(Metalless) Bling for a Wedding Fling

Few things ignite my creative urge more than being asked to help a bride create some memorable wedding jewelry for her bridesmaids. Crystals, pearls, rhinestones, and shimmer are standard for most lineups. My pal Cheryl of Cupcakinitup' asked Bead Up to custom create some necklaces for her bridesmaids which focused on the plunge neckline of their pink dresses and incorporated black and silver. One little glitch, though - one had to be metal free! At first I thought nothing of this... but then the more and more I thought of how to indeed incorporate crystals and findings and clasps and closures, all of which are often metal based, the more I realized how much I rely on metal in my creations - from as large as metal beads to metal string to metal clasps to even metal crimp beads. 

Though Cheryl said that I could make the metal-less in a whole separate style, I wanted to take the challenge to make something that looked like crystals and glitz and glam, but that all the women could wear. After tearing apart some plastic-based jewelry I found at a local accessory store and investing in some silk string, we had this (the metal version):

Bet-cha can't tell which one is metal and which is metal-free? :) 

Thanks for letting me glitz-up your gals, Cheryl!

Maternity Jewelry

A few months ago I blogged about a custom, commissioned necklace I made for my dear friend Nilsa. Nilsa asked for a funky, bold statement necklace to coordinate with the orange, teal, and lime colors of her nursery:

After discussing our options, we came up with this: 

Nilsa not only wore the necklace to her maternity shots, she also wore a "vintage" Bead Up lime green cluster bracelet (one of my first creations - you can read about it's anatomy here!):

So, what am I waiting for? Here are the best of the best!

Thanks for including Bead Up in your very special photo session, friend! 

Oh, and be on the lookout within the next few weeks for a very special Blog update! Craft on!

Winter Weddings!

There is nothing cold about winter weddings when their brides ask for Bead Up jewelry! 
First up, my high-school classmate, Liz, a veterinarian living in Georgia. Liz has a heart for all things animals and was planning a winter wedding. She first ordered a Birds Nest necklace for herself to wear for her engagement photo session!

Liz reported that the necklace received so many compliments from her friends that she decided to custom order them for all the gals included in her wedding (including a lime green egg)! 

Not only that, but she also commissioned Bead Up to create her wedding jewelry! The instructions were simple: a necklace and bracelet set for herself and necklaces for her bridesmaids in gold, champagne, and taupe colors to match her champagne-colored dress. Working together, we agreed on pearls and crystals on gold wire for both the bride and her maids. After ordering the supplies, we finally had these (I especially love the filigree clasps!):

(click on the photo for a better close up)

And not only that, but Liz's mom wanted some jewelry for herself, too! She commissioned me to make a broach, which I admittedly had never done before, but since I am always up for a good challenge, I tried it out and made this set (a sewn combination of Swarovski crystals under taupe-colored pearls with matching earrings on brass findings):

Put it all together and you have one lovely bride and M-ot-B

(with her broach worn on her collarbone)!

Liz was kind enough to share some of the professional shots from the big day:

Thanks again for being such a great customer, Liz!

Second winter wedding belonged to my sorority sister, Alwynn. This crazy lady and I have many stories from our college days which, well, let's just say that they are confidential ;) Alwynn was planning a January wedding in blues and silver and wanted some bridesmaids jewelry to match. She literally said: "Christyn, just go for it. I trust your judgment." Sweet! Her invitation was beautiful and a great source of inspiration:

Hoping to incorporate the swirls, navy and light blue, creamy white and silver, I used Swarovski, gemstones, and pearls to come up with these:

 (top bracelet is a little something something I threw in for the bride herself!)

Each bracelet and earring set were unique, and of course finished with a little heart clasp. Photos from Alwynn's big day to follow!

Congrats again, Liz and Alwynn :)

Weddings: Fall, Y'all!

Though Bead Up has been MIA on the blog scene, she's been making up for it by being equally and steadily busy making custom creations! (And I do apologize for being blog MIA - it's not you, it's me)! I hope to fill you in little by little with recaps of some custom pieces and wedding ensembles -- here's the first of hopefully many!
You know how in Project Runway the contestants are often given a client-based challenge, but afterwards chastised for not incorporating enough of their own "voice" into the final design? I will admit, this is often the case when I create wedding jewelry - I do what the bride asks and often tone down the Bead Up flair so as to keep it wedding respectable. 
But when my dear friend and sorority sister Regan asked that I not only make her wedding jewelry, but also consulted for my Bead Up design itself, I knew this would be a different kind of wedding job :) Regan started with the basics: she planned to wear a white wedding dress but wanted to accessorize with dark greys and charcoals with a bracelet, earrings, and a broach. After a few more series of questions, we agreed that making a dangly charm-crystal bracelet of sorts would be great, but an exaggerated one would be even better! Though as for the broach - she was leading that all up to me! Lastly, she asked for some matching dangle earrings - but not dainty bridal... funky bridal! LOVE IT. So, after showing Regan some hues of crystals and findings, we agreed on these: 

I have never purchased so many crystals for one piece of jewelry in my life! You can also see the materials I bought for the broach at the 3 o'clock of the photo. I am not going to lie - I had never made a broach before, but I love a good challenge. So I finally found a random pin holder thing, and along with some unique oversized Swarovski crystals and floral wire, I twisted and tied up this:

 And when I applied the base to the form, we had this:

Next was making the charm dangle bracelet. I wire wrapped over 200 Swarovski crystals and, one-by-one, bound them to a gun-metal chain. I loved how the crystals reflected the sunlight!  

After 200 rounds of measuring, clipping, wire wrapping, applying, and arranging, we had this bracelet!

 I sent Regan a photo of the earrings as seen above, though we both agreed that they needed a little "umph!" So...!

Regan's was the first wedding I was able to physically attend this year (that whole moving across the country thing got in the way of traveling across the country again)... and best of all - she got married in the exact same Garden Court where my hubs and I married nearly three years ago! It was a great "homecoming!" As for the jewelry, the trio was the perfect finishing touch to the already perfectly beautiful bride!

http://www.angiewilsonphotography.com/

She and Matt looked so chic and modernly romantic!

And though I had a hard time initially conceptualizing the dark grey accents to this wedding outfit... 

That not only did it match the men's color pallet...

But it even matched Regan's shoes! PERFECT combo!

http://www.angiewilsonphotography.com/ 

Oh, and let's not forget the Bridesmaids (and many of my other sorority sisters)!

...which were a combination of some gold leaf charms from LA's jewelry district and small orange crystals (which included a clip-on version, too!). 

...which, I must say, went very well with the orange fall leaf theme. Who would have known it would have gone so well with the dark grey?  

And when I wasn't helping with the jewelry at the wedding, I was busy taking photos of the guests at the photo booth! Regan's wedding was so well planned and Bead Up is still thrilled to have been a part of it. Thank you for including me, Matt and Regan - you are loved! 

200 custom made-to-order necklaces in 5 days!

It goes without saying that, by the looks of my blog, I have been quite MIA. Ask my craft room and new home in Kansas city if I have been MIA and they would give you a quite different answer! A few days before my husband and I packed up the car to move from Los Angeles to Kansas City, I got an e-mail from someone on Etsy asking if I could create 30 copies of my "Hope" necklace for a graduation her institution was hosting. Wow - 30! That was perhaps my largest order to date! Though I knew I wouldn't be able to make 30 of the exact same necklace, I searched around a found some comparable components and offered a wholesale price to the buyer. 30 soon turned into 50, and not only that, but the buyer wanted to substitute the pink bead for a purple trumpet bead. After adding trumpet beads to my to-buy list for the project, the buyer asked that we up the number of necklaces again to 100! WOWZA! I frantically tried to find the chain and charms that I needed, and as I was on the road to my new home, the buyer asked for 200 necklaces! HOLY JUNK! Sign me up - I think?!

So in addition to trying to move into my new home and prepare for a return trip to LA for the husband's ordination, I searched far and wide for the materials I needed to make these bad boys. In the past when I have made custom jewelry I have had little problem finding the amount of components I need. That was before I was looking for 200-800 of certain pieces. When I went to order 200 of the HOPE charms from one of my favorite sites, FusionBeads, turns out they only had 14 in stock. Ooooh. Next, when I went to order the heart charms I had offered to include on the necklaces, Artbeads only had 25 in stock. Hmmm. Next when I went to Michael's to buy 50 (yes, 50) packets of chain, they of course only had 3. So what's a girl to do? Whine to her husband and have him help! While I searched frantically online for other distributors of the Hope charms, the hubs called EVERY Michael's store in 3 counties and 2 states in and around Kansas City to see who had them in stock. I then spent a whole day driving around my new city and visited 5 Michael's stores within 3 hours - whew. Thankfully I found the bulk of what I needed, though had to settle on a few packets of chains in a slightly different style. AND my VistaPrint order of new business cards was not going to arrive before I needed them because, oh, did I mention that the buyer needed these all within 5 days? 


The factory worker in me got to work with whatever I had in stock as I waited for the supplies I ordered online arrived. I first cut 200 18" strands from 50 packets of 4' chain and attached them each to spring rings from Artbeads (click on the link to read my review of the product). 

Anxiously waiting daily for my supplies to arrive in the mail, I went to work on the purple trumpet beads that I bought on Etsy from Allthingsbeaded:

Each one needed special attention, so I lined them up and put a head pin in each. Of course they each needed to be trimmed,

And then curled...

The next day the Hope charms I ordered on from Fusion Beads and HipChickBeads came in the mail (thanks to a nudging call to the distributor by the hubs!)...

And finally, the day before I needed to mail the finished products (and the day before I was to fly back to California), the heart beads I ordered from Etsy seller CLBeads in Canada arrived - whew! That was close!

The buyer wanted 160 of the necklaces partially packaged so she could easily put them around the necks of the graduates at the ceremony. The hubs painstakingly punched, prepared, taped, and packaged each kit while I finished the necklaces until 2am that night. That's love, I guess!

So, 4 roles of tape,

5 internet orders,

5 Michael's store visits,

50 packets of chain, 

200 spring rings,

200 Hope charms, 

200 head pins,

200 business cards, 

200 trumpet beads,

200 heart charms,

400 hole punches,

410 ziploc bags, and

800 jump rings later, we had these:

We rushed to the nearest Post Office (I had to google map it since I had yet to search out my local post office!) to mail the finished box of necklaces off to the buyer in Colorado. While in LA, I was thrilled to get an e-mail from her stating that she not only received them in time, but also loved them. Whew! I can sleep now!

So, there you have it folks - how Bead Up (and her husband!) made 200 necklaces in less than 5 days. Hope to do it again soon - no lyin!

I exist - I promise!

It's been far too long since I have blogged, and I hate it :( I knew that moving cross-country was going to get in the way of my schedule and, more importantly, my Etsy-ing. Now that we have landed safely in Kansas City, things are starting to get back to normal... sort of! I have been super busy unpacking boxes, trying to find a job, and make this very new place feel like home. Furthermore, I am still working on details for my husband's ordination, which includes the programs for the service and also my necklace for my outfit!

But most interestingly, I have been working like crazy on my most massive Etsy order yet -- 200 custom necklaces! A few weeks ago, a gal messaged me on Etsy and asked if I could make 30 of my "Hope" necklace. I told her that I don't have 30 of any of the components in stock, though I could find something comparable. Well, 30 turned into 50, which turned into 100, which turned into 200! So I have spent the last week trying to find all the supplies on the internet and get them shipped promptly, since these are due next week! Good thing I am unemployed! 


I will be back in touch soon - and with pictures of my 200 creations! Here we go!

Orphaned Earrings

Over dinner in Berkeley with one of my bridesmaids a few weeks ago I was caught off guard. "Christyn," my gal Quinn said. "I have a Bead Up project for you." Quinn pulled out an old school jewelry bag and placed on the table 4 earrings. Not 2 pairs of earrings, but 4 separate, orphaned earrings. "So each of these has their own story. Each of them needs a reincarnation!" I was thrilled to take on the challenge, and saw it as a great venue for a new blog entry!


So here is what Quinn gave me:

And here is what came up with:

For this first necklace, Quinn said that the brass heart charm meant a lot to her as she bought it while living in Mexico. She asked that I add a red charm of sorts. I figured, why add one when you can add two?! How I love red coral. 

Next was this super cute little gold squirrel and nut charm duo. I cut the nut part off of the bottom of the squirrel charm and filed it smooth, and came up with a cute little pairing. I didn't need to add anything else - it was already precious as-is!

Then was this rad brass octopus. What should go with an underwater creature? Well, a pearl of course!

Lastly was this precious little gold bird. This was actually from a pair of super cute earrings that Quinn had bought in Kansas... the little bird hung in between a gold ring as if it was in a cage or something. I have actually been playing with some of my own materials since I first saw these earrings to make something similar. Anyway, here is it's recreation!

Oh, and Quinn also gave me what was left of a plastic, yet totally realistic looking, amber necklace she bought abroad. Done and done!


So, do you have any orphaned earrings that need a second chance? Let me know and I would love to reincarnate them for you! Holla!