Voilà l'été!

Ok, ok, it finally did stop raining a couple of weeks ago - actually, just on the Spring Fab Fair weekend and consequently, all of Vancouver was on the beach, not at the Fab Fair!... and then, things went fast : end of the school year, school fair, school shows, gifts for the teachers and suddenly, that was it, the summer holidays!!!

So, it's official, summer is here... kind of... still not that warm and sunny in Vancouver... but it's ok, at least it stopped raining!


But, just in case, I thought that it would be nice to add a bit of sunshine to our uncertain summer, so here's my contribution : "Au soleil", a bracelet composed of 20mm magnesite oval beads (sometimes known as “white turquoise”), light topaz Swarovski crystals and red branch coral nuggets. The sun rays come from a precious 15mm golden bead made of Venetian glass. This style of Venetian glass is called “Klimt” and you can see here a few pieces I had already done with these wonderful beads.

And this is the matching necklace, "Renaissance", with a lovely red cinnabar carved cherry blossom blooming among the white magnesite...

Now, put your sunglasses and your flip-flops on and enjoy the sun : )

Trois couleurs : rouge...

And now, here's the last part of my trilogy of summer colors with red.

"Sur la route de Kalamata" (the roads to Kalamata) necklace


Despite of the controversy about the use of coral in jewelry, I love to work with sponge coral (which is not endangered). I personally like the organic feel and orangey red color of this material that can be combined with so many different other colors.

Here is one of my favorite pieces from this summer, "Sur la route de Kalamata", a necklace that combines sponge coral beads, ceramic beads in blue and red, and dark chocolate tiger ebony wood with touches of brass and Swarovski crystals. Even though I’ve never been to Kalamata, the inspiration for this necklace was definitely Greece!



And "Guirlande de corail" (coral garland), a very feminine necklace that features a garland of honey jade carved flowers, combined with red sponge coral rectangle beads and topaz Swarovski crystals.


Enjoy the summer holidays in Bleu, Blanc, Rouge : )

More love...

I told you last weekend that it was my older son's birthday (the party went smoothly, the boys really had a blast at laser tag!) but this weekend, my husband and I are celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary.... Incroyable!!! Eleven years!?!? It seems long and short at the same time : long because it's crazy to think that 11 years went by without us noticing, and short because it feels like we've been together forever...

Anyway, as promised last week, here are a few of my newer, sexier and REDer creations to celebrate life and love :

A new version of my "Première" necklace from the Fall, now with a bright red carved cinnabar butterfly, white rabbit jade, onyx and Japanese tensha beads. I kept the original "opera" length - 26.5 inches.


Obviously, this bracelet is NOT red but I find it very sexy : it's called "Mélodie nocturne" and is composed of black onyx, crystal, Murano style lampwork glass and silver rosebuds...


One of my very first designs is back in the shop : "Carmen", my flamenco-inspired lariat necklace, is now featuring a red felt poppy with a French metal button, red glass beads, black and sparkly Czech glass seed beads and two lovely silver tassels.


And last but not least, here's "Carnaval rouge", a bracelet with red, purple and orange Italian resin beads and one copper-coated resin bead mounted on an elastic and finished with a trio of ribbons... This one is guaranteed to make you smile all day long : )

Have a lovely weekend!

With love...

While I am getting ready to spend my Saturday afternoon with a bunch of 9-year-old boys who are going to chase each other in the dark with laser guns (that's called "laser tag" and it's apparently really cool...!?) for my older son's birthday, my head is full of red hearts and flowers as everybody on Etsy is thinking about Valentine's Day...

Red is one of my favorite colors! I love red because it's warm, it's bright and cheerful, full of life and possibilities... it's also very elegant, powerful, sexy, mysterious... Rouge... Oh, I love it!!! It's definitely a color that inspires me...

So, for now, here's a sample of my cute-bright-and-cheerful collection of jewelry for little girls *Mini Olala* and I'll show you later the feminine-elegant-mysterious part of my collection for women...


"Bouquet de coquelicots", a necklace with red felt flowers, lovely glass beads and green frosted Czech glass beads


"Bouquet de douceur", a necklace with ivory cream felt flowers, mother of pearl beads and cherry red frosted Czech glass beads


And something new in the shop, some earrings called "Petites fleurs" with cute cherry red enamel daisy charms on Bali silver earstuds... I am personnally really fond of these : )

You'll find my Mini Olala shop there : www.MiniOlala.etsy.com