design

Design It Yourself: Jewelry Design Goes Digital

June 15, 2010 at 3:48 pm , by Chelsea Rae Simmons

Hi ladies, I’m Chelsea, the new fashion and beauty intern at LHJ, and I’m here to give you the scoop on a cool new jewelry DIY tool.

Love Heals launched its custom Design Studio so would-be designers like me (seriously, it’s crazy how much I spend on beads and chains), can design the perfect piece of jewelry without actually having to make it.

You can choose from a selection of charms, pendants and strands to create anything from a simple cord necklace (like this pretty number I made, at right) to a pair of lavish pearl chandelier earrings. After you submit and purchase your design, your jewelry is handcrafted by their California-based artisan team and sent to you in two weeks. The Design Studio is easy to navigate and use and it’s not too expensive: A custom piece of jewelry can cost you less than $100—my necklace clocks in at $90.

Another good reason to shop: Love Heals is committed to doing good. They use ethically-sourced materials for their jewelry and have planted more than 432,000 trees with GreenerEthiopia.org. And if that wasn’t great enough, here’s another huge shopping bonus: If you design a custom piece, you can buy it for 40 percent off with the promo code DESIGN40! Enter the code, which is good until June 30, at checkout.

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NYC Restaurant Turns Trash Into Design Treasure

May 4, 2010 at 2:40 pm , by cdewet

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of attending an event at The Collective, a new restaurant in the meat packing district of New York City. The drinks and food were good, but the intriguing design was even better! The design team from ICRAVE searched sites like Craigslist, Etsy and Ebay for the materials to fill The Collective rather than turning to their usual vendors or high-end design shops for inspiration. The results? A wall made of used Legos and casino slot machines; a ceiling composed of Styrofoam and turned into a captivating light fixture; bottle caps from restaurants around the neighborhood; a bar decorated with flying seagulls made from license plates; a host stand made from the hub of a plane and a wall decorated with butterflies made from old records. The list goes on and on. Although you may not decide to turn your entire home into an upcycled shrine, you have to admit that the concept is inspirational. Do you have any “trash to treasure” stories of your own to share?

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Inspiration is Still Free

October 7, 2009 at 3:58 pm , by cdewet

Sometimes when strolling out and about in fabulous New York City I pass a beautiful home store and think, Why even bother going in, those lovely things are probably waaaay too fancy for me. My mind instantly flashes back to the scene in “Pretty Woman” where the saleswomen shun poor scantily clad Julia Roberts for even attempting to peruse their fine merchandise. I cautiously glance at the beautiful window displays as I pass by, as if some expensive item might jump into my hand if I don’t move quickly. I don’t give it much thought after that, and continue on toward more familiar territory. Well, guess what I did last weekend? I shrugged off my inhibitions and went into an adorable design store, A&G Merch, in Brooklyn—and you know what, it was a fantastic experience. Okay, so there were a few things out of my price range, but what I found most enjoyable were all of the creative displays! My mind couldn’t help but think about how I could incorporate some of their funky design ideas into my own apartment and the inspiration was undeniable. I started to wonder about other shops that I had walked by in the past and what muse-like displays I had unknowingly deprived myself of.

Inspiration is free, and perhaps more important than ever during these trying economic times. Window shopping is great fun when you walk away with a brain full of new ideas. Okay, friends, your assignment is simple—the next time you pass a store that strikes your fancy, even if you think it might be too fancy for your wallet, go in! You never know what you might find. Oh, and a nice shade of lipstick can definitely help… See Erica’s entry on red lips!

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