Jewelry making with Nina Designs

A month back when I was browsing through a bead community that I am a part of, I found a link to Nina designs and their beautiful supplies. When I visited their site, I learnt that they engage craftsmen in Bali and Indonesia to create their exquisite charms and findings and believe in doing good for the community by following fair trade practices.

Inspired by their blog and the designs on the site, I wrote to them, asking If I could be a blog partner of theirs and I was elated when they selected me to participate in this month’s partner program. They sent out a goodie bag full of pieces to experiment with and here’s a peak at what they sent.

There were some charms, cord and leather. The charms were all natural golden bronze – perfect for India. I instantly fell in love with the lotus charm and reserved it for a special occasion. that left me with the other charms to experiment and I decided to make multiple pieces.

My biggest challenge was the size of the pieces. As I designer I usually prefer chunky pieces and these were so delicate, dainty as if they had a life of their own. I tried making some dainty pieces but didnt quite like how they turned out. So I decided to inject them with some of my quirky charm to make them a little kitschy!!I made 2 pairs of earrings, one necklace and one bracelet.

The bracelet (top right pic) was simple and yes a tutorial for it follows in my next post. Next up was the necklace. I used the tendril charm and connected a wire wrapped pearl to it. Then I wove the silk ribbon through a chain and doubled it. I also added some stone findings for added bling…a laid back tendril and cord necklace for a beach party…

Enamel Earrings

I really loved the tiny blanks they sent me, as I didnt have any stamp, I just tried texturing them with a hammer. After the second strike I didnt like the marks they made, so I buffed and hand painted them – in bold red & black colors….Geometry being the “in thing” now I settled for squares…To go with it I picked an enamel bead (mina bead) I had in stash and looped them together…Dont they look lovely on the bronze ear hooks?

Finally the Sprout charms…Had to make something interesting from them….I thought and thought and thought …!!!Finally found the answer – Safety pin Chandelier earrings...what could be more simpler than that?

I used the same concept as in my tutorial but swapped the beads for chain and then used the charms in the center for max focus…

I hope you found the pieces interesting. I had great fun creating them and I am thankful to Nina designs for sending me such wonderful supplies.
Cheers

Disclosure: The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author

Jewelry making with Nina Designs

Enamel Earrings

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