Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Color - It’s all About Proportion

seelensturm via Flickr



This post is not for the faint of heart, the vanilla crowd or anyone afraid of color.  It is clearly for the more spirited reader - the ones that are fearless in the face of color!


Inspiration Board  
Cameron Diaz / Estate Necklace / Interiors by Angele Perlange

Designers conceptualize designs from many different sources and much of the time, my jewelry designs are inspired from beautiful interiors since that was my career for many years.  However, my latest design was inspired from several sources - a beautifully designed room, a stunning  estate necklace and a celebrity.  All three converged to lead me down the path to a daring color combination of aqua and hot pink.  If you study the images above you will see that all three have the same color combination, but used in different ways.  Most importantly, what you see is a complementary color scheme using either aqua or hot pink as the primary focus with smaller accents of the opposing color.  Complimentary color schemes are probably the most difficult to pull off successfully.  Much of that difficulty lies in knowing exactly what proportion of the opposing color to use without becoming a garish combination. 

Abelle Necklace




Stunning Peruvian Opal smooth rondelles and pink sapphires are hand-linked to create this beautiful Spring / Summer necklace.  This cacophony of color terminates with an antique Georgian Silver Paste Locket  replete with a little gold vermeil bow.  This precious heirloom features an adorable gold vermeil Napoleonic bee floating amongst approximately 2 carats of minuscule rubies.  As most of these lockets are a combination of silver and gold (925 silver & 9ct gold), that combination also extends to the hand linked chain to allow the owners to wear it with either preference. The apt name for this necklace is Abelle, which signifies “bee” in French.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Après Tucson Gem Show

Dyann Necklace was inspired by a photograph from Marcola La Grenouille of Etsy

Chignon Necklace was inspired by this K. Sugarman Interiors Drawing Room

Charmaine Necklace was inspired by this quietly elegant vanity - source unknown