Pink and Gray are Popular Today!

My next custom order is for a wonderful customer who is living the good life smack downtown Chicago! ;-) I'm ultimately a "city girl" at heart, as I lived and loved living in downtown Milwaukee for several years while I went to nursing school and my husband went to dental school at Marquette University. We lived on the top floor of a fabulous apartment building and fell asleep looking at the Milwaukee skyline every night. I loved it. 


Anyways, so this lovely lady gets to sport her custom {{jewelry by jessica theresa}} necklace downtown Chicago! I sent an extra little stack of business cards with the necklace, per her request, just in case any of her downtown and/or uptown buddies happen to like what they see... ;-)

I'm pretty sure the most requested necklace of the season this year is my pink and gray {{Classic Collection}} necklace as seen here! This is the fourth custom necklace I've made like this, and my desire to keep it continues to get stronger and stronger because each one gets better and better! :-)

My customer loved loved the look of the pink and gray {{Classic Collection}} necklace. There is a reason why I have made these colors my {jewelry by jessica theresa} "theme", so it makes me giddy to see this color combo become a popular request. This exact design and coloring will forever be near and dear to my heart! ♥

It features 9 cascading strands of light pink, pink, graphite gray, and a deep charcoal gray! It's accented with tons of pink and gray pearls, and lots of pink crystals to add tons of sparkle as soon as it hits the light! ♥

And let's not forget the ultimate addition....the signature flower from my friend Apollonia Dils!

This necklace would look nice and bright with the pink flower, or you can tone it down with the gray flower.

Or if she is wanting to make a SUPER statement, she can wear this necklace with both flowers! Hope she enjoys it!!! ♥ ♥ Thanks Sarah!

Back to the {{Twisted Collection}}!

Now it's time to go back to the {{Twisted Collection}}! I love mixing it up when I do a batch of custom orders. It's always a personal goal of mine to tweak the design here and there to make it even BETTER than the last. The only way to improve is to recognize when something isn't working and then try something new, right?

This necklace is a custom order for another fabulous new customer. She loved the {[Twisted}} look, but didn't want to go QUITE as large as my {[Intricate Collection}} necklaces. So this is what we came up with!

She requested all sorts of purples. And I really think the final result sort of rocks! I wish I could keep it for myself! ;-)

The purples mixed with some silver accents look fantastic together. And since this necklace also has tons of sparkles, it really gives it that wintery-sparkly-icy look. It's PERFECT for winter.

It features various shades of purple, including deep plum, violet, a violet-blue, brilliant purple, lavender, and an almost fuchsia-purple to give it some amazing depth. And LOTS of sparkly crystals! Sheesh I wish my camera was better! I'm looking at this picture and just shaking my head...it doesn't at ALL do it justice. 

I think this {[Twisted Collection}} necklace turned out awesome! Hope she loves it!

Custom Order for a Purple {[Beaded Rope}} Beauty

I haven't done any {{Beaded Ropes}} in the past few weeks, so I'm super happy to be back at them! I have this custom order and another custom {{Beaded Rope}} to do within the next week alone! :-)


I have to say, coming up with the design for my Beaded Ropes took a LOT of "trial and error"....aka, a LOT of "wow that really sucks".....and a LOT of "Why am I spending all these hundreds of hours on this design when it still doesn't look right??". I really wanted to make something long and super versatile, but my MAIN goal was to make something completely different than anything you'd see in a store. I wanted multiple strands, fun chains, and amazing sparkle. And I cannot lie...I'm rather proud of my design! It's a lot of love and a lot of hard work behind these beaded ropes! :-)

This {{Beaded Rope Collection}} necklace is a custom order for a fabulous new customer. She loves purples and loved the beaded rope design, so she requested a necklace with all different shades of purple, mixed with different shades of silver.

And this is what I came up with!

It's hard to tell from my pictures, but it features various shades of purple, including plum, violet, lavender, deep purple, and a really awesome almost fuchsia-purple to give it a little depth. It also features various shades of silver and gray to really give it a fun look.

And of course, this necklace features TONS of crystals and a sprinkling of rhinestone beads. It really sparkles!

Some Gush and Mush....

I'm so thankful for the past five months in so many ways. I have almost reached 50 sales at my Etsy store! Over half of them have been from the last 6 weeks alone. I have worked SOOO HARD trying to start my own business, and little by little, my hard work is starting to pay off! (well, not literally "pay" off. Perhaps I will break even next year? Ha! One can hope!).

Everything about my {jewelry by jessica theresa} business has given me so much enjoyment and so much hope for the future. I am one of those skeptic types who believes if you want anything done, you gotta do it yourself. So I am going to continue to work hard and hopefully grow and succeed for many years to come! I'm really excited for the future.

I'm also a believer that you are only as "good" as your last product/transaction/customer experience. Not only to I want to make HIGH quality jewelry pieces, but I want to make sure my customer service is second to none. Seeing and hearing about happy customers sporting their {jewelry by jessica theresa} creations makes me beyond giddy.

I never thought something else could give me a "high"/endorphin boost quite like my "runner's high" (I'm a running freak and marathoning fanatic), but I literally feel a rush of happy endorphins every time I hear about my happy customers. That's worth WAY more than money could ever buy! I want to grow my jewelry business for forever. And I'm positive I've got enough energy, drive, and nerve to do it!

Enough gush. I will leave you all with some super great quotes that really speak to me. I was born into a family full of physicians. I was educated at a few amazing private schools, and graduated from nursing school with a kick-ass GPA. But to be honest, nothing has given me more satisfaction, excitement, and hope than spilling my guts into my jewelry business and watching it grow. :-) RN turned Jewelry Designer?

WHY NOT!?!

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
-Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and Pixar

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that something is too competitive. Once you subtract the people who don’t work very hard, or the people who aren’t as good as you, your competition shrinks dramatically.”
-Maggie Mason, founder of Mighty Goods

“An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.”
-Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

 “I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.”
-Martha Stewart, founder of Omnimedia

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."
-Colin Powell, US Secretary of State

OK I'm done. :-)

Because I Can't Help Myself.......

For me, creating these {{Super Statement}} necklaces is basically like creating a work of art. It literally begins as a blank canvas of beads and wire, just begging to be made into something amazing. I so carefully string each and every bead to lay appropriately amongst the rest. I choose each pearl and each crystal so that it creates just enough shine and sparkle in all the right places. You should see me when I make some of my creations, as I literally will run circles around my "creation station"....I stand up, walk around, kneel down, etc, just to be sure each beaded strand looks and behaves exactly how I want it to! ;-)

So here is my next {{Super Statement}] necklace! I created this one in my signature colors, with a little extra emphasis on the bright pinks and magentas. If you are gonna make a statement, why not go all out and make it with bright colors, right?? ;-)

This necklace features 20 strands of cascading seed beads, large and small crystals, and shiny pearls. I also used a bunch of silver sparkly "chip"-like beads that I retrieved from an old necklace my mom had hiding in the back of her jewelry box. I'm thinking they are circa 1980?? Can't really call that vintage quite yet, right?

Whenever I create a necklace with a specific color combo....ie, "pink"....I always use a range of various shades within the color to really give it some depth. For instance, nstead of just using "pink", I will use some magenta, dusty rose, fuchsia, watermelon, etc, just like you see in this necklace!

And once again, this necklace took me about 12 hours to start and finish. And I loved every second. The finished product literally makes me giddy!

I garnered my inspiration for this necklace from this lovely flower, which is made with bright pink and gray pattered fabric, and fun vintage gold findings. It's super bright and bold, and totally looks amazing next to the coordinating beads, pearls, and crystals.

I also found some awesome looking graphite gray beads that are shaped like cubes! They are extremely shiny and really catch the light, so I interspersed them throughout each strand. :-)

12 hours of crazy fun hard work!!!! <3

Not for the faint of heart, but DEFINITELY for those who like to be noticed... ;-) 

Check out my {{Super Statement Collection}} on Etsy!

Another {{SUPER Statement!}}!

So far, I have made three {{Super Statement}} collection necklaces. And all three took me about 12 hours each to create. They make the ultimate statement in every way possible! So it's time to introduce the next one:

I decided to make this beauty in various shades of red, gold, and purple....basically all the colors that I didn't use in my first {Super Statement} necklace! ;-)

This necklace was another 12 hours of hard work...and worth every second! To be super specific on the colors I used, it features coordinating shades of yellow gold, metallic gold, bright red, brick red, plum, lavender, and bright purple. It's awesome!

Once again, it's 20 stunning strands of cascading beads.

I've been working on this necklace off and on for about a week now. I got my inspiration from this fabulous vintage looking flower made by my friend Apollonia Dils. The flower features beautiful red satin, purple and ivory buttons, and gold vintage findings.

Yes the flower is big, but the necklace is a SUPER STUNNER to match!

Of course, it features my favorite beads....glass petite seed beads, pearls, and crystals. The ultimate trifecta combination of beads.

WELL worth the quality and hard work! :-)

 

 

Check it out on Etsy! 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JewelryByJessicaT?section_id=10763134

Time to Officially Introduct....{{The Super Statement Collection}}

It's time to officially roll out my next collection....the {{Super Statement Collection}}!


I've been working on this next set of necklaces for awhile now. At first, I wasn't going to promote or sell these necklaces, because they are TRULY works of art. Each one has taken me almost 12 hours to complete, so I think they are going to be REALLY hard to part with unless they are going to a REALLY great home.. :-)


Let me warn you...these {{Super Statement}} necklaces are NOT for the faint of heart.... :-)

This first {[Super Statement}} features all of my favorite bright and cheery colors. Although this color combo doesn't exactly scream "holiday", it will DEFINITELY set you apart from the crowd if worn to a Holiday party! This necklace DEMANDS attention!! <3

I'm not sure if anyone will buy something this awesomely huge and heavy, but let me tell you, this necklace is AMAZING in person!

It features 20....yes TWENTY....beaded strands, cascading in a gorgeous work of art. It's 12 hours of work, and I'm SO proud of it! I don't know if I will ever be able to part with it! It's over $100 worth of beads alone. :-)

I got my inspiration from this fabulous flower made by Apollonia Dils from Apples Modern Art!
The flower features gorgeous bright shades of brown, bright pink, yellow, green, and blue. So...I went to town!

The necklace features 20 beaded, cascading strands in shades of browns, bronze, magenta, fuchsia, pink, green, turquoise blue, gold, and yellow.

It has TONS and TONS of crystals, pearls, and super shiny glass petite beads. I wasn't kidding when I said it DEMANDS attention! <3

I cannot stop staring at it!

I want to make more like this SUPER Statement necklace, but I'm not sure if they will sell. I will have to price them at well over $100, just to cover the cost of the beads alone. Is there an interest? Let me know! I will gladly go to town!!! <3 <3

A Fabulous Custom for a Fabulous Customer!

Next up? Another custom!!


My {{Classic Collection}} necklaces seem to be the most popular by far! This is a very good thing, because it's my favorite necklace to make, of course! I find it extremely gratifying to choose the beads. It's never just about throwing some beads on a string for me. My {{jewelry by jessica creations}} are about choosing the right COLOR bead, then choosing the right SIZE bead, and then choosing the right LOCATION for the bead. It's a very meticulous system I have down pat in my head. I'm totally obsessive about bead choice, color, and placement. I'm told that's what sets my creations apart from just plain ol' bead stringing!

This custom was ordered by a FABULOUS loyal customer! This time, she requested a {{Classic Collection}} - Option #3 with 7-8 strands of varying shades of brown, accented by forest green, creamy ivory, and a hint of gold.

Since this color combo tends to take on a very "earthy" vibe, I decided to incorporate lots of brown stone chips and sandy colored larger stones to really give it a beautiful earthy feel. :-)

This beauty features 8 cascading strands of glass beads, pearls, stones, crystals, seed beads, and stone chips! In pretty shades of chocolate brown, bronze, copper, sandy brown, forest green, sparkly gold, and creamy ivory pearls.

And I added my signature {{jewelry by jessica theresa}} flower to tie everything together in a feminine way!

This lovely flower was handsewn by my fabulous friend Apollonia Dils over at Apples Modern Art :-)
Then I accented the middle of this flower with perfectly coordinating forest green glass beads...just like in the necklace itself!

I think it turned out beautiful! And I hope the recipient loves it too. :-)

Want your very own Classic Collection necklace? Click here!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/86715725/custom-statement-necklace-classic

What's Black, Silver, and Green All Over...?

What's Black, gray, and green all over?

My next custom necklace, of course!

My next custom necklace was made with my {{Classic Collection}} - Option #3 design. It features 8 cascading strands of absolutely STUNNING glass beads, pearls, and crystals. The trifecta of this glass bead-pearl-crystal look is totally my favorite by far. I've literally made nearly a hundred necklaces and bracelets now, and I ALWAYS go back to this bead combo!

Everyone seems to love this green-black-gray-silver combo! Which makes me ecstatic, of course! :)

A friend of mine loved my green Classic Collection necklace I made a few weeks ago, so she requested a similar design. :-)

It features varying shades of lime green, sage green, graphite gray, black, and silver.

Each bead was deliberately and carefully threaded by me to lay perfectly across the chest.

I'm extremely meticulous on bead placement. I have a whole system in my head as to what beads can be placed next to/on top of/or underneath one another. This creates the ultimate "cascade" of shine, sparkle, and overall texture

It's a great combination for the Holidays! Green and sparkly silver will make a great {{Statement}} for any Holiday party. Hope she enjoys it!