Recent Pieces

Not too long ago one of my wonderful clients, Susan Roche, contacted me about making a custom version of our Antique Charm Bracelet.  Susan just opened a stunning new studio in the beachy community of Bay Head, New Jersey that I had the privilege of seeing in person.  Light and airy, everything about her new studio and her work supports her brand beautifully.  In keeping with the beach theme, Susan commissioned a couple of seaside versions of our Antique Charm Bracelet with tiny sterling sea creature charms.  

In addition to the beachy touch, she also wanted to incorporate a symbol of a charity that is near and dear to her heart, Michael's Feat, which provides support to families of newborns who are suffering from a health crisis.  The symbol for this lovely organization is, fittingly, tiny bare feet, so I added a little sterling baby feet charm to complete the bracelets.  While I did not get a chance to photograph the bracelets that were going to mothers who are involved with Michael's Feat, I did snap a few photos of Susan's studio bracelet before sending it off to her, as well as one of her Simple Tile Key Rings.

Did you know that many of our pieces can be customized?  If you have an idea for a perfect piece, we can often rework one of our pieces or even design one from the sketchpad up to make your vision a reality.  Drop me an email to tell me what would tickle your fancy!

And congratulations, Susan, I know that your new studio will be a smashing success!

Bringing the Past to the Present

Sometimes you run across a photo of a loved one that is old, faded or damaged.  These are special photos to me and I love working on them, doing my best to restore what might be lacking so that the photo can continue to be treasured indefinitely.  I received one such photo during the holiday season -- a wonderful new customer wanted to give her mother our Vintage Merlot Necklace containing the only surviving photo of the mother with her own mother, who had passed away very young.

The photo was darling -- a sweet little baby and mother in a lovely sepia tone. However, the photo was cut off at just one side of the mother's face, making it difficult to position nicely in the charm of the necklace without looking very off-center.  It was also somewhat faded.  I decided to see if there was anything I could do.  A little time in Photoshop allowed me to deepen the tones a bit and remove any speckles and imperfections.  I then set about rebuilding the cut off side of the image, extending the background and filling in hat, clothing, and -- taking some artistic liberties while keeping in mind the hairstyles of the era -- her hair.  It certainly couldn't claim to be an exact replica of the missing part of the photo, but it allowed enough extra margins to the photo so that the image could be properly positioned in the necklace, and I was really pleased with the way it turned out.

Old, faded photos don't have to be written off as unusable.  Many times they can be restored beyond expectations.  This is certainly true of using photos in jewelry, where the small image size doesn't demand the same level of perfection that a large print would require.  Do you have an old photo that you'd love to see in a piece of our jewelry?  By all means, let us know and we will tell you how we can help.

Noir Bracelet

Just one of the many pieces that I worked on before the holidays!

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

Testing a Feed - Ignore! :)

  Hey everyone, don't mind me -- we seem to be having a little trouble with some of our RSS feeds so we're testing a few things out.  But here's a picture of my little Roxie if you'd like something cute to look at! :)

 

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

Never Left ... But I'm Back

Well.  I could make a lot of excuses about where I've been the past couple of months, but the truth is that although I never really left, it's just been a difficult couple of months for me.  A week to the day after my last entry here on the blog, I wound up in the hospital for gallbladder surgery, and although I bounced back from the surgery quite quickly, the weeks just continued to offer up one-two punches for a while.

In particular, I've been dealing for some time with a personal family situation about which I haven't yet decided whether I'm prepared to discuss openly.  For now, I will say that it has been an extraordinarily challenging period for me and my family, and for a time it was imperative that I hunker down and concentrate on my family and myself. I've been dog tired!

On the bright side, however, for the first time in a while things are looking up, and is that ever a welcome change!  For one thing, my hubby Doug and I decided to proceed with our 2nd annual Halloween Costume Party, and it was lots of fun!  Nothing like a bunch of crazy friends dressing up and dancing the night away to brighten one's spirits!!  I have some awesome pictures that I'll post very soon.

Another bit of welcome news is that I believe Isabelle Chase Studios will be showing up in some press come December or so.  If and when it happens, I will be posting the links!

Now that I'm emerging from my self-imposed time-out, I'm excited to be looking ahead to the holidays and beyond to the new year.  I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I'm already anticipating that 2011 will be a fantastic year!

TTFN!

Happy Saturday!

Enjoying a perfect afternoon at the shore, which wouldn't be complete without a dead crab with which to torment one's sister. Blech!!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

Gorgeous Custom Pieces

My wonderful client, Danielle Lavis of Danielle Lavis Photography, LLC in Clarksville, MD not only creates stunningly beautiful photography, she also has an eye for customizing jewelry!  Check out the custom version of our Noce Necklace she came up with by upgrading it with our jeweled CZ photo charm -- something even I hadn't have thought of -- and it turned out to be fabulous!  Lucky for me, turns out Danielle is also a gifted product photographer.  When I didn't have time to photograph her pieces before shipping her order, she quickly snapped these amazing photos of both the Noce Necklace and the Jeweled Toggle Necklace.  I told her I need to hire her as my product photographer!  LOL  These images and more are on her blog.

If you're lucky enough to live anywhere near Danielle (Clarksville, Maryland), do yourself and favor and book her!  And thanks, Danielle, for making my job a little easier today. :)

Remember, most of the pieces on our website can be customized in many ways so they become even more personalized and perfect for you!