Crystals and Butterflies for 50th celebration

What a great way to celebrate your 50th - gather friends and ask them to dress up - have lots of yummy food and drinks, a sensational band and lots of dancing, and then a lolly table with scented candles.  Magical.  So we celebrated by (...dancing the night away) making a crystal and butterfly necklace for this very special and amazing friend.  Happy 50th Birthday! 

 

During the creative process...

 

the finished product.  Stunning.

 

 

Art Deco Inspired NeckSpice

The Edward Steichen and Art Deco Fashion exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is fabulous, glorious, wonderful, breathtaking, amazing, inspiring ... yes we loved it and the exhibition has inspired a new collection in our NeckSpice range. 

Elegant beads reminiscent of an era where women broke away from the constraints of corseted clothes to adopt modern fabrics and a new style of clothing that allowed

elegant and fluid movement for the "modern woman".  

These new gowns were documented by Edward Steichen and his use of  light in such a dramatic way is amazing.  We could have stayed at the exhibition gazing at the intricate beading work for hours... 

 

but lunch with friends beckoned - a perfect way to spend a day in Melbourne.

 

NeckSpice Birthday Project for a Special Friend

A very close friend visited us last week and we took her to Camberwell Markets to show her a quirky part of Melbourne.  She found these antique watch faces that are sold by Chris Rankine and has commissioned NeckSpice to design some jewellery incorporating these delicate pieces.  A birthday gift to herself and a reminder of her visit to Melbourne.  We have our design hats on in earnest and will be showing you our design suggestions for this special NeckSpice client

over the next few weeks...

 

 

Travel NeckSpice

NeckSpice is now going to Sydney and Canberra on a big aeroplane.  Two close friends were visiting Melbourne for the weekend to celebrate their birthdays.  We had such a great time sampling the pastries at French Fantasies, eating dinner at Gazi, shopping at Camberwell Market, they discovered the Rose Street Artist's Market, and then we sampled some fabulous Melbourne coffee...we miss them already.  Here is our Sydney friend (a very professional journalist) wearing her

NeckSpice in transit...

 

 



 

NeckSpice at Emirates Stakes Day

The Melbourne Cup carnival was such a fabulous event this year - lots of colour, fun and a chance to meet friends and catch up in a glorious environment.  The NeckSpice girls were thrilled to attend the Emirates Stakes Day and watch some very majestic horses ... and check out the hats, jewellery, shoes, fascinators, and handbags.  We look forward to the next Spring Racing carnival which just seems to give Melbourne a real buzz...

 

 

Melbourne Cup Roses and the Colours of Spring

What a better way to celebrate Spring than to stop and look at the gorgeous roses in everyone's garden and at Flemington this year.  So many colours and styles to please every taste.  Have a look at some of our favourite ones... 

 

 







 

...and a few bracelets that we whipped up for the special day that are a

perfect complement to these vibrant natural colours. 

 

NeckSpice at Life's Little Treasures Foundation - Walk For Prems

The NeckSpice girls were at the Life's Little Treasures Foundation Walk for Prems in Albert Park in Melbourne on Sunday 27 Oct 2013.  There were similar events in other States throughout Australia - just have a look at the LLTF website for
details of the amazing amount raised for this great charity. 

Come and walk or run with us next year to show your support, wear something orange and get fit in the process.  We were wearing our orange hippie beads in two gorgeous tones of orange with matching nail polish...look forward to having all our NeckSpice readers spread the word about LLTF and join in the celebrations for 2014.

 

 



 

 

 

Thank You NeckSpice Devotees

What a lovely day we had today at NeckSpice Central.  Cups of tea, delicate almond biscuits, strawberry chocolates and lots of chatter as our dedicated NeckSpice customers viewed and experienced the latest collections.  Jane and I were thrilled to spend the morning with you assisting in Spring racing dressing advice (definitely needed due to our weather patterns) and Christmas gift preparations.  Above all it was ... pure fun.

 

 



No pictures available of the yummy biscuits...

or chocolates ... or strawberries ...wonder why! 

Spring & Summer Silk

We like to add beautiful fabrics to our NeckSpice scarf collection each year.  These soft beautiful silks with just the right amount of colour are perfect for Spring and Summer dressing - think Racing Carnival.  Same jewellery yet a different silk scarf can change an outfit so dramatically...

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

New Designs for Spring and Summer 2013

We have been busy with some new designs for Spring and Summer 2013 - this one is called the double multi-coloured.  Here is a sneak preview of the design in progress.  We have discovered that they are harder to produce than we first anticipated as the beads have to "work" both in size and colour over two strands...it has been a very interesting experience.  Let us know via email if you would like to attend our showing in Melbourne next week.

 

 

Delicate Beads add Spring to Vintage Pearls

This week we are drawing inspiration from our Vintage Pearls for a fresh look for Spring.  Most of us have a pearl necklace that is waiting to be redesigned into a new piece. 

We love incorporating different beads into our designs to bring a new career

 to that gorgeous string of pearls. 

Do you have pearls longing for a revamp in your jewellery box?

 

 

Draw some inspiration from our favourite books and let us know

if you would like to have a piece redesigned...

 

 

 

NeckSpice in Melbourne

Today I was wearing one of the new Clove designs (from the Winter range)

however as I was standing in my garden I noticed that Winter had morphed into

Spring, and it caught me a bit by surprise...whilst Jane and I have started planning the

Spring collection we are still happy to wear and enjoy the Winter pieces for a few days yet!

 

 

New Baby in Our Lives

A new baby has entered the NeckSpice circle ... a friend has had a much anticipated little girl. 

We thought that we would celebrate with a gift for the baby

 and something from NeckSpice for MUM. 

Dad will have to make do with champagne! 

 

Colourful Winter

There is always a space for grey and black in one's Winter wardrobe but with the happy news of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby we thought we would knit a
Colourful Winter. 

 

 Here are our NeckSpice creations in a very striking green and deep magenta with coordinated hippie beads and a bracelet from our Peaceful collection.  Tania and I are not so good at knitting booties so we will keep designing scarfs for now...

 

 

NeckSpice in the Life's Little Treasures Foundation video

Life's Little Treasures Foundation recently launched its exciting new promotional video. We are so proud to be associated with this marvellous charity.  Please have a look at the video and see how LLTF is making a difference to the lives of premature babies and their families.

We were thrilled that Parool Shah Harrington (president of LLTF) chose to wear her NeckSpice pieces (from the Hippie range) for the LLTF video.  The production of this video was made possible thanks to the amazing generosity and skilled services of Keith Webb, Director of Image Control. Keith has 30 years experience in video production and brings commercials, corporate communications and documentaries to life.   To see the LLTF video visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTYnFPPOKVY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 

What does one do on a cold wet Melbourne day?

Make necklaces of course...and drink 3 cups of tea...and have 3 squares of chocolate...and a cupcake...to celebrate a girlfriends' daughter's birthday...and ignore all the household and administrative chores for the whole day...

 

and fiddle around photographing my new creation

 in various different areas with different light...

 



 

 

and put off cooking dinner

 (I may delegate that to another family member)

 because I am now excited about designing another necklace...  

 

 

and photographing it...and I can sense another design

bubbling away in my brain...I will have to

delegate all other household activities to... hubby and the kids...

there is no other solution!!

 

Note to self: Must remember to tell Jane

 how good designing is when

no chores are taking up any brain space

She is SPECIAL ... let her know

Mums Grandmothers Yiayias Mothers Grannies 

they all deserve a tribute for being the financial wizard, gardener with special skills relating to flowering and citrus trees, tutor (often in multiple languages and subjects), caregiver, go to girl in medical emergencies, cuddle distributor, bus/taxi/van/small car/ big car/ various-coloured car driver and navigator, food ingredient coordinator, chef with food entertainment skills, IT manager, mobile phone APP store director, cinematic and electronic device censorship board member, sports activity fundraiser, hairdresser, couture costume coordinator working within limited time and financial resource allocation project, internal and external chemical colour application specialist sometimes referred to as painter ... there is a necklace in our range for each of these wonderful women. 

 Hope that all these amazing women have a great day on the 12th of May.