BRIDAL PORTFOLIO - ELIZABETH

I received these gorgeous pictures from my beautiful bridal customer Elizabeth! Wow! There is a world of difference between making jewelry with pearls and wire and then seeing how someone wears them and brings them to life. I get so excited, and somewhat emotional whenever I get these mails showcasing the jewelry that I made.

(Pictures by http://www.bellapictures.com/)

Elizabeth wanted a pearl and rhinestone Flower Necklace. She liked my double stranded pearl necklaces but wanted a simpler version. I made this single stranded version of my best seller brooch necklace. I used a smaller Cubic Zirconia component that I generally use for my chandelier earrings. I used all Swarovski pale ivory pearls. The CZ component can be worn at the left or the right (as Elizabeth choose to).



She also wanted a matching bracelet and earrings. More pictures of the jewelry can be found here.



Elizabeth also got these chandelier earrings, but choose to go with the plain Swarovski pearl studs to keep with the simpler jewelry.



Wedding pics: Copyright Elizabeth Brown 2010
Taken by: http://www.bellapictures.com/
Jewelry pics: Copyright Som's Studio 2010

Launched My Bridal Store Today

I am very happy to announce the launch of my Bridal store on Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/somsstudio

I hope that you like my designs as much as I enjoy making them.

What is Cubic Zirconia?

Cubic Zirconia or CZ is is the cubic crystalline form of zirconium dioxide (ZrO₂). The synthesized material is hard, optically flawless and usually colorless, but may be made in a variety of different colors. It should not be confused with zircon, which is a zirconium silicate (ZrSiO₄). Because of its low cost, durability, and close visual likeness to diamond, synthetic cubic zirconia has remained the most gemologically and economically important competitor for diamonds since 1976.

Rhinestone or paste or diamante on the other hand, is a diamond simulant typically made from glass. Glass is silicon dioxide, also known as silica (from the Latin silex), is an oxide of silicon with a chemical formula of SiO₂. The availability of glass rhinestones was greatly increased when around 1775 the Alsatian jeweler Georg Friedrich Strass had the idea to imitate diamonds by coating the lower side of glass with metal powder. Hence, rhinestones are called Strass in many European languages. Crystal rhinestones are produced mainly in Austria by Swarovski and in the Czech Republic by Preciosa and a few other glassworks in northern Bohemia. In the US, these are sometimes called Austrian Crystal.

I have been using CZ and rhinestones in my Bridal jewelry for many years now. Both are very attractive and provide diamond like sparkle. The CZ I currently work with is by far one of the best stimulants that I have used, primarily due to the incredible faceting of the stones.

(References: http://en.wikipedia.org)