If you’re in the Los Angeles area and interested in some great deals on handmade jewelry, stop on by my home studio on Saturday, December 6th – anytime from 2 pm through 5 pm. I’d love to see you! And if you’re interested, I’ll even be making custom items on the spot for you or your loved ones!
Supporting breast cancer through Handmade Jewelry April 11, 2008
While everyone oohs and aahs over the fantastic, sparkly jewelry 
– only some people realize that every handmade jewelry purchase from Romeo & Jewels benefits Vixen Racing’s “Racing Towards A Cure” foundation – which supports breast cancer initiatives. Over the years, Romeo & Jewels has raised and donated thousands of dollars for breast cancer research and community programs.
Why? Because I have a personal connection to breast cancer and believe that every little bit counts. In 2006, one of my favorite and sweetest coworkers, Helen (a cancer survivor!) and her team (The HK Belles) walked 60 miles EACH over 3 days in the 2006 3 Day Walk! I was so happy to be able to support her and her team – and she ended up having her biggest fundraising year ever!
Unfortunately, Helen had to sit out the 2007 3 Day Walk due to medical reasons – but I was happy to support my friend Marcia Daley and her team, Sisters with Purpose. We even had a jewelry sale in Marcia’s garden, with profits being donated to her team! I love feeling that every mile walked by my friends, and every dollar that I can help raise, brings us closer to a cure.
For 2008, we have an even more urgent fundraising challenge! My friend has been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Trycia Lynn Carlberg is only 32 years old and is a small business owner, while having been a professional dancer/singer for over 14 years. With such an aggressive form of cancer, Trycia needs the best, most progressive treatment possible. Her friends at Stained Glass World, a youth charity, have organized a fundraiser to ensure that Trycia gets the best possible care – and I am doing my part to help. Each Romeo & Jewels handmade jewelry purchase will benefit Trycia’s “Angels 4 TLC” Foundation. You can read about Trycia’s story here. I would honored if you joined me in supporting Trycia’s foundation.
Handmade Jewelry Holiday Sample Sale – 12/8 November 26, 2007
Just in time for the holidays, I’m clearing out a selection of sterling silver and it’s a great time to pick up some holiday gifts! Prices start at only $15!
WHEN:
Saturday, December 8th 10 am – 4 pm
$3 with RSVP / $5 at the DOOR
WHERE:
Fashion Co-Op Santa Monica
Santa Monica Civic Center
1855 Main St. Santa Monica, CA 90401
To RSVP or to view more information about the sale click here.
Can’t make it? Click here to check out my website for more great jewelry. Please note that website items are not on sale and will not be at my December 8th sale.
Jewelry buying advice : 4 steps to the perfect jewelry gift! October 16, 2007
Most of my customers love to buy my handmade jewelry for themselves, but I also get asked about buying jewelry for friends. While I LOVE giving gifts and pride myself on planning gifts the whole year long for my loved ones, I do understand how hard it is to pick something out for someone. It’s especially hard for men to pick something out for their sweetie, family or friends – because they have never had the experience of purchasing jewelry for themselves. As a woman, it’s easier to put yourself into your friend’s shoes and get an idea of what they love, and I’m sure you’ve been shopping with your girlfriend and have an idea of their likes and dislikes.
Here are some tips and tricks to ensure that you get the perfect gift! With these simple 4 steps, you can narrow down your jewelry choices to a few items.
Step 1. Think about their personal style. Are they trendy? Bohemian? Classic? Gauging their personal style will give you a starting point to start thinking of what kind of jewelry piece to get them.
Step 2. Determine what color metal they prefer and what size of jewelry piece they’d like. Think about the color of metal they choose (gold, silver or white gold), and the size of the jewelry you usually see them wearing. If your friend usually wears small stud earrings, they probably wouldn’t like large, swingy earrings. As well, if they wear delicate necklaces with small pendants, then you should probably start there.
Step 3. Decide what colors they wear most frequently and love. What colors does your friend usually wear? This is a great place to start narrowing down what kind of jewelry you want to look at. My friend Andrea loves blue and green and usually wears black or grey – that starting point gives me a good idea of stones to look at.
Step 4. Decide what article of jewelry they’d like : earrings, a necklace or a bracelet. Think of what you’ve seen your friend wear and which items they change out most often. My friend Yesi loves to switch out her earrings to match her outfits. Knowing that, I usually focus on giving her earrings in a size similar to what she already has, but in a different style or with a different color stone.
There is one thing to keep in mind. Does your friend have a signature piece of jewelry that they always wear? Maybe a diamond pendant given to them by someone special? In that case, they probably never take that item of jewelry off, so it might be fun to get them something to accent it in a similar style. For example, my friend Hilary always wears a small silver garnet necklace and wears small delicate earrings. As a gift, I would give her small silver earrings with accents in a red color similar to the garnet necklace.
I hope that my advice has taken away some of the anxiety of shopping for jewelry. Everyone loves to receive jewelry, especially when it’s obvious that you’ve taken the time to pick out that’s perfect for them! I hope that you decide to purchase a piece of handmade jewelry for that extra personal touch! If you don’t find anything that’s perfect, think about having something custom made. Please click here to check out my site here for some options.
The Perfect Baby Shower gift! August 18, 2007
Today, I’m going to talk about something a little different and off-topic. No handmade jewelry for today.
I have a baby shower coming up for a friend, and I always agonize over the gift. I LOVE gift-giving, picking out that favorite gift that is a perfect match for the recipient. I guess that’s part of the reason I started making handmade jewelry, I wanted to create a perfect, personalized gift for my friends and family! If I saw something at a store, it was either the wrong color, outrageously overpriced or somehow just not right.
Little Angel Cakes Jungle-theme Diaper Cake – how cute is this!?
I have, however, found THE perfect baby shower gift. You’ve seen these endlessly, on Sex in the City, in magazines and at high end stores. But what sets LaDiDaBaby Little Angel Cakes apart from the regular diaper cakes is the attention to detail and the level of personalization available! Traci, who creates the Little Angel Cakes, first asked a series of questions to determine the colors and design of the diaper cake, much like the questions I usually ask when creating custom jewelry for someone. For example, is it a boy or girl, what colors will the nursery and/or baby shower feature, is there a particular design motif you’d like to follow, etc. Based on my answers, Traci was able to source the perfect little accessories for my cake!
My friend Aleyda is due in October with a little baby boy, and she and her husband LOVE the ocean! They live in San Diego and try to hit the beach whenever they can. They are also focusing on the colors yellow, green and baby blue for the nursery, and the shower. Traci found the cutest little painted wood shapes featuring beach-related items like flipflops, a sun, a beach umbrella, a sandpail and a beach pail – fortunately all within the chosen color scheme! To set off the color scheme, Traci picked out yellow and green gingham ribbon.
It all looks fabulous, it’s useful AND it’s original! I know that Aleyda and Jack will appreciate the time I took to find a gift with some meaning to them. Best of all, since Traci only uses rubber bands to construct the cakes, all of the diapers are immediately useable! Check out LaDiDaBaby at www.ladidababy.com.
What jewelry to wear with a Sundress August 11, 2007
Barbeques, flipflops and sundresses are all quintessentially summer things! They’re just so easy – throw one on and you’re done! It’s an entire outfit in one – timesaving AND cute! So what jewelry do I wear with a sundress? A long necklace! It’s a perfect, modern and polished look. Best of all, it’s so easy to wear! I love the look of a cute black sundress with a long gold necklace, it’s just the perfect thing to set off your sun-kissed look.
In these dog days of summer, the last thing you want to do is spend hours getting dressed. Throw on a sundress and pull that long necklace over your head, and you instantly have an easy and put-together outfit! My favorite necklace right now is my long tassel necklace in both sterling silver and gold-fill. I rotate them depending on what I’m wearing that day. The necklaces have a casual feel that’s perfect for summer, yet have this glorious touch of sparkle! Each necklace is 36″ long, so they look great even if your dress has a deep Vee neck. Take a look at more handmade necklaces!
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What is Swarovski crystal? August 5, 2007
That’s a very good question, and one I get quite often from customers. The most common questions are : what is it made of, and why does it increase the cost of handmade jewelry.
Swarovski crystal is Austrian cut crystal produced by the Swarovski company, which was started in 1895. If you have seen high-end chandeliers, chances are that the crystals are Swarovski crystal. The difference betweeen a Swarovski crystal and regular cut crystal is instantly evident upon viewing them. The brilliance is like none other – it reflects light in a million different ways. If you like sparkly, this is definitely the way to go. The quality of Swarovski crystal beads is unmatched in terms of cut, finish and brilliance. If you view a Czech crystal bead, it looks rather “flat” by comparison. Cut is as important to crystal as it is to diamonds. A better cut diamond will always cost more – the same goes for a crystal bead.
There are many different colors and shapes of Swarovski crystal beads. One of the most recognizable colors is called Crystal AB or Crystal Aurora Borealis – which shines in many different colors of the rainbow. This effective is produced by a coating that Daniel Swarovski invented in 1956. In recent years, Swarovski has produced new coatings to achieve a similar effect – adding an irridescent silver, gold or rainbow coating to crystals. The earrings pictures below using the new Swarovski “Golden Crystal Shadow” color – which has an irridescent gold coating on a taupe-colored crystal. The crystal bead used in these earring is also one of the new Swarovski shapes introduced in the past couple of years.
Swarovski continously updates their crystal bead selection, add new colors, limited edition colors and shapes. Sadly, some of the limited edition and older items are no longer available for sale – and are relegated to the “vintage Swarovski” realm. For example, the below necklace was crafted using a vintage Swarovski teardrop-shaped foil-back pendant, sadly discontinued many years ago. I only have a few left of these crystals.
For more Swarovski crystal handmade jewelry, visit Romeo & Jewels Handmade Jewelry
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Environmentally-friendly ways to clean Jewelry August 1, 2007
Ahhhhhhh…you buy the jewelry because it’s so fabulously sparkly and shiny! You wear it, you admire it in the mirror, you sneak peeks at it in those little halogen lights in the elevators, in the sunlight… Then one day, the sparkle is gone. 
Don’t dispair! Help is on the way! I’ve cleaned hundreds, nay, thousands of pieces of jewelry over the years - especially handmade jewelry. Some pieces are so incredibly delicate that rubbing with a jewelry cleaning cloth would bend or distort them. Others have stones that are not meant to be immersed in a hard cleaning solution.
Throughout the years, I’ve developed an easy, inexpensive and environmentally-friendly way to clean my jewelry. I even make it part of my morning routine before work, ensuring that the handmade custom jewelry I make is shown off to perfection! This applies to all kinds of jewelry – sterling silver jewelry, gold jewelry, platinum jewelry, goldfill jewelry, gemstone-filled jewelry and more.
Jewelry Cleaning Instructions:
1. Plug sink drain. This is very important - you don’t want to lose those cute earrings, do you? For extra measure, close the bathroom toilet lid if you’re doing this in the bathroom.
2. Turn on hot water until it runs fairly hot yet comfortable enough to run your hands under.
3. Take some gentle handsoap and lather up one of your hands.
4. Gently rub the jewelry into the lathered-up hand.
5. Rinse with hot water and gently place onto terry cloth face cloth. Allow to air-dry.
This keeps all of my jewelry pieces sparkling with the need for harsh and toxic chemicals. I will occasionally use a soft toothbrush on some stones, taking care not to loosen any settings. If the silver or goldfill jewelry is still a bit dark after this washing, take a soft polishing cloth such as the Sunshine Cloth and polish the metal parts of your jewelry in a gentle manner. Romeo & Jewels includes a Sunshine Cloth in every order over $75.
Just a quick caveat: not all gemstones are created equal and you’ll want to keep some out of the water. For example, you may not want to immerse any jewelry knotted with silk or other thread into water. It will weaken the thread, and your necklace will eventually fray and break.
As well, pearls, coral, turquoise, lapis lazuli, opal and amber are porous gemstones and should only be wiped off briefly with a damp cloth and allowed to air-dry. Make sure to wipe these clean after each wearing.
To keep your jewelry from needing a deep cleaning, make sure it’s the last thing you add to your outfit after using perfume and hairspray. Also take it off before swimming, gardening and housecleaning. Lastly, keep it in the little air-tight plastic jewelry baggie in between wearings – which will ensure it stays clean and bright!
All of my Romeo & Jewels handmade jewelry is created with your busy lifestyle in mind. I create a prototype of all of my pieces and wear it to ensure that it will be comfortable, attractive, strong and durable. As well, I take into account the wear the piece will get, and ensure that I only sell handcrafted jewelry that stand the test of time – because I know that it’s so beautiful you’ll want to wear it every day. View more of my handmade jewelry.
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Celebrate simplicity July 28, 2007
Sometimes simple is best. And that statement coming from someone who LOVES sparkle, who would encrust every surface with Swarovski crystals and who honks for shiny objects!
I spend hours of my time scouring the jewelry supply houses for previously unseen nuggets of shiney goodness. I like my handmade jewelry pieces to be unique and different – my greatest joy is when someone stops dead in their tracks to compliment a piece of my jewelry and comments that they’ve never seen anything like it! I like to try new jewelry making techniques that I can use in new designs – perhaps incorporating them in a way no one has thought of.
Until two weeks ago. It was a lazy sunday and I felt inspired to make something. I trotted out to my jewelry making spot (couch!), grabbed my beadboard, my tools, some wire and my handy-dandy new nylon wire pliers. I looked at my fattest piece of wire and started getting creative. Here’s the result!
They’re absolutely stunning in person – simple and yet so impactful.
I remembered a tutorial that I had done online for french earring wires and quickly whipped up those to match the earrings. Earring wires are the portion of the earring that go into your ear. Everything on this pair of earrings was handmade by me – and it felt so good.
You see – like all jewelry designers – I do buy some premade components like earring wires, clasps, pre-made chain and jump rings. They are of a high quality and add a nice finished look to a project. They’re also pretty expensive – so I have to invest alot of capital and time to go purchase these items. When I run out in the middle of some great jewelry design, it’s inconvenient and disappointing. So creating these earring wires was both fun and liberating. If I run out of earring wires, I can make my own!
No swarovski crystals, no intricate wire work, no dazzling combination of colors – just simplicity. And the earrings look gorgeous!
I’ve also created them in silver, and added matching necklaces to the collection. And as you can see on my site – I didn’t leave well enough alone and also created a version with little Swarovski crystals on the end. Take a look at the beautiful handmade earrings on my site.
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5 Reasons to buy Handmade Jewelry July 24, 2007
1. It’s made with love by someone with a passion for jewelry.
If you’re buying jewelry for someone as a gift, chances are that they are a fan of jewelry. They most likely notice jewelry wherever they go and will buy themselves something if they like it. That person will appreciate that you took the time to look for a unique and handmade piece of jewelry for them, and that you didn’t just run to the mall for 15 minutes to get the shopping over with. They will appreciate the time and care that went into creating a piece of beautiful and unique handmade jewelry.
2. It’s unique and one-of-a-kind.
The great thing about handmade items is that they are creative and unusual – not something that you’d find at the mall or yet another chain store. How fabulous is it when someone compliments your style and remarks “Wow – that is a gorgeous necklace, I’ve never seen anything like it!” Your personal style is just that – personal. And while it’s difficult to stand out in an increasingly manufactured world, a piece of handmade jewelry will add that unique touch to your outfits.
3. Handmade Jewelry is Quality Jewelry.
Most jewelry artisans take pride in knowing that their pieces will stand the test of time and be passed down through generations. When I wear a piece of jewelry I inherited from my grandmother or aunt, I feel like I’m carrying around a piece of their love with me. I smile when the memories flood me when I look at the locket my grandma gave me. Buying handmade jewelry ensures that you will have jewelry that will stand the test of time. Whether you pass it on to the next generation, or you just enjoy wearing a piece frequently – knowing that it was created to last a long time gives you the confidence to wear it more often and enjoy it.
I make a prototype of all of my jewelry pieces and wear it around for a while. Based on how the piece wears, I may make modifications to the design or even decide to scrap it. I’ve often found gorgeous vintage beads, or a particularly unusual chain style, only to find that the piece did not withstand the rigors of me wearing it every day. Anything that I sell on my site has to be both strong and beautiful – I confidently send out my jewelry into the world knowing that someone will enjoy it every day and that it will look as good as the day I created it.
4. Handmade Jewelry can be customized.
Giving a gift should be done out of love and affection for the recipient of that gift. I love to give gifts almost as much as I love to receive gifts! And I spend alot of time and energy planning my friends and loved ones’ gifts. I like to take note of their favorite things yearround, and tuck that information away for gift-giving times. That way, I can pop up with the perfect gift that says “I took the time to get to you know”.
The wonderful thing about Handmade Jewelry is that it can be customized. Commission a necklace with a blue chalcedony stone for your best friend - to remind her of that fabulous vacation you both took to Cancun in college - where the color of the stone matches that of the ocean you so admired. Or buy a pair of sterling silver peridot earrings for your niece knowing that it’s her favorite stone because it matches the color of her eyes. There are so many ways to show someone that you really thought about their gift!
5. Buying Indie supports your community.
By purchasing a piece of handmade jewelry you are supporting your community. You are supporting the artisans who can practice their beloved trade and make a fair living wage. You are supporting the charities that the artisans support (I personally support the Vixen Racing “Racing Towards a Cure” foundation - which raises money for breast cancer). You are supporting the idea of original, inspired design. And that feels good.
Support your indie community by visiting sites like Indiecollective.net. And please take a look at my handmade jewelry at RomeoandJewels.com.
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Welcome to my Handmade Jewelry Blog! June 11, 2007
Welcome to my Handmade Jewelry blog. I will be blogging about my jewelry making process, showcasing the new products I have made and also discussing various jewelry tips & tricks.
