Bright & Beautiful

Don't be dazed by the dog days of August. Energize your wardrobe and yourself with jewelry in bright, fun colors. Pick jewelry in a color you never considered wearing - hot pink? bright orange? fuchsia? lime green? fiery red? A new pair of earrings or a simple necklace won't break the bank. Look for jewelry that incorporates any (or all) of the following.

Beads & Crystals Their colors are almost endless. Maybe earrings with turquoise and lime green beads? How about a necklace with a single sparkling crystal in a color you don't normally wear? Perhaps a bracelet with small beads in all the colors of the rainbow? Just looking through my beads inspires me to create wildly colorful jewelry.

Colored Wire Color-coated copper wire is my base for a myriad of light-weight designs. I combine colors like seafoam green and peacock blue or fuchsia and hot pink to make fun little rings and earrings. I use heavy-weight wire to make pendants that look a bit like a rose or peony in bloom. They're so light weight you hardly know you have them on.

Gemstones While Mother Nature produces gemstones in an array of colors, man often enhances the drabber natural stones by dying them gorgeous colors. I like to feature a couple of gemstone beads on a simple necklace. I accent larger gemstones with wire to create pendants which make a statement without being heavy.

Resin I'm just starting to explore all the fun ways resin can be used in jewelry. I've tinted it by adding dust from chalk pastels to create any color I can dream of and then creating colorful bubbles by framing the resin with wire. I've also used clear resin to bring out the bright colors in snippets from greeting cards by my sister-in-law, Susan Schmitt. I turn the resin-coated snippets into birds, butterflies, leaves and bubbles.

Go a little wild with your jewelry and jazz up your summer look!