A while back a friend approached me to design some pieces for her upcoming wedding. This quickly turned from hairpins and traditional jewellery to a commission for ninety pairs of earrings as favours for the females guests.
It was a lovely idea, and a great way to offset the stubby holders (beer coolers for the non-Aussie linguists) that the boys were being gifted. The bride and I brainstormed, and agreed that she'd pay for the supplies and I'd gift the couple my labour.
We decided on a feminine palette of vintage pastels to match the beading and embroidery in her exquisite gold toned dress;
(l-r) Blush pink, copper, sage, peach and violet. Each pair was replicated in gold (14k gold filled) and silver (sterling), with freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals.
I also made custom gift bags for the earrings; Pashmina with a silk lining. This is where I went completely over the top! Not only is Pashmina a pain to cut and sew, inserting a lining into a bag this small is a complete folly. But they turned out so well:
Silver ribbon for the silver earrings, gold ribbon for the gold.
Bagged and tagged
Ready to go!
They were a great success at the wedding; guests loved them and they were a great icebreaker on the night with people swapping colours between themselves. I even was told that a lot of the guests were wearing them at the brunch the next morning (I missed the brunch as I was a little *ahem* "under the weather" after the previous night).
Would I do this again? For a friend at mates rates- in a heartbeat. But not as a money making exercise; the retail cost would make it prohibitive for almost any wedding. BUT it would be a lovely favour idea for the craft-inclined bride who wanted to tackle it themselves.
The should give you a bit of an appreciation of why I've been AWOL lately! My fingers needed some recovery time...
well done! I would have been thrilled to have recieved those, such a fantastic idea.
Posted by: Miss Dot | August 06, 2007 at 10:24 PM
congratulations on such amazing work. just stunning. did you have time to make something for yourself?
Posted by: Dara | August 07, 2007 at 12:38 AM
These are beautiful what an original idea for a wedding.!
Posted by: Nat | October 12, 2007 at 03:13 AM
Wow, those are amazing. I would pay you so well for a few pairs of those.
I'd make them myself, but I'm creatively handicapped.
They're just so perfect and beautiful
Posted by: ADRIENNE | October 13, 2007 at 03:25 PM