Designer Feature: Suzanna Dai

A friend of mine recently asked me to help her choose earrings for her wedding.  She was after sparkles but not white crystal rubbish, something with a bit more colour and a lot more elegance.
My internet trawlings led me to come across Suzanna Dai, via Boticca.com
Her pieces are so utterly amaze-balls that I just had to share them with you all.

Suzanna Dai's pieces are inspired by her travel and have a glamourous"old-world" appeal.  She uses beautiful stones and metallic thread to create these intricately embroided pieces.
 

Worn by Blake Lively on GG

But if wedding earrings aren't really your thing just yet, she also embroiders with our favourite, turqouise!

 

 

 

More amazing earrings in an array of colours...

 

 

 And AH-MAH-ZING necklaces...

 

Worn by Rachel Rae

 

Worn by Sarah-Michelle Gellar

 

The sad news, pieces via Boticca.com start at $150, however you can jag some sale items from $50 at the artists page www.suzannadai.com (which is awesome for unique designer pieces)
To check out her full range (and we all should, just be careful with the budget) visit...
www.suzannadai.com or http://boticca.com/suzannadai/all/#pieces

Don't drool too much.
Until next time,
Enjoy.
Love Elle Effe

Topaz is tops for babes born in November

Who first comes to this world below
With drear November's fog and snow,
Should prize the topaz's amber hue,
Emblem of friends and lovers true.

Topaz can be found in a variety of colours from clear to orange to blue, however the precious topaz, and traditional stone for November, is the orange.

Topaz can be cut roughly or shaped in a variety of crystal formations.
Here I have featured a couple of different shapes and styles of topaz jewellery for inspiration for our November chics.

Enjoy,
Elle Effe xo

Subscribe to The Act of Adorning by Email

Earring Comp Closed! And the winner is...

Massive thanks to everyone who signed up to follow my blog! You will always be in the know with all this fab in the jewellery world! With the help of my impartial boyfriend the winner was drawn.... And lucky Courtney will be getting some earrings sent her way! Woohoo! Keep your eyes peeled for more comps in the future and quizzes and all things gorgeous in my wonderful jewellery filled world.
Love Elle Effe!

Sign up to win!!!!

These awesome Aztec inspired gold earrings could be yours, all for a simple sign up.

All you have to do is use your Google (or gmail) account to sign up to follow my blog or sign up to receive email updates (see items in right column).  Emails updates will not be junk and you only get sent an email when I post something new on the blog, so you will always be up to date on all things gorgeous!

Competition will close on MIDNIGHT Friday 19th October 2012, so sign on by then and these babies could be coming your way!

Love Elle Effe x
 

Subscribe to The Act of Adorning by Email

Opals for October

Welcome to my first post for birthstones.  I'm going to run this topic each month for the next twelve months to showcase some beautiful ways to wear our traditional birthstones.

The history of birthstones stem way back into the ages, wiki even referenced the first century! And the stone for each month may differ depending on where you look. Also, there is a whole other theory that matches birthstones to the zodiac which does not correlate whatsoever to the list that I am going to use.
In the essence of being 100% true to history I am using the oldest list I can find.
The stone for October is Opal.

A gregorian poem captured this and the verse for this month is...

October's child is born for woe,
And life's vicissitudes must know,
But lay an opal on her breast,
And hope will lull those woes to rest.

Whilst opals tend to be a bit of a Nanna/tourist gem, they do have some beautiful shades for us to embrace.  I have traipsed the web to showcase some more fashionable ways of wearing opals.

Enjoy. Elle Effe.

Busy Phillips in Irene Neuworth

Another gorgeous Irene Neuworth Necklace (www.ireneneuworth.com), almost spat out my tea when I saw th price of this baby!  Lets say, similar to a sportscar...



Coralia Leets opal earrings, available from www.charmandchain.com, $193



Voodoo Erzulie Ring $349 from www.boticca.com



YooLa earrings from www.boticca.com $45, also available in a variety of other shades.



Dannijo earrings from www.charmandchain.com

MBFF Brisbane Accessories Wrap Up

So the weekend saw the wrapping up of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival at Brisbane's Treasury Casino.  I was lucky enough to catch a few shows.  The Emerging Designer Group Show and Mercedes Benz Group Show on Thursday night.

 

A big crew of us caught up to catch the lovely Erin Hassall (www.erinhassall.com.au) release her new line...

Such beautiful new prints for summer and some stunning necklaces from Sistaco (www.sistaco.com).

 

Other notable mentions for accessories in the Emerging Designer show were, Shakah for some amazing tribal inspired neckpieces...

 

Isabella Longinou showcased some empire-style shoulder grazing earrings... (and beautiful cut out dresses)

 

Kip and Brand (www.kipandbrand.com) fashioned some very different ways to wear our favourite leather cuffs.

 

And Begitta (http://shop.begitta.com) went the Spring route with towering flower head-dresses and delightful floral chokers.

 

 

One of my favourite Brizzy accessory stores, Adorne, showed a range of their Spring/Summer stock which was absolutely drool worthy.

They covered pretty much every style you could expect to want to drape yourself with as the weather heats up.

Good news for me, turquoise is still in, mixing it with golds or the new stone of the season coral...

 

But if you have a liking for this new gorgeous new colour for spring, why not make it the standout of the outfit.  As always I'm going to tell you to wear lots of it! And to make it stand out were over neutral colours.

 

 Multicoloured mixed beaded layer upon layer also walked down the runway and into my heart, for somthing a bit more casual and fun for our days in the sun to come....

  

 

 Or you could try your hand at some chunky nautical beads...

 

Silver was showcased as the main metal for the season, mixed with black or white beads and worn layer upon layer at varying lengths.  Silver works in well with most neutral and even bright colours for summer.

 

 

 Other notable mentions from the Mercedes Benz Group Show include Surafina for the flower pom pom headpieces, I'm making myself one of these for the race season...

 

 And I just had to mention Lisa Brown, because the colours and prints were just beautiful and they were matched perfectly with large gemstone pendants

 

 For the shows I didn't get the time to attend, I have trawled the images to bring you the snapshot of what other designers are adorning with this season.

 

Colin Heaney went turquoise, wood, bone and tribal...

 Stephanie Caltabiano (finalist in Australian Fashion Graduate of the Year) went with the coral theme

 Alice Waugh (another Fashion Graduate) showed us more turquoise, spikes and geometric neckpieces.

(This has gotta be one of my faves, adding to Christmas wishlist as we speak)

 EP by Easton Pearson, rocked the pompoms

 

and finally Threadbare.co went for neon and brights!

 

 All images are courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane 2012 (www.mbff.com.au) because my fashion photography skills just aren't up to scratch yet.

 

Finally, here I am with my two lovely ladies Gemma and Brodie, showing them how the adorning thing is really done...

Sorry its been so long between drinks, I hope this awfully long post makes up for it.

Until next time... Elle Effe xoxoxo