I’m so excited about the new work I’ve just put up on the website, particularly about the “Aquarium” necklaces.  They feature “Lodenite” stones — rocks really!

Each Lodenite stone tells a story, visually speaking, with a different shape/size and with a different colorway.   Each stone is clear and domed and so refracts its bottom rock layer into a scene.   Peering into each stone is similar to the experience of being drawn into the exploration of an aquarium.  Here’s a close-up of one such stone, but unfortunately none of these pix does justice to the mystery in each of them.  (You may view this close-up by clicking on either or both of the links listed below.)

So, I grouped five stones in each necklace, using stones to offset their colorways.

One necklace pairs dark amethyst crazy-cut amethyst beads with hammered light amethyst beads, alternating with small purple-dyed pearls and finished with a new find in closures:  agate closures in different hues, this one with some amethyst shading.  http://www.msturman.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=152&zenid=99cbfa9678d6b8557cdfcc24e7ce8548

In another necklace, responding to the coppery sort of colorways of the lodenite, I used rough-hewn red quartz stones and light peach natural tailed and circled pearls, alternating with tiny Akoya pearls and the agate closure in orangey hues.  http://www.msturman.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=151&zenid=99cbfa9678d6b8557cdfcc24e7ce8548

I have another lodenite necklace in the works set off with natural pearls and a pearl closure.  My favorite, I think!

Do they look as exotic to you as they do to me?  By the way, they’re not heavy pieces!

It’s all around us, this major trend – the green movements that affect the lives of all of us — but jewelry?

I was recently asked if the jewelry I produced was “green”.  I do know a bit about pearls, since I took and passed the Gemological Institute of America’s (GIA) course on Pearls, so I gave it some thought and answered that pearls certainly are green, being that they’re natural and must be grown in an environmentally clean atmosphere.  While semi-precious colored stones are natural and organic, there is nothing green about the mining, cutting and faceting practices used to obtain them.

In Tucson the first week of February, I made a bee-line to my pearl supplier of choice, Betty Sue King, official Pearl Goddess, and owner of King’s Ransom.  Not only is she a lovely, patient person to her customers, she is an expert in this field, and an officer of the GIA.

So, I asked her if pearls were “green.”  She smiled her sweet smile and said she had written an article on the subject, “How Green Are Your Pearls?” that had been published in Modern Jeweler, in the January 2009 issue.

In the article, Betty Sue notes that the sound environmental conditions are required for saltwater pearls grown in Australia, Tahiti, Philippines, Japan and New Zealand.  This is because the saltwater oysters there will only tolerate clean environments.  So these oysters are grown in sheltered bays and lagoons rich with nutrients to keep them healthy.  The governments of these countries all monitor conditions because they and the pearl farmers know that “. . . the health of the pearl is an indicator of the environment.”

Did you know that pearls are also grown in the U.S.?  Well, freshwater pearls are grown in rivers in Mississippi and Tennessee and growers there consider “monitoring the environment as an essential part of their responsibilities.”

The mussels used to produce freshwater pearls from China, the most common and accessible of all pearls on the market, are more tolerant of conditions they need in order to produce pearls.  So these mussels, while fed with organic mixtures, have been over-farmed in inland lakes in China, a government with a more laissez-faire attitude toward freshwater pearl cultivation.  The recession has curtailed pearl cultivation so that now overused waterways have time to regenerate.

So, yes, pearls are green and my jewelry incorporating them likewise is “green.”  As Betty Sue points out, there are no “blood pearls”!

Here are some of my designs in which I used pearls bought from Betty Sue King – big or small, can you see how lustrous they are?

Is it me? Or is it this time of year?  Or are the stars in poor alignment?  What?  Or am I just now noticing that nothing is easy when it comes to me making my jewelry?

So, I thought I’d share the process and perhaps get some pointers or something.

For me, beginning a piece always means being excited by the material.  Usually it is something I’ve just found and bought, so I go straight to work on it.  If I don’t work with something immediately, then the chances are that I never will do, unless there is a fortuitous moment in the future when the one purchase goes perfectly with something new.  I don’t hold my breath, though.

Having overcome the dollar signs and purchased something wonderful, the process continues.  I need to assemble accompanying or complementary beads to set off the original inspiration.  Think this is easy?  Have a look at my studio:  each drawer, large and small contains hundreds of beads, pearls, semi-precious stones, vintage elements.  I often need to access other boxes lingering on shelves above my table that contain still more inventory and look through them, too.  This takes time, as I rarely find what I’m looking for immediately, and sometimes not at all, which really puts me in a pout, since I just can’t compromise on my vision.

When I find and assemble everything I need for a project, sometimes I then move on to continue this process with other new purchases, and then set those aside, too, with the others.  Often, when I return to the original, I can’t remember what I had in mind or I’m not as excited as I was originally.  No, I don’t sketch, am simply unable to translate my vision onto paper, since I never know exactly how something will turn out:  my process is always a “what if” – I do this or that.

But the real kicker is finishing a piece and not being thrilled with the outcome!  I have this unreal expectation that everything I do must be a masterpiece.  More often than not, it just isn’t – it’s just another necklace, bracelet or pair of earrings, nice but not drop dead.

In between the finding and inspiration and finishing the piece is a long process, which is supposed to be ultimately the satisfying reward of creating: working in a sort-of zen-like zone of peace and enlightenment.  Well . . .

So, as I said, nothing is really easy.  At least now for me!

I hope you’ll join myself and three other New York City entrepreneurs at our Holiday Gift Event.  We feature an array of artist-made products for holiday gifting.  Sip wine, visit and browse:

WHAT: HOLIDAY GIFT EVENT
WHEN: Tuesday December 15, 2009
6:30-9pm
WHERE: In Good Company Workspaces (IGC)
16 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor, NYC

WHO:

RAANDESK ART GALLERY
Raandesk Gallery makes art collecting accessible and affordable by offering small-scale original artworks from its ART2Gift Collection, made up of quality art gifts on sale for $35 to $500.

M. STURMAN JEWELLERY
M. STURMAN JEWELLERY features one-of-a-kind handwoven or crocheted jewelry that incorporates the most unusual  colored stones, pearls, vintage beads and crystals.  Add style to your wardrobe with handmade jewelry.

KATIE JAMES INC

Katie James, Inc. is an independent label for feminine, funky and functional designs for accessories, websites, and collectible pieces of clothing. All accessories are independently produced in New York and Alabama. We use the finest fabrics to achieve the most unique color combinations, and give long life to all products.Good fabric always lasts, and so do our styles.

CHEEKY LIVING LLC
Cheeky Living works with artisans in South America to bring wonderful fashion and home accessories made from the finest materials…  Our product line includes baby alpaca throws, hats, gloves and scarves; leather tote bags and vintage items.

Won’t you join us for a drink and a browse?

Apparently, the eco-friendly trend in jewelry is still very much with us:  I saw an amazing line of jewelry by an Italian designer in Bergdorf Goodman again today, pieces made of carved ebony and paired with metals.  I believe that ebony is a very hard wood, making these spidery focals of carved and polished ebony doubly awesome.  This put me in mind of my ebony necklace, in which I paired large ebony beads with chunks of chalcedony stones and used faceted chalcedony lozenges to weave covers over some of the ebony beads.  More rustic and eco than than my Italian counterpart, but distinctive in its own way.

But, then, aren’t all gemstones natural?  To say nothing about pearls, especially natural ones.  Although even with unusually shaped pearls, the sort I prefer to perfectly round ones, dying them can offset their unusual shapes, such as the 3-strand necklace of gold-dyed baroque pearls and woven keshi pearl flowers as shown below in my own fashion  flash.

What do you think of pearls — dyed or natural — are they eco-friendly?

The news is all over the place, everywhere you look:  bold statement jewelry is OF THE MOMENT– this moment!  Chunky chokers, multi-strand necklaces, intricately woven collar neckpieces are HAPPENING now.  Funny, but I’ve been doing this type of jewelry for years, so my time has come.

I am particularly excited about my “Conchita” collection.  These three styles are all of the above and I hope you’ll have a look at them.

But first, a word about the Conchitas:  These focal pieces are a form of Drusey Agate, known as Conchitas in Brazil.  The Conchita pieces are treated with the Vapor Deposition process wherein Titanium is vaporized in an electronically charged vacuum chamber and the Titanium molecules bond with the quartz crystals.  No photograph – not even the professional ones taken — is capable of picking up the sparkle and flash of colors achieved by this finish – silvery pinks, blues, greens on a background of blue/grey or amethysts, pinks, golds.

You can see what a non-treated stone looks like in my “Conchita with Three Strands”:  talk about statement jewelry – this is a big piece!  The non-treated Conchita is beautifully subtle in color and in the forms of the whorls in the Drusey Agate.  It is suspended on each side from three ropes made of graduated chunks of rough black tourmaline beads separated by beads made of hand woven silver/taupe seed pearls.

The colors in my “Conchita with Amethysts” are as boldly stunning as are the muted ones of  “Conchita with Three Strands”:  the focal piece stone here is treated, as mentioned above, and so produced the amazing colors of gold, pink, purples, that I needed to pair with the alternating chunky light and dark amethysts separated by hand woven beads of amethyst-dyed tiny seed pebble pearls.

The more subtle, but sparkling, colors of my “Conchita in Silver and Blue” is likewise treated but the stone picked up the lovely shades of silver, blues, greens and pinks that are reflected in the hand woven chains of 24k gold-plated and sterling silver seed beads, along with semi-precious stones of mystic topaz.

The inspiration for these pieces came primarily from the size, form and spectacular appearance of the focal pieces.  The remaining beads and stones were chosen to enhance the Conchitas, to reflect the flash and sparkle of the colors within them.

Are you willing to make a statement with today’s jewelry trends?

I was stopped dead in my tracks, so to speak, when I came across the article and pictures on the front page of the Times’ Sunday Style section. My roving eye for color and for jewelry fixed on the images of women wearing huge pieces of jewelry. I wished the article contained more information and so was surprised and delighted when I went online and found a narrated video version of it by Bill Cunningham, the Times’ On the Street Photographer, entitled “Fashion Fireworks”
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/02/fashion/20090705-street-feature/index.html?ref=fashion# .

The narrative was delightful and there were more pictures in the video then in the newspaper. Cunningham tells about the gigantic fake stone necklaces made of light weight plastic that he found perfect for this holiday, hence “Fashion Fireworks.” The flash of the jewelry complemented the fireworks in the sky and I couldn’t agree more.

Cunningham points out that in the current economic climate women are not buying clothes as they used to but are adding sparkle to what they have with this big jewelry. He further urges women to put on all their jewelry at once, as shown in a few of his photos. His message is that, despite the poor economy, women should nevertheless have fun with dressing, not be inhibited about it and not think such pieces are too much. YES!!

While the pieces I make cannot be completed with old spare jewelry parts while sitting on a beach as Cunningham suggests, I definitely “do” gigantic and sparkle. I’m currently working on a new line of pieces featuring rough stone medallions and more rough cut beads, pearls and colored stones. I’m very excited about them and can’t wait to complete them, have them photographed and put up for sale on www.msturman.com.

So I definitely agree with Cunningham that women should update their wardrobe with jewelry, new or repurposed. How do you have fun with fashion these days?

I’m a visual person, my husband is an audio person. Like Jack and Jill, together we make a great team: when we went to a Broadway production of La Boheme a few years ago, he raved about the music of this classic opera. I responded “what music?” because the production was staged by Baz Luhrmann and was so resplendent in colorful imagery that I was completely, visually, enchanted. He hadn’t noticed!

Likewise, the striking opening images of the film “Frida”, the purple/pink hues of the mesas in the morning in Tucson, the shades and shapes of Dale Chihuly‘s glass installation at the Phoenix Botanic Gardens – all of these get me to raving about the overwhelming magnificence of color.

I could never understand women in my early beadwork classes wanting someone else to pick the colors of beads for their projects for them – they felt incapable. We were clearly in different places! Maybe this is because early on, in one of my early careers learning flower design and arrangement, I was required to take a class in color theory. I was so turned on by this class – when we had to make our own color wheel for credit, I nailed it! Likewise, when I tried my hand at oil painting, I had the best time mixing the tints and hues of the paints to achieve the exact shades of the still life set up by the teacher.

A friend of mine has always said that any color of flowers look good together, no matter their color. While that may be true, why not play with the colors for sensational effects? The colors available in nature are always spectacular and all wonderful. Natural, untreated colored stones and iridescent natural pearls offer amazing potential for combination and the flash in Swarovski crystals offers innumerable possibilities for stunning colorways. How can one go wrong? – the possibilities are infinite and deliciously challenging.

I have my favorite colors and color combinations: sometimes I love neutral palettes or sometimes I’ll pick up a hint of blue in a rough stone; I love pairing oranges and purples, browns and blues; I always love greens, but I’ve never appreciated yellows.

What colors do you love?