Name: Emily
Web Site: http://www.ninadesigns.com/staff/06Emily.html
Bio: I found myself at Nina Designs after a long cross-country journey from my home town of Portland, Maine. I graduated from Maine College of Art in 2006 with a Bachelors Degree in Metalsmithing. My greatest inspirations come from simple things in nature like textures, patterns and the way things grow.
Posts by Emily:
Silver Charms Introduce the Dark and Edgy Side of Nina Designs
August 11th, 2011The darker side of Nina Designs is slowly expanding with a growing collection of silver charms in edgier designs. With our current selection of silver charms modeled after snakes and skulls it’s easy to be tempted to explore the dark side of your jewelry style. I’ve been especially excited about our new silver bighorn sheep skull, with it’s elegantly macabre attitude that would mix perfectly with chunky chain or leather cord. The sterling silver beetle charm, with it’s precisely detailed legs, has been crawling around my imagination with labradorite, smoky quartz and even grey pearls for fierce earrings and necklaces.
Leah recently shared some sketches for new sterling silver charms that got a lot of excitement in the office, so I thought I’d share them with you. The skull & cross bone charm and beautiful animal skull charm shown below will make their appearance sometime in the next few months. While some new designs make their way to our office quickly, others have a longer, more tortured path full of revisions. These silver charms fit perfectly with my jewelry aesthetic, so I hope they arrive soon! Do you enjoy of the darker side of jewelry making? What do you think of the upcoming designs?
Sketches of upcoming silver charms
More sketches of upcoming silver charms
The darker side of Nina Designs
Stamping on Silver Charms and Spangles
August 6th, 2011We often receive questions about which sterling silver charms and spangles are best for stamping. We strongly recommend using our thicker sterling silver charms because the thickness of the metal absorbs the impression of each stamp for a nice clean finish. However, we also offer thinner silver spangle charms that can be used for stamping as well.
When stamping on our the thinner spangle charms, the results will be a bit more rustic and handmade looking, as shown below. Because they are thinner they became a bit warped after being stamped, but you can flatten them out again. The stamped designs also showed through on the back of the disk. And, the silver became a bit depressed around the letters, making them a bit more indistinct.
While we recommend using our thicker silver charms for stamping, you can achieve a rather charming and rustic finish by using our sterling silver spangles. To learn how to stamp on your sterling silver charms, read more in our classroom.
Achieve a Rustic FInish by Stamping on Silver Spangle Charms
Back Side of Spangle Charms after Stamping
How to Build a Jewelry Display for Earrings
June 8th, 2011I’m always searching for new ways to create jewelry displays. I had an “Aha!” moment recently when I came across an old unused picture frame in my closet. As you can see, this frame has deep sides that perfectly allow for dowels to be inset to make an easy, polished looking jewelry display for earrings, and even necklaces.
I bought some ¼” wooden dowels at my local craft store that I could fit hook earrings onto and cut them into sections as long as my picture frame was wide. Next, I played with the spacing of the dowels to make sure I could accommodate both long and short pairs of earrings, and marked off where I wanted the dowels positioned. Using a power drill, I was able to quickly drill holes into the frame, which I then threaded my dowel sections into. Threading the dowels into the holes will provide some strength to the dowels, so they can bear the weight of all your fabulous earrings. Now, you can paint or embellish your frame and dowels to make a jewelry display that reflects your style and personality.
What kind of crafty jewelry display ideas have you created?
Use old wooden frames for earring displays
Fit this technique to your style using different kinds of wood frames
Fashion Friday: Bohemian Style Silver Charms and Pendants
March 11th, 2011As the weather is warming and the days are growing longer, I’m beginning to gravitate to silver charms and pendants that reflect the carefree attitude of the coming summer. The bohemian spirit is always present in summer fashion, but it’s always been a bit too “hippie” to fit my style. In an effort to find a way to make this trend work for me I focused on silver charms that have a talisman quality, like carved wood claw pendants and feather charms. With these silver charms and pendants in mind, I was able to imagine a bohemian warrior.
More fierce than hippie, the bohemian warrior blends a carefree attitude with a tough one. The bib style necklace was a natural place for me to start because they remind me of armor. A bib necklace with silver chain is the epitome of bohemian warrior, but you can also use alternatives to metal, like leather cord and silk ribbons, to add color and texture to your creations. I designed a necklace that combines one of my favorite feather silver charms with the carved claw pendant to create a look that is bohemian and fierce all in one. It can be difficult to adapt a seasonal trend to fit your style, but it’s a perfect opportunity to challenge yourself as a jewelry designer.
What fashion trends have you blended with your personal style?
Bohemain Warrior
Use Paypal for your Silver Charms and Jewelry Findings Purchases!
February 23rd, 2011Nina Designs is happy accept Paypal as a payment option for your silver charms and jewelry findings purchases! This is a feature many customers have been requesting and for good reason. Here are a few of the great features of using Paypal:
1. Paypal is a trusted and secure way to pay online because it keeps your information private.
2. It’s easy to link your Paypal account directly to your bank account.
3. You can also link your Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express card to your account.
Another benefit to using Paypal for your Nina Designs purchases is that if you’re already selling your jewelry online and accepting payments through Paypal, you can turn right around and purchase your jewelry supplies with the same account! This makes your record keeping a bit neater. We hope having this option for shopping with us will make life a little easier. Tell us what you think!
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How to Stamp Unique Designs on Sterling Silver Jewelry Charms
September 22nd, 2010Stamping words and messages on our sterling silver jewelry charms has become a huge trend. I wanted to explore stamping more and see what else I could do with this fun technique. I searched out stamping tools to use along with my alphabet letter set and found an endless supply of different designs to choose from. Then it hit me: I could stamp a little scene onto blank Sterling Silver Jewelry Charms for an adorable custom design!
For my first attempt, I wanted to create a picture of a field of wild flowers. With my adorable flower stamp, I used the capital letter “I” from my alphabet letter set to create the grassy field. I also tried creating a treasure map scene on a heart charm. Now that I’ve created these unique designs on my Sterling Silver Jewelry Charms, my mind is full of possibilities…
A field of flowers...
Treasure Map charm!
Commemorate Milestones with Sterling Silver Charms and Jewelry
September 8th, 2010
Back to school for little Ella!
One of my favorite things about Sterling Silver charms and jewelry is the way it can be used to commemorate milestones or special events. I love how significant a piece of jewelry can become based on the occasion it is created for, the story it tells, or the important loved one it symbolizes. Sterling silver charms are a great way to create a piece of jewelry that tells the story of the important milestone of starting school and the growth of the child in your life.
It’s back to school time and for many of my friends it means their little ones are graduating to grade school. I love the necklace that Anna created using our hand print sterling silver charm that recalls the hand print art often created by children, mixed with a whimsical combination of the tiny gold wish bone and pale colored gemstones. This would be a lovely necklace for any proud mother. I also love the idea of pairing our sweet apple charm with an initial charm, which could be an adorable start to the alphabet, or a thoughtful gift for a teacher. What special occasions do you create jewelry for?
A is for Apple
Fashion Trend Friday: Cool Steampunk Jewelry Links
August 6th, 2010
Time Machine
I love steam punk jewelry that brings together old, mechanical parts, unexpected jewelry links, and brilliant gemstones. It’s very distinctive and inspiring and I’ve noticed the increasing popularity of the Steampunk aesthetic in fashion magazines, blogs and online stores. Intrigued, I did a little research and learned that Steampunk is born out of futuristic and science-fiction ideas based in the Victorian era, and gets it name from the idea of life in a world that operates mainly by steam power (typically the 1800’s). Think H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, who wrote about futuristic technology: air, space, and underwater travel.
In my Steampunk inspiration I created a bib-style necklace with layers of oxidized chain draping above the antique-style gear. Below the gear silver charm I created a fringe of dark and sparkling garnets around a plump gray pearl and added our watch face charm. This creates a mixture of mechanical imagery and modern materials while playing into my favorite element of Steampunk: time travel.
Have you begun to delve into Steampunk style yet?
Turning Tassels into Exquisite Sterling Silver Earrings
June 23rd, 2010I was feeling really inspired by Clara’s blog about tassels as a fashion trend in jewelry and accessories a few weeks ago, so I decided I needed to make a version for myself in the form of Sterling Silver Earrings. I thought a great way of integrating my tassels into a design story would be to use our hand carved wood coral branch pendants dangling beneath a swarm of seaweed-like chain.
After consulting with Clara, our in-house tassel expert, I learned a few pointers for making great chain tassels:
1: Use as much chain as you can get your hands on.
2: A bead or bead cap of some sort is necessary, so your tassel doesn’t end abruptly into your wire wrap.
Once I had these key points in mind, I started gathering pieces of chain (all slightly different lengths) and wire wrapped them together with a small bead cap on top. I was delighted with my results that remind me of an under water seaweed garden. What fashion trends have you adapted to suit your style?
Finish your Tassel with Bead Caps
Seaweed Garden Earrings
Reduce Waste by Recycling your Sterling Silver Jewelry Findings Scraps
May 19th, 2010I’m very passionate about using sterling silver jewelry findings in my designs, but I don’t like the inevitable waste that comes from snipping off a jump ring or the end of a piece of wire after creating a wire wrapped loop. There are many simple things you can do to reduce waste and recycle materials for your jewelry business or hobby. One of the things I do is collect every sterling silver scrap I create. I’ve been saving it for years to be melted down in a moment of great need. I finally decided I was ready to cash in all my snipped open jump rings, headpin ends, scraps of chain and other unusable parts. The process is very simple and a great way to reclaim some of the money you spent on your sterling silver wire and findings.
You can find many sterling silver refiners on the web. I used Rio Grande because I order other supplies from them already, and the process was a piece of cake. I printed out a form, weighed out the scrap, and waited to find out how much it was all worth. My scraps ended up being worth over $180! Now I have money to buy new materials and the piece of mind that all those unusable parts would be brought to life again, instead of simply being wasted. What do you do to reduce waste and re-use or recycle your materials?
Turn you silver scrap into cash!
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