The Beading Gem

The designers are two sisters, Michel and Amazonka Choigaalaa of MichelAmazonka whose brand has three stores in Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia.

It's hard to believe that Mother's Day is not far off, at least for us on this side of the "pond". The British celebrate Mother's Day earlier on March 22.  Jewelry or craft gifts have to be meaningful for these special women in our lives. Here are my favorites from skilled and creative designers who really nailed it.

First up is the amazing rustic stamped stacking rings shown above. The metalsmith,  Jill Allen, gives you the option of number of bands to personalized names and dates.

The suggested projects when I introduced my original laser cut shadow box/bezel pendant styles were those which 1) had glued on small objects and 2) sea glass and shells embedded in a thin glue - which can also be substituted with resin with the right precautions.

But the creative souls who read my blog or found my shop on Etsy definitely saw possibilities beyond my humble projects. One, Amber Allen kindly let me share pictures of her creations - lovely pressed flower and leaf designs.

It's really uncommon to find new jewelry being created that is other than the usual bracelet, necklace, brooch, rings and hair jewelry.  Perhaps we are creatures of habit. But South Korean nail artist, Eunkyung Park, has designed nail jewelry specifically to highlight manicures!

The rings come in different styles and metal finishes.  She sells them through Unistella. See more on her Instagram. The video shows off her collection.

Gillian Genser is a Toronto artist who works with natural materials like bones, shells, dried plant material and egg shells.  But she was unknowingly slowly poisoning herself with her art. She had worked for several years on a sculpture of Adam using mussel shells. She spent hours, day after day, grinding up mussel shells. She did not use protection and breathed in all the dust. She later found years of fine dust accumulation in her house ventilation system.

Gillian wrote in this Toronto Life article, "After a few months working on Adam, I began to feel unwell. I was agitated all of the time. I had constant headaches, and I vomited often, sometimes a few times a day. I visited a never-ending assortment of specialists—neurologists, rheumatologists, endocrinologists—hoping to figure out what was wrong with me. When they asked me if I worked with anything toxic, I said no, that I only used natural materials."

People with long hair often wear their hair ties to have them handy.  But they are tight to wear and are sometimes unsightly with tufts of hair visible!  TUCK by Koli Collective, a stylish bangle solves the problem because it has a channel which hides the hair tie.  Form, function and style! You get to have the hair tie handy but it looks like a fashionable piece of jewelry.

The world's oldest multitool gadget is probably this 3rd century C.E. Roman device which looks similar to a Swiss Army knife. Roll on nearly 2000 years, and we still like to have a handy and portable multi-tool around for when we don't have a full tool kit available. Leatherman, the multitool company are coming out soon with Thread, the world's first wearable multi-tool bracelet.

I don't usually share a proposal story.  After all the internet is rife with stories of unusual wedding proposals.  But Blake and Carly's story is special because he proposed with a beautiful jewelry armoire which he handcrafted himself!  The jewelry armoire is sure to be a treasured family heirloom.

Rings are so easily lost for many reasons. Some people never get round to resizing them. Our fingers fluctuate in size during the same day and rings can slip away without our knowledge. One woman in Arizona lost her wedding ring last week when she accidentally gave it away with the Halloween candy!  Just the other day, I had not noticed one of my rings had come off but it was safely still in the gardening glove finger when I put the glove on again!   But people might not be so lucky if they dropped it at the beach /lake or anywhere in the great outdoors.

We take the materials we use without a second thought.  Take copper for instance.  Not only do many of us love using copper for jewelry, this important metal has many industrial and biomedical uses (see first link below). South African photographer, Dillon Marsh,  has an excellent combination photo series called For What It's Worth which helps us visualize the output of copper from mines and the captures the environmental changes wrought by mining practices.

For What It's Worth West O'okiep Mine, Okiep (1862 to the early 1970s) Over 500m deep, 284,000 tonnes of copper extracted

It`s been 4 years since I wrote about one of the first 3D printed jewelry designers to use the new technology. More and more designers are now gravitating to the field as costs are dropping and the equipment becomes more widespread.  This is one of the reasons why Etsy had to change their policies not so long ago as `handmade` had to be redefined to include them. These designers are still using their heads, hearts and hands but their hands are now on computer keyboards.

Quark Pendant from Mixee Lab

It is a lasting regret that I will never meet most of you.  But here's a chance to hear me speak!  I was recently interviewed by Ingrid Talpak, the host of Living with More Style than Cash (WebTalkRadio) for an hour long episode called Making Amazing Jewelry.

There are all kinds of beaded DNA jewelry designs but nothing like the personalized DNA bracelet cuffs that will be offered by DNAME after a recently successful Kickstarter campaign.  These are truly unique as no two people will have the same designs.

I don't usually care much for the testosterone laden James Bond movie franchise.  But I will be making an exception for the upcoming movie, Skyfall, for several reasons.  Daniel Craig arguably the best Bond yet, Judi Dench, Adele's rendition of the theme song and one superb costume design in particular.

A jewelry store in North Liberty, Iowa has sure taken the expression "shotgun weddings" seriously.  Their October promotion sees them offering a free Remington 870 shotgun with a purchase of an engagement ring worth at least $1,999!

Earlier this year, an unusual jewelry school opened in Paris. It's not the usual kind of workshop you could go to for these are classes presented by one of the world's top jewelry houses.


Van Cleef and Arpels was founded over a century ago. It has a storied clientele which includes the rich and famous such as the Rothchilds, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, Marlene Dietrich, Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve.