Costume Jewelry: Rhinestone Rings

Rings have always been a staple in my collection, I love them big and flashy as well as small and conservative. I tend to buy more costume rings than precious metal rings because they are a lot cheaper which means you can add more to your collection. Flea markets are a great place to buy costume jewelry and rhinestone rings are always a popular selection, you can usually find nice size rhinestone rings of all colors and styles for under 5 dollars. I know many women think costume jewelry is cheaply made therefore it doesn't last long and not worth the money but that is not always the case. I've had costume jewelry pieces that have lasted for years and still as pretty as the day I bought them, its all about taking care of your jewelry no matter how cheap or expensive it is. Learning proper storing techniques will also increase the life of your jewelry and keep it looking sparkly. Also picking the best days for wearing your jewelry will help keep it like new. If its a very hot day silver tone jewelry especially rings are not your best bet, when you sweat it will cause the material to break down and eventually turn your finger green this is also true on rainy days or days when you want to go swimming. There are many ways to increase the life of your costume jewelry so you can keep them looking like new for years to come.

Glass and Crystal Beaded Bracelet

I love working with glass and crystal I would guess the majority of my pieces of jewelry feature glass, crystal or both. Summer in my opinion is the best time of year to wear crystal or glass because once the jewelry catches a ray of sunlight it will sparkle and be very dazzling grabbing the attention of those around you. I guess you can say I love "bling" and anything that has a little sparkle or glitter so most of my beaded jewelry will reflect that. If one were to raid my bead collection they would be amazed at how many glass beads I own, foil lined glass beads dominate my glass collection followed by faceted and bicone crystal beads.
A lot of cheap costume jewelry that I have bought over the years are made with cheap plastic feeling fake glass beads that look nice but feel horrible so when I started recreating vintage style costume jewelry I wanted to keep the same look but use real glass and crystal beads and the results turned out to be very popular. Above is a picture of a bracelet I made with blue foil lined glass beads, light sapphire Swarovski crystal beads clear glass beads and foil lined seed beads.

Beaded Jewelry: Quartz

Quartz is one of the most abundant minerals on earth it comes in many different varities, agate, rose quartz, amethyst, jasper, aventurine and onyx are a few popular varieties of Quartz. A lot of the beaded jewelry that I make and wear contain some type of quartz mineral. I love all types of gemstone jewelry but rose quartz is usually my go to stone, I like to wear pink all year long so I find alot of my beaded jewelry consist of rose quartz with some type of crystal bead or glass bead accent. One of my favorite pairs of dangle earrings that I made were rose quartz with pink glass pearl beads and pink rose Swarovski crystal bicones (pictured above) I wore these a lot last summer.

Good Lighting For Taking Pictures

I have found that during the winter months my beaded jewelry pictures don't come out as vibrant and colorful because artificial light doesn't come close to natural sun light. During the late spring and summer months I find that I spend a lot of time beside my window trying to take advantage of the huge amount of light that comes through. Late mornings are usually the best for me because of where my room and window sit and I love every single ray. If your taking pictures of your beaded jewelry in the winter months one thing that helps me is of course putting my camera on macro mode and going to the room with the most light. My kitchen has a good light source and even though it's not as good as the sun I still manage to take nice pictures so I'm still happy. Now if only this snow will melt. The earrings above were made with aventurine stone, smokey topaz glass barrel beads, gold glass pearls and topaz Swarovski crystal bicone beads.

Costume Jewelry

I think every women owns at least one piece of costume jewelry, it may even be a colorful rhinestone bracelet. Costume jewelry is so popular because its usually very affordable and often trendy. Vintage costume jewelry is considered treasure to jewelry collectors and often come at a hefty price. I've seen signed vintage pieces selling for well over 1,000 dollars and in antique world that's some what cheap. Many costume jewelry pieces are made with materials like lucite, glass, crystal, enamel and rhinestones. If you want a little edge to your outfit try adding a long triple wrapped strand of faux pearls. The necklace above was made with hematite round beads, howlite round beads, clear seed beads and white glass pearls.

Gemstone of the week: Jasper

Jasper is an opaque form of chalcedony that ranges in color from light to dark red to brown, green even blue. Jasper has been a popular stone for centuries and is even mentioned in the bible. the easily polished stone was used in ancient times for things likes tools, pottery and jewelry. Jasper is believed to be a protective stone guarding the wearer of negative energy. I would say green jasper is my favorite of the colors and I love the way they look dangling from my ears. No matter what kind of stone it is beaded jewelry will always be fun. The earrings above were made with round green jasper stone beads, round spacer beads and olivine Swarovski crystal bicone beads.

Monthly Birthstone: Amethyst

Amethyst is a violet color quartz mineral that is commonly used as a birthstone for the month of February. Amethyst was used in ancient Greece as a prevention for drunkenness, The Greeks would go so far as to make cups out of the purple stone in hopes it would prevent them from becoming intoxicated. Amethyst was once as sought after as rubies, sapphire,emeralds and even diamonds. However an abundance of deposits have been found all over the world greatly decreasing the value of the stone. There are very rare forms of amethyst that are widely sought after like Deep Russian Amethyst, these types of amethyst are usually found among gem collectors who are lucky enough to find or buy the deposit. Whether your a collector, jewelry maker or someone who is lucky enough to have this beautiful mineral as your birthstone we can all agree that amethyst is a stone that will be popular for years to come.