Mia Van Beek Turns Your Kid's Art Into Actual Jewelry, Keychains & Bookmarks.

Jewelry designer Mia Van Beek of Formia Design has come up with a way to turn your children's art into fabulous everlasting mementos in the form of pendants, charm bracelets, earrings, brooches, keychains and bookmarks.



Working with all types of metals [sterling silver, gold, stainless steel, etc], she expertly transforms two dimensional drawings into metal versions of the same.



She can create them as either positive or negative [outlines] pieces and is able to reproduce anything from stick figures to even the most enigmatic representation of a child's imagination.




Words do not suffice, take a look at these examples.

Pendants:







Keychains:





Earrings:

Bookmarks:

Charm Bracelets:


To learn how to submit the art and order your own wonderful piece of her work, go here.

About Mia:

Education and experience:

1988-1991 Jewlery school in Sweden

1992 Journeyman diploma

1996 Goldsmith Master Degree

1997 Degree in design at Collage of arts in Linkoping, Sweden.

2001 set up my own business Formia Design in Stockholm, Sweden

2004 Received Best New Designer of the year award at Stockholm Jewlery show

2004 Established Formia Design LLC in Virginia, USA

She not only creates these whimsical pieces, but it an expert goldsmith and creates other fine jewelry. Visit her website to see her many other jewelry designs.

follow her on Twitter.

Shop her online store.

A Handful Of Art. Rockin' Rings From The Klimt02 Gallery Exhibit In Barcelona.

above: Untitled ring by Karl Fritsch

If you are a fan of very unusual fine jewelry, then the Klimt02 Gallery collection from their 2010 exhibition in Barcelona will be right up your alley. A collection of fine jewelry by 26 international artists, the pendants, neckpieces, earrings, rings, objects, chains and more are really wearable sculpture rather than simply ornamentation for the body.

The Beauty & The Best
Klimt02 | Gallery, Barcelona presents a selection of 140 pieces from 26 international artists. The selection of works, presented through this 2010 collection, aims to involve you in the implicit concepts, messages, thoughts, ironies, questions, answers, transgressions and languages that have taken shape and have become physical beings.

Here are a few of their eye-popping ring designs (which are all available for purchase) from their Barcelona "Beauty And The Best" 2010 collection:

Microrings by Marc Monzo:

Avondvlinder ring by Ted Noten:

Capri Seaside by Dominique Labordery:

Capri Hillside by Dominique Labordery:

MY VIRTUAL ME ring by Dominique Labordery:

Platinum Groove by Dominique Labordery:

Biobringe by Peter Bauhuis:

Biobringe by Peter Bauhuis:

Happy Family Mrs (silver) by Benjamin Lignel:

Happy Family Mrs (gold) by Benjamin Lignel:

L.N.32 by Benjamin Lignel:

Untitled ring by Karl Fritsch:

Untitled ring by Karl Fritsch:

Diamond Purple ring by Helen Britton:

Scull (sic) Ring by Helen Britton:



As they describe the 2010 Beauty and The Best collection on their site:
Klimt02 presents a selection of essential and benchmark jewels in contemporary jewellery. We wish to give you the chance as receivers to feel the emotion involved in appreciating a work of art, thus completing the artistic act.

These jewels incorporate different levels of language: tradition, innovation, history, present, words, sounds, notes, gaps, orbits and connections… as an exquisite way of discovering and understanding reality. These jewels deserve our attention: something is happening.

We are not striving for any kind of originality, trend or discovery but rather we simply wish to state that every single piece in the collection involves a high degree of creation with which we wish to address you as receivers of the message. We offer receivers and request of them the possibility of exercising choice, their selective affinity.

These pieces tell us how we understand things today. This is their contemporary nature. The creator, the artist or the jeweller is a catalyser of our reality.

Beauty is something more than ornamental; in this case it is the coming together of what is good, well made and essential. The Best, for us and now for you as well, is the selection of jewels on the basis of which to start to think and feel the best.

shop for all the above rings here.

Cable Tie Jewelry By Ambre France.

Jewelry designer Ambre France has several unusual collections of jewelry. One of my favorite is her Cable Ties Collection in which she has turned the utilitarian device into rings, bracelets and earrings- even rings set with diamonds.

Rings:

Bracelets:

Earrings:

a Eur cable tie version of the ring:

Set with diamonds:


Available in sterling silver, silver plate, gold or gold-plate, the pieces look just like actual cable ties and in the case of an engagement or wedding ring, signify the everlasting (since we all know cable ties in reality can only be removed by cutting them).



In her limited edition "Plan B Kit" the cable tie engagement/ wedding ring comes in 18K (18ct) yellow gold, complete with a pair of gold plated tin snips.


Platinum and 9ct gold versions are also available.

In her own words:

The inspiration for my work is drawn from a variety of sources. I tend to reflect on intangible or conceptual aspects of the world and translate these into pieces of work. Primarily, I enjoy the process of subverting a range of materials that then become tools in which to highlight my artistic concepts. This, at present has manifested itself into the realm of jewellery.

Giving the audience an option to interact with the piece and ‘make it their own’ has also played an integral part in the relationship I have with the pieces. They are no longer completely mine and I enjoy the interaction the work has with each new audience.

My aim is to create work that in many ways makes us look at our surroundings and the objects that inhabit it, and then look again. The fascination I have developed between playing around with the conventional meanings of certain objects and our relationship with them is a constant driving force behind my work.

You can order directly from her site where her pieces are made to order and available in either sterling silver, gold-plate, sterling silver or all gold.

Or you can buy her sterling silver cable tie rings and bracelets online here at Jewel Thief


Make sure you visit her site so you can see all of her unusual work.

Manymals. Sterling Silver Necklaces By Markus Diebel Benefit WildAid.

I absolutely love these modern and fluid looking sterling silver animal pendants that hang from snake chains by jewelry designer Markus Diebel!

He’s artfully rendered a dog, a sloth, a gorilla and a bat in 100% sterling silver in his San Francisco studio and to make them even more desirable, 5% of sales of each piece benefit WildAid, a nonprofit dedicated to ending illegal wildlife trade within our lifetimes.

Images of each Manymal are shown from front and back below:

The SF-based organization has chapters worldwide, including Galapagos and China. Details on Markus’s creatures —Sloth, Bat, Gorilla and Pug— are detailed on the backside of his innovative black bubble packaging. Solid silver on a sterling chain.

• Packaging: Innovative black card bubble pack.
• Size: Chain (from clasp to charm) 13.5"
• This item normally ships in 3-4 days.

Exclusive to the A+R store, $260.00 each. Buy them here.