Mia Van Beek Turns Your Kid's Art Into Actual Jewelry, Keychains & Bookmarks.

Jewelry designer Mia Van Beek of Formia Design has come up with a way to turn your children's art into fabulous everlasting mementos in the form of pendants, charm bracelets, earrings, brooches, keychains and bookmarks.



Working with all types of metals [sterling silver, gold, stainless steel, etc], she expertly transforms two dimensional drawings into metal versions of the same.



She can create them as either positive or negative [outlines] pieces and is able to reproduce anything from stick figures to even the most enigmatic representation of a child's imagination.




Words do not suffice, take a look at these examples.

Pendants:







Keychains:





Earrings:

Bookmarks:

Charm Bracelets:


To learn how to submit the art and order your own wonderful piece of her work, go here.

About Mia:

Education and experience:

1988-1991 Jewlery school in Sweden

1992 Journeyman diploma

1996 Goldsmith Master Degree

1997 Degree in design at Collage of arts in Linkoping, Sweden.

2001 set up my own business Formia Design in Stockholm, Sweden

2004 Received Best New Designer of the year award at Stockholm Jewlery show

2004 Established Formia Design LLC in Virginia, USA

She not only creates these whimsical pieces, but it an expert goldsmith and creates other fine jewelry. Visit her website to see her many other jewelry designs.

follow her on Twitter.

Shop her online store.

Human Crayons, Plaster Heads & Lip Jewelry By Designer Heli Hietala

I have already shared with you the fabulous carved crayola crayons by Diem Chau. Now, here's another artist/designer who has crafted human-shaped colored crayons.



COLOURS by designer Heli Kristina Hietala are crayons shaped as the human figure. The intent was to show the results of involvement between characters and how communication can range from soft, stimulating, balancing or dirtying (the designers words), depending upon the character which is chosen.

For the 2005 project, she created about 100 crayons, packed in 10 boxes which contain 10 pieces each.





Heli uses the human form, head and facial characteristics in several of her other unusual works as well. Her 2009 "Spirits of Medicine" consist of 30 plaster cast heads, each placed in medical prescription bottles.




And some of her jewelry designs incorporate castings of full feminine lips like the bracelet and tin rings shown below:



See more of her work here.

The Making Of Chanel's New Venetian Bib Necklace

I'm very fond of the 2009/2010 CHANEL Cruise collection (as opposed to their Spring 2010 haute couture collection) and the accompanying accessories.

The large decorative bejeweled neck pieces referred to as plastrons, are a stunning accessory to the line.



Here's how they created the beautiful plastron, a Venetian bib necklace with resin and cast stones that is part of their Cruise 2009/2010 collection of jewels, shown above and below:


above photo by Karl Lagerfeld

A resin shaft, made in advance, serves as a model for the parts of the necklace:


The glass rods are heated with a torch:


The glass is then poured into each piece of the necklace according to the studio sketch:


The imprint of the chamber is made in a silicone mold. All of the pieces are then gilded in "galva", an acid that enables the gilding of pewter and iron:


The backs of the pieces of the necklace are polished in order to obtain an 'aged' effect, with a sparkling resin. Then, all the pieces of the necklace are joined with solder:


The heart at the center of the chamber is drawn using a syringe filled with red enamel:


and voila!

all images courtesy of Chanel

The Making Of Chanel's New Venetian Bib Necklace

I'm very fond of the 2009/2010 CHANEL Cruise collection (as opposed to their Spring 2010 haute couture collection) and the accompanying accessories.

The large decorative bejeweled neck pieces referred to as plastrons, are a stunning accessory to the line.



Here's how they created the beautiful plastron, a Venetian bib necklace with resin and cast stones that is part of their Cruise 2009/2010 collection of jewels, shown above and below:


above photo by Karl Lagerfeld

A resin shaft, made in advance, serves as a model for the parts of the necklace:


The glass rods are heated with a torch:


The glass is then poured into each piece of the necklace according to the studio sketch:


The imprint of the chamber is made in a silicone mold. All of the pieces are then gilded in "galva", an acid that enables the gilding of pewter and iron:


The backs of the pieces of the necklace are polished in order to obtain an 'aged' effect, with a sparkling resin. Then, all the pieces of the necklace are joined with solder:


The heart at the center of the chamber is drawn using a syringe filled with red enamel:


and voila!

all images courtesy of Chanel