It has been a crazy month at the Hansel House, with wallpaper stripping, painting, new carpet with surprises, moving, more painting, and now floor refinishing. I’ll show some of our finished work as soon as something is complete, we have tons of works in progress!
For now, as the craziness continues and we have to move out for a week while the floors are done, then move everything into it’s proper place next week (finally!) it’s time to show wedding photos and tell Paris stories. Then hopefully back on track with jewelry.
photo : nancy ray photography shoes: nordstrom
I’ve been encouraged over and over to post wedding pics, but didn’t know how to express feelings without overdoing it. So, for the most part, i’ll just let the pictures tell the story, as that’s one of the reasons I chose the talented nancy ray.
whew. it’s been an exhausting week in the hansel household. we’ve been doing a lot of this
mr. hansel
in preparation for our move.
my personal project was the downstairs bathroom. taking it from this
to this
not just this wall, the whole bathroom
it’s going to be a big project, but we’re excited. i can’t wait to share our progress and results, and i may even try some mobile blogging… stay tuned!
do you know the story of my engagement ring? now it looks like this
nancy ray photography
it used to look like this
my crappy photog skills
the picture is terrible (need a tripod!) but you get the point. it was my grandmother’s ring, her original engagement ring diamond that my grandfather had reset with sapphires when he “upgraded” her engagement ring. it is one of the key memories of my childhood, that ring and the matching necklace, which my mother gave me as a gift on my 25th birthday. she told me the ring had been lost, but she was secretly saving it for drew…
when the diamond was reset for me (oh, how i love looking at it and thinking of my handsome young grandfather picking it out nearly 70 years ago!) we had 6 sapphires left over, and i knew i needed to use them on a special project. i also knew that a girl who calls herself a jewelry designer should make something for her husband to wear on their wedding day. with the help of the fabulous ashley brodie, i made drew a set of cufflinks using 2 of the sapphires.
nancy ray photography
on the backs, i stamped our initials, and wedding date. no excuses for forgetting the anniversary!
he was super excited to receive them. it wasn’t a total surprise, given the shouting match we had the previous week when he talked about looking for cufflinks. it was quickly ended with these words “maybe if someone has told you to buy a shirt with french cuffs, maybe they already spent 4 days making cufflinks for you!” the sapphires were still a surprise, and i’m told he recognized them right away.
nancy ray photography - will ray photographer 😉
all through the day and night he was seen adjusting his cuffs to show them off …
another will ray image from nancy ray photography
i think he represented “the brand” well! i had so much fun making these, but don’t think i’m quite ready to make menswear pieces for the general public. maybe one day!
have you been waiting this whole time to hear about my necklace, and see awesome dress pictures? i thought so…
photo by the ever creative nancy ray
the part about my dress that stood out to me, that made me choose it, was the fabric. it’s a pretty standard shape for a wedding gown, but it’s made of strips of organza, which are not sewn down at the bottom, creating raw edge – which i knew i wanted to jewelry to play off of. the other amazing thing about the layers of organza is the way they picked up air when i walked, as seen in yesterdays image. that’s what got me, walking out of the dressing room toward the mirror and seeing that feature, i could picture walking down the aisle toward drew and that magic moment.
so. necklace. i thought about something like jess’s , with white pearls and some beautiful crystal teardrops i found a few years ago, but when i put it together, it seemed too delicate. i also really loved these big, rough cut quartz pieces, but they seemed too casual just strung together. then one night – the night before my bridal portraits, i love to work on a deadline!- it came to me. the big quartz pieces interspersed with the pearls. the rough cut of the quartz would echo the raw edges of the organza, the pearls would “fancy it up” a bit.
Emily Hansel 