Our Favorite Wedding Floral Headpieces

One of the most beautiful uses of fresh flowers in a wedding is the artform we know as the floral headpiece. The really good ones are masterpieces, adding to the beauty of the bride. Our students in the Complete Course in Wedding and Event Planning know that trends are important to keep abreast of, and many engaged couples are opting for more naturalistic weddings. A floral headpiece dramatically carries out this theme, adding great romance, beauty, drama, and earthiness. Here are some of our favorite floral headpieces. Click on each picture for more information, along with photography and floral styling credits.

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Lighting the Way: LEDs

Starflex and Connetix by SonnemanSleek, beautiful, modern are just some of the words that describe the LED lighting shown at the recent Architectural Digest Home Design Show. But equally important are the more technical descriptions: green, efficient, long-lasting. We discuss this lighting technology in our interior design course.

Light fixtures with LED lamps are appearing in many stores now and interior designers are finally recommending them to their clients. Philips, the big Dutch lighting company, has reported an increase of 38% in sales of LED bulbs over last year. 

Above is the flexible Starflex pendant from Sonneman. The arms hold LED-lamps that can move up and down in various configurations. On the wall is the Connetix sconce that are available in different sizes.  Below is the Axes lighting - available in singles or multiple arms, in sconces, pendant or floor fixtures. 

Axes sconces by SonnemanBrooklyn-based Bec Brittain offers their version of LED lighting in this hanging pendant called Shy.  Its multiple arms are lit with LED tubes and can be arranged in different ways that recall star constellations.

Shy pendant, courtesy of Bec Brittain

Interested in learning more about green design and lighting?  Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories. 

Finding Closure In Jewelry Design

 

Before reading on... for those of you who think this blog is about relationships, I must clarify it is not. This is for those who are interested in creating their own closures when making jewelry. At Sheffield we teach students how to make their own clasps and ear wires, otherwise referred to in jewelry design as findings. Findings are the parts used to join jewelry components together to form a completed piece.

  

Clasps above both found on Something Sublime blog.

Clasp by Image Bead Jewelry on Etsy.

Embellishing clasps and ear wires with stones and coiling gives your work that unique handcrafted look. When you create your own clasps you can incorporate stones into the claps so there is a blending, a consistent feel with the work, instead of finishing your piece with a purchased clasp that may not be cohesive.

 

Hoops by Fail Jewelry.

 

Earrings by Fail Jewelry.

 

Learning to create your own ear wires is one of the most liberating moments in jewelry making. It opens the door to a whole new world of where you can take your designs. Rather than always having to attach an ear wire to a drop stone, or chain, you have the option to shape your earrings into one continuous piece. The hoop and inverted V earrings by Fail Jewelry are great examples of this. Learning how to make inverted V earrings, and hoops, are taught in unit four of the Sheffield Jewelry Design Course.  

Bracelet by Silver Bench Jewelry.

Once you know how to make your own findings, you may choose to blend your clasp right into the design of your piece, like the bracelet above by Silver Bench Jewelry.

If you're interested in learning more about jewelry design, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Decorate Your Tabletop: Spring Has Sprung!

Haviland's Rose Centifolia

Have you noticed how April showers usually always bring May flowers? Well, it's true this year as a bumper crop of floral designs are now gracing new dinnerware collections.

Coeur Rouge Dinner Plate from Anthropologie

Evenings in Quinto Dinnerware from Anthropologie

Crate & Barrel's Lotta Melamine Plate

Interior design aficionados and our students in the Complete Course in Interior Design should be aware of seasonal decorating trends, and floral themes pick up steam appreciably when the weather turns warmer.

Amour En Cage Tea Cup and Saucer from DeVine

Collage Peony Dinnerware from Lenox

Pottery Barn's embroidered floral Sierra Dinnerware

Click on each photo for more product information, and think spring this year as you aim for chic spring tabletops that wow your family, friends, and design clients.

Butterfly Floral coupe from DeVine

Anmut Bloom Dinnerware from Villeroy & Boch

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Jewelry Inspiration: Nature Calls

The Carrotbox is a site dedicated to all those wonderful rings made of glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite, metal, and even stone. Alice Matsumoto from Vancouver, BC, Canada has a ring shop and has kindly given us permission to inspire our jewelry lovers at Sheffield with her discoveries. In this post, Alice focuses on rings inspired by nature.

These shapes aren't just inspired by nature — they're colored by nature, too, in the form of dyed paper. Rings by Greek jeweler Silina Pandelidou.

Bonus

UK jeweler Karen Fox is inspired by "architecture and urban landscapes" rather than nature but she, too, has a paper ring. This piece is from her "Pleat" series.

Even more jewelry:

• Julia Magr (Germany) - paper pebbles
• Natalie Gock (Australia) - modern metal
• Evelyn Pelati (Connecticut) - contemporary silver

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.