hourglass shape. The closet thing online I could find was this spider or this spider, but mine has no white cross.

Store Update: Part I The Jewelry

Whew! Surgery is now behind me and recovery is well under way. Big, big thank you's to my uber-wonderful neighbor, my supportive husband and all my caring family and friends!! They say your true friends are the ones that stick with you when times are good AND bad .. and that saying certainly proved true last week.

Now .... I have been photographing market pieces every day. The variable fall Oregon light is making every photographic session an artistic adventure, but I finally have a few that are good to go. I'm going to start with my favorite, "Fleur de Gorgeous" . I adore the design of this necklace!! Followed by a few more lovely neck adornments, some Mouline Rouge inspired earrings, and a new lacey scarf like the beautiful ones in this post.

"Fleur de Gorgeous -- asymmetrical vivid floral necklace"
for sale at my Etsy Store.

"Satine Earrings -- mother of pearl and freshwater pearl earrings"
for sale at my Etsy Store.

"Eternity Circle -- vintage style pearl circle pendant necklace"
for sale at my Etsy Store.

"Affair of the Heart -- candy jade little bird necklace"
for sale at my Etsy Store.

"Tuscan Sun Lacey Scarf"
for sale at myJeweled Elegance Boutique.

You may have noticed the title of this post: "Part I: The Jewelry". I am very, very, very close to finishing my crochet jewelry patterns and will be showing them to you for part II. I have been working really hard on these since the beginning of the year and can barely wait to finally get the first few up. Just 1 more week!! Assuming the H1N1 Flu moving through our neighborhood will stay at bay :)

Autumn Leaves Mean the End of Saturday Market

After a lovely season selling at market, the Sherwood Saturday Market has finally come to an end. I would LOVE to have the market go all year round but it's an outdoor market, so just about the time the leaves fall and the Oregon rain begins, the market needs to draw to a close. Now that market is over, I will be uploading all my market goodies online for holiday perusal. Can not wait to show you!! But first ....

I had thought that all my scary medical tests were well behind me, but recent weeks have shown this not to be the case. I go in for surgery this week, so I will not be able to ship out orders or return emails or blog comments until next week. Hope everyone understands!

Until then .. Happy Autumn!!

Cate Blanchett and Granny Square Crochet Dress

Photos from Horiwood.

Yes, it's time to show my inner crochet geek :) What says "crochet is making a huge comeback" better than a granny square dress appearing on the red carpet? A one-shouldered, full sleeved, ruffle-ornamented couture crochet dress. Cate Blanchett would look great in anything, but I love that she picked this to wear to the opening of an event down at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).
I know some people have pretty strong opinions on granny squares, but honestly, she wears it really well and looks great!

Catastrophe!

Free wallpaper from Digital Blasphemy

It was a warm, sunny morning, the sky full of innocent puffy white clouds. I curled up on the couch nursing my Japanese mug full of steaming sencha tea, flipped the power button on my laptop and instead of the usual welcome screen there appeared nothing but wildly moving patterns of lines and abstract blocks of color. Then the words "fatal hardware error" appeared just before .... endless black. Just like that. In a heartbeat, without any warning, my beautiful computer died :(
..............................................................................................
Well, the old computer proved to be beyond resuscitation. I'm bringing the humble replacement up to speed, but it's taking quite a while (and many hours of reformatting, updating drivers, etc. Yuck!). Thank goodness for cloud computing! Email was restored quickly and Blogger and Etsy were untouched. I've never been so grateful to have not had full control over all my data :)

While I sit here reformatting this thing, I've been skimming book review blogs looking for fresh reads. I read quite a bit this summer and, on the whole, was really disappointed with the quality of what is being published these days and worse, what poor writing is getting best-seller attention. (for books I recommend, check out my GoodReads) Here's a list of recent fiction books I just curried together from those blogs that I have high hopes for being good reads. Or at least different and thought-provoking! :) :

The Restoration Game -- by Ken MacLeod (published 2010)
The Dervish House -- by Ian McDonald (published 2010)
Transition -- Iain Banks (published 9/2009)
The Year of the Flood -- by Margaret Atwood (published 9/2009)
The Unit -- by Ninni Holmqvist and Marlaine Delargy (published 6/2009)
The Stone Child -- by Dan Poblocki (Young Adult published 8/2009)
Audrey’s Door -- by Sarah Langan (published 9/2009)

And one older Steampunk novel that was mentioned and looked fun:
Clockwork Heart -- by Dru Pagliassotti (published 2006)

What are you looking forward to reading this fall?

My Bust Gets Dressed! .....New Vintage Style Flower Necklaces

Today I tried "dressing" my handmade paper bust with neck that I made for photographing my scarflettes and scarfs. I put a pale blue camisole on it and shot a few pics. I think it looks cute dressed!

Waterlily -- vintage style flower and jade necklace
available at Etsy

Passion -- vintage style flower and leaf necklace
available at Etsy

The colors in this necklace are so soothing and tranquil, like one of Monet's Waterlily paintings. Can you see the influence?

Waterlily -- vintage style flower and jade necklace
available at Etsy

Waterlilies by Claude Monet from Wikipedia

School, Art History & Dracula

Hi everyone! It's been a long, busy summer, but school has finally started up again for my little munchkins ..... they are soooo excited! With school back in session and Saturday Market (where I sell my jewelry in person) wrapping up in 2 more weeks, I'll soon have more studio time to devote to my biz and my online activities :)

Until then, I want to share with you a fun contest. If you know your art history, some of these paintings are just a blast! Worth1000.com challenged members to take an existing historical painting and add to it, filling in what was happening "off-camera". Here are some of the entries from "Beyond the Canvas: If Artists Had More Paint"

Lady of Shalott altered by Mishikal

The Scream altered by irishbryan

The Kiss altered by drucom

Love that last one especially. Reminds me of "Bram Stoker's Dracula", a movie memorable for its cinematic photojournalist style and ... its costumes! In fact, it even won the 1992 Oscar for Costume Design. What girl wouldn't love to wear one of its gorgeous fantasy Victorian frocks?

Mina's Red Dinner Bustle Dress [back view] from Bram Stoker's Dracula

Long Summer Days

The days are long and warm and filled with the kind of adventures you can only have during the commitment free summer holiday. (And how lovely to have power and working AC again on these hot days!)Last weekend we went to a Civil War re-enactment (also known as The War Between The States, the War For States Rights or the War of Northern Aggression). In Oregon. It was really interesting and something you definitely don't see too often West of the Mississippi. We timed our trip to see one of the battles. They even had firing cannons...what a lot of smoke and noise those made! The Re-enactors were awesome with the kids getting down and personal with them and teaching them all sorts of things about the Civil War. I felt really badly for the participants that the event wasn't better attended. I think partly because Oregon just isn't steeped in Civil War history like some other states and partly because the signage to get there wasn't very good. The road it gave as an address didn't show up on any of our maps and we drove around for a while until we happened to stumble upon a small festival sign. For more info click here.

I've also spent some of the long afternoons continuing the Great Spring Cleaning that was deferred this Spring for family medical reasons. I've recaulked one whole bathroom, waxed all the floors, sent tons of boxes to charity and .... (drumroll).. made my own lampshade for a poor naked hanging lightbulb! I was inspired by this post on Instructables on how to make your lampshade from an IKEA colander. But I wanted an Asian look so used a $10 Target woven basket. Looks SO COOL!!! And it took about 5 minutes max. :)

Cleaning out my studio, I'm selling off a ton of surplus supplies I unearthed. For example:These shoes are on Etsy. Here is an example of how beautifully they can be altered and customized with these supplies:So you can make some cool French shoes too if you'd like! :)

Don't forget that August 15th is the last day to take advantage of the Bloggie Friend Free Shipping coupon!

Who Doesn't Love a Coupon?

If you've ordered something from Jeweled Elegance, LLC lately, you may have seen an extra surprise in your order: a coupon! I've wanted to do coupons for a while but until recently didn't have the production capacity to produce them in the studio. I finally ironed out the technical glitches and am happy to introduce this new perk of being a Jeweled customer!


Coupon Questions: How do I redeem a coupon?
If you are purchasing in person, just present the coupon at the time of purchase.

If you are purchasing online, look at the bottom where it says "coupon code". This is the code for that particular special valid until the coupon expiration date. If you are ordering through the Jeweled Elegance Etsy Store, just include the coupon code in the "message to seller" when checking out and I will issue a refund to your account. If you prefer, you can contact me through the Etsy convo system before you purchase and I can put your item(s) as reserved/held for you with your coupon price discount already figured in.

If you are ordering through the Jeweled Elegance Boutique you can redeem a coupon in one of two ways. One: email or convo me with what you would like to buy and which coupon code you want to use, then I will email you an adjusted invoice to pay off of. Two: purchase what you would like and then email or convo me your coupon code, then I will issue a refund to your account. Easy as that! If you have any questions please feel free to email me at enquiry@jeweledonline.com

Coupon Questions: Do they expire?
Yes, they do. Please refer to the coupon expiration date at the bottom of each coupon.

Coupon Questions: Can I combine coupons?
No, sorry. Coupons cannot be combined. You can use a coupon on each seperate order though, so if you had three coupons the way you could use them all would be to place three seperate orders.


Cheers!!