Strongest trend ever

Hello everybody! I am on the road and today I am blogging from Downtown- Los Angeles. I am @ the Garment  District walking around and watching the trends and new looks for the upcoming season.

Conveniently I have 2 designs to share with you featuring "chain"..yes...it might sounds boring but chain remains the strongest component in the jewelry making market. I cannot believe how many different styles and finishings I have already seen it and the day is not over yet.

Below is a bracelet I created for Beadalon using stringing wire as "spacing bars". The clasp is one of the "Upper Clasp" styles that is in the new Beadalon catalog. I added CRYSTALLIZED Swarovski Elements to bring that "treasure" style like to the multi-strand bracelet.

Next design is a necklace featuring heavy chain, sparking thread  wrapped around a small section of a star  key ring - talking about "stars",  according with WWD stars will be one of the hottest shape for Spring / Summer 2010...you can create chains of stars using jump rings to connect several them together. I added  two crystal red magma twisted stones by CRYSTALLIZED to jazz up the necklaine...SENSUALITEE equals LIBERTEE....

Have an expressive modernized day!!! 

"SOLITUDE" RING

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"Solitude" ring named after Billie Holliday track "Solitude" by Duke Ellington.

Simple set up close up

(Table set up over view)

I had a pilot workshop last night at my house. I invited a small group of f old friends and new friends to be part of it.

The ring was originally designed by WW and I was the first person to see it and I loved. I got a permission to teach a workshop  from him. I submitted to CRYSTALLIZED™ and I got their support.

The ring is made of stainless steel square and half-round wire and a single 18 x 13mm oval CRYSTALLIZED™ stone.

I offered 2 stones so the wearer can switch back and forth between 2 colors. I picked erinite and smoked topaz foiled - both look great and my girls loved the look.

I learned a lot through this experience and I can tell for sure how long it will take it to finish one ring and  more than that, the types of issues that can happen during the making of it.

The experience was great and I was on the table as a student as well and thank to WW ( who was who taught during the pilot) we all finished  our pieces...my one will be on my mothers index finger soon.

Above few pictures of one more CRYSTALLIZED™ with Swarovski Elements event.

Solitude rings all made with fancy CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski Elements stones: 18 x 13mm oval smoked topaz and erinite foiled stones and  10mm cushion fire opal and lime stones.

Billie Holliday - Solitude

" Four Seasons of Beading™ " book

My friend and jewelry designer Margot Potter (who got 2 of her designs on the cover - congrats, Madge!) just wrote a post about "Four Seasons of Beading™ "book at the Beadalon blog .

It was great that she highlighted this release because I have forgotten about...imagine!?!

This book is a very nice addition to the DIY market...it was a pleasure to be part of this second book edited by the fabulous Barb Switzer.

Once again the book made me smile just scanning through its pages.

I am very satisfied with the beauty shots of all my pieces in it. Art direction (Brad Snow), photography (Mathew Owen) and stylish (Tammy Steiner)  did a outstanding work.

The final result is what I expect to see when I handle my designs to a publishing company...a metalanguage...art interacting with art.

Below the 3 pieces I created for the book:

Spring

Title: Papaya Flower necklace

Fall


Saint Laurent tassel necklace

September Rendezvous necklace

All designs by Fernando Dasilva © 2009 for "Four Seasons of Beading" © DRG

FABULOUS JEWELRY ON FABULOUS WOMEN ON TV

I am constantly following the look of some of my favorites female TV hostess, news anchor and actresses through the TV, magazines and Internet.

There are many of these women who love to add glamour to their outfits accessorizing with fabulous jewelry.

I have been watching ABC News for many years and although I watch Fox as well and other networks I am hooked on "GMA" - pretty much because of the charisma of professionals like Diane Sawyer, Robbin Roberts, Sam Champion among many others.

Robbin Roberts is a beadholic...she is always wearing trendy sets of necklaces and earrings that complements her outfits. This woman must have a huge trunk with jewels because she likes all styles you can imagine.

Marisol Rodriguez rocks when it comes to style and she also loves the bling.

Last year I took pictures of some of these women while they were on screen...yes , it's crazy but I hope I could identify some of the beads but nope...couldn't distinguish at all but you can have an idea of what I am talking about... Here are few of these moments:

Cynthia McFadden...OMG !!! This woman is trees chic! She is ultra elegant on camera and she looks  phenomenal all the time. She is a co-anchor of "Nightline" of ABC News...very intelligent and she brings lots of unique angles to really interesting stories. She has a very remarkable life story  as well but let's focus on her taste.

Wow!  She keeps wowing me...

Last Friday she was wearing another killer necklace with ocean like color stones on gold chain - there were at least 2 long strands together and it was amazing.

The picture below was taken in 2009...sorry I can't remember when it was broadcasted and I wasn't thinking about blogging about her. I just wanted to keep on my "Inspirational" file so I did not write down the date at all.

Cynthia was wearing this layered necklace with amazing bling on...we can't tell what it is...it could've been CZs, CRYSTALLIZED or gems stones...this jewelry touching the black outfit and paired with her eyes was  a recipe for major glamourama moment.

The next picture below is Kelly Ripa...she co-hosts the morning show "Regis and Kelly".

I like her look and she keeps it edgy and sophisticated and pairs it with long necklaces. She keeps all very young and trendy what really matches with her fun and sassy personality. On that day she had red stylettos on - great and unexpected choice because most women would go with black.

Last but not least the amazing cook Rachel Ray who makes every meal look so easy and delishhhh.

She has been wearing lots of beaded jewelry and thats is good for our DIY market.

I personally love her earrings choices. She does all styles but most of the time she is wearing trendy  pieces that got a focal pendant on...occasionally she layers more than one necklace.

That day she did not have necklace on but most of the time she does.

I have to mention that I simply adore Barbara Walters style when it comes to substantial and hogh-end jewelry...particular her many multi-strand necklaces that I have seen her wearing. Big bucks and high quality stones...huge sleeping beauty turquoise beads...huge Tahitian pearls...all fabulously expensive!!! One of these days I will capture her with my camera and will show you.

I think that although we've been seen a sudden reduction on some fields of the DIY market, the fashion industry and celebrities and stylists have been adding lots of beads to their wardrobe lately. Even high-end jewelry brands like David Yurman has released collections of beaded necklaces finished with high carat metal.

So, let's keep going because not everybody only like seed beads!

Thank GOD!!!

PS...timeless jewelry trends based on the fabulous women featured on this post: chain, beads, crystals, hoops.

I do assume that all of them are assisted by professional stylists but I want to believe that they got the last word on what they wear at work.

Thanks to their amazing and talented stylists.

XoXo.