re:designed for...Karen

It may come as a bit of a surprise, but apparently other people are getting married besides Will & Kate! Incredibly ordinary folk are doing it too. And with that comes guests with wedding outfit dilemmas.  

Our lovely friend Karen contacted us a couple of weeks ago and asked if we could design a necklace to compliment her outfit for a friend's wedding at the end of April. No not that wedding. Her brief: "I need something to stop it looking too safe and sloaney."

After further consultation we set about designing a necklace to do just that...

commissioned couture neckcandii

The end result: a unique hand knitted wire work necklace embellished with vintage earrings, brooch, violet and dusky pink freshwater pearls and seed beads on chain.

Commissions
We are more than happy to discuss commissions. We can either re:design a vintage piece from our own collection or a special piece of your own. Get in touch via mail@armcandii.com and we'll take it from there.

New royal jewellery trends?

Only a few days until Wills marries Kate, will it be another fairytale wedding like his mother’s? And what jewellery will adorn the bride on her big day?


We all know that Kate has Princess Di’s engagement ring – an 18 carat gold ring bearing a beautiful blue sapphire surrounded by white diamonds. Wills is quoted as wanting to keep her memory alive and all the good things and good work that she did.

The fairytale princess reigned until 1997 when she died tragically. We all hope Kate’s marriage will be happier and last much longer!

We eagerly await to see what trends and style-setting Kate will start with her wedding jewellery.

armcandii now showing at Fisherton Mill

Hooray, we're installed! You can now 'try before you buy' if you head over to Fisherton Mill in Salisbury...

couture necklace

What weekends were made for

We're so excited...our jewellery will soon be available at Fisherton Mill. 

hand knitted wire cuff embellished with vintage pieces & freshwater pearls

For those of you who are not familiar with the Mill, it is the south of England's largest independent art gallery and features the work of over 300 artists and designer/makers. Formerly a grain mill built in 1880, it now houses gallery space, studios and a fabulous cafe.

It is situated in Salisbury, Wiltshire and definitely worth a visit. Think lazy Saturday afternoon...punctuated with fabulous food in a building that wouldn't look out of place on Grand Designs, filled with beautiful objects to browse if you can drag yourself away from the paper...you're already there aren't you?!

Opening times:
10-5pm - Tuesday - Friday
9.30-5.30pm - Saturday

The jewellery or the website...which came first?

Well...the jewellery came first in armcandii's case & dictated the need for a website - an essential marketing tool for any designer/maker who wants to reach the masses. 

But what I'm really asking is which comes first on a daily basis? Which is priority? Both need each other after all. I'm constantly torn because I'm passionate about design & can express myself through both mediums. I can lose myself for hours in either...fortunate in some respects, because I can design our website to look & do exactly what we want, but the jewellery doesn't make itself...

And the point of all this deliberating? Our recently revamped website. Many hours well spent showcasing our current collections: couture, celebration & confetti. It's worth a look, if only to see where I used the hours I could have been re:designing vintage jewellery!

Jewellery isn't always precious metals ...

Whilst jewellers usually make adornments from precious metals and gems, those attending Kinder Aggugini's show at last week's London Fashion Week had a surprise in store.

Guests found these 'handbag orchids' on their seats! According to Gemma Hayward in The Independent, Kinder felt the orchid 'best symbolised the style antithesis' that is his signature in the collection. This flower's mix of 'gritty roots' and 'charming chic blossom' fit perfectly with Kinder's prevailing inspiration for his designs - a sort of 'if Sid Vicious had married Coco Chanel'.

The handbag orchids were made for Aggugini by Creative Director Ian Drummond and his team at Indoor Garden Design who also decorated the cat walk with amazing Vanda orchids.

Wedding bouquet glitters with jewels

Reported in today's Guardian is the story of one girl's DIY wedding at a fraction of the cost of most. Interestingly there seems to be no mention of what the actual cost was!

But there are some interesting ideas. As well as asking firends to make them presents instead of buying wedding gifts, Momtaz Begum-Hossain created her 'ultimate wedding extravaganza' big day from headpiece to cake.

And here's here wedding bouquet created from jewellery donated by friends.