Fall in Love

Here's the loveliest autumn inspired shopping list full of woodland whimsy, fall season fashions and even wedding fun! 

Fall in Love Treasury

End of Summer Necklace Giveaway!

Well it's the end of the season and I thought I'd do a giveaway! So here's your chance to win a custom necklace! The lovely "Bella" style flower necklace is always a big hit and now if you win you can have it for yourself in the color of your choice! As you may know I custom dye my own silks to create unique colors for the flowers I hand sew and turn into unique, elegant wearable art/jewelry pieces. There are three ways to participate, so you can have up to three entries to win this free necklace!

White Bella Necklace

Here's how to enter, up to 3 entries:

1. Follow shopjoliette on TWITTER

2. Like Joliette's FACEBOOK PAGE

3. Follow this BLOG

4. Post a comment Here listing your entries and a way to reach you

5. Enter to win before FRIDAY AUGUST 27th

Please don't forget to come back here and post a comment listing your entries (whether you followed, liked etc) and PLEASE don't forget to include an email address for me to contact you if you win!

I will post the winner here when the contest is over and if you're an online seller I'll add your links as well!

For more information and photos on the necklace or my work in general please visit my WEBSITE.

GOOD LUCK!

Summer by the Sea

Under a moonlit sky a mermaid fashioned herself a brooch of seaweed. One dark and stormy night, as my sailboat was rocked by the dark waters in fury, she came to my rescue. I awoke on a remote Tahitian shore, remembering a strange dream of wild wind and sea. I found this lovely treasure next to me, a token of her natural grace.

This lovely brooch is made of a soft and lustrous velvet of sapphire or dark teal blue, like seaweed, and drawn from a coral branch I found walking on the beach one morning. It's a great wearable art piece and one of my favorites! 

Seaweed Coral Brooch

Summer Navy

This lovely coquettish navy rose is the perfect compliment. It has a brooch pin back and can be attached to almost anything, tops, dresses, skirts, purses and belts to name a few. I also design some navy and blue summer pieces, they work with the pale shades of summer, and are perfectly paired with those crisp whites!

Navy Rose Brooch

Summer Flowers

It a garden of flowers over at Joliette, all the lovely shades of summer in beautiful necklace, brooches and accessories! Custom colors are also available, especially convenient for bridal parties. Here's a little selection of my newest works. I hand dye the silk myself, with an eco-friendly, no harsh chemical process, the fabrics are mostly a shimmery soft silk, I also use some fine linens and other found elegant fabrics. The beading process is also an added luxury as I go above and beyond to make these real treasures, with a variety of sparkly seed beads, in silver and gold, pearls and crystals as well. Hope you enjoy!

  

 

The Joliette Shop

Handmade in Ontario

Here's a great new and very useful group all about handmade artistry, craft shows and resource lists, when and where to buy and sell, tips, artists and crafters. For the handmade artists out there there's also a big list of places to advertise online in the discussions section. Join the group for regular updates on craft show and fun events to attend.

 

Handmade in Ontario on Facebook

Summer Elegance

This unique and truly beautiful linen flower necklace has a sculptural elegance. Made with a fine black linen fabric it is hand sewn and lightly beaded with shiny faceted seed beads in the center for added shimmer and luxury. It's a lovely wearable art piece that can be taken from daytime elegance to nighttime romance.

Black Linen Flower Statement Necklace

Summer Flower

Icelandic poppies can be found in this amazing ice blue color, growing on the mountain sides among the earthy background. I've tried to capture this color combination in this lovely flower statement necklace with  an ice blue silk fabric flower and the smoky quartz as the earthy compliment.

 

Ice Blue Poppy and Smoky Quartz Necklace

June Bride

In honor of the romantic June bride, I've include this necklace that is inspired by Venice, romantic mysterious, medieval, antique, unique and perfect for any bride.

 

Venetian Bride Necklace

Purple Peacock

Here are some of my favorites from the batch of feathers I dyed! They look magical, like a bird of paradise, yet undiscovered. Lovely!

Come Fly with Me

Along with flowers I love birds and feathers. There's something magical about being able to fly away. I have two lovelies that I've paired up with flowers so that they can be worn together or separately. I love the complimenting colors and the garden feel of the theme. The birds are two amazing linen fabrics, the green is a subtle spring green, the other is a natural linen with silver interwoven so that it sparkles a little. They are based on silhouettes of real birds.

 

Green Bird and White Silk Poppy

  

Silvery Linen Bird and Pink Silk Poppy

Mysteries of the Night II

At night if you walk out into the forest you begin to see things, hear things. You become in tune with the surroundings and feeling of peace, at the quiet, still dark, nervous awareness, your senses heightened at the impending danger of what may be lurking in the deepest dark and finally exhilaration for the great beauty and mysteries that may lie within.

Here is the next installment of the "Mysteries of the Night" treasury.

Mysteries of the Night

Mysteries of the Night

My mother said "never go into the forest at night" -but therein lay mystery. Here's a glimps of a shopping list of artworks with a dark and mysterious elegance.

 

I am a notorious insomniac, so spend a lot of wonderful nights working in the quiet, moody atmosphere it allows. These works remind me of the mysterious nature of a dark night.

Mysteries of the Night

Paris Evening

Here's a glimps from another lovely shopping list treasury called "Paris Evening". It's about an evening stroll though Paris, Spring, and the soft colors you see along the way.

Paris Evening Treasury

Paris Morning Shopping List

This "Paris Morning" shopping list is about the soft colors of an early morning on a Spring day, it was featured on Etsy's Front page.

Paris Morning

Titania's Spring Green Statement Necklace

"The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name." -Shakespeare

Like a treasure Titania would wear on a midsummer's night, this incredible statement necklace is made up of pale spring green flowers and shimmering pearls. I was inspired by that fresh spring air. A lovely and creative piece meant for the fairy queen herself.

 

Titania's Spring Green Statement Necklace

Spring Green

It's been sunny for days in a row now, a sure sign that February is over and Spring is soon on it's way in my part of the world. With that are dreams of tiny leaf buds opening up into bright green shoots, with flowers to follow.  I've been inspired to pull out some bright green fabrics , and here they are! I love them! Soon the flowers will bloom.

Charlotte's Gray Flowers

This piece I made before the spring flowers came out. I keep coming back to it, as I am always drawn to the color and  sparkle. I love a soft gray and it really brings out the elegance of the jeweled center.

My mother gave me this lovely ribbon and I had just enough to make a necklace and a brooch out of the flowers, so this piece is very unique. The photo doesn't quite do it justice as the ribbon has real depth that offsets the golden pink pearls. The pearls themselves are an amazing find, with great shine and a color I've never seen before, a pink gold, each a little different in shade.

This luxuriously elegant piece is perfect for an evening spent listening to an opera or at an art opening. In the dim lights this lovely treasure will sparkle and shine. You'll have to sip champagne and celebrate beauty. It's modern and artistic sensibility can breath life into any creative soul.

 

Charlotte's Gray Statement Necklace

Anemone Poppies Bouquet

Here finally is a bouquet! I have this particular group as a listing in my shop. I think it would look incredible to wear them all together. They exceeded my expectations, I love them all! It's like a still life painting.

 

Anemone Poppies Bouquet of Brooches 

Anemone Poppy

Here's another of these new beauties. Some of the French poppies I used to buy were actually anemone poppies, a slightly different family of flowers from the Mediterranean area.  They are so lovely, the colors vary , most are  pink but in many tints and shades, from blush to  burgundy. 

This little pretty brooch is a delicate light pink hand dyed silk, with a dusky pink velvet center and an incredible pale lemon, faceted and fire polish crystal, imitating a flower early in the season, before the dark seeds develop  (at which point the whole flower becomes a deeper color with a black center). So lovely!

 

I'll be adding this little gem to my shop, along with it's friends. I think a little bouquet of these would look amazing! I'll add photos of some together... 

Tweet Tweet

I've started a Twitter account for quick updates, links, passing thoughts and late night ramblings. If you'd like to follow me during the day I go under the name of ShopJoliette 

French Poppies

Here's a little preview of the lovely new flowers I'm working with. These are all silk, a nice pale white on the outer petals with dark blues in the centers something between ultra-marine and navy, then beeded with very tiny faceted black seed beads. Actually, these have a very marine feel to them...crisp white and blue...a yacht club soirée, an evening sail, dinner by the sea...

Merging of Talents

It's interesting how my love of horticulture, sewing and jewelry are all coming together nowadays, with each new project I become more in tune with the flowers I hope to embody. I get better at channeling the flower's essence, patterns, shapes, light, texture, but then translate, design and  embellish  according to my sensibilities. Hand dyeing also helps to get the right shades of flowers I've loved and remembered (much easier than finding just the right color in a shop, imagine, not that I haven't tried, just hardly ever succeeded, mostly only got frustrated) by now I am so familiar with the fabric shops in Toronto I can remember all the various colors and shades available. When I find new collections of fabrics it's quite exciting. With dreams of Spring there's a rush of images, ideas, memories I can't wait to manifest, create, photograph and share. Soon my pretties...soon...

Spring Flowers -Paris Days

Back to those spring days in Paris, I've already made a couple of bouquets of poppies. I can't wait to photograph them! The first has pale white silk outer petals with dark blue silk and black seed beads as the center. The second is  a combination of blush,  pink and lavender  silk  with dark pinks, purples and black beaded centers. Wow, I am so excited. I'm planning some more flowers to combine with these that I remember from bouquets I would buy and make for Francesca or myself.

I'll then turn these into statement necklaces, brooches, hair accessories, maybe some rings this time;  I had a smaller flower in my hand and thought it would be a lovely solitary piece on the hand.

I'm thinking some of these bouquets would be perfect bridal pieces...the silk and flowers, a natural conclusion I think. I'm also exploring other wearable art ideas.

Front Page

I've been featured on the front page of Etsy with a new favorite aqua colored statement necklace:

These lovely roses are hand dyed silk with a decadent beaded center made up of warm grayish fresh water pearls, gold seed beads and Swarovski crystals.

I dye my own silk to create unique colors, hues that are not common and to me, are closer to real flowers that way.

I love these hand made flowers, they're soft and shiny and one of-a-kind. The color is like an antique aqua, not over saturated but with a hint of teal and gray, like the sea on an overcast day.

The golden leaves compliment the shimmery centers of the flowers and the dark silver of the gun metal plated chain offsets the pale aqua of the flowers, adding to the elegance of the piece.

 

 Bella's Statement Necklace in Aqua 

Spring in Paris

Well I've been thinking a lot about a Spring a few years ago that I spent in Paris. I had a favorite day, that  I occasionally try to relive. It ends with a lovely walk through the Rue de Mouffetard, the flower market. I adore the French poppies there, that have white or very pale petals with a dark center. So I'm working on a new design for a statement necklace based on a bouquet of these gorgeous French poppies!

 

Juliette's Green Rose

 

Bella's Plum Silk Flower Statement Necklace

Hand Dyed Silk

Dying my own fabric has allowed me to create colors that I love. I'm actually very excited. When I imagine a shade, or am experimenting and acheive the perfect color, it thrills me. As the silk dries, it becomes very shiny, in a natural sparkly way, it is such a beautiful process that it always brings a smile to my face.

I usually start the process with putting on my favorite music, turning it up loud, then off I go to make color! Silk and linen are my favorites, one is shiny, sparkly even, the other a more earthy, textured fabric, yet still soft. As I mix the colors, wait in anticipation and then extract the fabric, I am always content.

For me it is a meditation with a lovely result, ready to be transformed into new lovely flowers.

Handmade Jewelry

Welcome to Joliette!

This is a journal about a shop is filled with unique handmade jewelry and wearable art. I am inspired by travel on many levels: culturally specific motifs, scenery, textiles, fabrics and the colors and textures along the way.

This journal is about the process of an artist in transit, as I explore, travel and create.

Hope you enjoy the journey.