Emmys!! Getting ready, getting psyched!

Kuri Yasuno Designs to Participate in Luxury Pre-Event Celebrity Gift Lounge in Honor of the 2015 Primetime Emmy Nominees and Presenters

:: FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE ::

We are pleased to announce Kuri Yasuno Designs, in association with The Artisan Group, will participate in an invitation-only luxury pre-event celebrity gift lounge hosted by GBK Productions on September 18-19, 2015 at an exclusive location in Beverly Hills, California in honor of the Emmy nominees and presenters. 

Our goldstone and pearl earrings will be gifted to select press and media outlets attending the event.

To learn more about Kuri Yasuno Designs and our products, or our participation in this exclusive event, visit http://www.etsy.kuriyasunodesigns.com

For press inquiries regarding The Artisan Group, please visit http://www.theartisangroup.org or email press@theartisangroup.org.

Midnight blue Gold Stone and Fresh Water Pearl Earrings

      

* Neither Kuri Yasuno Designs, nor The Artisan Group are officially affiliated with The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (The Emmys or The Primetime Emmys).

:: END ::

Wholesale Order -- A Request for Sturdy Young Girl Earrings with Style

Oh boy! Here's an order where I was trusted to use my design powers to come up with earrings for young girls. This was challenging because I don't know exactly what young girls wear but very fun and flattering that she trusted I could deliver. Off I went. Pinterest and imdb.com looking at all the young stars of today to see what "the young kids are doing these days."

To keep cost low, I ordered silver fill earrings. To keep with the sturdy theme,  I ordered lever backed earrings instead of hooks. Hooks could slip out when jumping on say, a trampoline.  Not sure why this activity popped into my head but we go with it. 

Next I set my sights on color. Who doesn't like pink and blue. After a lot of playing around, here are the pairs I came up with. 

I hope they sell out in the first week!

Here is the rest of the order. So much stuff I couldn't get it to all fit in the photo :)

Stephanie Drapeau

Are you a fan of the beautiful Stephanie Drapeau??  http://www.stephaniedrapeau.com

I had an opportunity to gift this hot new actress my original tear shaped agate necklace through The Artisan Group. Check out her tweeting about our gift bag!

There's more! She just tweeted us all thank you's!!

Tourmaline Disks Go From Sloppy to Sassy

This refashion is, in my opinion, a drastic change and vast improvement. Early on, while I was trying the silk knot thing, I had (and still have) a hard time deciding on the string size. Sometimes the string won't fit when doubled on a needle. Sometimes the knots are too small and go right through the beads. In this case, I had to use a thin thread but the beads just wouldn't stay put on the necklace. I even double knotted which was not as aesthetically pleasing.

I made it long enough so I wouldn't need to use a clasp and because it was silk, it was very light and easy to wear. But the darn beads kept moving and sliding on the silk string because the knots were too small. That was a bit infuriating, even though it was my fault for the string size choice...big sigh. 

But then, after a while of thinking about it, mulling it over, turning it around in my hand, viola. 

A bracelet. These beads were meant to be close and next to each other. Not knotted separately on a string... For now ;) 

An Elephant's Journey

Ametrine. I just found out this is a combination of amethyst and citrine--thus the purple/lavendar color to yellow.

This strand was so pretty with the purple and yellow ombré and I had this new ultra strong, no needle needed beading string to try. 

As the eye catching detail, I added this silver elephant. I have a thing for elephants. They bring good luck. I have a collection of them. It's better if the trunks are raised upward but regardless, elephants, in my mind, bring luck.

Sadly, the way I strung this necklace, the elephant  always showed its butt. No good. I needed to add a jump ring to make it lie flat like I forced it to do for this pic. So, knowing a this necklace had an ill positioned pendant, the editing began. 

First? The gemstones. The necklace was shortened to a bracelet. 

I like to mix green with purple. It's a thing I do. Not sure why. The bead that is on the silver circle is green, tho this photo is particularly dark.

What happened then, to the sweet, lucky elephant that kept showing its backside?

It jumped onto a crocheted necklace that I had just been working on, that was in need of a focal pendant.

A friend stopped by, saw the necklace and the elephant and took it home. She, apparently likes elephants too. :) 

Pink Tourmaline and Diamonds vs. Pearls?

Reminds me of that Prince song, "Diamonds and Pearls."

My tourmaline beads are so tiny I thought it would be great with this equally small pave diamond bead. But Drats. I forgot to measure the thing and upon completion, the necklace was a hair short of 16 inches making it a bit short/tight around my neck. 

Then, while pondering a gift for my mom, I thought "hey, I could make the center bigger and lengthen the entire thing." Like this: 

And so I did. I gave it to my mom and she wears it as a casual every day necklace :)

Hang a Pearl On It--Or In This Case, Two.

My beading bestie bought three strands of this gorgeous graduated moss to make a multi strand necklace but then found other strands that were not graduated. I kindly asked to buy one of the strands she was not using. They were gorgeous. To wear immediately, I strung them, as is, on beading wire and closed with crimps. A five minute project, 4 minutes hunting down the clippers. 

But then, while prepping for my most recent show, I decided to add a pearl but one seemed so small. I added another and a stone for sass:

I liked it so much, I wore it to the bazaar. 

Close up selfie of me wearing this necklace to a recent classical guitar concert series:

Labradorite and Silver. No wait, Garnets...

I love the odd shapes of these awesome labradorites. I used silver wire with silver circles and wire wrapped the labradorites to look like this:

Looking at this photo now, I think this is lovely. Even looked great on:

But I guess I started over thinking it and started playing with it again and again. I swapped out the silver ovals for garnets and turned it into this: 

I eventually gave it to my son's teacher as an end of the year gift. Which is better? Silver or garnet? 

Labradorite Earring Upgrade

I love the tear drop shape of these labradorite hoops. I also love labradorite. But something was missing.

I love the yellow and grey combo but instead of like this, I changed it up like this, and they sold :) 

Swapping out Leather for Stones

I tried my hand at using leather but had mixed results. Everything seemed bulkier than I wanted and the leather I ordered was not exactly what I had in mind. I liked this at first, but ended up going back to gemstone roots. 

I removed the long leather strand and added silver chain on one side and wire wrapped the other for an asymmetrical look. I wanted to accent the orange hues of the carnelian drop so I decided to use hessonite--A type of garnet that ranges from yellow to orange to brown. 

Which do you prefer?

A Pink Necklace Shortened with a Pendant

This necklace was made to be worn in various ways.

With the pink pearls in front or the pink agate in front or the moonstone. But the heaviest section always moves to the front. So, rather than give in to gravity?

Tada!

Jade Straight from China

When my husband travels internationally he always buys us (me and the boys) gifts. For me, he seeks out the local gemstone in a beaded form. Yay!!! So off to China he went and he came home with bags and bags of Jade. 

These rich blue green grey stones are kinda big so I thought to make a statement necklace. I simply strung them on a stringing wire with some tear shaped pearls and closed with crimps. 

Sometimes I should just leave my creations alone. In this case, I thought I'd upgrade the stringing to silk and knot it in between. Sadly, after I started the project, I realized the string would not fit through the pearls. The end product came out much simpler than intended. I think I will remake it again on the stringing wire and put back the pearls. 

At least I learned a valuable lesson. Test out the hole size first. 

Rose Quartz Necklace to Bracelet Remake

A necklace with a cluster of stones just in the front can sometimes be called a "bib" necklace, for obvious reasons. I made one out of a strand of pale pink rose quartz like this: 

But then, I changed it into a bracelet and listed on Etsy. What did not sell as a necklace, sold just fine as a bracet. Interesting. Right? 

Pink Sapphires and Kunzite Necklace Remake

At a recent visit to the bead store I saw a strand of tiny tiny pink sapphires and these pale pink kunzite rectangles. I had to have both. I really wanted to make a long necklace of sapphires with kunzite beads evenly spaced. Like this: 

I was so happy when I completed this because it was a labor of love. But wait, when I put it on, I just didn't like the portions of the sizes of the two stones and the way the kunzite was too heavy and made everything hang weirdly. 

I moved the stones around and tried to make it work but nothing I did made this my "goto" piece. So, not letting all this wire wrapping go to waste, I turned it into two separate pieces. 

This one, I posted on Etsy and it sold pretty fast. 

The other one, I added baroque shaped salt water pearls and wear all the time. Yay. A success story! 

Ps. Photos taken in Hawaii just come out better. 

Btw, the rest of the kunzite was used to make this. 

Peruvian Opals Necklace Redesign

For a while, I was really into these sporadically spaced out drops on a chain. These Peruvian opals have this beautiful sheen to them and a swirl of colors on each briolette. 

I had so many necklaces in this style, I changed it up like this:

Now it looks like a cluster of Peruvian opal grapes. 

Pink Pearls and Rubies

One of my first projects was this hand knotted necklace. I was dying to make a double wrap, long necklace using some beads I purchased from ebay, firemountain.com and an opal pendant from a necklace I had. 

After a few wears, I felt like it was a bit heavy. It looked dense and felt dense so..... I cut off the ruby section and preserved my pearls. This made it a one strand. I added a focal labradorite to dress it up. My sister in law was visiting and she scooped it right up :) 

I made her matching earrings with input from my neices and she had a whole new set to wear. 

Emerald Necklace Redesign

Genuine emeralds? Why yes please. I got these at my first gem show. I thought they'd be nice like this. Simple. Elegant. 

I put the largest bead from the strand in the front. I thought it was great. But you know what they say. Why have one when you can have three???

But even after a few bazaars, this one wasn't getting much attention. So, I turned it into the ever so trendy "bar" necklace and viola, sold the next time I displayed! 

I love the random placement of the gold bead. I think I will remake this one and restock. Maybe with other stones as well. 

Blue diamonds

It all starts with a strand of beads. Right?

I split a strand of blue diamonds with my beading bestie who went to the Vegas bead show. 

Diamonds, I have learned, are really really sparkly. Rough cut, colored, big, small, they all really sparkle. 

Then I went to make a long blue diamond necklace but the wire I had (28g) wouldn't fit. So I got thinner 30 gauge and we were in business. However, this was blinding work. The holes in the already small beads were tiny and hard to see. (Yes, bigger diamonds would have broken the bank.) 

To save my sanity I linked the diamonds together but added sections of chain so I could "cheat" a bit. Here is what I made. But........

I found that I never wore it. Something about it. Too dainty, too something. So I oxidized the silver. (That means I made it tarnish on purpose to turn the wire all black.) 

I wanted to add a little more sizzle so I laid out some options. 

See how making the wire black changed the delicate to a bit more rocker/funky? It gives the necklace more weight, I think. But I didn't love love love these. A few more options were laid out. 

And the winner is......

And this is what it looks like, on.