Saturday 30 March 2013

Spirals: Mother's Day Gift

Over here, we celebrate Mother's Day in March. So this particular mother's day, I decided, it would be a  spiral pattern jewelry for my mom. I have always made jewelries for my mom regardless of holidays or celebrations.

This time around, I wanted to make a set of jewelry (necklace with matching earrings) with her favourite colour- green. She was with me when I worked on those spiral sets and she loved each and everyone of them!

With this in mind, I decided to challenge myself again by making another design completely different from the first sets. Here, different shades of green, gold, whitish silver in different ratios were mixed together. Mind you, these are seed beads in different sizes. Olive green crystals was used for the spiral pattern.

The result of this idea is this. The earrings are designed like spirals as you can see.
I believe this, was a great gift to celebrate her! Don't you think so?

The red one is also for her. This is designed with smaller seed beads, with a touch of red and clear crystals. Here, a pendant is attached to it, for a different look. So it can be worn with or without a pendant. The earrings are like the pendant, only smaller.

I'm really pleased with these ones and I hope to keep creating diversity with this pattern.

Let me know  what you think.. Happy Mother's Day to every woman out there.

"Honour your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land of the Lord your God is giving you"-Ex 20:12

"God could not be everywhere, therefore he made mothers"-Jewish Proverbs

Linda Aliogo



Saturday 23 March 2013

Simple Wire Wrap Bracelet

I had these interesting beads on my beading mat and I wanted to use them. It has been with me for a while and it didn't fit into any of the projects I am currently working on. They are interesting in shapes and sizes and I just needed to 'play' with them.


So, I took some time-out from my current project and set to work. I had a wrap design in mind, a very simple wire wrap. Within a short time, I was done!
I fell in love with its sheer simplicity and beauty! I decided to keep this for myself, and it was a good decision I made.

The following day, I wnet to pick up my beading stuffs from a local shop and I met a lady there. She kept looking at this bracelet. And I was like... But I kept to myself and continued picking my items. She eventually came to me when I was sitting down waiting to pay for my items. Smiling, she asked "Did you make this?" pointing to my wrist and I answered "Yes".

She brought out her phone and asked if she could take a photo of it, I obliged her. She pressed further, and asked how I made it. I explained and I knew I made her day with the smile on her face. She equally made mine too.

I paid for my items and left the shop. It was an amazing encounter. I am happy I made this bracelet and even happier I kept it for myself.

If you love it too and want to have one for yourself, please contact me.
                                                             
                                                               Thanks.

"Happiness is not something ready made, it comes from your own action"-Dalai Lama XIV

                                                            Linda Aliogo

Friday 15 March 2013

Having Fun with Hemp

Hemp. That's an interesting word. Hemp and jewelry even sounds more interesting! So what is hemp?
Hemp is a twine got from a plant, yes cannabis plant.  This is used to make different things like cosmetics, paints, paper and of course jewelry.

 I came across this when I placed an online order for my jewelry accessories. Actually, I was looking for a cord that would replace the one I use for my shamballa bracelets. I wanted to try something new and different.

By the time, I got it, I was shocked with the feel and texture. I liked the colour but then the size was too big for the holes of the shamballa beads! I didn't consider its size (diameter of 3mm) when I ordered, it skipped my mind!

So here I was, stuck with this huge thread, having no clue on what to do with it. I have never seen or heard of  a jewelry made with this cord.

 I left it for a while and continued with other things on my beading table.

Then one day, I decided to use it. I didn't have any beads that the hemp cord would go through. The beads had smaller holes! After much thought, I came up with something! And of course, my first and one of my greatest critics (my kids) liked the design!

What a happy feeling for me! My son took his to school and never brought it back. His friend took it. He told my son, its different from the regular bracelets out there and it looked special!

Since then, I have made more and I have added beads this time! Still hoping to make new and more interesting designs with them. Yes, I really did have fun working with hemp...finally.

Thanks for your time.

"I'm happy to receive any item of jewelry"-Katie Price

                                                                  Linda Aliogo

Saturday 9 March 2013

Spirals: One Pattern, Four Designs

There is always a first time for everything.  Not being an exception, I happened to be happy with my experience. This is it, how do you recreate a particular beading pattern in four different ways? This is a pattern I worked on years back. At first, I was concerned because I have not made any new jewelry with it. I couldn't remember the exact way it works. I had to go back to my notes and do a little research.

I just didn't want to repeat an old design with this pattern. I wanted to show an improvement in the design. To show growth and development in my creativity as well as show some of the current trends, colours and designs all put together. It was challenging and I was ready to give it a fair shot!

I gathered my materials and got to work. The first design was in Purple, different shades of purple. The beads were in different sizes too. I used crystals, to give it that sparkle, nothing over the top.Two different sizes and colours of seed beads were used here.
At first, I wasn't sure of the spirals (the look of the pattern and design), it was different and interesting. I continued, anxious to see the final look. And I did! Here it is! (The picture above).

The second was made with black and blue-black beads. This particular design was different from the purple as you can see. There is also a touch of gold seed beads to add some brightness to the piece. The gold colour helped to accentuate the overall black giving it an interesting feel.  I loved the simplicity of the earrings too. Goes with anything, with or without the necklace.
This is so cool, like ice, if you ask me. I used two shades of light blue, and the seed beads in the a similar shade but with tiny sparkles of different colors like a subtle rainbow. I didn't want to leave the entire necklace plain like the other two. This is because it was too uniform for me, in terms of the colours. So, I added those three indigo blue rondelles in  front. This really popped out and gave the design a very nice look. Really classy look.





I guess I saved the best for last. Well, this is debatable though. All the beads have gold accent with a touch of whitish silver along the spirals in the middle. This is one piece that gave the most sparkle compared to the rest. The earrings where different too.( I tried to make four different earrings to go with all of them.)

Each of them had what made them stood out. I'm equally happy that, I took up this challenge to make all these. An interesting thing about all four of them is their versatility in terms of wearing them. They go with both western and traditional wears. You can match the necklace with another pair of earrings. You can equally do that with the earrings, they can go with another necklace or wear alone.

All four are sold out and I'm working on two new designs at the moment. I would give you a feedback on that soon.

Let me know which is your favourite.

 Thanks.

"Choose your love, love your choice"- Thomas S. Monson

Linda Aliogo

Crying

 Hello, Lovelies It has been quite a while! Hope you're keeping safe and doing good. Today, I felt like sharing this topic with you: cry...