custom work: owl necklace & earrings.

I wanted to share with you some custom work that I had the pleasure of making for a friend of mine. Her fiancé had contacted me before the holidays about wanting to get some custom jewelry made for her.

Generally when I design custom pieces, the first step is to find out about the person. I ask various questions ranging from details about the person, their family, cultural aspects, history, style/asethetic, and so on. From there, I start to look at the details that matter to the person and start doing research before I even get to sketching ideas.

When Jordan contacted me he already knew he wanted to incorporate some of Elise's favorite things: owls and the color purple. He had also mentioned that he would like these pieces to be something that she could wear daily.


The above image is from my sketchbook and shows some of the owls that I had come up with. I think it is important to have options and choices so that perhaps even more ideas can form. Jordan really liked two of the four options. We decided to use one of the designs for the pendant portion of the necklace...


I ended up mentioning we could include Elise's favorite color by incorporating some purple sari fabric within the heart shaped chest of the owl.


For the earrings, I ended up piercing out a silhouettte of the other owl option that Jordan liked.


He knew very well that Elise preferred larger earrings and so that is how we came up with the oval shape.


Here is a snapshot of the pieces together:


I have been friends with Elise since the 7th grade and personally it was so neat to see how well her fiancé knew exactly what she wanted. Thank you Jordan and Elise for allowing me to share your story.

Next week's posts will include more snapshots and details as I get ready for next weekend's (FEB. 5-7) jewelry marketplace: INDULGE at the Bellevue Arts Museum.