The Oscars - Red Carpet Jewels 2014

Another awards ceremony has been and gone ... and this one was certainly sparkly in the jewellery department - although a bit lacking for colour with diamonds the overwhelming choice. 

If you are an A list star with a shortlist of gowns that you may not chose til the day, perhaps they chose diamonds so they don't have to match colours of gems to the dress? 

There were a few more necklaces evident on the big names - Naomi Watts (at top) has regularly worn necklaces to awards ceremonies over the last few years and did so again this time wearing a geometric diamond collar by Bulgari.  

Jessica Biel chose an aquamarine and diamond ensemble from Tiffany & Co. from their Blue Book collection.

 

(this photo is from Jessica's facebook page and also shows her Chanel gown and Jimmy Choo shoes)

 

Jennifer Lawrence repeated her back necklace idea again this year with Neil Lane diamonds,  although it looked fine from the front,  I think the look was more successful at the back of the gown last year with a longer necklace.

Charlize Theron went for a pendant look with a 31 carats diamond studded drop by Harry Winston.  It look fabulous with her sleek black gown.

Kristen Bell wore a Piaget diamond collar along with her pale dress and could have been quite ice-maiden without the soft hair updo.

Idina Menzel is quoted as requesting Italian jewellery company Chimento to design a collar for her classically styled dress 

I did note one necklace with some colour - a labradorite necklace and earring set by Shamila, worn by Suzanne Marques which enhanced her grey dress beautifully.

(Photo from Suzanne Marques FB page as she was sheltering under an umbrella to keep her jewels dry - although it would have hurt the dress more I'm sure!)

Earrings abounded of course, as they always do, and diamonds were once again the favourite.

A highlight in colour were the Tiffany & Co. earrings worn by Amy Adams, featuring pink rhodochrosite and blue lapis lazuli and turquoise.

Cate Blanchett did have a little colour in her white opal and diamond earrings by Chopard but that colour was hardly visible, but I applaud her choice of 'not diamonds'!

Anna Kendrick wore some black gem and diamond drops by Piaget.  Just a little different and a lovely choice.

Calista Flockhart added a pop of colour to her otherwise white ensemble with emerald and diamond earrings by Jacob & Co.

Jenna Dewan-Tatum wore Lorraine Schwartz diamonds as did Sandra Bullock.

Julia Roberts went for diamonds by Bulgari...

...and Penelope Cruz chose diamonds by Chopard...

...while Angelina Jolie reportedly spent quite a bit of time finding just the right pair of diamonds to go with her dress.  The diamonds total a hefty 42 carats and were made into earrings by her jeweller.

Not adding colour but at least not completely diamonds, Olivia Wilde went for white agate and diamond drop earrings by Lorraine Schwartz.

And with the barest hint of colour were Shaun Robinson's earrings.

So, would you wear diamonds down the red carpet or go for some gems of colour?

Till next
Annette :)

Something colourful for World Colouring Day

I really should be abed - I have the show in Scone tomorrow, but I realised I hadn't blogged this week and with the show Saturday, Mother's Day on Sunday, plus a jaunt out on Sunday afternoon for the children's eisteddfod rehearsals, it's now or never ... but I will keep it short!

I've had a wonderful creative week and so its been very satisfying. It didn't start off that way and I spent many hours trying to make it to the bench but was either too busy, unwell with a rather nasty case of the flu or just not feeling in the mood (creative types can be so annoying eh?!). But eventually I just sighed and sat down to finish some half finished earrings off after the kids left for school and the next thing I knew the kids were walking back through the door and the day was almost over.

Naturally the muse took me where she will and I ended up with a variety of styles and colours, but I've learned to take this in my stride these days. Do you find that you have the desire to create anything - a piece of art, craft or even just doodling or making dinner and you end up doing something completely different from your first idea? Yep, that's me ;) Of course, this tendency plays havoc with custom orders where I have to fight my instinct and stay on track to what the customer wants!

Did you know that one day this past week was World Colouring Day? According to the Business Mums Blog it was May 6, so if you did something colorful, or your children did, good on you! Even though I've officially just missed it by a day, I've decided my contribution to this day can be my photo for today's post - a bright combination of red, yellow, black and teal blue. It's a long chain linked necklace with bright red bamboo coral, black agate and lava, yellow aragonite, citrine and honey jade and blue-green Xianjiang and Hubei turquoise. And of course, masses of sterling silver. It coloured my day, how about yours?

Hope you have a lovely weekend and Happy Mums Day for Sunday!

Till next :)
Annette

A late bunny story, Sydney jewels and hectic holidays

It's been a busy week with Easter and the associated family gatherings, children's piano lessons (even though school is on holiday, piano definitely isn't!) and my rostered morning at the local saleyards canteen (and the baking of the fresh blueberry muffins before I had to leave). In fact I can't believe it's already Friday - half the term break gone already!

I know Easter is past, but I couldn't resist sharing this photo and story that I stumbled upon a couple of days ago.


This is the world's biggest rabbit. Named Darius, he is just 12 months old and at 1.3 metres and 22kg hasn't finished growing yet! Apparently he eats 12 carrots, 6 apples and 2 cabbages a day. Geez, I hope his owner lives on a farm and grows her own veggies, otherwise this big boy would eat her out of house and home rather quickly!

In jewellery news - if you like looking at gorgeous mega dollar jewels (in particular diamonds), then Sydney is the place to be this month. Sotheby's is hosting an auction on Monday 12 April of Australian Argyle diamond and other fine jewellery items. Then, at the end of the month, Bvlgari is opening a retrospective of their jewels in their Castleraegh Street store from April 28 featuring more than 60 masterpieces from their archives. A visit to Sydney is sounding VERY appealing about now!

In my other wanderings around the web, I was inspired by Melanie - she normally makes bags, fobs and purses but she has recently taken a slight detour into needle felting and has been showing her readers the most adorable toys on her blog recently.

And if you have a blog but, unlike me, don't feel comfortable just chatting away into the ether, then have a read of Melissa's blog where she has some great suggestions on how to find something to blog about.

I did manage some creative time in these hectic holidays - it was night and silence descended early with the children watching an early movie and then going to bed. I just beavered away at my bench, a bright glow amongst the darkness. The photo at top is one piece that was made that night. Although its design is plain, the dark agate stones are just gorgeous - rich, glossy and totally desirable!

Till next :)
Annette

Paris Couture Week ... and more mundane things!

Earlier this month was Paris Couture Week, when the famous names lit up the runways with their haute couture designs - good and bad (!). Some of the stand out fashions in my book were by Armani Prive, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Valentino and Dior (I probably wouldn't be game enough to wear most of the Dior collection, but it certainly grabbed my eye!).

I was happy to note that jewellery was quite in evidence on the runways too - particularly statement necklaces with Armani Prive, long (and multiple) necklaces with Jean-Paul Gaultier, very long chain linked earrings (aka 'shoulder dusters') for Chanel, and Dior was into 'bling' and pearls both in necklaces and big drop earrings.

Of course, life down here on the farm is a bit more basic that the wearing of any of these couture fashions, and with three children running rampant, definitely not the place for high fashion. But it is nice to admire and daydream about :)

Term break is still in full swing here and yes, still lots of visitors and jobs to do. Unfortunately the rose garden is now overdue for both a prune and a weed - NOT my favourite job. Yep, it never ends.

By the way, I was interested to note the comments I received on my last post (re: my washing being on the clothes line for days) and found out that clothes lines are a thing of the distant past for many in the USA. This amazes me as of course I don't even have a clothes dryer! Then I found out about "The Right to Dry" group and well... what can I say!? Do YOU have a outside clothes line? What do you think about clothes lines vs dryers?

I have had a tiny amount of time to do some blog surfing and want to mention Mezz of Creative Outlet. I met Mezz in person quite a few years ago at the Sydney Bead & Gem Show and was glad to get re-acquainted with her recently. I have since started to read her blog more regularly -she writes great posts - do check them out!

The other blogger I was glad to see was Hilary from 57 Design Studio. Hilary went off and renovated her house a few months ago and was so busy she didn't get to blog much at all. But she's getting back into the swing of it now and has been creating, not just jewellery, but has branched out into paper crafts as well.

If you are an Aussie blogger, are you a member of any Australian blog groups? Through Anne of The Tall Poppy I have found both Aussie Bloggers and Blog Chicks - do check them out if you don't know of them already and join up! The more the merrier :)

For today's pic I chose a piece where I had a bit of a play with colour - in a subtle way. To add some fun to this unusual shaped agate I added some neon blue apatite. I like how the clasp reflects the shape of the agate too. It's a long strand that can be wrapped around into a two strand short necklace as shown in the picture.

I also had a query that it wasn't too obvious where you could see my other work, so please check out my website at www.annettepiper.com to see more!

Till next week - have a good one!
Cheers
Annette

Quirindi last week, Merriwa this week...

I feel a bit like that old saying about tours "if it's Tuesday it must be Rome" LOL. Although I'm not quite going to such exotic locales, doing two, two-day shows a week apart is surprisingly tiring - I keep feeling like I've forgotten something and my to-do list never seems to finish!

Last weekend was Quirindi and I had such a wonderfully warm welcome from the organisers and lots of ladies I met on my recent appearance there in July. I was tickled pink when one woman told me that she saw the advert for the Quirindi Show - it mentioned 'jewellery' and she had hoped it would be me! :) There were only a few other exhibitors selling items that were non-sideshow alley and they were lovely, friendly people.

Lots of beautiful pieces (a lot of them new, including the piece featured in my last blog post)have found new homes where I am sure they will be loved!

This weekend I have Merriwa Show and get to see all my lovely clients from that district and maybe some new faces too. This is the 100th anniversary of the Merriwa Show so it promises to be a big weekend. I hope the weather holds out! Once again I will be located in the Fairfax Pavillion so come and say hello if you're at the show.

I am very behind on my blog reading however I was doing a scan of the Small Business Diva's blog and found a wonderful quote I would like to share: “Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous - not just to some people in some circumstances - but to everyone all the time.” Thomas J. Watson, 1874-1956, Founder of IBM. Something we can all aspire to.

I must also say thank you to Elaine from Commotion from the Ocean of Life blog for her award (received while I was on holidays thus my tardy response!). This blog is a great read and one that I love to catch up on. Thank you!!!



The rules of this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

So, in the interest of sharing the love downunder, I've picked some Aussie blog favourites:

1. Tickiboo
2. Ickle Kids
3. La Toriana
4. My Day Off
5. Marnie B
6. Small Business Diva
7. Australian Women Online

Ooops, almost forgot today's jewellery picture! This is a beautiful banded agate and freshwater pearl bracelet that tinkles as it moves. I've used Argentinium sterling silver to help prevent tarnishing and keep the silver wonderfully shiny. A timeless combination of black and white means this one will be worn for many years to come!

Till next :)

Diamonds falling from the sky, freecycle and a timeless black necklace.

Yay! Some progress made in the last few days with all those orders and remodelling jobs and I feel quite liberated from my to-do list now! I still have plenty to do of course - I'm starting to get a hankering to create some new things and I really want to re-do my website.

I belong to a huge number of groups and forums some of which I have mentioned before. The wonderful thing is with such a diverse group of places is that you can sometimes find out things that you never would have found for years! One such place for me is a rockhounds group and through there I found the following article "Diamonds Rained Down During Ice Age". The article details claims made by Allen West, a retired geophysicist, that after a 3-mile-wide comet hit eastern Canada about 13,000 years ago, rocks (including diamonds and some precious metals) were blown out of the Candadian earth and rained down over the eastern United States. It's only a theory of course, but wow, what an explosion that would have been. And it's certainly being a nice neighbour sharing your wealth in that way LOL!

On the idea of sharing - have you heard of Freecycle? I had kind of heard of this before but found details on it on the Busy Mommy Product Review site. Freecycle is a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and in this day and age of high pollution, the perils of greenhouse effects and a shortage of natural resources, it's a worthy idea. I did a quick search and found there are 151 freecycle groups in Australia and one is in a neighbouring town! Certainly something to investigate.

A picture of a simply stunning and classical necklace today - the black stones are agate – thick cut slabs in rather soft geometric shapes that have the most wonderful dark gleam. These are enhanced ever so slightly by balls of argentinium sterling silver (tarnish resistant) for some added shine and sparkle. Finished with a gorgeous sterling silver clasp that you may want to wear it on the side as a feature rather than hiding it to the back! These stones sit so beautifully around your neck and feel cool, heavy and smooth. I can see this necklace being worn with a charcoal suit and crisp white shirt for work, or a linen day dress in white or neutrals or even a little black dress at night. Basically it speaks about refinement and pizzaz.

Meanwhile, down here on the farm..... lol. Ah well, if I couldn't live vicariously through my clients, then it wouldn't be nearly as much fun!

Till next!

Age old dilemma: time desired vs. time available!

Sometimes I just want to sit at my bench and create. But last week it was destined not to be - for the majority of it at least. There was always some other call on my time that seemed more immediate. I have promised myself a far more creative week next week though!

One thing I DID do, however was finally upload some new items to my store. I just wish it didn't take an eon to do it. I really must try and do it a bit more frequently - I tend to get a slew of emails from clients when I finally take the plunge of sitting for hours in front of the computer to upload new pictures!

What do you think of today's stones? Aren't they gorgeous? Stunning quality crazy lace agate, but with very angular patterns instead of the standard rather orbicular ones, they are intriguing and completely unique. Very unusual colourings in the stones too - think butterscotch, forest floor, autumn berries and even a Japanese painting! I decided elegant was best with this muted assortment. Matching with simple rondelles of sterling silver - the combination has created a contemporary classic.

By the way, did you know that February is "Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Month" in honour of those of us who work from home. Gee, I wish I would have read this post on Small Business Diva about three weeks ago - I could have been in my PJs/robe without being guilt ridden!! Ah well. I guess I will wait until next year.