Holiday Jewelry

If you are a busy person like me, you start your Christmas shopping early. (With a new baby coming, that has been absolutely necessary this year.) I have the most trouble deciding what to buy for the teenagers on my list.

With that in mind, I’ve been browsing my designs and found several beaded jewelry items that will appeal to the teens on your list. Beaded jewelry is especially “hot” this year.

Among my handmade beaded jewelry designs are several that are especially appropriate for the holiday season.

My Italian soul rejoices at the red, white and green colors of the Italian flag. But my Christmas cat’s-eye bracelet was actually designed with Christmas in mind.



I used Grade A cat’s-eye beads in green and white. I like to use cat’s eye in my beaded jewelry because of its luster and depth. Here I combined cat’s-eye beads with red Swarovski® crystals for sparkle and sterling silver for added richness.

Like all of my beaded jewelry, each of my bracelets is made to order, so you can specify the correct wrist size.

I designed these snowman earrings for the young and the young at heart. I used two Grade A Freshwater pearls for the snowman’s body and Jet Swarovski Crystals for the hat. I added just enough magic to make them dangle delightfully, but not enough to make them run away like Frosty!



As you may have guessed, I like to add a touch of whimsy to my beaded jewelry.

Remember that pearls need to be worn—it adds to their luster. Your teenager can wear these all through the winter season, and so can you.

These Swarovski Christmas tree earrings are also available with gold fill findings, and for a completely different look they will be available in white and gold crystal as well. Keep your eyes open for that new addition to Holiday jewelry in the next blog!



Also new this Holiday is this wonderful cat's eye Winter Wonderland bracelet made with Grade A cat's eye beads and decorated with sterling silver laser cut beads. For an added touch of winter, a sterling snowflake dangles near the clasp. Any sterling winter or Holiday charm can be substituted upon request.



Ankle bracelets are especially fashionable for teenagers this year. I’ve made several using the amazing millefiori or “thousand flower” beads made in Murano, Italy. As on many of my beaded jewelry pieces, I’ve added sterling silver to accent the millefiori beads.

Beaded jewelry is a marvelous choice when you want jewelry both mother and daughter can wear. For a special gift, consider my “Siam Slider” cuff bracelet. I used Swarovski® crystal “butterfly” sliders accented with red Swarovski® bicones and sterling silver. It’s strung on memory wire so it will never lose its shape. Don’t be surprised if your teenager slips it on to wear with jeans—I do the very same thing!

I hope you’ll spend some time browsing my beaded jewelry. I’ll be making more gift suggestions as the holiday season nears.

Handmade Glass Beads

I love to work with handmade glass beads. The variety is amazing, and the colors are heavenly. And all made from sand and fire!

Glass beads can be made with very little resources. In Mauretania, the Kiffa people crush bottles and jars into a powder. They use their own saliva to bind the crushed glass into cone-shaped beads. They add designs by applying crushed colored glass to the cone with a needle. Then the beads are fired in small containers—often sardine cans.

Furnace glass beads, such as millefiore beads, use glass-working techniques first developed in Italy. Millefiore beads were popular in Roman days, two thousand years ago. Then as now, these handmade beads were formed from rods of colored glass, bundled to form the exquisite designs that give them their name, “thousand flowers.”

After the fall of Rome, Europe made little in the way of luxury products such as glass. When the Crusaders brought glassmaking techniques from the East, Venice became a glass-making center. The rulers, or Doges, kept glassmakers on the island of Murano and threatened them with harsh penalties if they revealed the secrets of their trade.

Artists who make lampwork glass beads first coat a metal rod with a substance called “bead release.” Then they melt a glass rod and spin the metal rod in the hot glass to form a bead. Once they have the base of the bead, they add colors in layers to complete their design.

My favorite maker of handmade lampwork beads is Lisa Atchison. I’ve included a picture of one of her beads with this blog. Nature inspires Lisa, and she often combines glass with electroplated natural objects, such as leaves, to make her beads. Here are two of the designs that I have created using her beads.





I’ve been stringing Lisa’s beads on Silk Ribbon from Jamn Glass. This is a type of ribbon made for jewelry makers to be hardwearing. I use leather cord, too. And, of course, some of her beads seem to cry out for copper, sterling silver or vermeil.

I love the organic feeling of Lisa’s beads. Her craftsmanship is extraordinary! My Italian soul resonates with the intricate patterns of millefiore beads. Handmade glass beads always seem to inspire me. Perhaps they carry with them the feelings of the artist who made them.





I know that something of myself is within every piece of jewelry I make. As Lisa says, a bead is not truly art until someone wears it.

Ciao,
Mariealena

Beaded Jewelry Design

I am often asked how I get my inspiration. Beaded jewelry design is like any other art form--inspiration can come from almost anywhere.

One source of inspiration is the work of other designers, such as David Yurman. From his Bijoux collection, I like his use of asymmetry, in which the two sides of a necklace do not quite match. I also like the way he combines textured and smooth links in his chains. And I especially like the way he showcases special beads in his jewelry design.

My finished design is quite different from Yurman’s. But, you can see the combination of textured and smooth in the sterling and Hill Tribes silver, the asymmetry in the use of jade on one side of my central bead and pearl on the other, and the way I made the Grade A yellow/blue tiger-eye bead the focal point, setting it off with Swarovski® crystal rondelles.

My beaded jewelry design often is inspired by nature. For example, I’ve interpreted the color of the sea, the sky and the coral reefs around Caribbean islands in this ring. The turquoise ranges from blue in the nuggets to blue-green in the smooth beads.






















The coral is actually from Swarovski® -- crystal coral-colored beads. I choose not to use real coral in my beaded jewelry design, because reefs are usually endangered habitats.

Another source of inspiration for beaded jewelry design comes from the beads themselves. When I look at a wonderful lampworked bead or a millefiori bead from Italy, I can draw inspiration from its colors and texture. I ask myself whether it calls for gold or silver findings and accents. What colors will bring out this or that color within the bead? Should I use a similar or a contrasting shade in my design?

Life itself inspires my beaded jewelry design, as in the Mommy bracelet I am designing to celebrate the coming birth of my second child. In fact, my jewelry design business began with my first child, Isabella Rose. She continues to be the wellspring of my creative spirit.

One of the things I love best about beaded jewelry design is using a variety of carefully chosen materials to create wearable art. If my designs never see the inside of a museum that’s OK, as long as my creations are eye catching and wearable!

If you have questions about beaded jewelry design, please ask. I’ll be happy to answer in this blog.

Ciao
Mariealena

FREE DRAWING WINNER - ISABELLA'S BEADS

Hello Everyone,

It took a while but we finally got our FREE GIFT drawing software in place. We thank everyone who has registered their E-mail address with us and registered to win a free gift. Isabella’s Beads would like to congratulate this month’s winner of our FREE GIFT drawing, Wanda Petchonka. Wanda will receive a free pair of our exclusive “Pearly Snowman” holiday earrings pictured below. These earrings have a retail value of $24.99! To be honest I was attempting to keep the free gifts $20 and under, but with the delay and the upcoming holidays a few nicer gifts will be awarded in the coming months.

For those who are interested, these earrings are also available for sale in our store. More holiday items will be added within the next few weeks. If you are interested in purchasing these earrings please click the photo to be directly connected to that item in our store. The easiest way to find holiday items will be to browse our Collections section. From there you can select the appropriate category (for him or for her) to see what is currently available. Please keep in mind that the site has been undergoing some major changes for Search Engine Optimization, and new items are being added all the time. So, if you don’t see something that catches your eye this time, please keep checking frequently!

If you have not registered your E-mail address with us you can Click Here to enter for your chance to win! We at Isabella’s Beads would like to wish you a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello!

Welcome to my blog. I am Mariealena Calabrese, owner of Isabella’s Beads. I design and make all the handmade beaded jewelry you see in my store. I hope this blog helps you to know me better, and I hope through your comments to get to know you, too.

I am passionate about my handmade beaded jewelry—as you might expect. I love searching for new and unusual beads, combining them with the best fastenings and stringing materials, and producing uniquely designed jewelry for you to wear.

I am even more passionate about my daughter, Isabella Rose. I named my business for her. My handmade beaded jewelry allows me to stay at home with Isabella and still build for her future. All the profit from my beaded jewelry goes to her, and it is my hope that this business will bring her profit for years to come.

I have a very special design project in mind right now. It will be in honor of a new addition to our family. Yes, I am expecting a baby in December! It is a boy, and we plan to name him John, after his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. In honor of John IV, and Isabella Rose, I am designing a Mommy bracelet.

Of all the handmade beaded jewelry I design, the Mommy bracelet is most special. I do not want to rush any aspect of the design. But when it is complete it will be available for you to see and buy here at Isabella’s Beads.

Since there will be four of us soon, we decided to buy a small second home in Connecticut. Then, when we visit John’s parents, we will have room for all of us. And, the babies will not disturb their grandparents during the night.

We finally found what we were looking for, and now are deciding which furniture to have in which house. So much to decide!

Creating handmade beaded jewelry involves many decisions, too. Even when I have a vision of the finished piece to begin with, the end result may be quite different. Would the piece look better with the luminous depths of cat’s eye or the sparkle of Swarovski® crystals? Can I find a better color combination to express my feeling of joy?

I hope you will enjoy this blog as it develops. I want Isabella’s Beads to be a welcoming site for you. I would love to read your comments—and please, if you have any questions about my handmade jewelry, the beads and fittings I use or even my creative process—don’t hesitate to ask!

Ciao!
Mariealena

Hill Tribes Silver

My local PBS station recently aired a travelogue about Thailand’s Golden Triangle. As Rudy Maxa visited various Hill Tribes villages, I waited for him to show them making the silver beads I love so much.

If he showed it, I missed it.

But, I was inspired to learn more about the people who make Hill Tribes silver beads. There are seven main tribes and over a dozen smaller ones. They each have their own language, religion, culture, dances and costumes. Some come from Tibet, some from southern China, and some from as far away as Micronesia in the Pacific. They live in southern China, Burma, Laos and Vietnam, in mountainous regions.

The Hill Tribe people best known in the United States are the Hmong, who helped our fighting men during the war in Vietnam. Many of them have settled in the United States.

In Thailand, Hill Tribes such as the Karen have been able to maintain their lifestyle of subsistence agriculture and their animist religions. Most Hill Tribes silver beads imported to the United States are made by Karen craftsmen. Like all Thai silver, their beads have a higher silver content (95-99%) than sterling (92.5%). The higher silver content means the metal is softer, easier to shape using their centuries-old traditional methods.

The Yao are among the best silversmiths. Raising opium poppies was their main source of income, but, because the Thai government has a program of destroying the poppy fields, they are now turning to other crops and other sources of income. The women do exquisite cross-stitch embroidery. I want a pair of their loose-fitting black trousers covered in brilliant stitchery. But I want Yao beads even more!

By far the most exotic-looking are the long-necked Paduang women, who add silver neck rings that gradually stretch their necks.

In Thailand, the government fears new migration of tribal people from neighboring countries, and does not grant citizenship to Hill Tribes people, though at least one tribe has lived there longer than the Thai themselves.

The Hill Tribes have been supplementing their traditional slash and burn agriculture with opium production. With the government crackdown, the lack of educational opportunities and without the benefit of citizenship, many Hill Tribes people live in dire poverty.

The sale of silver beads, pendants and findings is a source of much-needed income that enables them to continue their traditional lifestyle.

These are some of the ways I have used Hill Tribes beads recently...


Hill Tribes Silver flower drop weaved on a sterling silver bead ring with Swarvoski crystals











Hill Tribes decorative tube beads adorn this necklace and are paired with Bali silver beads and Swarovski crystals