Blog

Jewelry Designs Look Much Better Online When They Spin

Jay Johnson — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:00:59 +0000

Look at the fantastic GIF or animated image I found on the Klimt02 international jewelry design website! An animated product that spins to show all angles of a jewelry piece will show off your work to maximum effect, as Australian jewelry designer Julia deVille illustrates with the spin view of her Pave Rook necklace. Here's a video I found showing many other product "spins" to give you ideas of how you can show off your work better on your website, blog, or Etsy store.

The video will steer you to the Swiftspin360 website, and I'd like to direct you to their 7 Steps to Creating a 360 Product Spin. Join the website in order to freely access their articles and downloads. While the pitch is to photographers, if you're a jewelry designer with a camera, we'd like you and our jewelry design students to experiment with creating some beautiful product spins of your special work!

If you're interested in learning more about wedding planning, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

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DIY Wedding Project: Sparkling Glitter Heels

Jay Johnson — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:00:52 +0000

Okay. I'm a guy. And this is definitely not a "guy" kind of post, in any way, shape, or form! But I write all the time about weddings, and when I saw this 100 Layer Cake do-it-yourself project, I thought that all of our wedding and event planning students will want to help their cllients - or themselves - to this easy and fun idea. So not a guy kind of project, but guys will love the results.

With The Great Gatsby hitting theaters, the sparkle and glam of the Roaring 20s is defnitely in vogue, and you can dress up a ho-hum pair of pumps with easy-to-apply glitter. By the way, the product they recommend using is called Mod Podge (click on the link for more information. Watch this short DIY video for a step-by-step look at making your own sparkling glitter shoes.

Thanks to 100 Layer Cake for their beautiful photographs, posts, and wedding inspiration. 100 Layer Cake is a unique, comprehensive wedding planning resource for and by thoughtful, crafty modern women. Their vendors, projects, weddings, resources, sponsors, and marketplace are hand-picked and thoroughly researched with the hope that every single one is a truly unique addition to both your wedding and your planning process. Visit the 100 Layer Cake website today.

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Recycling Beloved Vintage Pieces

Alexia Rossetti — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:00:07 +0000

Airplane and phone lights by Dog Tag Designs

What do you do with those vintage pieces that you love and collected over the years and just can't throw out? Well, Dog Tag Designs has a practical solution for you. Designer Tyagi Schwartz recycled a toy airplane and mailbox and transformed them to a functional light. Below he converted a vintage Brownie Hawkeye camera into a light fixture. In the background is a sold Darth Vader mask turned phone. Don't throw out those beloved pieces - have Dog Tag Designs convert them to lights!

Brownie Phone by Dog Tag Designs

Fun Cocktail Rings

Guest Blog — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:40 +0000

The Carrotbox is a site dedicated to all those wonderful rings made of glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite, metal, and even stone. Malene Glintborg from Sweden has shared with us her unusual vision of fun cocktail rings. I love this slice of lemon ring - got margarita with that?

Cocktail ring by Malene Glintborg

For those crafty people who likes to fold things - take a look at her origami ring below.

Origami ring by Malene Glintborg

For a very urban and trendy look, there's the Skyline ring with a silhouette of a city's skyscrapers. The Skyline also comes in a necklace and bracelet form.

Skyline ring by Malene Glintborg

Are you interested in taking a great jewelry design course and learning more about how to make your own jewelry or get started professionally in this creative field? Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Interior Design Book Signing

Alexia Rossetti — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:01:09 +0000

Foundations of Interior Design by Susan Slotkis

Interior designer Susan Slotkis will present her latest book, Foundations of Interior Design, 2^nd ed., at the GE Monogram Showroom in NYC. Slotkis, one of our experts on our recently released Sheffield School videos, has been a New York designer for many years as well as a college professor. Her book provides young aspiring interior designers with a thorough grounding on the practice of interior design.

GE will host the book signing party in its beautiful kitchen showroom at the A&D Building this coming Thursday, May 23^rd at 6pm. Come and join the author for a great party!

Make More Than Jewelry With Your Materials.

Haley Mindes — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:33 +0000

Holli Brown Mosaics

Have you ever looked at something in a store and said I can make that. If you are crafty, you see DIY projects as something you are excited about. Sometimes it turns out that it was not as easy as we thought to make. Don't let that burst your bubble. Maybe you didn't find the right project for you. If you are still determined to persevere on with a DIY project with materials you have sitting around, then these projects should get you thinking about what to do next with those beads and chain hanging around in your jewelry supplies.

Eiffel and Empire

Think about revamping a pair of shoes you never wear anymore by either blinging up the heel with crystals, or gluing on rhinestones, or replacing the center strap with a chain to dress it up.

Halter tops are great projects to play around with. Changing out the neckline or tank top straps with some chain, or beads, will give it a new and refreshed look. These recycled tops found on ebay inspired me to recycle some of my tired old tanks.

Best Phone Cases found on Etsy.com

Add some beads to a summer straw hat, like this one by Melissa Odabash. The turquoise stones are great for summer but you can get creative with whatever color beads you like. Best Phone Cases on Etsy has fun gluing all sorts of things to their phone cases.

Mirror by Georgia Peachez

Every one has materials they have no idea what to do with. Start recycling them and get creative! Make sure you have fun while doing it. This mirror by Georgia Peachez looked like it was fun to make.

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Local Talent at Brooklyn Designs

Alexia Rossetti — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:00:42 +0000

Cabinet by Eric Manigian

Brooklyn has been the hotspot for an outpouring of small-scaled artisan studios in the last few years. To celebrate this creativity, Brooklyn Designs has hosted an annual exhibition of local furniture and accessories designers.

This year, the selections reflect superb craftsmanship and a strong affinity for presenting materials in their best possible light. As shown above, Eric Manigian designed a tall display cabinet out of walnut. He followed the tree’s veins to create the natural edges of each door, thereby creating a stunning, unique piece.

Coffee tables by From the Source

From the Source, another local company, used contrasting woods of rosewood and mangowood to create these overlapping coffee tables. The Kai desk below is also of mangowood but oxidized to give it a unique gray finish.

Kai desk by From the Source

Additionally, many designers are following green methods and using reclaimed woods as their building blocks for their furniture. Aellon designer, Daniel Husserl, reclaimed the woods from an old Indonesian boat that was going to be junked and transformed it into a striking oval table with radiating strips of wood.

Coffee table from Aellon

Interested in learning more about furniture design? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design. At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.

Wedding Centerpieces: Using Greenery

Guest Blog — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:07 +0000

Photography by Paige Reaux

Floral centerpieces may be the popular norm, but using green leaves can provide a very striking and different table décor. These tall palm fronds caught my eye. Simply housed in tall clear vases, the fronds are familiar yet exotic at the same time. A simple pink rose surrounded by green ferns add a beautiful note. Continuing the green theme, a simple fern leaf decorates the folded napkins. The next time you’re doing some wedding planning, try using simple greenery for the main theme.

Photography by Paige Reaux

Kips Bay Decorator Show House 2013

Alexia Rossetti — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:00:19 +0000

Living Room by Barbara Ostrom

Exciting textures, prints and materials dominate the recent Kips Bay Decorator Show House. This year the annual fundraising event is held at the Sharp townhouse in New York’s Upper East Side. Designers from all over are invited to design one of the rooms to wherever their imagination takes them.

Designer Barbara Ostrom layered her sitting room in a wide range of textures that resulted in a relaxing and inviting space (see photo above). Covering the floor is a Stark sisal carpet upon which Ostrom added a striking zebra print rug. The gilded Louis XVI armchairs provide sophistication and elegance. Ostrom gilded the ceiling with a lattice pattern, adding another layer of complexity. To prevent the room from getting too stuffy, Ostrom added a fun fur-covered footstool.

Gilt ceiling by Andrei Chichkine with Barbara Ostrom

Family Lounge by Eve Robinson

For her family lounge, designer Eve Robinson reimagined the midcentury look. Using a few vintage chairs and a sofa designed by Danish Jens Risom from the mid 1900s, Robinson reupholstered them in modern muted purple hues. The vintage game table is from L’Art de Vivre and the lounge chair is fromLorin Marsh. Pulling the whole room together is a silver gray hide rug designed by Britto Charette.

Family Lounge by Eve Robinson

Designer Sara Story based her inspiration for the living room on her bamboo patterned wallpaper. The geometric shapes of the bamboo led her to choose the fun cubist sofas and triangular pillows. The black and white geometric rug is from Flor.

Living Room by Sara Story

Sitting Room by Jack Levy

Another space with unique wallpaper print is Jack Levy’s sitting room. Floating around the room is a quirky wallpaper of colorful fish that somehow tied an eclectic room together. The tiered side table is from Fornasetti and the floral rug from Beauvais Carpets.

For more wonderful Kips Bay rooms, check out our Designer Monthly.

Interested in learning more about interior design? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design. At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.

Feng Shui Homework: Paint a Prettier, Less Toxic Picture in Your Home

Franca Giuliani — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:43 +0000

This is a great time of the year to start and finish projects around the house. One of my own personal feng shui adjustments includes painting a room in my home. And, I must say that it has been awhile since I’ve been paint shopping. Selecting the right color and shade was grueling. It took a few weeks. (Wow, this process is much easier when I do it for clients.) What I didn’t realize was the process of picking out the quality of paint. When I was at Home Depot, I felt like I was at a Starbucks. “Do you want glossy finish, semi-glossy, flat, low VOC, no VOC, etc…?”

VOC stands for “Volatile Organic Compound,” which is a number of chemicals that turn into a vapor and then pollutes the air. It is not only found in paints. It’s also in varnishes, glues, and certain cleaning products. Formaldehyde is a VOC, and so is fish odor. To be environmentally conscious, no or low VOC is best.

Now, I would suggest that even if you’re not planning a painting project, go around your house and see what other toxic items you have. Do you have old varnish cans in the hall closet? Do you know if any of your cleaning products are toxic? Yes, it’s great if something can cut through grease, but what else is it doing to us? Where do you keep the bug spray?

Ideally, all of these products should be stored out of your home. Unfortunately, many homes have attached garages, and that’s probably where all that stuff is. And if you live in an apartment, space is always an issue. I can only hope that at least nothing toxic is underneath your kitchen sink.

If you can, get a shed, put it somewhere on your property, and store the products there. Hopefully, it won’t be too close to your neighbors. But if you safe storage isn't possible, make sure no harmful products are in the kitchen, in the bedroom, or near any place where you spend a lot of time. Just being aware where things are stored can be very helpful.

Feng Shui Homework

I am giving you a big assignment for homework this month.

Pay attention to the products in your home. Read the ingredients. Look up words you don’t know.
Properly store or dispose of anything that is not healthy.

Educating ourselves is very powerful and an essential step towards having a healthy, picture-perfect home. And a healthy home is a healthier you.

Now, all I have to figure out is if I want a satin finish paint or not. Argh!

Until next month,

Be well,

Franca

Franca is one of the Feng Shui instructors at Sheffield School; visit her website for more information. If you're interested in learning more about feng shui and interior design, then we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.
Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.