Jean Campbell - Creating Glamorous Jewelry with Swarovski Elements: Classic Hollywood Designs with Crystal Beads and Stones

...The designer swept into her atelier, thrust open the drawers of her extensive stash, and settled in to inspect her collection of sparkling beads. She waved her hands over the trays and uttered, Now which of you will star in the most glamorous designs of all? The beads called back, like chirpy hopefuls at a Hollywood studio casting call: Me! Pick me! But it was the quietly glistening crystals that caught the artists eye today. These, she thought, will be the leading ladies in my latest and greatest production....

STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER, set down your cell phone, and leave the dirty dishes for later. Come with me as we travel back in time, placing ourselves firmly within the glamour and glitz of Old Hollywood. Imagine streamlined cars zooming over the twisted canyon roads into the valley, dark palm trees against a beautiful sunset, the elegant fabric and cut of a torch singers dress, mile-high stiletto heels, the clinking of martini glasses, and the swooning sounds of a big band. Let yourself go, feel the romantic intrigue of 1930 to 1960 Hollywood, and allow the atmosphere to slake your inner diva.

Ive set the scene for our time travel with studio photographs of some of the most captivating women that have ever graced the silver screen. Marilyn. Elizabeth.

Sophia. See? you know exactly who im talking about. In each photo ive chosen, the superstar is wearing a piece of jewelry that ive used as inspiration to create my own design. In the Hollywood tradition, most of these photos were done in soft focus to romanticize the woman within it. But slightly blurring the face means the jewelry is slightly blurred, too. Rather than lament this, i took this as a gift, because it left so much to my imagination. To further the mystery, i made no attempt to find crisp photos of the original pieces or to find out who the original jewelry designers were. Instead, i used the subtle visual suggestion of the piece and paired it with the overall spirit of the woman wearing it to guide me in creating the resulting twenty-six pieces earrings, bracelets, and necklaces all worthy of the red carpet.

In the spirit of Hollywood elegance, ive featured crystals in each and every design. Why crystals? as most of you know, crystals make jewelry dance, producing a razzle-dazzle light show unlike any other material. The effect is oh, so Hollywood! i also challenged myself to use crystal shapes that we beaders dont see every day. We see round and bicone beads all the time, but there are so many other shape choices: polygons, navettes, triangles, chatons. The list goes on and on. Opening up our stashes to these other shapes can only help us open up with our designs, too.

If you know your way around a bead shop and have a knack for needle and thread, youll be able to tackle the projects in this book by following the step-by-step instructions and clear illustrations. Ive used standard beadweaving techniques like peyote stitch, right-angle weave, and square stitch to construct the pieces, plus theres a little wirework mixed in, too. Not familiar with, or maybe a little rusty with, these techniques? Just check out the Basics section near the end of the book, and i think youll get up to speed quite quickly.

I hope you enjoy the romance and elegance of these projects as much as i did while designing them. After you finish your first piece, youll want to make another. And before you know it, youll have a whole jewelry box full of glamorous baubles to proudly wear as you star in your own real-life drama.

Swarovskis Early Influence on Haute Couture

Daniel Swarovski I in his laboratory.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

SWAROVSKI, the leading provider of high-quality crystals to the fashion industry, had its beginnings in the late 1800s in a small mountain village near the city of Gablonz in Northern Bohemia. There, Daniel Swarovski I (18621956) was a crystal-cutting apprentice to his father. He continued to look for ways to innovate the technology, and, by 1892, he had invented the first electrical crystal-cutting device. In 1895, Daniel moved to the village of Wattens, Tyrol, in Austria, with his newly invented machine. Using the machine, his craftsmen could create the most crisp, sparkling crystal cuts the world had ever seen.