Whats on My Bench

Hello and welcome to another edition of Whats on My Bench with the JET Team. This week Gaetana of SatinDollCo shares the beautiful custom gift she made for her Godmother this Mothers Day...

We love sharing behind the scenes of custom piece we work on! With Mother's Day just around the corner, we got to work on a unique gift for our Godmother. She loves buying our pieces but for special occasions like Mother's Day, her birthday and Christmas we always design a custom piece - or pieces - for her as a gift.

This time we decided to keep with the same theme as her last purchase, and based our gift on the rich and earthy piece she bought from us. We came up with what we're calling "Tribal Queen" - a carnelian, wood, amber and leather necklace with matching earrings (shown below).

First we selected the round carnelian beads, brown wood beads and detailed brown amber dagger beads - we purchased a while back (actually, a year or two ago!) at the Whole Bead Show. Next we explored a configuration, working on our jewelry board.

We strung the beads together on beading wire, but it was missing an element. Perhaps leather would complete the look and make it a true statement piece?

Yes! We cut a piece of leather then added a chain extension, for times when she might want to wear it longer or shorter. And voila, it's done!

No necklace is really complete without matching earrings, so the final step was to create a pair featuring the brown wood and carnelian beads. The set is complete!

Since we were on a time crunch, and wanted to get it in the mail it time for Mother's Day, we took her handcrafted gift even further - making a handcrafted card using some of the stamps, washi tape and blank card that we always have on hand. We got to work quickly, and created our own Mother's Day card.

With a quote we found on Pinterest and a sweet handwritten note, our gift to our Godmother was complete. Now we just had to wait for her reaction when she got it in the mail. Fast forward to the day before Mother's Day, and my Godmother called to say a big "Thank You".

She LOVED it - and we do mean love! Because she went on about the pieces for about 5 minutes!!! She put her jewelry on immediately, and our Mother's Day gift was a big success. Now to figure out her birthday gift... but how on earth will we top this?!

What a wonderful gift you made for your Godmother, Gaetana - don't forget to come back and tell us what you make for her birthday! See you next week for another edition of Whats on My Bench!

Val