Acai Project

It's been a while since I've written. To be honest, the summertime is a slow time for me when it comes to designing and making jewelry. Our weekends become trips up to Connecticut for some R&R or just plain old R&R at home. This summer, starting in June, I had a project. A friend of mine works for Kiehl's and was working on a project to promote their new line of product made with Acai berries. These berries are found in the Amazon and have many healing properties. She went to Brazil to do some research and found these bracelets made from Acai beads. This sparked a brilliant promotion idea! When she got back to NY she started looking for a resource to make 350 bracelets. That's where I come into the picture. I agreed to make them and to be honest I wasn't 100% sure what I was getting myself into. I'd never been commissioned to make that many bracelets (or anything really) at once. But it was a good opportunity to get my name out there (she had co-branded cards printed to be included with each bracelet), and to make some extra money. I found "K" logo beads to include in each bracelet to make them unique and branded, which my friend loved. It made the bracelets something custom-made for Kiehl's.

So, starting in early June, my evenings and any free time on the weekends was devoted to making bracelets. It took me a couple of weeks, and finally in mid-July I completed and delivered the 350 bracelets. Ah, now I would have my evenings back...so I thought. My friend soon emailed me that the bracelets were a total hit and she needed another 300! Back to work for me, I ordered another 300 K beads, 4 kilos of Acai beads, and 20 meters of stretchy cord.

The other day, I was sent an article about the Acai beads which is in this issue of Elle magazine on stands now. They mentioned my friend and Kiehl's (if only they mentioned O by Olivia, I would have it made!). I'll attach the article to my facebook fan page in case anyone is curious.

I finally delivered the last of the 300 bracelets this Thursday. I felt relieved, happy, accomplished...and now I have so much time to do whatever I want I don't know what to do with myself! Here is a photo of the fruits of my labor:

The Met Costume Institute Gala

The Met Costume Institute Gala, New York's biggest night - orchestrated by Vogue's Anna Wintour and celebrating the "Model As Muse" - brought out the hottest designers, celebrities, supermodels and socialites to risk-take and taste-make their way down the leopard-print carpet.




Hemlines went from short to shorter on celebs like Anne Hathaway in Marc Jacobs and Van Cleef & Arpels gems, Victoria Beckham in a polka-dot Marc Jacobs frock and Gisele in a barely-there Versace mini with new husband, Tom Brady.






Some celebs shined in royal blue like Liv Tyler in Stella McCartney, and Jessica Alba in Jason Wu (same designer as Michele Obama's inaugural dress) and a stunning pair of emerald earrings (not as impressive as Angelina's Oscar gems - but very close).






But the belle of the ball had to be the season's hottest hue - yellow gold. Designer Marc Jacobs showed off his muse du jour, Kate Moss, who successfully rocked a cape-adorned gold gown, matching turban and Harry Winston jewels; Kate Hudson channeled mom, Goldie Hawn's, summery glow in a yellow gold Stella McCartney frock with matching gold bangles; And Eva Mendes shimmered in a simple yet chic Calvin Klein creation.

Want to take a page from the fashion world's golden playbook? Take a look at some beautiful gold jewelry. Did you know May is Gold month? Enjoy!!

I've gotten a few requests for bridesmaids jewelry! I think what excites me most about these requests is that these brides love my jewelry so much, they want it to be a part of their special day! I recently worked with someone through Etsy, and she was a real pleasure. Here's what she just emailed me (which makes me happy because I LOVE to make my customers happy!)

Thanks so much for your help with everything! You have been such a pleasure to work with and I will highly recommend you to all of my friends. Thanks so much.

How could I not love what I do? :)

Now that I have started to really try hard to get my jewelry out there (I know, leave it to me to decide to do during a recession!!), I've been reading articles online and came across something quite interesting about rejection. It puts it in perspective!
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/two-ways-to-dea.html

Oscars Jewelry Review

OK, so I looked very closely at the ladies on the red carpet pre-ceremony. One common trend I saw was most were not wearing necklaces. I think because for a lot of dresses, it was all about the neckline and perhaps a bare neck was more dramatic. But lots of interesting earrings.

Everyone is talking about Angelina's Emerald earrings - yes they were REAL emeralds! Unbelievable - who would have thought to wear a simple black dress, but with bright green earrings, and you would be the talk of the town?! Another nominee, Melissa Leo, also wore bright green earrings with her copper-colored dress. So, ladies, your earrings don't have to match your outfit. Actually, why not wear a statement pair - something bright! Don't have thousands to spend? Try these:

Another presenter/performer who wore statement earrings is Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical). I loved her white earrings!

Try these great looks:

And my oh my, the chandeliers! Beautiful, dripping with diamonds and gold! There were two that stood out to me. One was a large, bold statement of yellow gold, and I just loved the diamond shape to them. They looked fabulous with red!

My version:

And diamonds are dripping on Evan Rachel Woods:
The more affordable version :)

Last but not least, I loved seeing something similar to my dream catchers on Jessica Biel. I was not that into her dress, but her earrings were great! A beautiful Turquoise version from my very own line of Dream Catchers:

The Oscars

Tonight is the Oscars. I will be watching the red carpet coverage closely for any and all new jewelry trends...then the challenge will be to translate the beautiful multi-thousand dollar jewels to something we can all wear. Wish me luck!

Check out all the neweset updates on: http://www.eonline.com/

New Bridal Line

There seems to be an abundance of to-be brides in my world, and so I decided to start designing bridal jewelry. I myself designed my bridesmaids necklaces and earrings (and they loved them) and since I've gotten some requests to make multiple items for their bridesmaids. But I never really made anything specifically for the BRIDE to wear. So, now I have! It's under the bridal category of my etsy page (click on above photo to go to the bridal section of my etsy store).

Abstract Photos - do they really help?

OK! So I have finally started a blog, woo hoo! My husband will be so proud.
Lately I've been really inspired to make some new designs and really work hard at taking interesting photos of my designs to post onto Etsy. I'm not sure yet if the more abstract photos help traffic, but I'm experimenting. Either way, it's fun and I hope to learn something from it.