I don’t often get to do projects for fun AND profit. This particular piece was made for one of my good friends. Her boyfriend knew she wanted a “Leah Ashley Original” and he wanted to make her dream come true. He gave me a budget and a timeline, and nothing else.

For some people, that sounds like a dream–NO GUIDELINES!! But it is surprisingly hard to come up with an awesome design without ANY direction.

Most clients come to me with some pictures or at least some ideas of what they want the finished piece to look like. For the most part, their concern is more the overall look and not the specific stones that will go into the piece. Because I had no ideas, I decided to start with the stone for this project instead.

I started looking at what my sources had to offer in a stone that was unique in shape or color that wouldn’t be too expensive (I did have a budget after all.) I found a 6 sided iolite that I thought would fit my friend’s personality completely. The stone had a unique shape and a gorgeous blue/purple color that wasn’t too saturated. She tends to wear more “jewel” tones, rather than the fall colors that I tend to wear, so this stone would match perfectly with most of her wardrobe. Then I had to come up with a design.

It can be hard to dissect your own artwork and pull out what your own style is. I knew that when my friend said she wanted a “Leah Ashley Original” she wanted something in “My” style. I just had to figure out what that was. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided that what she meant was that I like metal. My pieces do of course have gemstones in them, but I like to use a lot of metal also to create a design that is more than the stone. I also like very clean and modern designs.

I came up with a few options to fit the stone I had chosen and sent them over to her boyfriend.

The first one had sort of an Asian feel because my friend lived in Japan for awhile and loves everything Japanese.

The second was simple from the top, but with a very chic, modern design on the sides.

He really liked the second one but, because he is a big dork (He He), he wondered if we could change the shape to make it look more like a “V.” So I did.

He loved it and we went ahead with manufacturing!

The final piece turned out even better than I imagined. The stone is an 8mm hexagon shaped Iolite and the metal is 14K White Gold. My friend loves the piece and her boyfriend earned lots of points for making one of her dreams come true!

My husband is a web developer and he has been bugging me for awhile to design these pendants. He wanted one for the Firefox logo (firefox is an internet browser) and one for the Chrome logo (Google Chrome is another web browser.) So I finally decided to comply.

These are just renders but I could of course make them if anyone is interested!

Last week I was in the Midlands Business Journal! Check out the actual article here:

The article read:

“With the jewelry industry throwing obstacles to jewelers from all directions, custom jeweler Leah Ashley Jewelry Designs holds strong to a niche of one-of-a-kind pieces.
Designer and owner Leah Sjostrom Ashley developed the company after submitting to the desire to branch off from her background of designing for others.
Through www.leahashley.com, customers can undergo a consultation to have a custom piece designed.
‘Clients contact me with the pieces that they want, and I go through the specifics of what they want, ask for pictures, stones, metals–the price that they’re trying to fit,’ Ashley said.
Ashley, who received her training from the Gemological Institute of America, boasts her jewelry from designs created through a program that creates a realistic representation of a piece.
‘I do the design on the computer so I can hand them renders before they have to pay for anything,’ she said.
Grabbing the appeal of consumers looking for one-of-a-kind jewelry, Leah Ashley Jewelry has worked with individuals worldwide.
‘I’ve shipped a couple things to Australia and I’ve shipped to the Czech Republic and all over the United States,’ Ashley said.
Once a design is finalized, the jewelry is ready to be manufactured, which takes approximately two to three weeks.
‘I send the file out to get cast and then I finish it with another jeweler here in Omaha,’ Ashley said. ‘I order stones per piece–I have some in stock but most of it is based on each client.’
Maintaining all manufacturing within the U.S., Ashley has to consistently battle rising costs of materials.
‘Gold is through the roof high and even silver is getting expensive,’ she said. ‘Unfortunately because I do everything one piece each, I can’t spread the cost over several pieces.’
Ashley also has to compete with other jewelers who outsource labor to other countries for lower costs.
‘I want to keep within the U.S. to support the U.S. economy and for control,’ she said.
With ideals in place, Ashley has grown as a nontraditional business through Twitter and other Internet and social media-based avenues.
‘I did buy an ad last year at offbeatbride.com which still pushes traffic to my website,’ Ashley said.
Focusing marketing has also helped to differentiate the business from other types of handmade jewelry.
‘I think the biggest thing people don’t understand is when you say custom jewelry, they think of a lot of silver wrapping,’ she said. ‘What I do is fine jewelry designing, the same thing you see in the store.’
As for trends in the jewelry industry, Ashley finds going against the grain the best approach for the business.
‘I think because I do custom work, people come to me when they want something that is not a trend,’ she said.
Requests have ranged from a flower-shaped engagement ring to a simple, sleek band.
‘I can’t say there is any certain pattern,’ she said of customer requests.
In fact, while often receiving requests for engagement rings, she has only done one ring with a diamond setting thus far.
‘The type of people I usually deal with are younger who want something different, people who are slightly off of the beaten path,’ Ashley said.
Leah Ashley Jewelry is also focused on providing design software not often used in the Midwest.
‘Really if you want that technology you have to go to L.A. or New York, and I’m doing it here,’ she said.
Ashley grew up in Wauwatosa, Wis., and later attended art school at the University of Iowa. She later enrolled in the applied jewelry arts program at the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, Calif.
She went on to work for a jewelry store in Carlsbad before moving to Omaha with her husband. She worked for Brodkey’s until she was able to get her business up and running.”

So much fun to be recognized as a real business owner!!

I love all of my clients, but this couple was especially amazing. The bride to be contacted me first to start talking about designs. I ended up meeting with both her and her boy a couple of times since they also live in Omaha and they were so sweet!

She put together a collage of rings ideas she had found that she liked and we went from there. She knew she wanted an opal for her center stone and was willing to take the risk of having a soft center stone. She also liked the idea of sapphire but didn’t HAVE to have one. I took her ideas and put together several designs for them to look at.

After a lot of consideration, they both decided that the 4th design was “their ring.” Then the question was diamonds or sapphires for the side stones and what size center stone. I brought in opals in 5mm and 6mm along with diamonds and sapphires that could go on the sides and let them decide when they could actually see the color combinations in person. He didn’t want her to know exactly what she was going to get before the ring was actually finished so it was his choice, but it was pretty obvious when she saw the stones, which combination she preferred.

The final piece is done in platinum with a 5mm genuine opal in the center with pear shaped diamonds on the sides. The opal I found (and they chose) has amazing color play. Here are the stones and the casting before the piece was finished.

The piece came out amazing! I can’t wait to hopefully work with this couple again!

I love making jewelry, especially engagement rings, that are truly unique and fit perfectly for the person who will be wearing them.

A client contacted me several weeks ago for just such a job. His girlfriend wanted something floral looking and did not want a diamond for her center stone. He was debating between a sapphire and an emerald for the center but was still ok with diamond side stones, maybe. After hearing about emeralds being softer stones than sapphires and that an emerald could scratch or break, he decided to go with a sapphire for the center stone. He had seen this design of mine on a different website:

but he thought maybe larger stones that looked like leaves would be neat instead of the metal leaves. I sent him 2 different designs to look at.

He loved the second design and after some discussion, we decided to use tzavorites (green garnets) for the side stones.

I don’t always get excited when I see a casting because I did the design and know what to expect, but this piece was an exception. When I got the casting and stones I couldn’t wait to see the finished piece.

The finished piece turned out amazing. The blue of the sapphire and the green of the tsavorites fit together perfectly and the vine-y look of the metal was gorgeous.

I can’t wait to hear what she thinks of the ring and hopefully work on wedding bands!