Camali Design Jewellery Blog

I have been making so called brangle bracelet for a while, previously using beach pebbles and handcast silver beads. These proved to be very popular and so I have now made a new design of these using pebbles and Greek silver beads instead. I also have recently aquired some absolutely stunning handmade glass tumblestone beads from extremely talented Welsh glass artist Isabelle Anderson, so I thought I’d show you 2 of these new ones.

Firstly though, here is the Cornish pebbles brangle bracelet which is made using very thick silver wire for the base and the swan clasp. I have drilled pebbles and combined these with handmade silver coil and Greek silver spacer beads. These Greek beads are also a new addition to me. They are actually high fired terracotta dipped in pure copper and then fine silver which means they are coated in a very thick layer of fine silver. They take patina really well as well so that’s a bonus as I use that in all my jewellery.

Now for the new exciting ones! These two are made using handmade glass tumble beads in aqua blue shades. They were combined with Greek silver spacers and silver coil and made on the same thick silver frames and swan clasps. The beads are absolutely stunning, gorgeous detail and vibrant colour. They are perfect for summer

The first one is called Aqua Pebble Brangle Bracelet:

Next up is the Azur Pebble Brangle Bracelet:

They are both available to buy in my online shop, but they are one of a kinds, so you need to get in there quick if you fancy one.

I am also going to make more of these in cobalt and indigo blue and greys/purples, so keep looking back! Until next time…

I am often asked for stud earrings and so recently I have introduced a bunch of new ones, some in just silver and some with set stones.

The first pair is called Starburst and are made using PMC, precious metal clay, and feature a starburst pattern. Pretty everyday pair!

Second are a pair of long earrings with stud fittings called Grunge Tab Trio. These feature handcut silver tabs that have been given a grungy look by stamping with a dot pattern. The oxidised silver gives them a slightly industrial twist, a look that I love.

The next pair is in a similar style but a shorter solid stud with silver granules adding more dimension. These are called Grunge Studs.

Lastly here are 2 pairs of studs with set gemstones and a textured rim. The first one has set faceted labradorite with a stripe pattern and the second faceted rainbow moonstone with a dot pattern. I will be making more similar styles with set stones soon.

All of these studs and many other earrings are available in my online shop www.camalidesign.com - check it out!

Next time I will show you some cool brangle bracelets, until then!

Whilst working on new designs and stocking up for the season, I thought I’d share a wedding commission I worked on last year. I have been training with a silversmith for a while now and this has given me hugely increased confidence in trying new things and I have also learnt to set stones amongst lots of other things. It’s amazing what a bit of hand-on teaching can do for your skill set!

Anyway, I was asked to do 4 bridesmaids neckaces and earrings for a lovely lady I have previously done commissions for. She described the girls’ personalities and styles to me and I came up with 4 different designs to suit them. The common theme was the use of Brazilian Amethyst to match the gorgeous dresses they were wearing. I also made simple gemstone studs to match.

Here are 3 of the 4 necklaces I made, unfortunately I failed to photograph the fourth necklace before I sent it to the bride!

Just a quick post today, as I am preparing for a show this weekend at Trereife Park, where I will have a stand selling my jewellery.

Today I am sharing a small bit of my new work. I have recently been working on stone setting of various types and also started doing some lost wax casting. The rings below are made using the technique and I call the range “Molten”. I am really chuffed with these, they have real organic quality and I love the chunkiness of them. I will also be starting to set stones into these kinds of rings and overlay with more metal as well, so keep looking back for more! There will also be pieces with set stones soon.

Anyway, back to prep for the weekend, hope the weather is on our side and we have a great one! Hope you do too!

Cheers,

Carin

It’s been a while again! I have been really busy leading up to the Christmas events that I am doing down here in Cornwall. I have done Christmas markets at Falmouth, Fowey, Trelissick Gardens, Truro Late Night shopping and now remains only this weekend coming. On Saturday I will be at the Christmas Street Market in Truro and on Sunday at the Last Chance Event at Lemon Quay, also in Truro. After that I will have a lovely break over Christmas, which I am spending with the family in Sweden and then I will be in Austria for a week over New Year, also with family.

I wanted to show you some of my latest pieces that are made using only sterling silver, which is a bit unusual for me, being an avid fan of all the gorgeous gemstones available. It is always, however, nice to do something different every now and then and here is the result of this from the past month or so. I have had great feedback on these pieces and most of them are now sold, but I will be doing many more of these all silver designs in the New Year.

The Silver Petal earrings and pendant are simple and modern. They were made from silver sheet which was cut into petal shapes, then lightly domed using a dapping block and finally hung from hand made silver rings onto a modern ball chain. The silver has been oxidised and hand brushed and polished to obtain the gunmetal grey earthy patina that I love so much. I will be doing loads of new designs similar to these as soon as I get back in the New Year.

I have also been making some simple loops using thick silver wire that has been shaped, planished and hung simply on hand made earwires. These Loop Earrings are great everyday staples and again, more of the same will come soon!

Finally a pair of earrings that I absolutely love myself (would have kept these for myself had I not sold them before Christmas…). The Graffiti Earrings were made using tabs of silver sheet that I made holes in, textured with an interesting pattern and assembled together with hand made silver jump rings. They are hung on simple hand made earwires and have lovely movement when worn due to the “hinged” effect that the rings give. As usual the silver has been oxidised to bring out the  texture and add character.

Well, since I doubt I will have time to blog any more this year, I will take this opportunity of wishing you a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2009!

Just thought I’d share a couple of pairs of earrings I made recently. They are very representative of the kind of work I do now, I am really into using silver sheet in my designs. I also love texturing, so stamping and dapping feature strongly in many new pieces. I still use my passion for gemstones by combining the two in almost all designs.

The first one is a pair of earrings that I made to match my Garnet Tab pendant necklace, and so I called these Garnet Tab as well. These earrings feature a thick hand cut silver tab that has been slightly domed and oxidised, together with rondelles of flashy labradorites and beautiful high quality deep red garnet nugget. The garnet is from a new supplier I found recently and are of a truly stunning quality (AAA).

The second pair of earrings are called Moon Flash after the pendant that they match. Again a hand cut rectangle of silver sheet has been stamped with my “grunge” stamp (my favourite!) and oxidised for character. A next to perfect Champagne Citrine was wire wrapped to the bottom and the earrings are hung on ball and post style earrings. I love the contrast of the perfectly clear and richly coloured citrine briolette and the industrial looking silver.

Unfortunately both of these earrings are now sold, but can be requested again as can most of my designs. I usually do something that isn’t exactly the same so that every piece is different.

The last piece I wanted to show you today is a new bracelet I made the other week. It’s an all silver piece, which is a little unusual for me, as I don’t do many of those. I like gemstones too much! Anyway, I have used large ovals of sterling sheet that I hand stamped with my “grunge” stamp and then domed slightly to make them lie snugly around the wrist. The ovals were then assembled together using oval silver jump rings. The clasp is also a first for me, it’s magnetic! I have never used these, wasn’t sure it they were going to be strong enough, but I am now confident that these are. They are oval and quite chunky and matches the silver ovals perfectly. This bracelet is very comfortable to wear with it’s slightly domed ovals and looks brilliant on. This bracelet is still available to buy in my online shop.

I just thought I’d share a commission I did a while back. It was for a wedding set at beautiful Prideaux Place near Padstow in Cornwall, here in the UK. The bride wore a stunningly beautiful dress made of multiple layers of organza where the gorgeously draped skirt was decorated with hand embroidered starfish along one side of the dress. This was complemented by a matching hand dyed silk bag, also embroidered with a starfish motif. The bridesmaids wore fantastic sea blue dresses and matching silk bags and flip-flops!

My task was to produce jewellery that would complement their outfits and the coastal theme of the wedding. The bride wanted a bracelet and earrings so for the bracelet we chose white freshwater pearls and crystal clear quartz combined with starfish shaped Hill Tribe silver beads. To go with this I also made some subtle cascading earrings from tiny white freshwater pearls, so as not to overpower with jewellery. The bride wore no necklace which made sure that nothing competed with her and the simple but stunning dress. The bracelet and earrings allowed her to still wear some elegant and luxurious jewellery.

For the bridesmaids I made similar bracelets in amazonite and teal coloured freshwater pearls combined with Hill Tribe silver sea shell shaped beads. The fabric sample got lost in the post but luckily the colours matched the dresses perfectly!

This was such a fun one to do, with pretty much free reign for me as a designer, since the bride trusted me completely to deliver the goods. She was very happy with the jewellery and the wedding went well too!

It’s been quite a while since I last wrote a blog posting! I have been very busy in the past 3-4 months. We have finally relocated to Boscastle in Cornwall where we now live in an old Cornish cottage from 1750. It needs a lot of work and we will slowly make this 2 flat house back into a large family home again. So far we have met a few neighbours and are slowly getting to know the village, the people and the surrounding areas. We are thoroughly enjoying living here and I feel the stress of our “previous lives” lifting more and more each day. I know it’s not going to be an easy ride, but we are now both completely self employed and in charge of our own destiny, good and bad!

I have also done a few shows down here since we moved; Newlyn Fish Festival, Falmouth Tall Ships Regatta, and coming up are Boscastle Food and Craft Festival and the Falmouth Oyster Festival, to mention a few. I have really enjoyed meeting new people, seeing new places and have had good sales so far, which is very encouraging. Soon we are on to the Christmas events and if you want to check where I will be selling, have a look at my events page.

I am now busy making autumn and winter jewellery and while that’s in progress I thought I’d show you a few of the last of the summer earrings. Many of them I sold before I had a chance to photograph and upload, but the ones I will show you here are all listed in my online jewellery shop.

First up are a favourite of mine, Ruby Grunge. I love making stamped silver components and incorporate them quite a lot in my jewellery these days. There will be a lot of it in my autumn/winter collection. These little beauties feature sterling silver rectangles hand cut and stamped with a stamp that I call “grunge” which is quickly turning into my favourite stamp! The faceted hearts are ruby in zoisite and I think the grungy pattern of the silver complement them prefectly. I am not usually very keen on pink, but I love the shades of these stones and the pattern makes them “non-cute” which I really like. I will be offering a few new designs with this stone, in larger sizes for pendants.

I make a fair few of this next type of earrings. Simple wire wrapped stones on hand made earwires are very popular as they are so easy to wear and versatile. I have a few customers who have bought several pairs of this same style, to go with various outfits and colour schemes. These two pairs are called Just Peachy and Flashy Kites, made with heart shaped faceted Pink Moonstone and flashy Labradorite Kite shaped briolettes. I like really like these kinds of earrings, they are great staples and can be combined with all my jewellery. I don’t usually like matchy matchy jewellery and these earrings make it possible to have earrings that go well with other jewellery without being too much. Many more to come later in the year, so watch this space!

Lastly, the Silvery Blue earrings are made with gorgeous dagger shaped kyanites hung on tiny patinated disc chains. These earrings are just stunning, the stones are beautiful and they swing gently on ball and post style ear findings.

You will find many more styles of earrings in my online jewellery shop. Next time I write I will hopefully have autumn and winter goodies to show you! Until then…

I made a few new summery bracelets the other day that I thought I’d share with you all. I am loving aquamarine at the moment, in fact any blue shades! And greens of course! Thought I’d make a few more summery pieces before starting to plan out the autumn pieces. Enjoy!

“Aqua Barrel” is made using some gorgeous barrel shaped aquamarine I found recently. I love the subtle blue-green colour of it and I have set it off with Hill Tribe silver and a sterling lobster clasp.

“Sable and Aqua” has a lovely combination of powder blue aquamarine and elegant smokey quartz. Again I have added Hill Tribe silver to complete the bracelet which closes with a lobster clasp and is extendable with a patterned chain.

“Sophisticated” uses beautiful clear pale blue aquamarine together with stylish faceted coins of smokey quartz. Little silver beads adds to the mix. Closed with a lobster and extendable.

And now for some greens… “Graphic Garnet” features a large tablet style silver bead from Thailand surrounded by one of my favourite stones- Grossular Garnet. Beautiful green hues in pretty faceted rectangles. Plus some tiny silver beads and of course an extension chain and lobster clasp.

Next up is a fun summer bracelet with Amazonite, Prehnite and various silver beads. The “Summer Green” bracelet features hand made”eye” beads fromThailand, closes with a lobster and is extendable.

And finally one with labradorite, would be rude not to! (it’s my all time favourite stone…) The “Labradorite Rose” is made from flashy labradorites and tiny silver beads surrounding a gorgeous Thai silver focal bead. The labradorites are complemented by a single rose quartz briolette on the extension chain. A new favourite!

As always, these are all available in my online jewellery shop where you can also find necklaces, pendants and earrings. Next time I will show you a bunch of summery earrings to go with these. Until then!

Some exciting news!

I thought I’d let you know that I am advertising in BRIDES magazine September/October 2008 issue!

There is a CD-rom attached to the magazine, which in this issue is a Flower Special with a Product and Services Directory. Camali Design will be featured as the exclusive jewellery supplier for Cornwall in the Jewellery section of the product directory.

I do wedding jewellery mostly as commissions, but also usually have a few items (necklaces, bracelets and earrings) in my online jewellery shop suitable for bridal jewellery. I also make jewellery for bridesmaids and flower girls and also get commissions for wedding anniversary jewellery, which is lovely. My jewellery is also great as gifts, for example as thank you’s to bridesmaids. As presents for the mothers of the bride and groom, it makes a nice change to flowers - and it’s permanent!

For commissions please see my web site for contact details. I will happily discuss any requirements and I work closely with clients from design concept to finished jewellery.

Here is a sneak preview of the advert that will appear in BRIDES, click the image for a full size image (opens in same window):