Posts Tagged jewelry
Moonlight of Saturn
Posted by Danielle in Fashion & Accessories on September 6, 2011
Steampunk? Saturn? Why yes, I’ll have some of that!
A brass Saturn is surrounded by gears and red Swarovski Crystal Moonlets. An antique pocket watch movement and a hand tooled filigree serve as the base in this piece.
GIVEAWAY WINNER: STS-133 Charm!
Congratulations to STS-133 charm WINNER, comment #2 – Joi!! :D
GIVEAWAY: STS-133 Sterling Silver Charm by Aviation Jewelry Designs

After watching space shuttle Discovery launch on its final mission (STS-133) in February, I definitely wanted a more permanent “souvenir” of my experience. Shirts fade, lapel pins get lost, stickers are… stuck to things. JEWELRY, on the other hand, LASTS FOREVER. (Or at least, a lot longer. And we already know I’ve got a thing for jewelry…)
When I first laid eyes on the STS-133 Special Edition Pendant by Aviation Jewelry Designs, I knew I wanted one. Once I saw it in person in November, on a tweep — memorably, in the Vehicle Assembly Building — I knew I had to have one. More precisely, I vowed that once I saw Discovery launch (which was, even at that early point, becoming questionable) I would buy myself one. It was everything I could wish for, and I’m incredibly pleased with the size, heft and lovely detail of the piece. I anticipate wearing it a lot.
I happen to have the pendant’s smaller version, the STS-133 Sterling Silver Charm, sitting right here on my desk, destined to go to one of you lovely visitors!! This charm is about the size of a nickel, and has been fitted with a sterling silver bail to be worn as a pendant. PLEASE NOTE: This charm lists Bowen and not Kopra as part of the crew. Edited to add: The orbiter rises up from the surface of the charm, so there’s lovely depth to the piece!
This piece was generously donated by Aviation Jewelry Designs (thank you so much for this opportunity!) AJD makes gorgeously-detailed aviation jewelry, and I highly recommend you check out their offerings. They are an awesome company, with terrific customer service, and I think I could easily buy any future shuttle-y/spacey items they may offer.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment on this entry (valid email please!) I will choose a random comment on June 10, 2011 using the Random.org random number generator. Winner will be posted on this entry, announced on Twitter and contacted by email for delivery arrangements. Best of luck!
One entry per person. Duplicate comments/entries will be deleted. Play nice, this is my first giveaway!
Edited to add: Since I can’t comment back to anyone, I’m posting answers to questions here:
- Pam: My pendant (the larger size) is slightly larger than a quarter, and more finely detailed.
- Janelle: One of the NASA Tweetup tweeps commissioned AJD to make a 133 pendant, and that was their first “shuttle” piece as far as I know. The owner said he was planning to make 135, and was working on a piece celebrating all the shuttles. He also does custom work, so if you want something in particular, he can most likely do it! :)
Galactic Rings
Posted by Danielle in Fashion & Accessories on February 17, 2011
Here’s a couple of space-inspired rings for your Thursday! I guess I’m in a jewelry mood. Normally this would be my every-other-weekly crafting session, this morning, but we’re having a snow day.
Above, you can’t go wrong with lapis lazuli (the sky, the stars….) Below, a terrific wire-work spiral galaxy for the finger. (I have no desire to learn wire—more of a stringing person, myself—but it’s beautiful stuff!)
Retro Rockets
Posted by Danielle in Fashion & Accessories on December 16, 2010
Retro-Rockets.com has some terrific rocket jewelry designs, lovingly crafted in Los Cruces, NM. The sentiments they express in their mission statement are, well, very near and dear to my heart. Check them out!
Our exclusive designs feature a nostalgic take on the Fantastic Future that was in the imaginations of artists, authors, scientists and futurists. Space was the goal, the ultimate destination for the aspirations of humanity – not as an escape, but as a blank slate for the bright tomorrow imagined as a time that was just around the corner.
Mooncrafts, part 2
Posted by Danielle in Crafts & Hobbies, Fashion & Accessories, Home & Office on December 2, 2010
Last week’s Mooncrafts post was such a rollicking good time (okay, for me I mean), that I decided to post another segment! First up, a set of rings, one featuring Mokume-gane (“wood-grain metal”) in a raindrop pattern, which does well as a lunar-crater pattern too (in my opinion.)
Next up, a lunar surface pendant:
The listing itself is short on description, but it features “craters” in sterling silver, a small faceted sapphire, and a bumpy lunar “surface” of botryoidal azurite (the blue sibling of malachite.) I am giving you all these links because minerals and gemstones are important to me, and I would be remiss if I didn’t satisfy your curiosity with explanations of the terms, should you be curious. Besides, it’s not every day you run into a weird word like botryoidal!
Finally, one might call this last item a stretch, in terms of its “lunar-ness”, but it reminds me of funky sci-fi movie sets, and has the word “lunar” in the title, so I am letting it pass. That it is raku probably helped its chances, in my particular case:
In truth, I definitely think this should be an artifact from an ancient lunar civilization, or perhaps a future civilization that was somehow punted through a time distortion to land in the year 2010. Would have this in my office in a heartbeat.
Space Craft
Part two of my NASA Etsy contest feature, this first image is a needle-felted rendition of Hubble Servicing Mission 4, EVA 4 by the highly talented FlyingJenny. Beautiful work!
This is a needle felted rendition of a scene from the Hubble Servicing Mission 4, which took place in May of 2009. Specifically this wool sculpture shows the fourth Extra Vehicular Activity, or spacewalk, of that mission. This spacewalk was conducted by astronauts Mike Massimino (the first astronaut to send a tweet from space, also known as @Astro_Mike) and Mike Good, whose nickname is Bueno. One of the memorable moments of this EVA was when one of Hubble’s handrails was in the way and they were unable to remove it. After much deliberation and testing on the ground, Mike Massimino was given the okay to forcibly break off the handrail- as people all over the world watched with great interest.
Next up, an unusual (but AWESOME) decoupage necklace:
Wear your deep pride for the first walk on the moon (and Apollo space missions!) with this, “The stars my destination” decoupaged necklace…Postage and vintage dictionary paper were applied by me, and my fingers, onto vintage watch crystals, and a few watch parts (disguised as satellites) are also part of this delicious fest of aqua and pearls and moon beams…reach for the sky, cowboy!
Finally, slightly more subtle, a lovely starry side-table:
What I love about this table is that, once you locate the North Star and press it, a secret drawer is revealed:
The circular brass inlay represents the stars in the night sky on the evening of the first moon landing, and identifying the “North Star” is the key to opening the hidden drawer.
Don’t forget to vote today in the NASA Etsy contest!
Mooncrafts
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture, Crafts & Hobbies, Fashion & Accessories on November 25, 2010
More amazing space crafts are up for voting in the NASA Etsy craft contest — I’m featuring several over the next two days because there’s some amazing stuff to see! The first two photos are of an amazing high-texture embroidery of the Moon. It’s really worth looking at the rest of the images on the listing, to get a feel for the range of texture and stitches involved!
Next, a fantastic moon crater ring! I’ve tagged this “for men” because it’s a size 11.5. If you’re a woman and you can wear it, by all means! (And wow, you have bigger fingers than me… and I have big hands!)
Last but not least, two of my favorite things combine in a beautiful art piece, a raku-fired ceramic lunar crater:
Vote today for these and many other amazing things, as part of the NASA Etsy contest!
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
I’ve had gemstones on the brain today (more so than normal, I mean), after reading about the $45.6M sale of this Fancy Intense Pink diamond at Sotheby’s on Tuesday (if you like sparkly things, watch the video. SPARK. LY. THINGS.) Annnnnyway, I keep going back to Etsy to visit this stunning planetary ring, so I might as well post it so I can continue to admire it long after it sells. Really, it merits going to the listing and looking through all the photos, as every angle has lovely and interesting detail.
This ring is the penultimate in the evolution of a ten year design process. In order to achieve a “Celestial” look, I must make this ring the hard way. Each dot or “star” is actually a small hole bored through the Ti ring itself and then riveted with Fine Silver. Silver, being the whitest of all metals, is a great stand-in for stars as well as the perfect contrast to the gunmetal gray of Titanium. The Yellow Diamond Sun and the White Diamond Moon are each set into metals of opposing colors to reflect the yin/yang nature of the universe as I see it. The planets are each represented by historically corresponding metals; 14K Pink Gold stands for the planets of Mercury and Mars; Fine Silver stands for Venus and Jupiter, and 18K yellow Gold represents Saturn. This ring is the best example, to date, of what I have been striving for, a subdued astronomical look of many small and even smaller dots punctuated by different metals as planets in a sea of stars.
Kudos to Patrick Burt for his stunning creation!
Spacemen Ring
Posted by Danielle in Currency & Postage, Fashion & Accessories on September 15, 2010
Found something a bit unusual today — it’s a seal ring, it’s a coin ring, IT’S BOTH.
I made this silver ring by the impression (in wax) of a Mongolian coin. The original coin was minted in 1981 (the 20 years anniversary of first human flight in space.) The coin depicts the Mongolian spaceman, Jugderdemidiyn Gurragchaa and his Soviet fellow, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dzhanibekov.
Not your average, every-day ring find! And for interest’s sake, here’s the coin itself:




















This blog celebrates space exploration, human spaceflight and the heavens, through
My name is Danielle Signor, and I am a space cadet. 









