The Love Story Necklace Gets Married

Last Spring I launched a little competition. I asked brides-to-be to tell me their love story. The winner would receive a custom made Love Story Necklace - inspired by their personal love story, made just for them to wear on their wedding day.

I ended up picking two winning love stories.

Gracie - who fell in love with Steve, two years after she experienced an incredible heartbreak when her fiance called off their wedding just 3 weeks before the day. How do you bounce back from that and risk your heart again?......I'm not sure. I have such great admiration for Gracie's ability to trust and open her heart completely again. Love although amazing, is such a risk.

This past year I have been healing a broken heart myself.......our ending was mutual....but only because of something that couldn't be solved while staying together........ so we fell apart. I know I'm through the worst of it, but it is still hard to not look back. I have moments where I just feel stuck. A friend of mine told me that it is okay to feel stuck and that one day when I'm ready I will just take a step because it feels right, and something inside of me will change. I know I've taken lots of little steps, and even some incredible crane like swoops. I think there is a secret beauty that sits in heartbreak and only those of us who have sat deeply in the pain get to know that beauty.

I can only imagine how tough it would have been for Gracie to take that blind step, to let herself move out of the heartbreak and trust enough to fall completely in love. She's incredible and I was so honored to make her Love Story Necklace. She looked beautiful in it.......




Then there was Amanda - who fell in love with Matt and he was right by her side when she faced the fear of finding a lump in her breast. Life is incredible - the highs are heady and delicious....the lows are crushing and cold. I've had some complicated health issues myself for the past few months.....our careers, our travels, our fun, our connections are all very important to a balanced life....but having someone there who will stick by your side when you're scared and at your lowest is magic. I was moved by Amanda and Matt's strength as a couple and I was thrilled to have The Love Story Necklace be a part of their amazing day. Amanda looked perfect in it........






Gracie's photos www.selectphotography.com
Amanda's photos www.johndudak.com

Amanda's Love Story Necklace

This is Amanda's finished Love Story Necklace, for her to wear on her wedding day. Amanda was one of the two winners from my Love Story Necklace Contest, where I asked brides to be to tell me their love story in order to win a custom wedding necklace.


Amanda's beautiful love story filled with pain and strength, twists and turns, and the photo below inspired the design for this Love Story Necklace.

The sweetest moment of a relationship captured.

honesty. playfulness. trust. fun. strength.

I designed Amanda's necklace while reflecting on this moment. I think that a partnership, a marriage is about making life a little easier for each other. I know, I know.....relationships and marriage are not easy, far from it. But I do believe that because of these moments they become worth the work. Having someone there to pick you up when you fall, to make you laugh when you hate the world, to hold your hand when you're getting blood taken is............ kind of nice.

Life is risky. We take risks every day. My generation is skeptical of marriage. We've seen a lot of failed marriages and many of us are unsure if it is worth the risk. I think it is though. I know that love is amazing, falling in love is pretty damn fun, and loving someone with all of your heart and feeling that love in return feels incredible. When we take risks every day of our lives, why wouldn't we take a risk on one of the most amazing feelings we get to experience in this world? Why not take a risk on love?

One of my favourite inspirational life coaches and blogger Stacy Curnow posted this quote by poet Mary Oliver on her blog the other day and I think it is perfect:

To live in this world, you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones
knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

-Mary Oliver

Gracie's Love Story Necklace for her Wedding Day

I am so pleased to share that Gracie's Love Story Necklace is complete. Gracie was one of the two winners of my Love Story Necklace Contest.


When I emailed Gracie and told her that she was one of the two winners these were her words,
"I am so excited to be chosen! Thank you so so much!!! This really means a lot to me, I am glad my story touched you. I can not wait to see the finished product and wear it for my wedding day! I look forward to the process of creating something truly original. Thank you a million times over! You made my day!" - Gracie

There is just nothing better then the feeling of knowing that you made someones day.

After choosing Gracie and Steve's inspiring Love Story, I gathered more information about their unique wedding day and I designed a Love Story Necklace that was one of a kind and exquisite just like Gracie.


Then I spent about......4 days in my studio constructing the necklace.

Lots of hammering, twisting, turning, bending.......

I use my torch to solder each of the pieces together. Lots of careful positioning, adjusting, and patience.

I solder each wire onto the necklace base which will hold the pearls, the little red dots are felt pen marks to show me where to solder each wire......I like a lot of pearls......

I hand polish the piece, using my flex shaft, a felt wheel and 3 different polishing compounds.

I use a silk screen to sift the powdered enamel in a pattern onto the sterling silver circles. I used a thistle pattern and chocolate brown enamel for Gracie's necklace.

I fire the piece with my torch until the enamel flows and fuses to the silver.

Then there is about a gazillion other little steps that I do to finish the piece and once I have made some changes, tried it on a few lovely necks around my studio, and thoroughly examined every aspect of the piece I can officially say It is finished and AMAZING!

Living The Creative Life

I have spent the past three days in my studio making Gracie's Love Story Necklace. It has felt fantastic to be locked up in my creative space, surrounded only by other artists working, amazing art everywhere I look, and my own creative ideas flowing.

I am sooooo close to finishing Gracie's Love Story Necklace. It's turning out fairly amazing. I was hoping to have it finished today, but I figure two more nights of final touches and I will be able to show it off.

Being able to spend the last three days focusing only on my creative passion, making jewelry, has felt incredible. Sometimes it is easy for me to get caught in the tunnel of "I shoulds", I should be blogging more, I should be tweeting more, I should have more facebook fans, I should have more stores, I should be doing what everyone else is doing.........It is an easy place for my mind to get stuck in, but it is a tunnel. It keeps going around in circles and the only way for me to get out is to physically do something about it. Picking myself up and moving my whole body to my studio does it. I start to tap on some metal, I start to play with some stones, sketch some designs and I remember what I am doing. I remember that life is about finding the things that you love to do and to keep doing them over and over again. It is so easy for all of us to get stuck in our "I shoulds", but those things will happen. I will get more facebook fans, I will get more stores, but to get there I need to keep doing what I love, what I'm good at, and what feeds my soul. I need to keep creating.

A fellow artist and blogger, Lori Koop shared this video link on her blog this week and I thought I would pass it along. It is Elizabeth Gilbert speaking about nurturing your creativity. I found it insightful, funny, and honest. Definitely worth the watch.

Custom Making A Love Story Necklace

What’s so special about having a custom necklace made for your wedding day?

When I was a little girl my Nana, who lived in Australia used to send my sister and I gifts of jewelry for our birthday every year. We never were given the exact same piece, which caused more then a few sisterly fights. But now I look back on it and so appreciate that each piece was chosen just for me. Because of who my Nana saw that I uniquely was, she chose something that was intended to be special, unique and truly me. I still have all of these jewels and they are beautiful memories that I will always cherish, and one day will hopefully pass on to my future daughter or granddaughter.

For your wedding day jewelry you could easily go out and choose from a gazillion pre-made necklaces that very well could look quite lovely on the big day. But by infusing how unique and special you are into a piece of custom made jewelry, you can make your wedding day even more personal, unique, and memorable. I think that the jewelry you wear on your wedding day is just as important as your wedding dress. I know I’m a little jewelry biased, but maybe it’s even a little more important. The thing is, you really can wear your wedding jewelry again for another special event, say maybe on your 10 year anniversary?. And in the case of the Love Story Necklace, it is also a piece that not only represents who you are, but also symbolizes who you and your partner are as a couple and the road that you traveled to meet each other.

I am in the process of designing Gracie’s Love Story Necklace for her wedding day. Gracie was one of the lucky winners of my Love Story Necklace Contest. The Love Story Necklace is the perfect necklace for a bride like Gracie, a bride who has been through a lot, but who has always believed in love. Gracie’s unique love story, was the initial inspiration for my design for her necklace. I then asked Gracie to send me pictures and details of her wedding. Gracie told me that her wedding is taking place at the Wine & Roses Country Estate in Auburn, WA. The ceremony will take place on the lawn in front of the farmhouse and reception inside the old barn. The theme is woodland/ rustic. Lots of moss, twigs, mason jars, and wild flowers. The color scheme is greens, creams and brown.



Doesn’t that sound just about perfect?! She also sent me a picture of her fun, beautiful wedding dress and to die for shoes. I can’t show you the picture of the wedding dress, since that will, of course be a surprise on the big day, but I can show you the shoes, which are pretty amazing, and of course, I am loving this girl’s tattoos!


So, armed with Gracie’s inspiring love story, and pictures of her unique dress, shoes, and perfectly rustic wedding venue. I sat down and started to design her necklace. This is what the final sketch looked like.


The necklace will be hand constructed in sterling silver. I use a square wire and hammer out the shape of the necklace, twisting and turning it in all the right places as I hammer it. I will use a combination of white and chocolate brown freshwater pearls and then chocolate brown enamel for the pattern on the silver circles.

This necklace will be truly one of a kind. This necklace is Gracie’s Love Story Necklace. It is unique and exquisite just like Gracie. It has been inspired by the highs and lows, twists and turns in Gracie and Steve’s love story and the love and beauty that they have put into planning their unique wedding. They will have this necklace that represents their unique love for each other to cherish forever.

Next week I will be posting pictures of me making the necklace and of the finished piece!

For my other one of a kind custom made necklaces from my wedding collection check out my etsy store and please feel free to contact me with any questions.

To get notified the next time I launch a super great contest like the Love Story Necklace Contest join my facebook fan page.

The Love Story Necklace Contest Winning Stories Part 2

Today I want to share the second winning story from the Love Story Necklace Contest. I ended up choosing two winning stories for very different reasons. They each in their own way really embodied what the Love Story Necklace is all about.

Amanda's Love Story -
Matt and I weren't supposed to meet, fall in love, or get married. We are 95.7% opposites. We met through MySpace for crying out loud! I met Matt my junior year in college. I wasn't looking for a relationship and he was so I blew him off at first. Then when he wrote to me again asking to get ice cream, I caved and after meeting him, I was done.

We moved in together right after i graduated college and were happy for awhile, then it started to get hard. We were living in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment with no privacy, nowhere to be alone and it was just too much of each other and it really brought out our differences. So I moved out and back home with my parents, thinking that was it, it was over.

We still talked and neither of us were dating other people. We decided to start going out on dates again and doing things together that we both liked instead of being apart. Things got better so I moved back before Christmas. We then started looking for a home together and found one.

The following January we were laying in bed reading and I had a pain in my chest. I felt around and found a lump the size of a large walnut. I instantly knew something was very wrong and started crying, breast cancer runs in my family and I was only 25. My cousin died at age 26 from cancer, this couldn't be happening to me. Matt held me and told me that no matter what he loved me and would always be there for me. I said even if I lose all my hair? He said he'd shave his head too. At that point I knew I had found the man that would stand beside me no matter what. After tons of appointments and biopsy's the tests thought it was benign but they had to take it out to be sure because of it's size and shape. I had surgery and Matt was there to nurse me back to health, change my bandages and just be there for me. The tests came back 100% benign and we finally breathed easy again.

That August we went hiking to our favorite waterfall, hidden from the general public, we had found it on our third date. We hiked down with our tripod and camera to take some photos. After many shots Matt told me to stand still so he could get one of us together, there in front of the most beautiful spot he asked me to be his wife, through sickness and health, whatever lies ahead. We are now planning our dream fall wedding for October 16, 2010. This Love Story necklace is perfect for me to wear because it symbolizes the twists and turns that we've had in our relationship, but no matter what it's one piece that will stay together forever, like us.
What I loved about Amanda's story was that the two of them have been through so much as a couple. Relationships, although amazing are hard and I think it takes great compassion and great strength for a couple to fall apart and then come back together. A little over a month ago one of my closest friends was diagnosed with a brain tumor, thankfully it also turned out to be benign. Life is scary and short, and it is the people and the love that we choose to have in our life that make it incredible and a little less scary. I would say that Amanda and Matt are a pretty inspiring and courageous couple. I am honoured to be making Amanda a Love Story Necklace to wear on her wedding day.

I wanted to share with you another inspiring and courageous woman and artist, Kerri Smith - I am loving her blog these days www.kerrismith.com

Also for all of my brides-to-be I thought you might like this very pretty blog for a little wedding inspiration www.weddingchicks.com

The Love Story Necklace Contest Winning Stories

My inspiration for creating my first Love Story Necklace came to me when I was reflecting on why love and life have never been easy for me. Didn’t someone convince me when I was 6 that eventually life would be happily ever after? I decided to do some research on love, so I watched all of my favourite love stories; Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Bed of Roses, Love Story. These were the movies that had taught me what love was and shaped my ideals of love. After spending a weekend watching these and a few other favourites, I realized that all of my favourite love stories were, like my life, complicated. They had amazing highs and devastating lows, but what survived in each of them was the ability to believe in love even when life was at its darkest. I became inspired to create unique pieces of art that honored the curving, unique path that relationships can take us on.

About a month ago I asked brides-to-be to tell me the twists and turns of their love story in order to win a custom made Love Story Necklace to wear on their wedding day. I was amazed with how many women connected with the Love Story Necklace and shared their amazing stories with me. I thank each of you who entered, it was such a hard decision. I fell in love with every story. In the end I picked two winning stories for very different reasons. Today I will share one of the winning stories and I will share the other one tomorrow. Enjoy.

Gracie's Love Story -

I met Steven online. After going through the most traumatic experience of my life 2 years prior, I never thought I would date again, let alone get married. I had been engaged once before and the groom-to-be called it off over the phone just 3 short weeks before the day. I was completely beside myself, as was my family. I was finally able to get over the worst of it and started becoming interested in life again, and along with that came boys. I decided to sign myself up for eHarmony.com.

After a month of first dates that never went anywhere, I was matched with Steve. He was everything I had never dated before. I took a chance, honestly thinking it was probably not going to work out. He was cute, but we didn't seem to have much in common. I soon found out that didn’t matter. Besides feeling like I had known him forever, we had similar up bringing and morals and that was what we would build our relationship on and soon, our future family.We moved in together 7 months later. Merging our tastes and styles together has been a difficult task but we have met each other half way. Which really means, most of Steve's hand me down/bachelor pad decor went to Goodwill and I decorated the house.

The next month Steve and I decided to invite our families and friends over to our house for Steve's Birthday. I was stressing out about how we were going to fit everyone in our place. First to arrive at the house was Steve's dad John & family friend Dave. Steve told me that he was going to take them out to where he works and show them the construction site. I felt overwhelmed with getting everything ready but Steve promised he would be back in time when everyone showed up.

Over an hour later, everyone was at our house and Steve still wasn't back yet. I introduced the family and friends who hadn't met yet and got the show on the road. Finally Steve showed up and we started to BBQ. The food was great and everyone loved our new place. It couldn't have gone any better.(Or so i thought...)During all the mingling and chatting Steve and I barley saw each other. Looking back now... I would guess he was avoiding me. He was hanging out in the garage with the guys and the keg, probably trying to calm his nerves.

I called everyone into the kitchen for cake. We all gathered around Steve and sang happy birthday. Steve blew out the candles and thanked everyone for coming. He then continued to talk about how much everyone meant to him, especially me and the time we have shared together. I thought this seemed like a strange turn of events but it never occurred to me that he was about to pop the question. I stared at my mom and then my sister from across the room, thinking to myself "Where the heck is he going with this? Is it a birthday tradition in his family to make a speech or something?" Then he said something about the last 8 months being the best of his life and then i think my knees started shaking because I realized what was going on. Meanwhile I keep staring at my mom looking for some kind of clue as to if she was thinking the same thing. I turned my focus back to Steve and he was getting down on one knee in front of all our family and friends! Then he asked me to marry him. I honestly don't remember much after this point. According to the photos though, my mouth was hanging wide open and at some point I said yes.

It couldn't have been a more perfect proposal. I always wanted a surprise and for all my family to be there with me and I got exactly that. Turns out 98% of the guests at the party knew that he was going to propose. He bought the ring earlier that week and when he was "showing his dad the job site" they were actually picking up my engagement ring!He also asked my parents for their blessing earlier that week as well, which means the world to me. I can't believe my mom was able to keep it all a secret!

Our wedding is August 28, 2010 in Auburn ,Washington.

I am in the process of designing Gracie's Love Story Necklace and I'm soooo excited about it. I will be posting pictures of the design process and construction of the necklace over the next few weeks. I fell in love with Gracie's story because of her strength and resilience. I don't believe in happily ever after, I believe that life and love is about hard choices. We all get hurt, we all have our hearts broken, but with time, you choose to make your past the past and move forward. You choose to give love, you choose to embrace the incredible.

For more inspiration and the incredible, please enjoy these words by one of my favourite inspirational bloggers Danielle Laporte.

Love Story Necklace Contest Closing

Friday was the closing date for my Love Story Necklace Contest, originally launched on Offbeat Bride.com - where I asked brides-to-be to tell me their love story to try to win a custom made one of a kind Love Story Necklace. I am excited to pick a winner. I am also a little sad that I won't have beautiful love stories in my inbox every day.
How amazing, how complex, how exciting, how confusing, how incredible love is. I feel so touched that so many women were open and honest and shared their love stories with me. There is such beauty in each of them. Through reading all of the loves stories I have learned that our ability to love surpasses any amount of pain and heartache that we go through. I feel so touched and honored to have read each of the love stories that I received. Now, for the hard part, picking the winner....I'll keep you posted. I will be consulting with my creative team this week, I will be announcing the winner next week.

The Love Story Necklace Contest

I am so excited to be announcing.....
The Love Story Necklace Contest

The Love Story Necklace, just like any great love story is complicated. It has twists and turns, highs and lows, and has been hammered and polished.
It is the perfect necklace for a bride who has been through a lot but who has always believed in finding her true love.

The idea for the Love Story Necklace came to me when I realized that my favorite love stories are often complex and drawn out. I spent a weekend doing research. I watched all of my favorite romantic movies, the ones that have shaped my ideals of love, and I became inspired to create unique pieces of art that honored the curving, unique path that relationships can take us on.

The pieces that resulted were intricate, bold and highly original. Constructed from sterling silver, colourful enamel, and freshwater pearls, each Love Story Necklace, just like the story it was inspired by is truly one of a kind.

If you think that a Love Story Necklace is perfect for you, and you want to wear one on your wedding day, here’s your chance – all you have to do is tell me your love story in a maximum of 800 words.

My creative team and I will read the submissions and choose the one we feel most inspired by, and I will create a Love Story necklace based on it. The winning love story will receive a custom-made Love Story Necklace valued at $450, and the story will be posted on my blog. Good luck!

Contest details:

To enter please tell me:
1. Your love story in up to 800 words
2. Your wedding date
3. Please include a photo of you and your fiance

Submissions will be accepted until May 7th 2010.
Winner will be notified by May 21st 2010

Please send submissions to info@pkkdesign.com



Jewelry - Patsy Kay Kolesar Design
Photography - Abbye Dahl
Model - Jen Ryley JK Models
Hair Stylist - Natalia Pectu
Make-up Artist - Meagan Davidson

The Love Story Necklace........

The Love Story Necklace contest will be announced tomorrow.......................
Please sign up for my newsletter on the side if you would like to be the first to know about it.




Jewelry - Patsy Kay Kolesar
Photography - Abbye Dahl
Model - Natalie Standke
Hair Stylist - Natalia Pectu
Make-up Artist - Meagan Davidson
Dress - Oleana