Welcome to the second installment of our newest blog series, where we tell the tale of one of our jewels from conception to completion, giving the scoop on the vintage adventures that brought the materials to the studio and the crazy brainpower that shaped the design.  (A little peek inside the minds of Elva...could be a ton of fun or a short trip to crazy town...either way, here we go!)

On our last buying trip of 2013, we hit the flower jackpot at a newly-discovered antique show up north...totally worth the long drive and freezing-cold Saturday investment.  I had to keep myself from squealing with glee out loud (generally makes people a little uneasy, I've found) when I saw not one, not two, but THREE pale pink floral brooches huddled together inside a dusty, cracked glass case sitting on a booth table.  One would have been awesome, but a triple-threat...that's my jam, folks.  These buddies date to the 1930s and are made of a vintage plastic known as celluloid (the same thing film is made of) and are composed of six individual flowers applied to a disc base, creating a gorgeous cluster of petals as happy as a spring day.

I was hoping to use all three in one design (I always hesitate to split up sets...in fact, we rarely do...) but it was a little much.  And you know it must have been overload if we Elva Gals say it was overdoing it.  So I stuck with a pair and delighted in the fact that we'd still have one to spare for another fun design down the road.  Despite polar ridiculousness outside, I was channeling a sunny spring vibe and opted for a two-tone pink idea using some of our latest bead finds, a faceted coral resin and small pale pink glass from Kenya.  Here she is all ready for assembly with my chicken-scratch notes accompanying the materials on our lunch tray layout:

And here she is strung and stylish, ready to be checked...loving those blooms at the side: 

And...just like that (days later...it takes us a while to get these lovelies just right) here she is--Pardon the Pink--in blooming, blossoming beauty.  I love how this necklace turned out and hope it makes some lovely lady as happy to wear as it does for us just to look at it in the studio.