We had some lovely news at Ivaldi Towers a few months ago. My biggest nephew and his long term partner were finally tying the knot. So, obviously an enormous hat has in order, as was a stunning piece of jewellery.
Hat and dress were easily arranged, but as a bespoke jeweller I wanted to create something stunning, I do have a reputation to maintain after all. My current collection is all about stars so the main focus was an easy choice but where to go from here. An evening on Pinterest and I had an inspiration board
http://pinterest.com/ivaldi/shooting-star-necklace-inspiration/ and a quick trip to my favourite beads hop and I had some yummy new beads to play with.
Many sketches later I had a design I was happy with and I started making stars. The Lovely Caroline from the
Outhouse Studio has loaned me a beautiful antique kiln, and I just love the results it gave.
I then spent about 3 days placing beads, polishing stars and generally faffing about until I get things where and how I wanted.
Here it is about half way through.
So, Saturday morning dawned and we were off into the wilds of Suffolk and here it is in it's finished glory.
Rosemarie of
the Lighthouse Network has been helping me focus and reach my goals, and she has been hugely encouraging all through this project, thank you sweetie x
So the final outcome of this is that the necklace is now up on Folksy, the original you see here but also as a bespoke, whatever stones, colours you want.
I've really enjoyed this project. It's brought my Stars collection to a conclusion and I've learned a lot doing it. So what next, what will be my next collection. Stay tuned and I'll let you know.... as soon as I know myself x
As well as steaming and shaping our hats on a block, I cut into the brim to make the back curl. I don't like it when the back of my hat bumps on my collar or scarf. We then wired the brim and covered the wire in ribbon. Once we had decorated our hats; with everything from butterflies and feathers to velvet, chain and flowers, we ribboned up the inside and lined our hats in silk. I was truly amazed at the professional finish we managed in just 6 hrs.
