One 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
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.
Ursula Earrings
Summer in Berkeley, CA, has finally arrived, and our warm-weather sterling silver charms are flying off the shelves. I have been pulling orders filled with
ocean charms,
mermaid charms, and
flip-flop charms, and it has been making me itch for some summery jewelry of my own.
In anticipation of evening outdoor parties, I wanted to design fun, flirty earrings, but keep them edgy. I chose our gold vermeil starfish bead for the focal point, then picked a couple dainty pearls and paired them with our funky 3 circle link from our black silver collection. I love the contrasting elements in these earrings. They make me feel both girly and tough.
As a new jewelry designer, I am interested in how “seasoned” designers decide what direction to take a new jewelry line, and how far ahead the planning and purchasing happens. Do you plan an entire summer line while you’re shut in over the winter, or do you wait to see what styles are hot as spring trees begin to bud? What new pieces are you excited to use in your next collection?
The difference between the silver charms and jewelry findings we offer and those you find at the large one-stop online bead stores is that we design the vast majority of ours in house. This means we sketch jewelry findings into life. Based on our sketches, silversmiths make samples for our approval. The samples may or may not work, and most will go through several revisions. This entire process can take several months to complete, and means we offer you only our best.
Designing in-house also gives us the flexibility to continually improve our products based on your feedback. For example, the chubby teardrop links you see here have always been great sellers, which is why when we started hearing some criticisms we responded quickly. Several customers began requesting a little loop be added to the top so they stay in place. Others prefer the jewelry link without the loop, so now we offer both versions. Making these small tweaks is something we are happy to do for you, our valued customers. In fact, we love receiving this type of feedback because we strive to offer the best and to constantly improve our products.
Please feel free to leave requests for new jewelry findings and for modifications to existing designs in our Suggestion Box. You also have the power to review each and every product we offer online. Just find the item online and click the link under the text “In Your Own Words.”
Original on top, modified design based on customer feedback below
The 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
Silver Pendants inspired by wildflowers is a theme that emerged during my recent design retreat with Leah. As the result of late snow, dozens of different wildflowers that usually bloom at different times were all out at once. During walks through the mountain forest, we picked some of our favorite blossoms to bring home, study and sketch. Once we started thinking about flowers, we looked through our favorite antique jewelry books for additional inspiration. By the end of the week we were dreaming about flower pendants and Leah’s hand was sore from sketching all day. In the end, we came away with a bouquet of 70 new designs we will be rolling out over the next six months. What is your inspiration this summer?
The microscopic details of our silver charms and jewelry design have altered my creative focus in a big way. Previously, my creative energy was focused on projects like refinishing furniture or choosing the perfect color palette for an entire house . . . projects about the big picture. Small and detailed was not necessarily my area of expertise. But alas, all of the fantastic silver charms and findings at Nina Designs have been successful in opening (or shall I say narrowing) my eyes to a new set of parameters.
All of us share a common interest in jewelry and are well aware that in the world of silver charms and chain, details are key. What gauge silver wire is appropriate with my favorite silver charms? Should I use 4 mm or 5 mm jump rings? How many inches of that beautiful gold-plated chain is enough? How much is too much? Making jewelry requires a set of very critical eyes. And a strong magnifying glass too! You’ve got to be aware down to the millimeter. When it comes to jewelry, it really is the small things that matter most.
What details do you pay most attention to in your designs? Any handy tips you’d like to share?
Trade shows offer so much visual stimulation from gold vermeil and silver findings, to exotic beads and gems, to the colorful characters hunting for treasure. I collected many jewelry findings, and more importantly – inspiration on my trip to Tucson last February.
One of my favorite things about working trade shows is being able to see all of our wonderful jewelry findings displayed in front of me. We offer so many silver charms and silver spacer beads and I would love to have them all. Choosing is difficult, but once I see them all in one place, the ideas come rushing in and I can imagine the ways I want to use pieces and it makes it easier to decide. I love seeing how our customers use jewelry findings in their own unique way as well. I keep an eye out for unusual jewelry using techniques I can learn from and that generate new ideas.
We had one customer come by our booth wearing some stunning jewelry. What stood out was her exquisite large bangle bracelet. She meticulously hand sewed tiny gold beads with coral and turquoise onto leather and wrapped it around the bangle. For years I have been working with leather and sewing beads and findings using different techniques to create all sorts of pieces, but it had never occurred to me to wrap the leather around an object to give it a solid shape. I started chatting with this customer. We shared our experiences, ideas, and techniques, and my mind started racing with the possibilities of designs using this technique.
The first thing I did when I got home and dumped out my treasures was to try this technique. First I made this bracelet, then these earrings. And the results are so satisfying. Now I am on a mission to find more objects to cover in leather and adorn with silver, gold and gem stones. What new techniques are you experimenting with these days?
Sterling silver buttons are perfect for finishing wrap bracelets. Occasionally the Nina Designs group will gather after work for an creative beading session. Usually we all just do our own thing, but this time we decided to learn something new as a group. This way we enhance our jewelry making knowledge, work as a team, and see how our imaginations come up with different designs using the same technique.
This bead night we are focusing on the very fashionable wrap bracelets inspired by Chan Luu. There are some great tutorials on you tube. These bracelets are so versatile, easy to wear and perfect for summer. I love that they are feminine and earthy; you could easily wear them with jeans and a t-shirt or a flirty sun dress. It was really fun to see all the different versions we came up with. Using different color leather cords and thread with a variety of beads you can come up with so many unique wrap bracelets! Marcy even made one with our large hole silver beads and large hole pearls.
What jewelry fashions inspire your creations?
Wrap Bracelets
Bead Night May 2011
I have been playing around with an idea lately – a fun, bold, statement necklace that will use up some sterling silver chain scraps that have been lying around on my desk, but every time I sit down at my desk I feel STUCK. Why can’t I put a jump ring there? Why doesn’t this sterling silver charm have two more holes? Why can’t I make the perfect necklace that I envisioned? Nothing seems to lay the way I expected it to! (I am sure you have felt this before).
This necklace is much better than the one I had planned
When I start to feel like things aren’t working, I look at my inspiration boards. Right now mine is bursting with pictures of chunky rings, talisman charms, and geometric and colorful ethnic patterns. Then I look at my jewelry supplies and pull a few special things out that have been waiting patiently to be turned into a wearable creation – a new silver charm, some sterling silver chain pieces, and a some tiny silver spacers. I turn off my left brain (the one that planned that necklace that won’t come together) and rely on my right brain for a minute. Wire a bead to some chain, connect the chain to a charm. Hold it up . . . add another wire wrapped bead. As I work, I let go of the struggle and find myself enjoying the creative process.
How do you get unstuck when you have a hard time getting in touch with your creativity?
Here’s one of my inspiration boards:
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