Wow, Kathryn Designs made necklaces for Zooey Deschanel and Jessica Alba!

     Finally sitting down to write about the awesome experience of creating necklaces for Zooey Deschanel and Jessica Alba. As a member of  The Artisan Group, I have been given the fabulous opportunity to participate in special gift bags for these two talented ladies.



Photo by Joe Cerehino



  Zooey Deschanel is currently starring in the Fox series New Girl, and you might remember her from the movies Almost Famous and (500) Days of Summer, among many others.  She is also a talented musician and singer and has released two albums with M. Ward, under the name She & Him.  

She is quite the style icon, so I was a little daunted by choosing a necklace to create for her.  I decided to create one of my Open Locket necklaces, since it is the style I am gifting at the GBK Luxury Gift Lounge for the 2012 Oscars.  Fingers crossed that she likes it! 



Open Locket Necklace



Photo by Lindsey 8417



    Jessica Alba is known for her role in the television series Dark Angel as well as her movie roles in Sin City, Fantastic Four, and Good Luck Chuck.  She is married to Cash Warren, and is the gorgeous mother of two children, Honor and Haven.

Again, I was overwhelmed by the idea of creating something for this talented lady.  To celebrate her beautiful children, I decided to create a custom necklace including a collage of the birth month flowers of her two girls.  The flower for Honor is the rose (June) and Haven's flower is the poppy (August).



Custom Birth Month Flower Necklace (collage images from artcult.etsy.com)

I had so much fun with these two projects! I am so honored to be a member of The Artisan Group.

I am still working on my 100 necklaces for the GBK Gift Lounge for the Oscars.  I am hoping to finished with them by this weekend.  I am up to my neck in resin lately!  I will be posting photos soon. 

Happy holiday season!

 







Special Swag Bags for Jessica Alba and Zooey Deschanel!

I am so thrilled that thanks to The Artisan Group, I will be creating necklaces for the lovely Jessica Alba and Zooey Deschanel!

For Jessica Alba, I am working on a necklace in this style:

I read that she has the Sanskrit word for "lotus" tattooed on her wrist, so I was tempted to use this exact design. However, I will probably go with my first plan to redesign the piece so I can include the birth month flowers of her two children, Honor and Haven. I am so inspired by this idea that I will be offering birth month flower necklaces in my Artfire shop in the near future. I just sold the above necklace so I am busy making more lotus necklaces too!

For Zooey Deschanel, I will be making an "open locket" necklace similar to this:

I am so grateful to have the chance to gift these awesome celebrities!
When I have the pieces finished later this week, I will post them.

I am also donating an open locket necklace to a fundraising auction for

here in Washington County, Maryland. I am honored to contribute to such a well respected program that does so much good for the community and families.

The winner is.....

Congratulations to MaggieMays! You are the winner of my 500 Fans and Counting on Facebook giveaway! I will email you and post on FB as well.
Thank you to all those who entered! I SO appreciate your support and will continue to host giveaways to show my appreciation. You all rock!

Note: the winner was selected using Random.org

Celebration and thank you giveaway......500 fans and counting on Facebook!

To say "thank you" to all the wonderful people who have joined me on my Kathryn Designs Facebook page, I am celebrating reaching 500 fans with a giveaway of this vintage inspired necklace:

This unique piece of art jewelry was created using liquid polymer clay to create a translucent veneer, which I applied to a polymer clay background. I used a great retro pin up image from Lunagirl.com, and embellished the piece with Swarovski crystals and individually placed microbeads. It is coated with jeweler’s grade resin for a glossy finish. The necklace portion is beaded with crystal AB and seed beads. Similar pieces sell in my Artfire shop for 55.00.

To enter follow these steps:
1) Follow my blog by using the blue “Join This Site” button to the left. Please select the option to “follow publicly.”
2) Leave a comment for this blog post to let me know you have joined Kathryn Designs blog, and include your email address.
3) Make sure you have completed both steps so your entry will count!
4) If you are already following this blog, you can still enter by leaving a blog post letting me know you are following.


There are always rules, so here goes:
1) Each person is eligible for one entry. The contest will run from today (November 2nd, 2011) until Saturday, November 5th at 11:00 PM, EST.
2) This contest is only open to people with a mailing address in either the United States or Canada.
3) A number will be assigned to your entry upon receipt. A winning number will be generated using Random.org shortly after 11:00 PM, EST on Saturday, November 5th. If your assigned number matches the winning number, and you meet the eligibility requirements, you win!
4) I will post the name of the winner on my Kathryn Designs Facebook page and at KathrynDesigns.blogspot.com on Sunday, November 6th, 2011. I will notify the winner by email as well. If I do not hear back within 72 hours, I will have to select an alternate winner.
Thank you all again for your support! Wishing you good luck!

100 Facebook Fans Giveaway!

So excited about my new fans that I have decided to host a giveaway of this necklace now that I have reached the 100 mark on Facebook! Make sure you "officially" enter! If the contest entry widget does not automatically show, click on "see more" below for the official form that lets me know that you left a blog post comment or that you are following me on twitter.  

This cute necklace was created with layered liquid polymer clay, paint, metal leaf, and polymer clay.  The pendant is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, and the 18" necklace with chain extender was beaded with faceted black beads and seed beads.  Similar necklaces sell in my studio for about 22.00.

Great Giveaways!

There is still time to enter two fabulous swag-a-licious giveaways!  The first is an Emmy's Blog to Blog Giveaway sponsored by members of The Artisan Group and hosted by Ashley of Fancy Designs.  One of my retro flapper girl necklaces is among the prizes.  The second is The Artisan Group HUGE 2000 Facebook Fans Giveaway.  I am gifting a lovely handmade open locket flower necklace as one of the prizes. 

More to come soon....so very busy working my hot little hands to the bone making jewelry!  Thanks for checking out my infant blog :)

Trying new things....bracelets, bracelets, bracelets!

Although I have been busy working on 100 pendants that will be included in the GBK Gift Lounge for the Oscars in February, 2012, I have managed to finally come up with some bracelet designs that I like.  After making pendants, necklaces, and the occasional pair of earrings, I needed to try something new!  I guess I was waiting for inspiration to strike, and it did when I created this necklace:

Colorful Dots :-)

  I liked how the bright colors and design of this necklace conveyed a playful feeling, so I decided to use the same theme for this bangle bracelet:

Colorful dots: The Bracelet

My next idea was to make a square bangle, and use those cheerful, bright colors as stripes rather than dots:

Square bangle

Next, I started thinking about making a cuff bracelet.  I found a great tutorial by Donna Kato on HGTV.  I utilized her construction technique, which uses embedded wire to add strength, and added one of my open locket pendant forms: 

Flower heart cuff bracelet

It is a good thing polymer clay is lightweight, because I seem drawn to making "statement" bracelets!  I plan on making more in the above styles, and will be working on some new ideas as well. 

Finally, I want to congratulate my team members from The Artisan Group for being so well received at the GBK Primetime Emmy's Gift Lounge.  Also, be sure check out and "like" The Artisan Group facebook page for a chance to win some great prizes when they reach 2000 fans! 

Welcome

Welcome to my first post in my new blog! I will be sharing about my adventures in jewelry making and life.
I am not quite sure what the blogging experience will bring, but I am ready for the journey.......

I want to thank Sharon from Plumrose Lane for the beautiful blog theme she designed for me! She did an amazing job turning my vague ideas into a perfect expression of the mood and feeling I had in mind.
She is super talented and intuitive. Check out her incredible blog and etsy shop!

I opened my studio Kathryn Designs on Artfire a few months ago, after not making or selling jewelry for about a year. I did not realize how much I missed creating with polymer clay! I am very excited about my Artfire shop and I am looking forward to adding more items every week. Currently, the items I have listed are works in polymer clay and resin. I hope to add some metal clay pieces as well.

One of THE most exciting things that has occurred for me was being accepted into The Artisan Group. They are an incredible group of talented artisans who gift their art/products to celebrities at major celebrity events such as The Oscars, The Golden Globes, and The Primetime Emmys. They are an exclusive and juried group, and I was honored to become a member.

As a member of The Artisan Group, I will be creating 100 handcrafted pendants to be included in celebrity swag bags at the 2012 Oscars. Stay tuned for pictures and updates about my progress!

Thanks for reading and please visit again.