It is the birthday of one of my friends at the start of January. January is always a tricky time to find a nice birthday present, it is so hot on the heels of Christmas and yet you don’t really want to get a gift that is a leftover Christmas gift option which tends to be what the shops are full of. Don’t get me wrong, I like a bargain as much as the next girl but typically when buying for myself and not for someone elses birthday. At the same time, I’ve been toying with a birthstone range of jewellery for my crazy for ruthie Etsy shop, as not only are they pretty, but they are a lovely personal gift too. All of this is what inspired the freshwater pearl and garnet bracelet that you see before you.
I love the combination of garnets and pearls, especially white pearls. There is something so timeless about their colours together and they also have a real medival feel to them, with a bit of imagination, you can picture an affluent lady of the court adorned in some kind of garnet and pearl get up (or is that just me…? maybe my imagination is over active…). By adding a pretty garnet bead to a linked silver and white pearl bracelet, it seemed to give a lovely combination of the classic wearability of pearls and a lovely hit of deep claret wine red with the garnet.
Obviously, garnets are the birthstone for January, but I will make more of these along the same lines for the other birthstones. Birthstones like amethysts and peridot will be relatively easy as there are lovely beads available, but I can see me having to get my thinking cap for for a diamond for April. Including a diamond and having the bracelet affordable do seem quite conflicting requirements at the moment, but there is nothing like a challenge to get the creative juices flowing!
As well as the freshwater pearl and garnet bracelet as a birthstone gift, I’m going to create garnet and freshwater pearl earrings too so there is a set available if anyone desires or for those that don’t wear bracelets!
You can find the listing for the bracelet here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/175547406/silver-linked-white-freshwater-pearl and I’ll let you know when the earrings make it onto Etsy too!