Tom (the art director for Kalmbach's books department) is getting married in Vegas next Friday. His fiancée, Meg, wants some simple jewelry to go with the dress she's wearing. She likes Celtic designs and wants a combination of silver and green in a necklace, bracelet, and earrings.

I looked over the JPEGs she sent, then called Eclectica and asked if they had any silver Celtic knot pendants. Luckily, they did: Sandy found one and set it aside for me.

Tom and I went to Eclectica over lunch, and we both liked the pendant (thanks, Sandy!). This was a good sign and by no means a given; we tend to disagree over aesthetic matters — e.g., I like the Palatino font, he doesn't. You can never take design stuff for granted.
 
Eclectica has a huge selection of chain, but of course I wanted the simplest one I could find. I strung a few different cable chains through the bail, and we agreed on a style with 2.5mm flattened oval links. The chain is pretty and understated but also sparkles. Tom also liked how it matched the pendant.

I suggested we use the same chain in the bracelet and earrings. Because we weren't including anything green in the necklace, I didn't want a bracelet that was too bead-y.

Next, we looked for beads. My first choice: table-cut faceted glass drops in an erinite shade. Again, agreement from Tom — this was going better than I expected. I found a few options in 6mm Czech fire-polished round beads, and we picked a darkish erinite shade, ruling out others as being in the wrong color family.

How about a chain bracelet with two bead dangles? Sure. Three or five strands? Three. He likes odd numbers.

I found a lobster claw clasp for the necklace and suggested a heart-shaped clasp for the bracelet. Does Meg like hearts? Tom thought it'd be okay because this is her wedding jewelry. Sweet. (By the way, he is picky about clasps. When I showed him my "Pearls for girls" necklace from Cool Jewels, he told me he didn't like the finish on the clasp. Good eye. I changed it to — you guessed it — something simpler. A straightforward gold toggle.)

Another design detail: I hammered the soldered jump rings on the necklace and bracelet finishing. Tom likes the flatness of the pendant, the chain, and the jump rings. (This is also a design default for me: I prefer hammered jump rings because I think they look nicer and they're easier to clasp.)

Because the design process was so easy, it didn't take me long to whip up these pieces. So here they are.

Best wishes to Tom and Meg!