Asymmetrical floral wire work tiara

This is my wore work asymmetrical floral tiara created with wire worked flowers containing crystal and pearl centers.

A New Tiara ~ Floral Frenzy ~ Asymetrical design

This is an asymetrical tiara encrusted with lucite flowers, Swarovski crystals, Czech crystals, mother of pearl, fresh water pearls and Swarovski pearls.

Autumn Toned Hair Comb ~ Crystal Velvet

This is a hair comb I created to go with an existing necklace. i've used Swarovksi fire opal crystals that are utterly amazing colour wise. They go from a rich gold to a firey orange, light colarado topaz crystals and then a variery of coloured pearls in mink and chocolate colours.

Tiara ~ something old, something new

This is another of my "something old, something new" pieces.

The central feature is a brooch. The structure is set with aqua marine coloured glass and small dimontes. The wire work surrounding the broach is in keeping with the foliage feel set by te brooch. small Swarovshi crystal are set at the ends of the fronds

This service is offered to all clients who feel that they'd like to include an heirloom within their wedding jewellery or headpiece.

Tiara style ~ Medieval head bands

These are my latest range of wedding head wear. Medieval style head bands. The two ends clip into the hair using either hooks or hair grips (both are supplied ~ unless a preference is stated)

The central drop sits on the forehead and the drops hang downwards.

The headbands can be made to your choice of length and with colour of your choice.

from http://www.crystalvelvet.co.uk/

Pearls

This pearl encrusted comb is from www.crystalvelvet.co.uk

There are many types of pearls that are used in jewellery making.

Fresh Water pearls come in lots of different shapes and sizes. They are normally uneven in shape, although they still resemble a round or oval shape. They have a lovely lustre and can be dyed to many different colours. My favourites are the ivory, pale pink and baroque (dark peacocky grey)

Glass pearls: many beads are created by spraying a coloured finish on to a plain glass bead.

The quality of these beads varies imensly. Swarovski do a top quality range of these style pearls. The key to quality lies in the fact that the pearls are indiidually sprayed and dried. the poorer relations of these pearls occur when glass beads are threaded on the strings and then sprayed. the result of this is that the pearls stick together and then shed the coating aroungd the hole as they are pulled apart.

Swarovski Crystals

Tiara from www.crystalvelvet.co.uk created using Swarovski crystal.

Swarovski is "the" name in crystals.

If you compare the swarovski crystal with other quality crystals, you will find it easy to tell the difference. Crystal is created from glass containing lead. The fascets (ie faces that reflect the light giving sparkle) are created by machines. With most crystals the glass needs to be returned to the heat to melt out imperfections caused by machinery cuts. With swaroski there is no need to do this, which means that the angles are sharp and reflect the light better.

The term AB that often acompanioes the name swarovski stands for arora borailis.

AB is a coating applied to the crystals that causes even more reflection to occur. Swarovski also introduced a range of double AB with is even more intense.

Swarovski crystals come in many different sizes and shapes, but my personal favourite remains the bicone.

Wild Rose Tiara

My latest tiara design is created using fresh water pearls in pale pink and Swarovski AB crystals.

Available in the colours or materials of your choice. We are happy to work to your requirements.

www.crystalvelvet.co.uk

Tiaras for bridesmaids.

These tiara bands are created invividually to oreder from www.crystalvelvet.co.uk

A bride should always be the centre of attention on a wedding day. Her tiara should be for more ornate than her bridesmaids. These tiara bands are great for bridemaids. They can be made to order in colours of your choice. In this case swarovski ruby and crystal AB's have been combined in chequered patterm. They can also be created in gold or silver. Please feel free to contact us at crystal velvet to discuss your requirements.

The bands can be worn as an alice band style or as more of a tiara band.

They do not have to be reserved for weddings as this style tiara can be worn to numerous events and functions.

Tiara Upgrade

The most unusual request to date followed a beading party I did for a group of ladies. One of the ladies was getting married. She had already purchased a fairly basic tiara from a department store. However, when she saw my tiaras she felt that hers just did not live up to the mark.

It was a plain gold tiara with small acrylic "crystal look" beads. Her requisit was that she wanted a much fuller tiara with some colour in. The natural colour to add was a ruby colour which her bridesmaids were also wearing.

The resulting tiara was lovely. Not an idea I'd have ever contemplated, but as usual, my clients move me to new pastures.

Feathered Tiaras

I have recently been approached by a bride who wanted to have feathers in her bridesmaids head pieces.

having never worked with feathers before I was interested to see how many styles and varieties there are for use. They are died and shaped for use and available in many many colours.

In keeping with the current trend for burgundy, claret etc she had selected some dainting darted feathers in a rich aubergine colour. I was able to match them to a swarovski crystal in "burgundy" and they looked stunning alongside the swarovski crystal AB.

I created a headband for the older bridesmaid and then some small haircombs for the child bridesmaids.

Something old ~ Something new

When my sister got married last year, I was very conscious that neither of our grandmothers would be at the wedding. (one too old and the other had passed away eight years ago) Knowing how much it had meant to me when I got married, I was determind to do something to mark their prescence.

I took some broken bits of jewellery that had belonged to them and created a stunning necklace and earrings for philippa to wear.

It also gave me an idea for other wedding creations and I have since created Tiaras using brooches. I am happy to offer this service to other people. Gives a new slant to the wedding poem something old, something new!!!

Introducing Crystal Velvet

Welcome to the Crystal Velvet blog site.

Crystal Velvet (http://www.crystalvelvet.co.uk/) is an online store selling handmade jewellery, bags, hats and a complete and ever growing range of wedding accessories including Tiaras, hair combs etc.

We hope that this blog will be a useful resource when planning your wedding with information, helpful hints and other ideas to make your wedding run smoothly and be the special day you deserve.