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Turquoise
I've been on the lookout for some turquoise stones to make pendants with and finally found some great ones - they are now available in the Natural...
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Star Signs
I just added some great star sign charms to the charms section - they are a great way to personalise your jewellery. Like most people, I often read...
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Crystal Meanings
A few people have been asking recently about the meanings of the different gemstones that I sell. I have a brief knowledge of them but it...
UPDATES AND MUSINGS
Check in with the Black Pearl blog for updates, news and anything else interesting I can think of! If you feel the urge, you can log in and leave a comment, or just say hi!
Chelsea Flower Show
I went to the Chelsea Flower Show last Friday for the first time, and it was AMAZING! I'm not a massive gardener but I do love flowers (the colours - so pretty!). Anyway, the show comprised of various gardens, plus a pavilion which showcased pretty much every kind of flower you can imagine.
Desert Sun
Over the past week I have been becoming more and more obsessed with Pinterest, the image sharing site where you can make your own online pin boards. It's really useful as over the years I have collected so many images from both magazines and online and this is a great way of gathering them all together and also finding new ones through other users.
Jewel East
In exciting news I will be taking part in the Jewel East event from 15th - 17th June as part of London Jewellery Week. It will be held in Spitalfields Market and is 'an innovative 3 day showcase of exciting new jewellery designers plus fabulous vintage and costume jewellery all under one roof'. This means I won't be at the Sunday Upmarket on 17th June, but it's only a short walk to Spitalfields from there. It's a few weeks away yet so I'll post a reminder nearer the time.
Imaginary Summer
It feels like it has been raining non stop for a month here. I think probably because it has. So I've gathered together some images to remind me of sunnier times, some of these are my photographs from past holidays (not the puppy in the pool - I wish!) and others are from postcards, books, magazines and the internet.
RIP MCA
So sad, today one of the founding members of one of my favourite bands died - Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. I saw them a few years ago at Wembley and managed to get right to the front. They had three costume changes including matching Adidas tracksuits and amazing powder blue tuxedos - how many other bands would do that?! These are the photos I took that night, including their famous pose which they politely held so we could take pictures. Good tunes and a sense of humour, pretty much what I love about them.
Posing...
So last week I cajoled my flatmate into taking some pictures of me wearing some Black Pearl jewellery (because although I have hundreds of photographs of the jewellery, I don't have any on an actual person!). So in between the rain and passing clouds we managed to get a bit of sun so I grabbed some necklaces and went out on our balcony.
Cubic Zirconia Beads
I just added these gorgeous cubic zirconia charms to the 'Bead Charms' category. Cubic Zirconia is man made stone which is used a lot in costume jewellery in place of diamonds as they look so similar. These stones are 8mm wide faceted drop shapes which have been wired and attached to jump rings.
Just an update...
I have recently changed the kind of jump rings I use on the non-precious metal charms - from now on the silver colour charms will have sterling silver jump rings and the gold colour charms will have brass ones. This means all charms have gone up by 50p to cover the cost - so not much but I thought I'd mention it in case anyone was thinking 'WHAT THE HELL why have the prices changed?!'.
The Evil Eye Horn...
I have seen this shape of pendant over the years but didn't think it meant anything in particular... little did I know it is an ancient symbol originating in Italy. It has various names - Italian Horn, Corno, Cornicello, Evil Eye Horn - but is believed to protect against the 'evil eye' (a bit like the Hamsa).
More feather experimentation...
Last week I spent a lot of time experimenting with dyeing more feathers, see the results here...the bottom two pictures show the feathers still wet, they look much better when dry!
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ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Fiona Deffenbaugh is the designer behind Black Pearl. Obsessed with jewels and trinkets from an early age, she now sources an exciting array charms and pendants from all over the globe which she combines to make eclectic pieces of jewellery. The beauty of the collection is that you can choose your own charm combination to make a piece that is personal to you.