Iris Elm Jewelry Newest Additions: August 20 - 26

Hello! August is drawing to a close and this past week I've added two elaborately beaded pairs of earrings to the website as well as a pretty pressed flower necklace:

This necklace is one of my favorite real flower necklaces that I have made. When I picked the central flower is was a shade of purple, but when it dried, it became a really pretty vivid violet-blue. For a vintage look, the resin pendant is set in an antiqued bronze setting.

 

I have had the central square labradorite gemstone beads for some time, but was unsure of how I wanted to use them. Then inspiration finally hit and I came up with this unique diamond shaped design incorporating the iridescent labradorite gems with grey and silver glass seed beads.

 

Beautiful pale sky blue glass seed beads are paired with silver beads for these bohemian beaded hoop earrings. They dangle from handcrafted sterling silver ear wires.

Iris Elm Jewelry Newest Additions: August 13 - 19

Hello! I hope everyone's summer has been a lovely one. This week I have added three new additions to the shop:

With these earrings I decided to step outside my usual beadwork comfort zone and try my hand at metalwork. Being a self taught jewelry artist, it can be intimidating to try something you have never before attempted, but I think it is important to not limit your design possibilities and is always fun to try something new. Firstly I bought copper sheet metal, figuring it would be best to start out using an affordable metal, plus I love the tone of copper. I cut the metal shapes then hammered the metal to add a little texture and voila! Above the copper triangles I added earthy blue sky jasper gemstones that I recently purchased.

 

I love the warm red tones of agate, and these beads I thought were especially pretty. The barrel shaped gemstones are faceted and beaded with sterling silver beads.

 

These black and silver diamond shaped seed bead earrings are my new personal favorite everyday earrings. I have a pair that I wear all the time. They are versatile, go with most outfits and are also very lightweight.

Iris Elm Jewelry Newest Additions: August 6 - 12

Hello! This past week the pieces added to the website were all shades of purple with the addition of a couple pairs of amethyst earrings, the birthstone of February, as well as a pretty real lilac flower necklace:

This whole design was based around finding a unique way to showcase these small naturally dark purple amethyst gemstones. Above the amethyst gems, I handwove a beaded bead design from glass seed beads in light purple and silver shades, anchoring the beadwork with two faceted amethyst rondelle beads. The wire work is all sterling silver.

 

Along my back fence I have a row of lilac bushes that bloom usually in late May. For this vintage style pendant necklace, I pressed one small lilac flower as well as a sprig of prairie grass that I found at a nearby Minnesota park and encased them in resin.

 

Gorgeous faceted pink amethyst briolette gems dangle from sterling silver beaded wire for these elegant drop earrings. Though this shade of amethyst is called 'pink', I describe it as a pretty translucent lavender.