I love beautiful things. The sun, the trees, the moon and stars at night, the ocean blue and bold. But I also love jewelry. Not neccessarily the diamond and ruby kind, but jewelry that looks like wearable art. I recently discovered Julie Schwanbeck, an amazing local jewelry designer. I saw her works at a trunk show at Bloomingdales, 900 N Michigan Avenue. I was awed by the beauty of her pieces immediately. She has 3 collections, which are Metals, pictured on the left, Organics, pictured on the bottom, and Gems, pictured on the right.
The Metals Julie uses are sterling silver, 14k yellow gold or 14k white gold. Sometimes the silver will be bright and shiny, or sometimes she oxidizes it to give it a darker patina. She many different styles, lengths and sizes.
For the Organics, she uses things like sharks teeth, four leaf clovers, and sand dollars, and then gilds them in gold.
Lastly, in the Gems collection, she uses semi-precious and precious stones of all shapes and sizes, including smokey topaz, chrysoprase, champagne quartz, swarovski crystals, and amethysts, then combines them with silver or gold.
A little bit about Julie: She's been making jewelry for about three years, and is a trained metalsmith. It all started when she took a jewelry class, something that she always had wanted to do, and was hooked. And lucky for us! Her stunning pieces are an absloute work of art that would enhance any outfit or look.
Her work has been featured in InStyle, Lucky, Self and Glamour, and lent pieces to Rachael Roy for her runway shows, and Sherri Shepherd (The View) has worn one of her pieces as well.
Jules does trunk shows quite often at Bloomingdales, so I would suggest you drop by and have a look for yourself. You can also see her work at www.shopjules.com and see a huge variety of her pieces. She can also customize pieces for you, and that is by appointment only.
Jules - Julie Schwanbeck - owner/designer
