These are handcrafted out of gold (to be specific, gold-clad brass-- gold clad material never wears out like gold-plating does!). Even though it wasn't solid gold, the sheet of metal was expensive and I have to admit that I was very nervous while cutting into it with my jeweler's saw. Stamping it was worse. I almost stamped the "B" upside down, but thankfully caught myself! I love having an opportunity to explore higher caliber materials than I normally work with.

These pieces are made with solid sterling silver, Swarovski pearls, and rhodium-plated silver flowers. I purchased the flower components individually for this design; some day in the future I'd love to create a more expensive line of fine jewelry with handcrafted silver flowers like this. How awesome would that be to work on? 

For now, though, this was amazing to design. We began with a series of sketches so that I could gauge her style and how it fit with the budget.



After purchasing any supplies I didn't have on hand, I settled down for hours of work! The silver orchid necklace looks so small and delicate, and in order to make it sturdy and lasting I cut my own teeny-tiny jumprings to ensure the quality was completely up to par. The tiny pearls are wrapped on to the chain by hand.

When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!

-The song of the Ents and Entwives in The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

The circlets have more ribbon than the normal headpieces-- a strand of pale sparkly gold, and a strand of green.


I purchased peridot green rhinestone chain to use on these. This was only the second time that I have made these circlets in anything but white, cream, or champagne pink!


As you can probably tell, this project took an insane amount of work. Everything is completely handmade-- I make these circlets with nothing but a roll of silver-plated wire, rhinestone chains, and spools of ribbon.



The circlets are adjustable for different sized heads; I think the ballerinas were going to weave braids in and out of the top "zig-zags" of rhinestones.


When I was a little girl, I loved ballet-- it was so much fun to participate in ballet in my own small way, by making pretty headpieces for the dancers. :)


I heard that their performance went beautifully!

 I challenged myself to focus on craftsmanship-- craftsmanship, craftsmanship, craftsmanship is everything!-- and while I logged more hours than I had intended, it was worth it! (This is the curse of custom orders; I consistently undercharge on these things.)

 The first mask was the women's rhinestone and cream pearl. The bride wanted a fuller and more solid design than the first red mask, and she sent me inspiration photos for an extravaganza of swirls to go up one side of the mask.

(It's great to work with people who have an eye for design and knows what they want, but are still happy to let me do my thing).



All of the pearls and rhinestones were lashed to the mask using thin sterling plated wire. I was surprised by how much stability the beadwork added to the piece!


Unfortunately, thanks to crazy college classes, I just barely made the deadlines I set. I didn't have a chance to take many photographs of the white mask, but these here modeled by my lovely friend do a great job of showing how the mask wears on a real person!

This mask just sings with elegance and whimsy-- if you'll pardon the flowery language! I can't wait to see how it coordinates with the bride's dress. :)


Now, for my pride and joy.


Don't get me wrong; I love the white mask and am in love with all of the design elements that my customer requested.

But this black mask is a step up in craftsmanship and technique for me. A leap, really.

Crafting this was one of those magical times when every almost-mistake turned out to be exactly what I needed, and my fingers and eyes seemed to work of their own accord. So many technical "aha!" insights fired in my brain while problem-solving this design. My fingers now know their way around wirewrapping like they didn't before.

It's a strange thing to explain, and another use of flowery, cliched language, but something "clicked."


I was asked to create this piece after the white mask was delivered, and from the start we needed it to be structurally a different kind of piece.

The white mask has large eye-holes to showcase nice bold eye makeup, but unless the groom wanted to sport eyeshadow and guyliner, this mask needed significantly smaller eye holes.

The problem is that everyone's eyes are really unique, and I needed to find a sweet spot where this mask could fit anyone's face without covering the eyes.

The general shape of the mask, too, needed to be different. I filled an entire sketchbook page with shape ideas. How should I make a pearl-studded wirewrapped swirly mask look more masculine?


The design that I finally decided on was much more solid and filled-out than any mask I've made before. The swirls are contained inside the mask, on the sides, rather than spiraling around the outside of the mask.

I attached dozens and dozens of tiny beads using tiny wire wrapped in very specific ways so that the entire skeleton of the mask was solidly filled with black pearls.

The beaded zig-zags above the nose was another design input from the bride; I had been struggling with how to fill in that space without overwhelming it. Her idea worked really well!


My brother asked to model it, and, in typical drama-kid style, jazzed up his look with some "dashing accessories."

I am so honored to make custom jewelry like this, and am especially grateful to be making pieces that will be a part of this couple's marriage beginnings! Theirs sounds like a very unique wedding and I wish them all the joy.