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!

I saw a sneak preview of Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” and was delighted to see Kim Cattrall in it, looking lovely as usual.  This got me to thinking again about whether or not some of my jewelry would be worn in the movie, and if so which pieces (these are being held at the studios as we speak) and on whom?

Would it be the Green Tea neckpiece or the Be Mine neckpiece, each of which was widely blogged about by Luxist.com, USA Today, CoutureSnob.com, and Jason of Hollywood.com?

I tried to find an official SATC2 movie site, but came up with the HBO home page featuring it http://www.hbo.com/sex-and-the-city/index.html#, with the four stars on it.  How surprised I was to see Kim Cattrall with short hair as opposed to her shoulder-length hair in “The Ghost Writer”.  I immediately thought that with that short hair, she would look great wearing a pair of my Vintage Atlas Earrings!

In my dreams, Sarah Jessica Parker/Carrie Bradshaw wears the Green Tea neckpiece, with something flowing; Cynthia Nixon/Miranda Hobbes would wear the Diorissimo with a low cut gown; and Kristin Davis/Charlotte York would wrap herself in my 96” necklace of natural pearls!

But who would wear Be Mine?

These are my dreams and I am waiting, impatiently!  What about you?

Wow!  My fabulous team of publicists at Red Branch PR have started a real buzz for M. STURMAN JEWELLERY.

Hot on the heals of the CoutureSnob.com feature on my Diorissimo necklace on November 12, http://www.couturesnob.com/2009/11/diorissimo-necklace.html, came a week of other features:

Luxist.com,  http://www.luxist.com/2009/11/29/m-sturman-jewelry-on-the-set-of-the-new-sex-and-the-city-movie/ talked up my Green Tea neckpiece, one of the pieces for SATC.

Jason of Beverly Hills picked up the Luxist.com story with a great post of its own.  www.jbhblog.com

HauteLiving.com did a feature on us, http://www.hauteliving.com/blog/new-york-blog/%E2%80%9Csex%E2%80%9D-gets-glitzy/ and another of my neckpieces, Be Mine.

Next, these features were joined by one on Eclectic Jewelry and Fashion’s blog, http://eclecticjewelryandfashion.blogspot.com/2009/11/m-sturman-jewlery-on-set-of-next-sex.html, which pictured the above neckpieces plus my 96” rope of natural, graduated white pearls and pink natural pearls http://bit.ly/5aFwaS.

These features were also picked up on various other blogs so that eventually USAToday.com mentioned me, too!  http://bit.ly/6S9dkU .

So, I’m breathless and excited, can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the near future – magazine pick ups?  Wouldn’t that be great?

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?

After a salad lunch with a jewelry colleague last week on W. 57th Street, I suggested we have “dessert” at Bergdorf Goodman – specifically a leisurely tour through the jewelry department. We were amazed and delighted at what we saw: Statement Necklaces! Bold bracelets and earrings! Huge Chains! Chunky textures! Layers! Triple Strands! Bibs and Collars! Lots of large beads, stones and Swarovski crystals, some prong set, some sewn on and appliquéd with seed beads.

Since both of us are designers of hand woven jewelry, we were interested to see that many jewelers represented in this department are using ribbon ties in place of the usual findings as closures for their necklaces – nothing new actually, but now the silk ribbons were holding up large weighty necklaces and so added an airy femininity to the pieces!

Most of my work is also large and bold, incorporating large, rough-cut stones and natural beads, such as the 19” Ebony and Chalcedony necklace with a modern sterling silver clasp, chunks of chalcedony and ebony beads, three of them with woven “jackets” of chalcedony lozenges. Such a blend of materials and textures works well with any of the new fashion trends in the upcoming season.

My particular passion is for vintage beads and Swarovski crystals, such as the Diorissimo necklace, a bold bib style necklace of vintage Swarovski cabochons that would fill the plunging neckline of any little black dress. Can you see it? 

This Diorissimo necklace is made from cabochons ordered by Dior from Swarovski either before or after World War II — vintage in either case.  I bezeled the stones and created a chain with 14k gold-plated beads.  Very dramatic.

Will you make a bold fashion jewelry statement this fall?