Thistle & Bee sells a variety of luxury objects including jewelry, picture frames, home goods and baby gifts. The company has a full range of sterling silver products including a large range of enameled pieces such as cufflinks and keychains. The American flag keychain shown above has handpainted enamel detail and sells for $250.
Thistle & Bee has now expanded into gemstones and fine jewelry with new collections of gold pieces featuring diamonds and colored stones. Examples and prices are in the gallery below.
I've never been a big fan of diamonds (I even have a solitaire ruby on my wedding band instead of a diamond) but these raw diamonds in jewelry designs by Todd Reed are something else altogether. Not only are they colorful, but unique and not as flashy as traditional diamonds, which I'm sure is a love it/hate it sort of thing. To me there's something very cool about enjoying a stone thats been in the earth for ages without cutting or polishing it -- just appreciating it as it is. Although Todd Reed's latest release is a line of raw diamond cuff links for men, the rest of his collection is equally beautiful. My favorite is this cluster ring made of gold and raw diamonds for $9,375.
Jessica Kagan Cushman's wildly popular scrimshaw bangles are just some of the treats at Gem, a jewelry boutique in Chicago. The store features a wide variety of designers who work in materials ranging from leather to diamonds including plenty of gemstones that don't usually get the fine jewelry treatment. The ring here is a delicate slice of agate mounted on 14k green gold and sells for $380.
Carlos Souza lives a fabulous life (for proof just check out the pictures of his homes in Rome and New York on Habitually Chic). Not only has he worked with Valentino and other designers during his decades-long career but he is also the Creative Director behind Most Wanted Design, an innovative jewelry company with a variety of collection that are wittily elegant. The ring shown here is from the You Are My Queen collection and sells for $3,000 at Vivre.
What do celebrity spawn and reality TV star Brody Jenner and singer Celine Dion have in common? They are both joining the celebrity trend of having a jewelry line. It used to be that celebrities needed a perfume or perhaps a clothing line to feel complete but lately it's all about jewelry.
Brody Jenner's line is called Archangel and he has been working with designers to create the collection which will be in stores in Los Angeles later this year. The line includes standard jewelry items such as rings and necklaces as well as wallet chains and lighters.
Celine Dion has teamed up with Chinese media personality Yang Lan to create a jewelry line in China called HV Love. The collection includes diamond engagement rings, personal jewelry and women's accessories. The company plans to open around 200 retail outlets in China by 2010.
I'm horrible about taking care of my jewelry when it comes to storage -- I have a tangled mess of bracelets, necklaces, rings, and earrings in about 4 different jewelry boxes. But I think that would be a different story if I had one of these Jewelry Trees from Scandezign (or I might need a small forest of them). Exceptionally fluid and simple, its classic and modern feel both holds your jewels safely and shows them off beautifully. Designed by Louise Christ it's made of brushed aluminum and stands 10.1" high and 5.3" wide. $54
The new jewelry line Babakul is unabashedly Bohemian. The first collection, therefore, is naturally called hippie goddess and features rings, necklaces and bracelets named after goddesses and other figures from mythology. The team behind Babakul includes Kym Gold-Lubell, a designer whose past achievements include Bella Dahl clothing, Hippie Jeans and True Religion Jeans, D. Joseph Bortoli who was also behind the jewelry brand Nagual and Nubar Boyadijian who has also had his own jewelry company NBN Creations. My favorites are the labyrinth rings, elaborate swirls of hammered metals. This one is Artemis and the design ranges in prices from $110 to $890 depending on the metal used.
One of the trends I have been seeing lately is people taking existing work and re-utilizing it in new and exciting ways. A great example is Candace K, a California-based designer who works with Chinese gambling chips. The chips are antiques, delicate engraved mother of pearl pieces which Candace K surrounds with gems and strings on leather, silver, gold or beaded necklaces. The pieces start at around $400 but cost as much as $20,000 depending on the other materials used. The chips themselves each have their own story the more intricate the chip, the higher the status of the user. The designs can be ordered online and are also at Fred Segal and at the Ice Accessories store in the Caesar's Palace Forum Shops in Las Vegas.
Heidi Klum may have her name on a line of Birkenstocks, but she isn't completely giving up glamour for hippie-chic. She also has a line of fine jewelry with Mouawad, inspired by a clover symbol that she first saw at the Duomo in Milan, which she found to be elegant and timeless - the perfect symbol for a line of jewelry. The Heidi Klum Collection includes earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets that all feature the signature clover pattern and range from simple sterling silver pieces to elaborate white gold and diamond creations. There is a full list of the stores that carry the line on Heidi's website.
Is it hiding a light under a bushel to put
diamonds under a dome of another stone? Pasquale Bruni's latest
collection which was recently displayed at Baselworld is the Avant Garde. The Avant Garde rings, pendants and
earrings feature lemon quartz, amethyst, citrine, blue topaz or amethyst polished to a gleaming clarity and set above a
heart set with diamonds which is surrounded by the Pasquale Bruni logo. The jewelry is available in pink, white or
yellow gold.