Take Heart

 

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I've had hearts and romantic themes on my mind lately.  Here's a quick peek at some of the new items listed in The French Circus this evening.

 

 

Have a love-ly weekend, mes amis!  <3 Robyn

 

Dreaming in Amber

Inspired by last weekend's flea market finds, I've been dreaming in shades of amber...



Cameos, vintage honey-gold crystal beads and antique watch chains are complemented by cool silver, rhinestones and mother of pearl.




All of these new designs and more are available at The French Circus. Thank you for stopping by. :)

Happy May Day!

Wishing everyone a very happy first day of May! I hope you will all find a basket of flowers on your doorstep. :)

Raspberry and Rhinestone

Before I begin talking about jewelry, I first wanted to apologize to any of you (most likely those with a PC) who cannot see my sidebar gadgets, i.e., my profile, Etsy shoppe link, followers, blog list, etc. One of my faithful readers called this to my attention the other day and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to fix it. Apparently this information all dropped town to the bottom of the page (isn't that convenient?)! I've tried searching for help on Blogger, but nothing I've tried has worked. If anybody has any suggestions for me out there in Blogland, I would be more than happy to hear your ideas. How's everyone liking the new interface, by the way? I, for one, have tried it and am sticking with the old format!

OK, now with the housekeeping out of the way, we can get on to the good stuff... jewelry! As promised, I've been working on pieces with a raspberry (pink, red, berry, garnet, ruby, etc.) and rhinestone (paste, bling, sparkle) theme.


This necklace was a custom order for my friend in Australia who sells beautiful headpieces at Velvet Teacup.

She asked me to use these pink vintage floral links she had seen on another necklace I made a few months ago, and wanted an Art Deco dress clip as the main pendant. I think it came out lovely and hope she will love it once it arrives in her mailbox on the other side of the world!

I lined the interior of this vintage locket, featuring a romantic fragonard scene of an 18th century couple with raspberry velvet and added an old cross.

I'm happy to report that this beauty got snatched up by one of my sweet regular customers in about 15 minutes!

Some shoulder-dusting earrings accented with pink tourmaline and garnet briolettes...

Finally, this piece features a relic pendant, created by another artisan who makes them out of Masonic medals and vintage watch cases. I added more red velvet and a rhinestone bird peeking through the glass window.

Vintage mother of pearl rosary beads and red glass (which I found on my trip to Paris last fall) complement the ornate detailing of the pendant.

Thank you for stopping by! Have a beautiful weekend! :)

Mothers and Pearls

With Mother's Day fast approaching, I spent a good amount of time in the studio this weekend playing with new designs that I hoped would make pleasing gift ideas for moms and daughters alike.


Fittingly, I used lots of mother of pearl, such as in these 'ivory tower' earrings.



This 'mother of pearls' necklace pays homage with an old celluloid 'Mother' pin, an antique photo locket featuring a Victorian woman and Art Deco rhinestone bracelet links.





Next I thought I'd try my hand at some brooches and assembled this one by draping a sterling silver shield with shell cameo, old watch chain and mother of pearl rosary beads to a sterling marcasite bow.




A French-inspired sterling silver cuff bracelet with rosary crosses and agate.




These 'souvenir de bains' charms are so popular I keep getting requests for more. Don't worry... I have one more set that I can make another pair of earrings with! ;)



Brass crowns hang from chains and more mother of pearl.



Another brooch assembled from a 1920s goldtone rose pin, handmade Virgin Mary pendant, enamel cross and... you guessed it, mother of pearl rosary beads!




Finally, I just had to get this beautiful pink scapular from France as soon as I spied it! I've never seen another quite like it and its colour is so yummy.


I complemented it with vintage rhinestones, tarnished religious findings, and pink glass and brown wood rosary beads.




I'm happy to report that half of these items had already been spoken for by the time I was able to write this blog post, so thank you to all my loyal customers. Please keep checking back since I am always striving to come up with new treasures.


Enjoy the rest of your week! :)