Saturday, August 15, 2009
Harmony Scott - Aspen Jeweler
Soon after, she was invited to move back to Aspen to apprentice with a family friend, Elaine Greenspan, to learn the ancient Etruscan art of 22kt gold granulation and jewelry fabrication. After Elaine retired, she encouraged Harmony to follow in her footsteps and open her own Aspen Jewelry Store. Harmony's partner and love, Justin Doty, supported and encouraged her young design business and joined Harmony full-time in 1999. Together they showed at art fairs & trunk shows and traveled the country to place her jewelry in galleries & boutiques, living out of their little truck camper and being ski-bum jewelers. In 2001 they were finally ready to put down roots in the Roaring Fork Valley.
They opened their first store in the little town of Carbondale, just down the road from Aspen. The enormous success was exciting & daunting. Harmony and Justin couldn't keep up with demand and saw an opportunity to expand their production in Bali, Indonesia. Harmony & Justin met Wayan Subawa on their first visit to Bali. In Wayan, they found a perfect partner to realize their jewelry dreams. Wayan was ready to take on the challenge of learning about the jewelry process and working with Harmony & Justin to produce high quality jewelry with love and attention to detail. Soon Wayan's wife, niece and friends were working in his house, producing Harmony's beautiful designs. Now that the jewelry production was in place, Harmony and Justin were ready to take on new challenges in their business.
They opened their second store in Aspen during Christmas of 2003. Shortly after, they began to find a select group of boutiques and galleries to carry their work nation-wide. Every Spring and Fall, Justin and Harmony travel to Bali to design and produce the next collection that is now available in their Colorado stores, on the website, and through the circle of galleries that carry Harmony's designs. Harmony Scott Jewelry now employs four amazing women who manage and run the 2 stores, wholesale accounts, and website business from Carbondale & Aspen. In Bali, Wayan and his family are a group of four people making the limited-edition designs.
You can contact Harmony Scott Jewelry at:
199 Main Street
Carbondale, CO 81623
970.963.7190
411 East Hyman Avenue
Aspen, CO 81611
970.920.2582
Learn more about: Harmony Scott | Aspen Jewelry Store
Monday, August 10, 2009
Custom Bridal Jewelry
Though most of would love to wear expensive diamonds and pearls, we all have our financial constraints. However, that doesn't really mean that we can't look good and have something nice to wear! These days custom bridal jewelry is one of the most affordable and elegant options for brides and their bridesmaids!
Custom jewelry is also known as fashion jewelry and nowadays more and more brides are opting for bridal costume jewelry rather than invest in diamonds, gold and other precious stones. Why? Here are some reasons why bridal costume jewelry scores notches over the traditional jewelry:
1. Trendy and fashionable: As a bride you want to look trendy and fashionable. Custom Bridal jewelry keeps changing with the current trends. So that means that when you choose your bridal jewelry you are actually keeping abreast of the trends of the season. The traditional jewelry may look boring since its been there and people have seen it a million times. However, your bridal jewelry can really pique the interest of the onlookers.
2. Inexpensive: While the bridal jewelry may look expensive, it's actually very affordable. So, even if it gets outdated after a while, you won't really mind returning it to your jewelry box. However, on the other hand if your real diamonds and pearls cannot be worn by you due to the latest fashion trends, you won't really like it would you?
3. Expensive looking: We all would love to wear rock size diamonds, but not all of us can afford it! However, with costume bridal jewelry you can wear rock size diamonds which look real! These days bridal jewelry looks so authentic that it's difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake. So, you get the effect of the real stones, without having to spend more of your real money!
4. Safety: Today's world is full of people who want to make easy money. They like robbing people of their jewelry and money. However, if you have costume wedding jewelry and your jewelry gets displaced or stolen, it won't be as bad as somebody stealing the real thing!
5. Matching: Costume wedding jewelry comes in all kinds of colors and styles; hence you can really choose well to go with your dress and the dresses of your bridesmaids.
6. Usability: You can use your bridal jewelry for as long as you like since it is so trendy and fashionable.
Custom bridal jewelry is available in various designs and patterns. For approximately $30 and less you can look like a million bucks! There are various setting available ranging from pearl wedding sets to crystal wedding sets and rhinestones wedding sets.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
The Beautiful Handmade Bridal Jewellery
If you want to be innovative with your bridal jewelery, handmade ornaments are an amazing choice. These brilliant jewels are prepared manually making use of no machines which give them an original and creative touch.
Although there are a lot of bridal jewelery options which you would come across on the internet, however, the handmade pieces are very distinctive and luring. As your wedding day calls for something out of the ordinary, handmade bridal jewelry can do the trick for you. These carefully designed ornaments will make you look stunning and a gorgeous bride. The warmth and chic attached to these jewels are matchless.
Being your bridal jewelry, whatever you wear ought to carry love and chic in it as well for which handmade pieces is perfect embodiment. Not only this, handmade bridal jewelery is a great options for those who have a tight budget yet they which to make the best of this occasion and obtain bridal jewellery which would make them look just perfect.
Handmade bridal jewelleries, be they necklaces or earrings, appear as stunning pieces of art and style which mesmerize the onlooker and give added confidence and joy to the wearer.
You can find some amazing handmade jewelry online as well in your local jewelery store. However, to be able to make the best choice of handmade jewelery, keep your dress design in mind. If your bridal jewelery is not in harmony with your dress, no matter how great a handmade ornament you wear it will not make you look perfect.
This is because the bridal jewelery together with the dress makes a perfect match and makes you look like the dream bride. It is not wrong to state that the best handmade jewelery has to complement your wedding dress. Otherwise no matter how expensive a factory made or handmade jewelery you wear, you will fail to create the look you deserve.
Be it the necklace or your earrings or ring, make sure the color as well as the material of your handmade bridal jewelery is appropriate and inline with the latest trends to make you look like the prettiest bride on earth.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Handmade Beaded Jewelry - Unique Handmade Jewelry Timeless Treasures
Unique handmade jewelry ranks right up there as one of the wonders of modern day. In fact custom jewelry takes the heart of yesterday and makes it the beauty and wondrous grace of today's beaded jewelry.
Some of the most amazing necklaces, bracelets, earrings worn by today's top names are actually handmade beaded jewelry crafted from the naturally formed stone and elements that have been present on the earth for centuries. It is this tie with nature, with a greater power, that makes handmade jewelry so attractive to so many people.
Gemstone jewelry is often used to symbolize or signify specific qualities the wearer hopes to enhance and accent. Handmade jewelry - perhaps a ruby - accenting a cross may signify the blood of Christ, the sacrifice, while jewelry containing turquoise may symbolize the traditional association of being at one with the sky, or freedom.
In these ways and many more, handmade beaded jewelry can often take the form of the latest style of fashion jewelry while having a meaning that is so much deeper, so much more intense than any trend.
When it comes to gemstones one of our most treasured traditions is the wedding ring and very few are as impressive as the diamond. While diamonds aren't normally used in beaded jewelry we would be remiss if diamonds were not included here.
A diamond is worn on the wedding ring due to its reputation for loyalty and continued love. It is placed on the ring finger of the left hand because it was thought that there was a vein that ran from that finger directly to the heart.
Handmade beaded jewelry artists create magical combinations of natural gemstones, beads and precious metals into one of a kind treasures. These beautiful works of art come to life and are to be cherished and passed along to generation after generation.
Custom crafted gemstone jewelry designed with care and attention to detail by a jewelry artisan, is really special. Whether it's handmade jewelry adorning an antiqued pendant or pearl drop earrings or a unique diamond set ring or an exquisitely crafted gemstone and silver necklace to rival any you would find at a big-name jeweler, handmade beaded jewelry captures the hearts of all who wear them.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Handmade Jewelry Replenishes, Expresses the Creative Impulse
Impossible to quantify, inevitable in even the most mundane of tasks, the creative spirit feeds most human efforts. The creative impulse, likely the only commonality behind all endeavors great and small, is as innate as our sense of breathing.
A recent development in expressing the creative impulse, handmade enamel jewelry, actually has its origins in some of mankind's earliest civilizations. Handmade jewelry dates back dozens of centuries, and examples can be found among the surviving relics of the Ancient Roman and Egyptian empires. It's not a new form, but new innovations in the creation tools and new ways of approaching their design are giving the ancient art form a new lease on life for the 21st Century.
The Creative Impulse and The Workings of Narrative
Narratives - more commonly called stories - build themselves on one event leading into another, often with as much unpredictability as possible. In creating jewelry that highlights both iconic and mythological symbols, the handmade enamel jewelry maker is able to incorporate narrative symbols that help the viewer's mind recognize and interpret narratives on its own. The unpredictability in this case comes from the surprise at the jewelry piece's detail, or in finding how the symbol represented on the jewelry evokes and celebrates its own particular narrative.
Enamel jewelry craftsman John Madsen says the finished product both rewards his own creative impulse but also incorporates his work into a larger story. "In making handmade enamel jewelry, you become part of the spread of the story the jewelry represents," Madsen explains. "Even the most abstract designs, as well as those that are designed with a particular aesthetic in mind, challenge the creative impulse, if only to picture more such works like the ones [you see] here."
Crafting Jewelry With A Creative Impulse In Mind
Like its close cousin, fused glass ornaments, handmade enamel jewelry is often used to fire the creative impulse. Like the tree of life pendant, a popular fused glass work of ornamental jewelry, many jewelry pieces are meant not to just to reflect the imagination of the artist but also to fire the creative and cognitive impulses within the viewer. For example, in viewing the tree of life pendant, many viewers are provoked into thinking about its meaning, and which particular mythology to which it belongs. That may also prompt thoughts regarding to spirituality and to one's own spiritual development.
If that seems like a lot to ask from a single piece of jewelry, many handmade enamel and fused glass jewelry craftsmen see their work as not just ornamental but also representative. The jewelry work itself becomes almost totemic, meant not just to adorn but also to recall their symbols' tremendous spiritual potency.
"You get the sense when you create these pieces that you're really contributing to something larger than yourself," Madsen explains. "When you get that rush of seeing the finished work, it's even sometimes a little humbling. You've created art, not just for the sake of art but also to contribute to a larger understanding. That helps everybody."
How to Sell a Ton of Handmade Jewelry Right in Your Own Home Town!
There are a variety of simple ways to market your jewelry right in your own home town without spending aloof of time or a money. If you're serious about increasing your jewelry sales, give some of these simple marketing techniques a try:
1. Wear your jewelry everywhere you go. You probably interact with jewelry lovers every day of your life as you carry out your daily activities. What woman doesn't like jewelry to some extent? Highlight the beauty of your jewelry by wearing it with a simple, plain colored top so your necklace becomes the focal point. When someone compliments your jewelry design, be prepared to give them further information.
2. Carry business cards with you everywhere you go. Post your card on bulletin boards, put them in fishbowls at restaurants, leave them on restaurant tables with your tip. Give one to your dentist, hairdresser, tailor, and anyone else you may come in contact with on a daily basis. It's a low key way to network.
3. Invest in a car sign to advertise your business when you drive around during the day. This is one of the best investments you can make in terms of time and money. Be sure to include your website address in big bold letters on your sign.
4. Be friendly and approachable. You'll establish many more contacts for your jewelry line this way, plus you'll make more friends!
5. Donate a piece of your handmade jewelry to a charity auction. This is a great way to get you name out in the community as a jewelry designer. Plus, you're helping a good cause at the same time.
6. Learn everything you can about your customers. How old are they? What do they wear? Where do they live? Study their habits, wants, and needs. This will allow you to better optimize your sales material, flyers, and your jewelry designs to meet their particular needs.
7. Be active in your community by volunteering a few hours a week. This is a great way to make new contacts while establishing a reputation for giving back to your community.
8. Join your local Chamber of Commerce and attend meetings when possible. You local chamber can provide you with so many opportunities for networking. This is one group you definitely want to be a part of if you're serious about marketing your jewelry designs.
9. Visit local retail stores to see if they might be good markets for your jewelry. Keep an open mind. The markets for handmade jewelry extend far beyond the standard boutique and gallery. Consider hair salons, spas, nail salons, hospital gift shops, shoe stores, and other small businesses to be potential markets to sell your jewelry.
10. Market to local groups of which you're already a member. Do you belong to a church? Could you use your jewelry to help your church raise much needed funds? Offer to have a small church jewelry show to sell your jewelry and give the church a percentage of your profits.
11. Network with your local bead store. They may want you to do custom designs for their customers. You could also teach classes or give a trunk show of your designs at their store.
12. Offer to do trunk shows at local boutiques and galleries in your area. Many smaller boutiques and galleries would love to have the opportunity to sell your jewelry to their customers at no risk to them. Retail stores love the publicity that special events create!
13. Write a press release about your jewelry designs and submit it your local newspapers and magazines. This can bring in a ton of business very quickly.
Hopefully, these ideas will get you started thinking about how you can best market your handmade jewelry in your local community. It’s a great way to sell more jewelry!