The Latest Creations

Last week I really didn't work on necklaces a whole lot, but in two days time I created four necklaces. I have made one more so far that is a beautiful combination of pink pearls and silver chain. I saw it in a book some time ago and finally got around to making it. I don't have a picture of it though so you will have to wait and see it in person or go to petalsoftjewelry.blogspot.com - I am posting the newest necklaces there tonight.

I call this one Frosted Crystal Clusters - I made it a couple of weeks ago but just got the pictures taken last week. It sits at the base of the neck with clusters of clear and frosted plastic beads connected to silver chain with sterling silver cones. The earrings have the same cones and clusters and it makes a gorgeous set. In fact, I had just finished one similar to it when Kecia came over to let Emma play with grandma and she bought it from me on the spot. The picture below is another picture of this necklace. I guess I need to have Kecia send me a picture of the one she bought because I liked the chain on it better. When she sends it to me I will post it. I have priced it at only $15 a set - it was not really expensive to make because I got the sterling silver cones (which is the most expensive part of the whole set!) at clearance price at a Ben Franklin Sidewalk sale.


The first set was my least expensive and this one is my most expensive because of the dichroic pendant. It really sets off the necklace. This is one that doesn't photograph well - it looks too busy but looks gorgeous on. It combines chains and amethyst drops and the one of a kind handmade dichroic pendant in black and silver and lavender. It is selling for $36 for the set. Again, I show the same necklace below. I think I am going to redo the beadwork part of it because I used 49 strand wire and I\it kinks easier than the mid priced 19 strand wire!! Weird - the 49 strand is supposed to be the best!

(do you like my shoe??)

This one is called Gold and Silver Sparklies because that is what it is. The central focus is a beautiful pendant made of gold and silver toned metals with rhinestones set in the open work. I put it on a beadwork necklace of gold toned spacer beads and Crystal Swarovski beads that sparkle so magnificently. This bead work is in turn connected to gold toned chain and the whole necklace connects with a 14k gold decorative magnet. The earrings are single drops with the same beads as the necklace with little bits of chain hanging from them. The picture below is a close up of this set.


Silver Wildflowers:I made this one at the same time I made the Gold and Silver Sparklies and the Mother of Pearl Pendant necklace but though this one is pretty it is not as striking. I am going to repeat the beadwork on a hot pink pendant if I can find one I like and see if I can improve on this one. It's pretty but not one of my favorites. This set sells for $22.oo

This is one of the most striking necklaces I have made in a long time. I wear it with purple but it would look really good with greens or browns or especially turquoise. It is called Mother of Pearl and that is because the pendant is a large round piece of mother of pearl with tones of lavender, hot pink, blues, browns and greens depending on how the light is hitting it. I have again, hung the pendant on a small chain between two sections of beadwork. The bead work in this piece is made up of pale blue pearls and blue iridescent cubes and green Swarovski crystals with copper toned accents ....all hanging from copper wire. The earrings are made up of the same blue and green and copper combination. Maybe it is just because I love copper in my necklaces but this is a definite winner. ($25.00 for the set)
Citron palms : The necklace above and below is created on an dark antique gold chain - with a pale yellow/green pendant with palm trees on it. I have framed this pendant with a lower chain with dangles of the same citron colored flat round shell pieces. The earrings are a pretty dangles of the small round shells and the antique gold chain. This set sells for $29.00

Well - that's it for another while - remember - you can see all of my necklaces at Esty.com The link to that site is here at the upper right hand corner of my blog.

And again - if there is anything you see, remember there is always a 20% discount for friends and family. Also, if there is something you want that you don't see, describe it to me and I will give you a bid and you can have it custom made, just for you...Your color, your size, your metal!!

Simple but Beautiful Necklaces

I decided to showcase some of my simpler designs. Most of them are illusion style necklaces which you know I love.

This is the chocolate rock illusion set - these rocks are polished and richer in color than the set I show at the very end of this blog. (Those rocks are greyer and more natural in tone.)

This is where I started putting flowers in my pictures. As one of my darling children said "You are Petal Soft Jewelry, so put petals in your pictures!" The pictures with flowers in them seem to come alive. So slowly but surely I am redoing all of my pictures - check out my Etsy site and you will see how much better a lot of the pictures are!

This illusion necklace is one of the more expensive of this type - $20- for the set because it is made only with the Swarovski Crystals - the earrings have additional spacers and such on the triple drop but the necklace itself is wire, crimp beads and crystals - and so easy and beautiful to wear.
You know how much I love the illusion style necklace - my favorite thing to wear is something simple and sparkly around my neck and this one fits the bill exactly. I call it Joyful Iridescence. It was hard to get a good picture of it - I need to try again with this one. This is a combination of Swarovski crystals alternating with iridescent cubes both in the amethyst tones. They have two little crimp beads between each larger bead - but I didn't crimp the crimp beads - the necklace just slides on the wire loose. At the back of the necklace I repeated the iridescent cubes and put a charm that says JOY by the magnet closure so it would be easy to feel where the magnet is to open.

This is called Sparkles in Gold - it is a choker style necklace on a cute squiggly wire. The pendant has sparkling rhinestones in it. It only sells for $10- because there wasn't alot of time put into making it ;-)
This is another very simply made, $10 necklace but it is so soft and beautiful. The leaf is a soft mesh formed leaf showing veins and such. It drapes off a softly coiled silver toned necklace.

You've seen my calla lilly necklaces before but I like the picture on this one better and I added earrings to both of my calla lilly necklaces. These earrings are on antique gold POSTS!! I finally found some posts for my earrings that don't look CHEAP! These are elegant. And hypoallergenic!! Now if I could just find them in silver tones!!
You've seen this one before too - In fact it has been one of my most popular necklaces. Simple rose quarts on an illusion wire.
This is a fun choker style - almost too fancy to be called simple but I put it in here anyway. The main bead is a gold sparkley glass bead in rectangular shape with magnet beads, glass iridescent beads and simple plastic beads. It is made on memory wire. If I had more of the gold rectangular beads I would make a matching bracelet for it. The earrings are simple one drop dangles.
I reworked this necklace - it always had the cobalt blue cubes and cut metal spacers in the very middle of the necklace but the next set of beads were a dark blue twisted iridescent bead that was beautiful but it detracted from the cobalt blues. So I cut it all apart and restrung it with more cubes and I really like this combination. I added earrings to this necklace also.
This is my favorite picture - I spent Monday and Tuesday with Emma Lynn (blog to come) and while she was still sleeping Tuesday morning and the morning sun was shining in through Kecia's East kitchen French Doors I took this picture. I think I will go down and use Kecia's table for all of my pictures - the deep rich tones of the wood create a magnificent picture (I think even Shawn will be impressed)!! By the way, this is my red crystal illusion necklace and the earrings that I just added to create a set are hanging off the main rose on the right hand side. They almost disappear!

And last but not least is this set - Simply rock and shell beads strung on illusion wire - the earrings are loops with more of the same rocks. The thing about this set it is looks great with jeans and can be classy and casual at the same time. Only $12.00 for this set!!

Newest Necklaces

Tuesday morning - about 12:30 am in fact and I can't sleep so I decided to post some of my newest creations for you to see. The one on the top of my blog is called Leaves of Green and I couldn't believe the number of compliments I received on it the day I wore it. It was fun!!!! It was amazing how it came together too - try this and this and this and this and there it was. It is kind of busy to my mind but that is what the ladies are buying and I had the name for it before it was ever finished.This is a copper illusion with the swarovski crystals and it is more delicate than the goldstone cube illusion just below. I wore it today to the doctors office (where I got a shot in the spine that will hopefully help the burning and itching of my feet) and got compliments on it - even the doctor said he liked it and that it matched my blouse - then he proceeded to laugh at himself , saying he works with too many women!! It was cute.




This is is made up of brown goldstones in cube form with pearls and copper metal daisies.












I really like this set










This is a long copper double chain with a simple pendant on it. The pendant has two lime green sparklies and they are repeated in the earrings. Simple, but pretty. I kind of got in a copper mood for a few days.
















This is a bracelet made on memory wire with green toned shells hanging off the end. There are all tones of green beads -it is prettier than the picture shows







Here are a couple of redand crystal necklaces that I made up with red satin beads. I think they will sell better to an older crowd
































This is a pretty set - bracelet and earrings and necklace all three. The necklace and bracelet are made on memory wire.








This necklace was so fun to make - amazing in fact. It started out as a blue illusion type necklace and as I strung the beads I liked the effect of all of them close together. so i decided to hang them off of a silver chain. then I thought - a second level of chain would be gorgeous...and as I was rummaging through my beads and charms I found this pretty inch and a half long dragon fly. I posted this one to etsy and the next morning I had a lady asking if I could make 15 of them. I finally decided not to because I had bought the charm on clearance and to buy them wholesale they would cost three times as much so the necklace would end up costing more - also I figured I would be bored stiff making 15 of the same thing.

Just thought I would keep you up to date with what I was making.

It is Tuesday night now and I have been working on the same necklace for two days and it just isn't coming together - its amazing sometimes the things just fall into place and other times I feel like I am pulling teeth to get a necklace created.

Tonight though I made other stuff - I am in the process of crocheting around two receiving blankets and four burp pads for my soon to be grandbabies. Plus I bought fabric for 12 more burp pads that I am sewing on the machine - I figure with twins, Kelly and Jamie will need all the burp pads they can get!!

And then a dear friend that is getting married on saturday brought over her excess flowers and I get to make a 'throwaway' bouquet for her. this is her second marriage, she has a 15 year old daughter that she has raised by herself and she has found a wonderful man who is taking her to the temple on saturday. Hurrah for Kathy!!

So I am keeping busy!

Thursday's Party

You've all been asking about how my party went on Thursday - after cleaning and baking (I have dozens of cookies left over and sitting in my freezer!) and organizing and planning and delivering over 100 fliers - I had a total of 11 people show up - and three of them were my kids! This is what my living room looked like.


I set up three tables and draped them with tableclothes and then some of the pretty scarves that Dirk brought me from Afghanistan or else pieces of fabric that I picked up from the remnant table at wal mart.

I did sell a few necklaces and thought - well they all seemed to like the many different styles and how well they were made....

but since then the interest has really grown - phone calls and more orders and compliments galore. I love seeing my 'designs' showing up on people different places...it is sooo fun!
Wednesday evening as I set the tables up I realized that I had so many 'illusion' style necklaces that there were too many to lay them all out - but I couldn't decide which ones to display and which ones not... so I ran to wal mart Thursday morning and bought some racks for cupcake tins and cookie sheets and set them upside down with another little rack inbetween and that gave me a fun place to hang them all!!!
The only illusion necklaces I didn't hang on this rack was the "mommy and me" sets (two necklaces made alike for mother and daughter) and then a couple others that I wanted to highlight. It worked!





Kristanne has been unsure of what color or design she wanted her necklace to be like. So she bought her own beads!!!! WOW!! (For those of you new to my blog spot she is one of my five daughters or daughters-in-law that I made my first necklaces for - I practiced on them and they told me color and I made the necklaces! They were my first sounding boards and I learned alot from them). Kris picked a soft red swarovski crystal and bought both large and small beads. I have posted a picture of her necklace above and below this paragraph - the others will be jealous that they didn't wait too, because I have gotten better. Kris also bought 14k gold spacer beads and earring wires and they are beautiful. If I were to make and sell her set it would run $35 to $40 just because of the cost of all the materials! I use nice beads but not as many of the Swarovski crystals and not 14k gold!


This is still one of my favorites -

-
Again - you get the idea of how I laid some out flat and set others up on boards. Actually I had to get creative here too - I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of cheap 8 x 10 picture frames and draped them with fabric or shawls and put s hooks or some real pretty shower curtain hooks on them and hung the necklaces from them

I had necklaces that ranged in price from $8 through $40 but offered atwenty percent discount so I felt like the prices were reasonable while the quality was good.

The ladies that came were excited over the fact that for no extra charge I would hand make their necklace to THEIR SPECIFICATIONS!

So anyway the ball is rolling and my business has begun! Amee and Terrie are having an open house in their back yard on the 30th of May - they will have displays from several different vendors (it is fun thinking of myself as a vendor!) in their huge back yard there in Syracuse . I feel like my little party here was a good practice for their party. I learned alot about setting up and taking down and displaying the items. I will probably try and do an open house every couple of months!!!

One thing I WON"T do again is take all of the necklaces off their displays and put in them in one container thinking I can sit and watch the news and put them in their individual plastic bags - talk about a mess. In ten minutes time they were a tangled mess!!! Mostly because of the magnet closures that all stuck together. LIVE AND LEARN!!

New Necklaces

You are all probably going to get tired of this but at least my pictures are getting better!! I have found that the black velvet necklace stand is the worst thing for taking pictures on! It reflects the light and fuzzies the pictures


I took these tonight with my little camera - and different fabrics as background, experimenting as I go.

There were two or three more necklaces that I hae created that I didn't like the pictures I took and so I deleted them and will re do the pictures tomorrow. After my party on Thursday I will retake all the pictures I haven't liked because of the poor lighting and edit the etsy posts.
























This one is called bunches of beads...on a chain. It is the rope style necklace with clusters of black, silver and white pearlized beads dangling off a chain. The matching earrings are hanging on each side of the necklace. The chain is really attractive in and of itself.

























This one is called Red Elegance - the antique gold chain with clusters of red, gold, crystals, and pearls makes it downright elegant. It has matching earrings. The chain is forty two inches long - it dangles loose with extra beading at the bottom, as you can see



















This was a fun one to make with red wire and the fun wooden beads - it is a choker style necklace with the matching dangle earrings.



















I call this one the plum illusion necklace - it is one of the ones that are quite inexpensive - just $8 - there are not any of the expensive crystals - just pretty beads


























This is the yellow crystal illusion necklace. At least now we can click on the picture and make it larger and see the details of the beading.

























This is the "mommy and me" set - a 19 inch necklace for mommy and a matching 14 inch necklace for her little girl. They have the exact same crystals and pearls but in a smaller version for the smaller necklace.


I can make this in any color crystal combination and larger sizes for daughter. At my party I will let those interested pick out the crystals and colors they want
and then I will get them made and delivered in time for Mother's Day



















Sorry - I thought I had turned this one - good trial run before I post it on etsy...but I am probably going to redo this picture anyway on a less busy background This set has matching earrings and a fun clunky bracelet to match also.




















Gold Rectangle on memory wire - this is a choker made on the memory wire. I really need to make some earrings to go with it!




















This one is GORGEOUS!!! I made several of the clusters of beads on a chain rope but I like this set best. In the pink and magenta with silver it is really striking. It also took hours to wire each and every one of those beads!

Its official - Petal Soft Jewelry is now out there!!

First off - this is a picture that was taken by Dirk of a Rose held by Kecia taken off of Merrilee's casket - I am going to use it for my company logo!!

Petal Soft Jewelry

You're invited to the PREMIER Presentation Of Petal Soft Jewelry

a new line of jewelry
by
Susan Willden

YUP!! I'm doing it - I am having my first jewelry party at my house on Thursday April 30 - flyers will be going out in my neighborhood. I want to test the waters and get some interest generated. Terrie and Amee are still going to have an open house in their back yard but not until the end of May...

As I mentioned in my email that I sent to everyone, Melinda suggested mommy/daughter matching sets so I have made up some of my illusion styles in different sizes so that moms and daughters can share the beauty on mother's day. I will have two or three on display at the party and then take orders ... hope it works.

Anyway - here are a few more of my favorite necklaces (only one illusion style in the batch because I really need a good light box to get decent pictures of them - so those pictures will come later)

I really didn't care for this one when I made it but it has grown on me. For the right personality it would be a fun necklace - and only $8 online - 15% off that at my party.

This set is much more expensive because of the time involved in making the bracelet. The necklace and earrings would go for $15 but its another $15 for the bracelet ...
This is an interesting necklace with gorgeous polished rock pieces dangling from the necklace itself.

This is a one of a kind necklace - $14 for necklace and earrings - that is a cut shell pendant
I call this one Wild and Wacky - again - the right personality would love it and the big and clunky is really in style right now
The beads on this one are gorgeous - it is long and has a beautiful polished rock pendant setting of the whole necklace with matching earrings.
This one is made entirely of wooden beads and if I can ever find more of the wooden chain I will make matching earrings for it too!
This is the most beautiful necklace I have made so far - when you see the necklace up close the shell is striated tones of brown and cream. I am really proud of this one
I guess I had more illusion necklaces in this post than I thought. This is my crystal and pearl set and it is gorgeous - it is really dressy - the set sells for $19 because of the number of crystals it has in it.

It has been a lot of fun creating these necklaces and ideas just keep coming to me. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking "OH! I could do that with those beads!!" When I sit down to create a necklace I never know how it is going to turn out....but there are very few that I haven't been happy with the finished product.

I would love to have any of you that live close by come to my open house on Thursday - it should be fun!!