Wonderful Raw Silk Fibers!

Shades of browns, purples and greens combine with a dash of black making this piece earthy and versatile with many opportunities. The 12 strands of silk fibers add unique sophistication.

Name: Earth and Wind
Length: 16 inches plus 4 inches of pendant with dangles
Beads: Natural stone pendant, raw silk, black coral, luminous coin pearl, African turquoise rondelles , sea shell, sterling silver toggle clasp
Price: $60

Luscious Silk

Wow, did I have FUN creating this one. I've been playing around with this luscious brown silk and I am quite happy with the possibilities!! I will be creating many more in the above design with several other themes and color combinations. It feels light, comfortable and very versatile! Looking for something elegant? This one is for you!


Name: Dangling Copper
Beads: Brown raw silk strands, Tibetan Copper Coin Pendant, copper pearls, copper cone, copper toggle clasp
Length: 22 inches , dangle pendant from cone to coin pendant 3"
Price: $60

Glimmering Raw Silk

Shopping in Palermo Soho, I stumbled upon a street that had tons of yarn shops. The colors and textures just drew me right in to see the possibilities. This glimmering silk caught my eye.
I've been exploring the possibility's with endless ideas. Below you can see some strands with shades of blue and green turquoise, antique white bone, and betel nut tube beads. I hope to get some additional pictures taken soon and post several other creations. Stay tuned.

Land and Sea in different colors...

Yesterday's necklace featured a brown coconut combined with a red sponge coral. Here is a similar style in shades of green with some coconut.

The center bead is also a coral but dyed green. The green coral is surrounded by the old coconut disc shaped beads from Ghana Africa along with greenish blue shades of chalk turquoise, brown bone beads, and some small green glass beads. Easy to wear and adjustable

Name: Variegated
Length: Adjustable from 16 inches to 28 inches
Beads: Green coral, old coconut, chalk turquoise, brown bone beads, green glass beads
Price: $55

Land and Sea

Made with tons of old COCONUT disc-shaped beads from Ghana Africa. The dark coconut sets off the perfectly shaped sponge CORAL beads purchased on the island of Margarita off the coast of Venezuela during our cruising adventures. A dash of some African Turquoise adds some contrast. This piece is made on an adjustable wax fiber. You just pull and it closes or opens.

Name: Land and Sea
Size: completely adjustable from 16" to 25"
Beads: coconut, coral, turquoise
Price: $50

Purple Kick

I'm on a purple kick I guess. This necklace will be a cinch to put on with no clasp! Fits easily over your head with a dangle down your back.









Name: Purple Pentagons
Length: 28 inches
Beads: mother of pearls with a deep purple luster, olive green pearls, violet oyster heishi, olive green fiber with a foil glass bead.
Price: $45















As I was surfing the web, I discovered another color site that predicts the color trends of the upcoming seasons. If you're into colors, take a peak here at the Fashion Color Trends. According to Pantone, there are shades of purple, olive greens, silver...

Color Trends

In Argentina there is no guessing what the fashionable color might be. At this moment for Fall it is PURPLE plain and simple. You see all shades of purple showcased in the window of most boutiques. Plus, everyone is wearing it somewhere from head to toe.

One of my favorite colors just happens to be purple. Needless to say, yesterday while I was rambling through my beads, I just grabbed everything purple and some green to contrast. This necklace is similar to a design I've made before with slight variations and a completely different color combination. It's a rare occasion that I make 2 necklaces exactly the same.

Name: Mint green with purple passion
Size: 16 inch choker with 3 inches of chain to lengthen
Beads: Mint green foil glass, mint green turquoise, violet oyster heishi, peridot irregular heishi, purple glass heishi, sterling silver large lobster clasp and sterling silver chain
Price: $55

For those of you who are inspired by colors or may be interested in what the color fashion of the season is, I recently discovered these two blogs, "Color lovers blog" and Color Trends blog

Color Motivation

I usually tend to gravitate toward certain colors that I personally love. However, last summer when I was replenishing my wardrobe with some new tops and dresses, I decided to BREAK AWAY from my traditional color attire. This motivated me to create a new necklace to color coordinate. I truly enjoy this kind of work and thrive on this kind of challenge! So if there is something in your wardrobe that needs a complimentary necklace, send me a picture or bring it on over to the house in May.

Just getting started with my JEWELRY blog

Weccome to the DUCHESSE collection of handmade beaded jewelry!

Well, I did it. I finally figured out enough about Picasa Web Albums to get a sample of some of my latest creations on this blog in a slide show form. Picasa is a great source to know. You can store all of your personal pictures on the internet and keep them private if you like. As you create albums with some of the pictures, you can make them public. This allows you to share them on a blog or website. If you click on a picture in the slide show to the right, it will enlarge the pictures for a better view.

Anyway, I am still trying to decide how I may want to proceed with this blog in terms of information and sales. For now I believe this will be where I will share my thoughts, new designs, pictures, and new jewelry creations. And soon, I think before we leave Argentina, I will add a WEBSITE to make purchases EASY. With our return to the states on May 19th and with the children finishing school in early June, I anticipate more SPARE time to dedicate to my hobby.

So, as I have time to create jewelry, learn more about some blogging features to add here, and figure out a website for sales; I hope you will visit me here again soon. Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts. To do this click on the word "comment" below. Also, if you'd like to share this blog with a friend, just click on the envelope below. For you to find this BLOG easily next time, just click on the "subscribe post(atom)" below this message. Doing that will add this blog site to the "bookmark" feature on your tool bar above.