This past fall, I was visiting Dear Daughter in Lawrence, KS. There's a lovely, unique, jewelry store on Massachusetts Street that always beckons us. With its wood floors, tin ceiling, and vintage looking cases full of one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces made of so many different metals, and media and stones - a real delight!
We happened into Goldmaker's shortly after a new shipment of items had arrived. Oh my! I instantly fell in love with this necklace made my Michael Michaud.
It's from his Red Bud collection, and I know you can't really tell by this photo (thank you cloudy day and bad indoor lighting. . . ), but those are pink Keshi pearls and the leaves are a green 'foil' color - 'hand-pantinaed bronze' according to the description on Mr. Michaud's website. Isn't it lovely?
All of the pieces pivot on the 'pin' that holds it to the stem so it seems a breeze is making them sway with every movement you make.
There were matching earrings - but I did not care for them as much as the necklace in this picture. In fact, my attraction to the necklace even rather surprised me.
I admired it. . . moved on. . . . came back.
Admired it again. Tried it on. Took it off. . . and looked at other things.
Finally, I went back to the case with this collection and just gazed. This piece really spoke to me. I had to bring it home. So I did.
I'm not a matchy-matchy kind of person, but the vintage gold of the chain really vexed me. What kind of earrings should I wear? I could envision what I wanted - but. . . . Even got on-line to look at the rest of Mr. Michaud's collection. . . I found some earrings that matched and that I found rather intriguing. But they just didn't speak loud enough to me to go through the motions of getting them home.
I wore the necklace often - looks so gorgeous with many different things and felt so feminine - without being froo-froo - around my neck - but I constantly wished I had some earrings to complete the set.
Finally, I located some imperfect pink pearl coins that matched wonderfully. Not perfect, but just right. And, as luck would have it, I actually found some wire the same color as the chain of my Red Bud necklace at the same shop. Can you believe it?
What do you think? Don't they look lovely together?
I had finished the earrings and was quite pleased with them dangling from my ears. But, as I was putting things away, I had a thought. Could I make a bracelet that would also blend with the necklace?
Hubster and I were dressing for a work-function politician-attended dinner for his job and he started to get a wee-bit worried as I'm still in my robe hunched over my worktable in my studio as he's trying to decided what tie to wear. . . That's what inspiration can do to a person. I'll pull on the pantyhose L-A-T-E-R, probably rush, put a run in them that'll ladder all the way up and down my entire leg so it's sure to show below the hem of my long skirt. BUT - darned if my jewelry doesn't look grand! Hey! This girl's got her priorites. . .
Now, I had chosen the best pearl matches for the earrings and honestly only had a few pink pearl coins to choose from. But yes. I thought it a great idea. I had a plan. . . now to see if I had the right stuff. Not quite.
I robbed a clasp from another necklace that was in the right metal color, but could not come up with any chain - though I had some wire. I most definitely did NOT have the time to make a bracelet length chain link-by-link. I opted to use black chain in instead.
I do! I made some little pink pearl drops, attached them to each of the loops on either side of the coin pearls and TA-DA!
Not a perfect match to the necklace, but blends well with the earrings. Also had a minor mishap at the dinner when one of the links separated -but was an easy fix once I got back home. I've never worn a bracelet with 'danglies' and was surprised that they didn't get caught on things as much as I feared. Was especially pretty peaking out from under my long-sleeved shirt.
I'm so pleased with the mis-matched set of pink pearl jewelry I created.
BTW - I'm not sure if Mr. Michaud would be impressed with my creative ingenuity. But does it really matter? And BTW-BTW, I had plenty of time to get dressed, did NOT put a hole in my hose (nasty stuff, anyway. bah.) and darned if my jewelry still didn't look grand.
Contact me if you'd like to me to create a one-of-a-kind jewelry piece - or check out my shop: ksyardbird for more to choose from. You can also take a peek at some of my 'showcased items' on the upper left side of this page. I'd love to design something just for YOU!
Have a pearly-kind of day ~
Robin Z
Oh! So pretty! and your Easter cards are super cute! Have a sweet day!
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