Bronze | Jewelry Designer Blog

December 20, 2011

Bronze Jewelry Charms Become Family Keepsakes

Filed under: Blog Partner Fun — Tags: bronze, bronze charms, Inspiration, jewelry design — juanita @ 11:20 am

Sending our Bronze Jewelry Charms out into the world to become family keepsakes is Nina Designs’ dream come true! When we’re pulling orders we often wonder what’s to become of the jewelry charms we’re sending out. And, I remember more than once wishing out loud that this or that jewelry charm would be passed down from mother to daughter as a remembrance of love and friendship. That’s why Erin Prais-Hintz of Treasures Found Blog blew my mind with her latest post.

It’s all about her Nana commissoning Erin to make charm necklaces out of her coveted charm bracelet that chronicled her life’s adventures from Mexico to Germany. Erin made one necklace of each of Nana’s girls using one of Nana’s charms and filling in with Nina Designs bronze jewelry charms. I won’t give anymore away. You really must read it for yourself. Learning about each woman, and how Nana and Erin lovingly tells the story of each through jewelry is so, so special.

Here are some of the sweet charm necklaces. To see more go to Treasures Found. To start telling your story through jewelry, shop Nina Designs.

A charming gift!

For one of Nana's girls

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December 17, 2011

Blog Partners Roundup of Bronze Jewelry Designs

Filed under: Blog Partner Fun — Tags: bronze, bronze charms, Inspiration, jewelry design — juanita @ 10:00 am

Our blog partnership is really heating up with exciting jewelry designs. In this latest bunch we sent the same bronze jewelry charms, earring findings, and leather cord to each blog partner and the resulting jewelry designs are diverse, fun, and unique. It’s wonderful to see all the different ways jewelry designers can showcase the same jewelry parts.

Jean Yates, from Snap Out of It, Jean! There’s Beading to be Done, discovered what fun braiding soft, supple leather cord can be, and how beautiful the result.

Carmi Cimicata, of Resin Crafts and Carmi’s Art Life World, used the bronze butterfly wing pendant as a frame for her resin craft. I love the look, and am so tempted to try this for myself!

And, Gaye Fields, of Gaye Fields Jewelry, paired the same butterfly wing and the same leather cord with handmade ceramic and glass beads with stunning effects, and an entirely different look.

Discover the possibilities of bronze jewelry!

Jean Yates

Gaye Fields

Carmi Cimicata

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December 9, 2011

Bronze Jewelry Charms Make a Splash in Lorelei’s Jewelry

Filed under: Blog Partner Fun — Tags: bronze, bronze charms, jewelry design, marketing — juanita @ 4:37 pm

My job here at Nina Designs has lots of perks, but sharing a love of jewelry and jewelry design with those around me is definitely what I appreciate most. That’s why I got a tingle up my spine when Lorelei of Lorelei Eurto Jewelry, one of our blog partners, emailed to say her post featuring our bronze jewelry charms was published. I couldn’t wait to see. But, I purposely saved it as my treat for finishing my to-do list.

And, it was worth the wait! Lorelei’s Blog is as delightful as her handmade jewelry designs. It is filled with beautiful photos, fun bead swaps, and informative interviews with other creatives. From the very first post you get a sense that Lorelei is obsessed with crafting jewelry & collecting beads. (It’s good to know we are not alone). And, her love shines through her jewelry. Every piece has a loving intention – every color choice, every found object, every art bead was selected with great care.

And, the necklace she made with bronze bird charms and leaf charms is a celebration of color and shapes. While the pattern of beads is random you get a sense that each one has purpose – and, seriously – what bead doesn’t want to be on display? She also designed a gorgeous leather necklace and a pair of earrings that are simply – to die for!

Lorelei's Sweet Necklace

Lorelei Eurto Jewelry

Nina Designs New Bronze Earring Hooks

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November 29, 2011

Winners of Bronze Claw Pendants

Filed under: Giveaways — Tags: bronze, Giveaways, jewelry design — juanita @ 3:59 pm

Everyone loves Bronze Claw Pendants – especially when you win them in a blog giveaway! Last week we asked our readers: what are the ruling forces that govern your jewelry design? All comments we entered into a drawing to win this fierce bronze claw pendant, but I decided to go ahead and send one to each of the four readers who answered. After all, it is the season of giving! Plus, there is something to learn from each of the answers. They were thoughtful and well written. Thanks to Annette, Jean, Gaye, and Suzelle!

See the original post and be sure to read the comments for interesting design tidbits.

Bronze Claw Pendant

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November 23, 2011

FREE Bronze Jewelry Findings for All!

Filed under: New Products — Tags: bronze, bronze jewelry findings — juanita @ 11:21 am

FREE BRONZE SAMPLES! When you order $10+ of bronze, take $10 OFF your total with coupon code: BRONZE. Choose your own samples – they’re on us. But hurry! Offer good only through November 2011. This gives you just over a week to get your bronze samples for FREE!

Try all three finishes: Solid Bronze, Silver Plated Bronze, and Gold Plated Bronze. You’ll fall in love with the variety of charms and pendants we now offer in bronze. And, more is on the way! At these prices, who can afford NOT to grow their collection.

NEW Bronze Clasps and Earring Findings from Bali just arrived too. The Balinese silversmiths worked diligently to formulate the best bronze alloy so that it is soft enough to hammer and shape, yet hard enough to take the torch. We also had to consider the color of the bronze alloy. We wanted it to match the bronze used to cast the Thai bronze charms and pendants. We are very pleased with the outcome. The Bali bronze has a rich luster, a warm burnished color, and is expertly finished. They are gorgeous.

Remember – with the coupon code: BRONZE you can sample $10 worth of the bronze findings for FREE!

Bronze Clasps

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November 15, 2011

The Challenge of Asymmetrical Design Using Silver and Bronze Jewelry Findings

Filed under: Giveaways,Jewelry Design Ideas — Tags: bronze, design process, Inspiration, jewelry design, silver charms — Marcy @ 12:17 pm

Creating an asymmetrical design using silver and bronze jewelry findings is a huge challenge for me. Most days making jewelry is fun, easy and effortless. It’s almost like the pieces come together by themselves and I just follow their lead by constructing the piece. As a Libra, I instinctively design with symmetry and balance. It takes a lot of thought and will power for me to break out of this mode of designing. Most of the time I go back and forth and then end up taking apart the elements that make it asymmetrical. As frustrating as it can be, I still find it to be a fun challenge because my mind has to work around my normal design instincts and it feels like putting together a puzzle.

This necklace went through many different looks before I got it here. It’s hard to pin point all the elements that make asymmetry work for me, but the most important one is balance. Although each side is different, they reflect each other. The bronze claw pendant is a strong center piece and each side cascades upwards from it. The curve of the bronze claw pendant makes a nice space for the abstract link to nest. The gold chain pulls it together and helps balance the mixed metal components. I am satisfied with this as one of my few successful asymmetrical designs.

What are the ruling forces that govern your jewelry design?
Leave your answer as a comment to win one of the bronze claw pendants shown in this design. One entry per person. Deadline: Next Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011.

Win the center Bronze Claw Pendant by answering the blog question.

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October 27, 2011

Bronze Bee Charms Fit Right in at Alison Kelley Designs

Filed under: Blog Partner Fun — Tags: bronze, bronze charms, jewelry design, marketing — juanita @ 1:28 pm

Queen Bee Necklace

Bronze jewelry charms fit right into Alison Kelley’s jewelry aesthetic. Her designs are modern with a bit of whimsy, and complimented with a soothing color palette. We are thrilled to have her as a blog partner. We sent her a goodie bag filled with bronze charms and pendants and she really knocked it out of the park!

Be sure to go to Alison’s blog to see all her creations. The gemstone combo she paired with the bronze peacock feather is just lovely; and the gold filled chain is a perfect match! Her whimsical combination of tiny bronze charms with hand-stamped messages are super sweet too. I personally feel that all moms everywhere should be rewarded with one of Alison’s Queen Bee necklaces!

Follow Alison’s blog for a chance to win her fabulous Tree of Life necklace. Shop Alison’s jewelry on her Etsy shop.

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September 15, 2011

Shopping for Sterling Silver at Tradeshows

Filed under: New Products,On The Road — Tags: bronze, tradeshows — juanita @ 3:29 pm

Be careful when shopping for sterling silver charms at tradeshows these days. I was perusing booths at an InterGem Show last week and noticed vendors are getting quite creative about what they’re calling base metals. For instance, one booth was selling nickel and calling it German silver. While this may technically be legal, it is definitely misleading. I’m certain there are similar terms out there that are just as misleading. Please be careful, especially in terms of allergies and high levels of lead and cadmium content. If you are unsure of what something is be sure to ask.

For more than 25 years, Nina Designs has been designing unique sterling silver charms and beads. But with the price of silver doubling in just one year, we know times are changing. We understand many of our customers want an alternative to sterling, and that as jewelry designers you’ve had to make some difficult business and financial decisions. We have done the same.

After much consideration and research, we developed Natural Bronze, Silver Plated Bronze, and Gold Plated Bronze as low cost alternatives to our sterling silver and gold vermeil. Our bronze is a high quality alloy of copper and tin we sourced from Italy. With our bronze collection you get it all: the beauty and quality you’ve come to expect from Nina Designs, and for a fraction of the cost of sterling silver!

Learn more about our bronze atBronze FAQs, and about how Nina Designs complies with laws regulating metal jewelry.

Discover what's new at Nina Designs!

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June 30, 2011

Silver Charms Price Reduction!

Filed under: Business — Tags: bronze, silver prices — nina @ 2:30 pm

Silver Charms price reduction at last! I am both excited and relieved to announce that we can finally revoke our last price increase. Effective immediately we are dropping our prices on all silver and gold vermeil items by 9%. I know how difficult these high prices have been for everyone. The silver market is a volatile and complicated creature with little regard for the needs of artists or small businesses. We will continue to watch closely and keep our fingers crossed that prices will fall again. To help buffer the price of silver, we are also introducing a new bronze line in our most popular styles. The bronze will be offered in a beautiful, warm, natural finish at less than 50% of the silver price. It will also be offered in silver and gold plate. We are using the same thickness of plating that we currently use for our vermeil style gold plated sterling silver. Bronze items will start to arrive at the end of August. I hope you all have a fabulous summer!

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