December Classes, Blue Buddha Holiday Show and Future Updates

Thanks to everyone who came to the Cornelia Holiday show and made it such a wonderful experience. A surprising number of people braved the cold and snowy weather to support the many talented artists exhibiting there. I'll have more of an update about that later in the week.

However, to those of you who saw the latest designs at the show, keep checking the Gianessa Designs website, as I'll be updating my Etsy shop and updating the jewelry pages this week.

However, I wanted to make a quick mention of a few important things: my last show of the season will be at the Blue Buddha Boutique Holiday Show on Thursday, December 11, from 5-9pm. A bunch of great artists will have their work on display. It should be a great night.

I'll be teaching a few more classes before the year is out:

December 11, Intermediate Earrings at Caravan Beads

December 13, Winter Snowflake Pendant Workshop at Lill Street Gallery

December 14, Byzantine Bracelet at Discovery Center Chicago

Vanessa Walilko

Unique, Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculptures and Chainmaille Armor

Cornelia Holiday Show

Come to the Cornelia Holiday show on December 5-7 to see my latest chainmaille jewelry and beaded jewelry designs. Those of you who saw my beaded collar in progress last year can see it in all its finished glory this weekend. You'll also be able to take a look at some of my beaded dragon sculptures.

The Cornelia Holiday show runs December 5, 6-9pm, December 6-7, 11am - 5pm and is located at:

The Cornelia Arts Building
1800 W Ravenswood
Chicago, IL 60657

Parking can be a little tricky, so I recommend taking the brown line to the Addison stop whenever possible.

Hope to see you there!

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Sculpture and Chainmaille

New Resources

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table at the Art of Beadwork show. I got a lot of great feedback about my phoenix bead embroidered necklace and my beaded dragon sculptures.

Now that I have maybe a day to relax before I start gearing up for the Cornelia Holiday Show, I thought I would add some new resources to the website.

For jewelers and anyone else people concerned with the prices of metals or who do online ordering from other countries, I think it's important to know where the markets stand.

Xe.com
The top of the page gives a handy conversion chart to see how the world's major currencies compare with one another. Right under that table is a quick conversion box, so you can find out how much your money is worth elsewhere.

Kitco.com
Gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium prices per ounce. It's useful for knowing when to make those supplies purchase you've been putting off.

These new references are located in the Jewelry Markets Information page.

Vanessa Walilko

Beaded Dragon Sculptures, Unique Beaded and Chainmaille Jewelry

Art of Beadwork 2008

The Bead Society of Greater Chicago will be holding the 12th annual Art of Beadwork show on Sunday, November 16 at The Skokie Banquet & Convention Center at the Holiday Inn North Shore.

It's located at 5300 W Touhy Ave in Skokie, IL. Click here for more information on the hotel and directions. The Bead Society is excited to be in this new space for the show, and eternally grateful to Cindy McEwen for putting everything together for the show.

Be sure to stop by and say hello. I'll have dragon sculptures and beaded and chainmaille jewelry on display.

Vanessa Walilko
Handcrafted jewelry, fashion and art

Other projects

When I'm not designing jewelry, making beaded dragon sculptures or making massive chainmaille armor pieces, I've been known to design a website or two.

Be sure to check out http://www.rhondapopko.com/. To be fair, Rhonda did most of the designing, I just added content, and also switched it from the byzantine iWeb coding system to something easily updated in Dreamweaver. Be sure to check out her work (if you didn't at the Artisan 133 reception, that is). Her silks are really amazing.

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille, Fashion and Art

Rubber Rings Workshop

Just yesterday I took a class with Susan Thomas at the Blue Buddha Boutique studio. It's definitely a new way of working with jump rings--actually manipulating the shape of the rubber ring instead of using it in place of metal rings. I took the marathon bracelet class on Sunday, and were my hands feeling it that night and today.

Here's the result of hours of meticulous work:

You can purchase rubber rings at Blue Buddha Boutique, along with Link It!, Susan Thomas' book.

Vanessa Walilko
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille, Fashion and Art

Artisan 133 Reception Recap

My Friday night reception at Artisan 133 was a resounding success.

Rhonda Popko, my high school art teacher, and I shared the space for the reception. Rhonda did silk painting demonstrations while I worked on my latest chainmaille piece. I think I've decided it's going to be a cropped jacket with high collar. Who knows--these things always evolve.

Thanks to everyone for coming. Everyone seemed excited by my newest jewelry designs, and all my friends were kind enough to take photos with me at the show. Cindy and Beth at Artisan 133 really know how to put together a good show.

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted beaded jewelry, chainmaille, fashion and beaded sculpture.

Chainmaille Distraction

I know. I should be working on more inventory for my artist reception at Artisan 133. I should be working on my Tiamat dress. However, my philosophical kindred are Herbert Marcuse, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Randolph Bourne and Lou Andres-Salome, to name a few. When I received an 11-pound box of aluminum rings in the mail on Monday, I wasn't about to repress my libidinal urges.

After creating my chainmaille shrug, I realized that I wanted to do another one. First I thought of making some sort of jacket, and maybe the current project will morph into one. Who knows. Regardless, after many months of agonizing over the design of the shrug/jacket, I finally decided upon the style--bell sleeves with black scales acting as fringe for the sleeve edges and hem.

Here's a rough in-progress picture. I'd take a better photo, but this is already taking too much time away from my work!

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille Fashion and Art

Artist Reception at Artisan 133

Join me at Artisan 133 for an artist reception. I'll have my latest chainmalle and beadwork designs and will be debuting part of my clothing line!

Artisan 133 is located at 133 West Prospect Avenue in Mount Prospect. Hope to see you there!

Vanessa Walilko

Unique handcrafted beaded jewelry, beaded sculpture and chainmaille

Fossil Record

Aside from the many thousands of seed beads that I plan on attaching to the Tiamat dress, I also planning to add a number of interesting stones, pearls and other objects in the same color scheme.

Included in this miscellaneous category are two fossils I picked up at Dave's Rock Shop (pictured above). They are orthoceras fossils, from the Ordovician to Devonian period in the Paleozoic era for any fans of the fossil record. (Of course, this may only be relevant information to other former Montessori students.) One measures about 6 inches long, the other under 4 inches. I'm working on beaded bezels for them, but they will be the focal pieces of the top of the dress. (The one with two pointed ends will be placed just at the point of the v-neckline of the halter.)

The temptation to go back to Dave's and look for more interesting things is almost overwhelming. I say almost, because I already know this dress is going to weigh a ton, and I don't need to add any more rocks to it.

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille

Creation epic

Anyone familiar with the Enuma Elish (any Ancient Near East scholars in the house?) has heard of Tiamat. In the Bablyonian creation epic, she is the personification of primordial darkness, the inchoate abyss. While most sources online connect her with salt water, Alastair McBeath writes in Tiamat's Brood: An Investigation Into the Dragons of Ancient Mesopotamia that Tiamat is the fabric of the universe. And while the epic ends with (spoilers ahead) Marduk slaying Tiamat and forming the heavens and earth with her corpse, she can never actually die because she is all things. She can only be contained... for how long is up to debate.

But what does this have to do with beadwork?

Over a year ago, I had a flash of inspiration--a bead-embroidered dress, a work of monumental proportion to rival the phoenix necklace, and even the Dreams of the Fallen collar. It would be an homage to Tiamat, a resurrection. And as such, it would have to be similarly epic.

I'm happy to report that after periodic agonizing, I've finished the construction of the dress. I made the dress from satin-backed crepe, piecing together a halter top pattern with a gorgeous Vogue skirt pattern. I fused interfacing to almost every piece in order to strengthen it, but I'll still be putting Lacy's Stiff Stuff in between the dress fabric and the lining to ensure that the beads (and oh, there will be a lot of beads) don't weigh down the dress so much that they tear up the fabric. I really love the train on the skirt... I think it captures Tiamat's watery, abyssal qualities.

Now to add the beads...

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted beaded jewelry, beaded dragon sculpture, chainmaille, and certifiably insane projects

14 Karat Ring on Etsy

Check out my newest listing on Etsy, a mini French beaded flower ring with 14 karat band. Due to a custom order falling through, I found myself with this cute little ring. I'm hoping that someone can give it a good home.

I love the way the beads catch the sunlight.

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beadwork Sculpture, and Chainmaille

Spider Web

At last, I found myself with some free time and motivation, and I finally finished a project I had on my mind since my glass spider purchase at the Bead & Button show. With some thin-gauge wire and a meticulous drawing, I now have a spider's web to complement the spider (and a very cool necklace).

Now, to get started on the spider web armor piece I've been thinking about... Oh, if only I had more time in the day or minions.

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculpture, and Chainmaille

Bead Museum Application

I admit it, I'm a procrastinator. I waited long until after the mail deadline for the Bead Museum DC's Celebrating Beads Competition before I even contacted my photographer. Nevertheless, rockstar that he is, Treavor Doherty came through with a photo, despite car trouble.



Dreams of the Fallen is a bead embroidered collar. I couldn't tell you how long it took to complete, though I feel one hundred hours is a good estimate. Dreaming it up, placing stones, beading around the stones, filling in the empty space with beads, lining the collar, adding a back zipper, embroidering occult sigils that I designed or adapted (on the underside of the collar where no one can even see them!)... it was either a labor of love or the labor of an obsessive, I can't tell which anymore. And I still don't think it's done.

But I sent it out with my Bead Museum application, just under the extended deadline, and I'm hoping for the best.

Vanessa Walilko
Handcrafted beaded jewelry, bead embroidery, beaded dragon sculptures, and chainmaille

Freakazoid DVD released today.

This post has nothing to do with jewelry, sadly. This post does have everything to do with me being an incurable nerd.

Buy the Freakazoid DVD. Why? Because you will enjoy hours of hilarity. If you buy this first DVD, others will be released, and all will be right with the world.


Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Sculpture, and Chainmaille

Pi and Geometry

Okay, I'm a math nerd, I admit it. If you couldn't tell from my water crystals bracelet, geometry bracelet, and geometry necklace, I think math is pretty great. Confession: I love calculus. Don't stone me, I bruise easily.

As such, when I saw Hard 'N Phirm (Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman) on Comedy Central, I immediately fell in love with these fellow nerds. They have a song about pi, which I encourage you to watch.



Vanessa Walilko
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille Designs

July Chain Maille Classes

Here is a list of chainmaille classes in Chicago for the month of July:

July 12: Chainmaille Earrings at Discovery Center Chicago

July 20: Japanese Crystal Bracelet and Japanese Cascade necklace at Caravan Beads

Make sure to check our classes page for contact information for these locations.

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted beaded jewelry, beaded sculptures, and chainmaille

French Beaded Flower Earrings on Etsy

I've listed a new pair of french beaded flower earrings on Etsy. The bright color combination is my toast to summer--one with remarkably lovely weather overall... so far. One hates to tempt the weather gods of Chicago, as they can be so cruel. (There was hail during Custer's Last Stand in Evanston a couple weekends ago.)



Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted beaded jewelry, beaded dragon sculptures and chain maille

Return of the Phoenix

I'm profoundly thrilled to report that my phoenix has returned from the offices of Bead & Button Magazine. Many thanks go out to Lynne Soto, who put up with my incessant nervous emails about the status of the piece and the contract. I hope that she won't hold it against me the next time I send in a piece to Bead & Button Magazine.

Included with the phoenix is a copy of the August 2008 issue of Bead and Button magazine. A picture of the phoenix can be seen on page 26. Now I just need to buy a bunch more issues to distribute to friends and family.

Of course, as I thought more about the phoenix, I realized that I had a couple photos of the work in progress which you can see below.



The first picture shows the phoenix after only a few beads have been added. You can see that the wing designs went through a couple revisions from my pencil marks on the Lacy's Stiff Stuff.

I wasn't able to find any online tutorials to help me out on bead embroidery (and I was too stingy at the time to buy a book on technique), so I just did what was intuitive for me and what I've done ever since. Essentially, I use a whip stitch with beads--sewing eight beads to the piece, then going through the last four beads before adding another eight beads, and so on. It was the only way I could think of to get the smooth lines that I wanted. There was probably a faster way to make it (especially finishing it...), but I'm happy with the way things turned out.

Towards the body of the phoenix, you can see light pencil marks for individual feathers. I eventually drew in all the individual feathers and bead embroidered the shapes of all of them.



The second picture is quite a jump from the first piece--it makes me wish I had done a status photo after every day I worked on it. In any case, you can see that the bird is still attached to Lacy's Stiff Stuff. I've also glued down the beak and talons made from Friendly Plastic (which has my vote for one of the best craft products around). I later sewed through the edges of the friendly plastic to help connect the plastic pieces to the Lacy's Stiff Stuff, which was a challenge.

Finishing the piece took forever. Why? I didn't want to embroider the beads to leather, favoring something lighter. I also wanted the perfect red for the back of the piece. I found an excellent shade of red satin, but knew that the satin would fray all over the place. I decided to use double-sided fabric tape to attach the satin to the Lacy's Stiff Stuff all around the edges of the piece. When I cut the edges, the satin fibers stayed in place, and I was able to embroider the edge of the piece in embroidery floss that complemented the beads (using gold embroidery floss for the work around the talons and beak).

I almost forgot: Fire Mountain Gems sent me a certificate for my award--with a picture of the phoenix printed on it!



My phoenix has been to two other states for almost 5 months, and I'm happy to have it back.

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculptures, Chainmaille and an awesome bead embroidered phoenix necklace

Kathy Frey's New Website

I meant to post about this a long time ago but Kathy Frey recently launched a redesigned website for her sculptural wire jewelry. The new website looks fantastic! Check it out here: http://www.kathyfrey.com/

She has a blog, too: Taming the Tangle

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Handcrafted Jewelry, Dragon Sculptures and Chainmaille.

Molly Bitters Reception at Artisan 133

Make sure to show your support for Artisan 133 this Friday from 4-8pm. There will be a reception for Molly Bitters, who, "makes finely crafted necklaces and earrings from metal and leather which she etches and embosses."

Artisan 133
133 West Prospect Avenue
Mount Prospect, IL 60056
847-670-8780

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted beaded jewelry, beaded dragon sculpture, and chainmaille

Bead and Button 2008

It took about a week to recover from the Bead and Button 2008. Working the booth with Rebeca and Kat of Blue Buddha Boutique was exhausting but a lot of fun.

On the rare occasions I had a chance to step away from the jump rings, I bought myself some presents.

The first was a glass spider from Milon Townsend. Kat was the first to spot these awesome pieces of art. The spider web design in the body of the piece is pretty neat.



I also purchased an amazing ring from Saki Silver (who provided the clasps for Rebeca's Hodo bracelet class). The stone is rutilated quartz and catches the light like nothing else I've ever seen. The picture almost does it justice.



Something really cool to report: Gary Olsen produced a video on the Bead and Button show. He was kind enough to interview me for the production. The video is available here: www.lindaolsenjewelry.com--Gary did a really great job of capturing the Bead and Button experience and conducted interviews with some really talented people. (You can see me wearing my shrug at about nine minutes into the production--right before one of my bead heroes--Sherri Serafini. And right after her is a brief comment by the person who called me a ninja last year. Good times all around.)

Thanks to all the people in Rebeca's classes and who stopped by the booth and made the show a resounding success!

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculptures and Chainmaille

June Chainmaille Classes

Here's a list of June's Chainmaille classes:

Briolette Beads:
June 8 - Beginning Chainmaille, Intermediate Chainmaille

Caravan Beads:
June 17: Beginning Chainmaille
June 22: Intermediate Chainmaille, Dodecahedron

Discovery Center:
June 18: Byzantine Bracelet

All contact information for these class locations can be found on my chainmaille classes page.

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille

Moira K Lime at SOFA NY!

Congratulations to Moira K. Lime whose work will be at SOFA New York this weekend. She'll be represented by Charon Kransen

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculptures and Chainmaille

Dragon sculpture on Etsy

After a long hiatus, some news: I've listed a dragon sculpture on Etsy that you can take a look at here: Beaded Dragon Sculpture.

More Etsy updates to come. Keep your eyes peeled.

Vanessa Walilko

Unique, handcrafted beaded jewelry, beaded dragon sculpture and chainmaille

Chicago MS Walk this Sunday 5/4/08

In all the current happenings, I forgot to post a message about the MS Walk this Sunday. A person very close to me (who has asked to remain anonymous) has MS, and so I've decided to participate in the MS Walk in Chicago this Sunday.

You can visit my page by clicking here. I know asking for donations now is a little short notice, but they will accept donations even after the race, so dig between your couch cushions and pull together some money for a good cause.

Gina is also walking, so you should donate something to her too! Visit Gina's page by clicking here.

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Handcrafted Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille

Amazing Soft Sculpture

As those of you who have seen my beaded phoenix necklace could probably guess, I'm pretty wild about phoenix mythology, from the ancient Egyptian bennu to the X-Men cartoon Phoenix Saga. When searching for phoenix images, I recently came across this:




That's right: a a phoenix soft sculpture. Sundreams and Myths features the incredible soft sculpture work of Cheryl Simshauser, who makes the most incredible phoenix soft sculptures, not to mention some fantastic dragons as well!

I wonder if I could somehow justify the purchase of one as a business expense...

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted unique beaded jewelry, beaded dragon sculpture, and chainmaille jewelry and classes

Blue Buddha Boutique Gallery Update

I'm proud to say that I actually held this piece when it was finished: a Wide Sterling Silver Cuff.

Absolutely incredible is probably the only phrase that comes close to describing how neat is it. Good job, Rebeca!

Vanessa Walilko

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Unique Beaded Dragon Sculptures, and Chainmaille

Adventures at Lill Street

I'm a beader, a chainmailler, and occasionally I like to pretend that I'm a metalsmith. I'm currently taking Intermediate Metalsmithing with Sarah Chapman at Lill Street Gallery. She is one of the most excellent instructors I've ever encountered, and I highly recommend taking classes with her.

I've posted photos of two rings I put together during the class. One was totally indulgent and made for instant gratification purposes. I purchased a prong setting from Rio Grande and soldered it to a band I had put together ages ago and never found a use for. The only catch was that I had to saw the band to remove the silver under the prong setting, because the stone was cut so deep that it wouldn't fit otherwise. The stone is a "Mystic Green Topaz" that I purchased from Jewelry Television.



The next photo is of a ring I had put together the first time I took intermediate metalsmithing. The band popped off on one side, and after carefully prying the stone from its bezel, I re-soldered the band and voila: I can wear my big ring again! Big rings make me happy, as you can tell from my French Beaded Flower Rings and my Bat Ring.



I have no idea what the stone is. I bought it because I had a store credit at Caravan Beads and thought it looked neat.

I've also made a minor change to the bottom navigation of the Gianessa Designs site, making the Blog link open in a new window.

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille

I'm in the Des Plaines Times!

My shameless self-promotion paid off: a story about my Fire Mountain Gems award was printed in the Des Plaines Times!

You can take a look at my award-winning design here: Phoenix Reborn.

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculpture, and Chainmaille

Anniversary Present

In honor of my upcoming two year anniversary with Blue Buddha Boutique, Rebeca got me the coolest present, a chainmaille dreamcatcher that someone has already described as perfect because it is so me:



Thanks, Rebeca!

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculptures and Chainmaille

Changes to the website

I've made some cosmetic changes to the home page, mostly to offset links to the Gianessa Designs blog and the Gianessa Designs Etsy Shop to make them easier to find.

I've also linked the Gianessa Designs blog in the bottom navigation so that you can find out when Chicago chainmaille classes are happening whenever you feel like it.

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Beaded Jewelry, Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille

Lill Street Gallery Chainmaille Earrings Workshop - May 11

Looking for something fun to do on Mother's Day? You can learn to make chainmaille earrings in this five-hour workshop at Lill Street Gallery. This introduction to chainmaille will turn you into a chainmaille-making expert. In this class, you'll make up to 10 pairs of earrings in a variety of weaves. You can see more about this class (and see samples of the earrings you'll make) at Blue Buddha Boutique.

You can register for this class either by calling Lill Street Gallery or registering on their website.

Vanessa Walilko

Unique, Handcraffted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille, and Beaded Dragon Sculpture

JC Herrell

I have a favorite lampworker. It's true. JC Herrell came to speak before the Bead Society of Greater Chicago tonight, and she was fantastic. Not only is she a talented lampworker, making THE coolest beads, but she is also an excellent speaker. Her discussion of trying to create "perFect" was pretty incredible.

And she's nice too. Due to a projector/computer issue, she had to use my laptop for her presentation and in thanks she let me pick out one of her beads for myself. I've posted a photo of that here:


After browsing her site and stumbling upon her stunning Orchid Rings, I totally fell in love with them. I'm a huge fan of large flower rings, so of course, now I'm trying to figure out how to save up money for one of hers...

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Beaded Jewelry, Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille

Class Schedule - April

Here's a sampling of the chainmaille classes I'll be teaching in the Chicago area for the month of April. For a list of all the Blue Buddha Boutique classes, check this link: April Blue Buddha Boutique Classes

Caravan Beads Classes:
Mesh Bracelet - April 12
Byzantine - April 13

Blue Buddha Boutique Class
Bull's Eye Earrings - April 24

Briolette Beads Classes:
Beginning Maille, Intermediate Earrings - April 27

If you're interested in taking a class, check out my Classes page for store contact information.

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Beaded Jewelry, Dragon Sculpture, and Chainmaille

Jewelry Classes

Now that I'm teaching more, it seems only responsible to tell the world about it. As such, you'll find a new section in my Resources section: a Jewelry Classes page. There you'll find links to the stores and galleries where I currently teach.

Vanessa Walilko
Unique Beaded Jewelry, Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille

Jewelry Spotlight - Dragons

Due to a Virgin Atlantic-caused nightmare, a trip to London and Salisbury that I had been planning for over a month was canceled a few weeks back. As such, I decided to get myself something to cheer me up. The result of this self-prescribed retail therapy is perhaps the coolest piece of jewelry in my collection, the World's Largest Dragon Ring by Joseph Dean.




It's quite a hefty ring as it's entirely cast out of sterling silver. It's weighted perfectly--and stands quite nicely as a sculpture when not worn.





Being a fan of dragons and dragon sculptures myself, I think this ring is incredible--the detail is amazing.

Speaking of dragons, I've added a new pair of earrings: Dragon's Teeth Earrings.

Vanessa Walilko

Unique Beaded Jewelry, Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille

Jewelry Spotlight: The Bracelet that Got Away

Continuing in the theme of my jewelry obsession, there's one bracelet that I wish I had bought when it was first released: Alchemy Gothic's Tiamat bracelet. Aside from the fact that my own Dragons are inspired by my love of the eponymous ancient Babylonian primordial goddess/fabric of the universe, it's just a cool bracelet.

Vanessa
Beaded jewelry, beaded sculpture and chainmaille

Bead Society of Greater Chicago

I recently discovered a glaring omission in my Resources section: the Bead Society of Greater Chicago!. Aside from the fact that I am now the Treasurer of the organization, it deserves some press because its members are some of the nicest, loveliest, and most talented women I've met.

As such, you will now find a link to the Bead Society on my Resources - Other page.

Vanessa

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille, and Beaded Sculpture

More Necklaces for Your Viewing Pleasure

I've updated the Necklaces section of the website with three new pieces.

The first is the Geometry Necklace, a larger version of the Geometry Bracelet made with a striking combination of red and black beads.

The other necklaces are French beaded lily pendants either on a black steel cable neckring or on a sterling silver 18" snake chain.

Vanessa
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Sculpture and Art

Jewelry Spotlight

I have a confession: I'm obsessed with jewelry. One could probably assume this from the fact that I make jewelry for a living, but I feel it needs to be said. These days, wearing other people's jewelry can be tricky, as everyone asks if I've made the pieces I'm wearing, but as a collector and obsessive, I'm willing to listen to constant questions so that I can wear the pieces I love.

A couple months ago, I found a ring that I hoped someday to own myself. Thanks to this blog, I recently rediscovered the object of my desire. The Cartier Jaguar Ring, part of their Inde Mysterieuse collection. As someone who loves original and unsual jewelry, I think this is pretty fantastic.

Vanessa

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille, Beaded Sculpture and Art

Additions and Updates

After some time away from the computer, I've finally added the Earrings page and updated the Necklaces page. Check out our Peacock Feather Earrings (they always command a lot of attention at shows) and our Spiral Galaxy Necklace.

Oh, I added a new Jewelry page too, just for fun.

Vanessa

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Sculpture and Art

Another Update

We've updated our Bracelets page with new pieces. Take a look at our best-seller, the fun and fantastic Chainmaille Bangle Bracelet, available in three sizes.

We've also updated our Jewelry Supply Resources page with updated information on the best places to buy beads.

Vanessa

Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Sculpture and Art

More site updates

Check out our updated Rings section with an integrated shopping cart so you can order online. Our Turquoise Rose Ring is a show favorite.

Be sure to check out our new Galleries page for information on where to buy Kali Butterfly jewelry.

Vanessa
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille and Art

Site Updates and Contest News

Gianessa Designs is happy to announce the beginning of a wave of site updates, beginning with an all new Gallery. Here you'll see a few of our art jewelry pieces, including Phoenix Reborn. Phoenix Reborn was recently chosen as the Gold Prize Winner in the Freeform Expressions - Jewelry category in the Fire Mountain Gems 2007 Annual Contest.

We'll be posting more updates and new pieces in the coming days, so keep your eyes open.

Vanessa
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry