Name: Leah
Web Site: http://www.ninadesigns.com/staff/02leah.html
Bio: I have been making jewelry since I was 8 years old. I still have in my collection a rainbow colored seed bead loomed barrette from my childhood! When not playing house with my family, I enjoy rooting through my stash of beads, including vintage glass, ancient African trade beads, and unusual silver treasures! I imagine all the different people who have worn them over the years. When I design components for Nina Designs, I am always thinking about what I'd like to use in my own jewelry. What is the perfect new thing to go with those ancient deep green glass bugles? Wouldn't it be nice to have a delicate hammered toggle clasp to finish this necklace of pink tourmalines? I'd like to make a bracelet for my yoga teacher...we need a charm that says "be here now"... That is my goal for our customers: to create designs that will be the inspiration for beautiful jewelry.
Posts by leah:
Sketching New Silver Pendants – The Seafan Collection
November 18th, 2011One of the most enjoyable parts of my job at Nina Designs is sketching and designing many of the Silver Pendants and Charms we carry. The ideas for new styles originate from a variety of places: a mod 1960s style chandelier, a beautiful sprig of wildflowers appreciated during an evening walk, holiday themes like Day of the Dead, or inspiring photos from National Geographic. Both Nina and I have always admired ocean sea fans. They are delicate and lacy, yet sturdy enough to withstand strong sea tides.
Below are my sketches from our design process. We wanted the sea fan pendants to look both flowing and organic (not always easy in hard sterling silver). After completing the final sketch, I sent the specifications to Thailand, where talented silversmiths made a master model. Often, samples require several revisions before we’re satisfied with the final result. In this example, the sea fans needed just one round of modifications to reach perfection!
What inspires your creations?
Sea Fan: from sketches to final product
Easy Jewelry Display
November 8th, 2011When I first started selling my handmade jewelry, I needed a jewelry display that was easy to assemble and could work in a variety of settings. Many of my events were at-home trunk shows, or in a group show setting, so I needed the jewelry display to be portable and versatile. I had a bunch of black velvet boards, but found them to be too dark and overpowering for most of my jewelry.
Easy Jewelry Display
The solution I came up with was to cover the velvet boards in a variety of cream fabric, and then add a ribbon to the top. I selected an appealing combination of green ribbons in a variety of textures. The ribbons can be used to hang the boards from a wall or a tall folding screen if wall space was unavailable. I’ve often just set the boards on a tabletop and leaned them up against a wall with the ribbons tucked behind.
The fabric and ribbons are literally taped to the back of the velvet boards (I love duct tape)! I use straight sewing pins to attach the jewelry to the front of the boards. For storage, I slip each board into a large ziplock plastic bag, with all the jewelry attached. The ziplock keeps the silver from tarnishing.
So there you have it – an attractive and easy way to display jewelry. How do you display your jewelry?
Silver Charms: You asked for them!
February 14th, 2011What do all of these silver charms have in common? They are all inspired by customer requests! Our first step when we sit down to work on new styles is to review customer suggestions. Based on the requested charms below, it appears our customers lead active lifestyles, full of softball, soccer and football (or perhaps these charms are meant to celebrate our children’s accomplishments!) Creativity seems to be in abundance: we have customers that knit and sew, and many that enjoy scrap booking.
Sporty Charm Requests
Crafty Charm Requests
Many of the requests we receive are for different sizes of existing styles: a larger lifelike skull, a smaller butterfly wing, a larger ohm symbol. We recently introduced a “micro charm” line after receiving numerous requests for small charms. And then of course, we receive requests for things like octopuses and bats. Our octopus charm has been a surprisingly strong seller, so it inspired us to fulfill the request we received for a bat!
Your feedback is important to us! Please keep the requests coming – it is our pleasure to give you what you want. We recently added a new Suggestion feature to our website to make it even easier to leave feedback. Of course if it’s more convenient for you, feel free to call 1-800-336-6462 or email nina@ninadesigns.com. What would you like to see Nina Designs add to our collection?
Silver Charms that you asked for!
Designing Silver Pendants: The Plum Blossom Branch
December 10th, 2010We just received samples of our new Silver Pendant Plum Blossom Branch collection and I am thrilled with it. We introduced a simple branch silver pendant last year, and ever since, I’ve been imagining it sprinkled with tiny plum blossoms.
Plum Blossom Branch Collection - stock available in early February
We use a lot of tracing paper when working on new designs for jewelry findings. It’s helpful to trace the parts of the sketch that work, and then add or change the drawing until the elements come together harmoniously. You can see the development below. On the far left is the first sketch. I then substituted leaves for flowers to see how it would look. We decided that flowers look better than both leaves and flowers. Next we played with the length: would it be more appealing if it were a little longer? No…stick with the original size.
As jewelry designers ourselves, we appreciate components that provide multiple design options. To this end, we adjusted the tip of the pendant so it has an opening. Now it’s possible to add a dangle to the end or hang the pendant horizontally. Finally, we designed a small cluster of flowers to match (deciding that five flowers was more appealing than three) and a sweet single blossom charm. Now we have three coordinating Plum Blossom Branch elements around which you can design a whole jewelry collection! These will be available in early February. Do you sketch jewelry designs before you make them? What is your design process like?
Sketches of the Evolution of the Plum Blossom Branch Pendant
Pandora™ Bead Style Celebration Bracelets
December 3rd, 2010With the holiday giving season upon us, it seems like everywhere I look, there are ads for Pandora™-style bead bracelets. Television commercials show an excited woman receiving a bead-laden bracelet from her sweetheart; in the US magazines, ads feature bracelets from Pandora™, Troll™ Chamilia™ and newcomer NovoTroll™. I hear from my traveling friends that the trend is VERY hot in Eurpore, especially among the younger hip crowd. Italian Vogue has ads from Tedora™, Piroppo™ and MaVi™ featuring “celebration” beads.
Mixing silver and gold creates a lush look on this Pandora™ Bead style bracelet.
The abundance of “celebration” bead bracelets inspired me to design my own. We recently introduced a new thick leather bracelet with a twist-off end cap that can be stacked with large-hole beads. The leather bracelet is a bit younger and edgier than the chain bracelet. I stacked on my favorite large hole beads, adding silver and gold links between for additional movement and texture. Mixing silver and gold creates such a lush look. How have you embraced the “celebration” beads trend?
Silver Pendant Medallions
October 22nd, 2010These new Silver Pendant Medallions were inspired by ancient coins. The first pendant features two dolphins. In ancient Greece, seeing dolphins riding in a ship’s wake was considered a good omen. The Pegasus image is based on a coin from Corinth in Greece. With its beautiful symbolism of flight and spirit, the Pegasus was a very popular image on Greek coins. The owl is the symbol of the goddess Athena, and was widely used on coins from Athens. With bountiful silver mines, Athenian coins contained full weight of the best silver, making them popular throughout the Greek world. The “owl” coin represented quality and value.
Like pirate's treasure, these new medallion pendants feature images from ancient coins and will be available in mid-December
The Pegasus pendant is my favorite! I plan on making a necklace using it with blue-green gemstones. These silver pendant medallions will be available in mid-December.
New Silver Earring Top Fills an Important Niche
October 15th, 2010I would like to sing the praises of a newly introduced silver earring top that is under-appreciated. Often some of our best jewelry parts originate from the need to fill a void and this is the case with T2581. When designing and making earrings, I occasionally have a dangle with a fixed jumpring that I’d like to hang from an earwire. If the circle of the jumpring faces forward, I can hang the dangle on my favorite basic earwire. But when the jumpring’s edge faces forward, I need an earring top with an un-soldered loop with the circle side facing forward. So voila, T2581!
This new earring top is a great basic addition to our collection: it’s delicate, simple, and with an forward facing open loop, we now have earring tops that will work with all jumpring scenarios! Are there other basics that you’d like to see us carry? Or do we have an existing design that you’d like to see tweaked slightly for improved performance?
With an unsoldered loop, this new earwire works great for dangles with perpendicular jumprings.
Silver earring tops with forward facing jumprings neatly complete these jade earrings. I oxidized the earrings and wire for a darker, rustic look.
Adorable Tiny Silver Charms
September 17th, 2010What is it that makes small things, like this miniature songbird silver charm, so cute? Perhaps it’s some biological disposition intended to help our species thrive and continue, perhaps it’s the contrast between the large items we encounter in our everyday interactions…whatever it is, I find tiny, miniature objects adorable.
I can't help cooing at these adorable tiny charms!
We recently added a few new mini charms to our collection and I’m in love! These charms will be available in late September. I’m looking forward to hanging the petite lotus bud on a simple chain framed with tiny wire-wrapped garnets, and the small angel wing will look wonderful with pearl nuggets. When I look at these charms, I find myself reverting to baby talk. Tell us about the cutest tiny thing in your collection!
Yoga-inspired Silver Charms Help Celebrate National Yoga Month
September 10th, 2010September is National Yoga Month, and what better way to celebrate than with yoga-inspired silver charms? We recently introduced a new feature on our website called Themed Collections which pulls together related charms, pendants, and earring tops to build a cohesive story. One of the first and largest collections we created is the “Yoga Spirit” collection. This collection contains all things yoga-related: lotus flowers, ohm symbols, elegant buddhas, namaste charms and so much more. Celebrate your internal yogi and breathe deeply!
Yoga is not only a practice involving physical poses – it can be applied to jewelry creation as well! One of my favorite yoga quotes is “Flow like a river, no force, no holding back.” When making jewelry, I try to keep in mind the idea of flexibility and to be open to different ways of doing things. The emerald beads are too small to fit on my wire? I’ll substitute peridot instead. I don’t have enough small links to complete a 16″ necklace? I’ll alternate small links with medium size ones. How have you applied yoga philosophies to your jewelry making process?
Rhythmic Sanskrit text and a spiral nautilis grace this yoga-inspired necklace.
The gold namaste charm on this necklace translates to: I honor the Spirit in you which is also in me.
Gold Vermeil Charm Graces Knotted Necklace
August 27th, 2010A necklace of knotted gemstones and a clasp at the front is a novel way to display treasured gold vermeil charms, like the wise old owl on this necklace. I love the design of this modified S-Clasp. Not only is it elegant and curvy, but versatile as well! I can easily replace the small charm cluster with a large pendant for a bolder look. Speaking of love, the silver granulated small beads above the clasp are another favorite of mine — they have wonderful texture and amazing detail and provide just the right accent to almost any creation.
Knotted necklace with clasp in front puts charms in the spotlight
I used a knotting trick on this necklace that I learned from Clara: string ALL your beads on the thread first, and THEN knot between each bead. Before Clara’s tip, I would pick up the needle, string a bead, put down the needle and knot the thread, then pick up the needle again, string a bead, put down the needle and knot the thread, repeating until done. There was a lot of picking up and putting down of the needle. Clara’s tip saves a lot of time– it’s easy to get into a rhythm of sliding a bead down, tying a knot, sliding the next bead down, tying a knot. No need for so much needlework!
A piece of advice: when knotting, use the longest piece of thread you can comfortably handle! Each knot requires a length of thread, and I ran out with only about 1 inch left to complete my necklace. I had to tie on a new piece of thread to reach the desired length. The effort was worth it: I now have a versatile layering necklace in neutral tones that I wear almost every day!
Do you use your fingers for knotting, or do you have a favorite tool? If so, what is it?