Nooooo, not the new florally-on-trend handbag you just purchased.

The answer?  Fool’s Gold!  Also known as Pyrite - this mineral is a trending fashion accessory right now!

Pyrite in it's natural state

Fun, funky and inexpensive, pyrite appeared all over the Spring 2012 runways (and the red carpet, and the…list goes on…) and is popping up in a number of designer and indie jewelry collections around the globe.

Pyrite on the Spring 2012 runways

What’s more (and this is for you bargain fashionistas…), its smoky color and earthy appeal  - farmed right from the earth – are an ideal transition into fall fashion, making the stone a season-bridging favorite for 2012.

When it comes to accessorizing, Pyrite has a very Boho Chic look. Paired with a colorful pair of cutoffs and a flowy, feminine, tribal print top just radiate STYLE.  That said, it can also glam up the classic LBD (your fave little black dress) with a touch of pyrite on a skinny belt or pin-on embellishment.

Bonus: it’s an affordable metal, so you can stack up your jewelry box without denting the ol’ bank account.

Now the question is, where can I find this fiery fashion must-have?  On our website at asjewelrydesign.com, of course! We’ll be debuting a limited line of pyrite in the next few weeks, but here’s a sneak peek at a few of the pieces we have in store for you…

Stacked Ashley Schenkein pyrite bracelets

Pyrite by Ashley Schenkein

Pyrite Ashley Schenkein earrings

Pyrite Ashley Schenkein necklace

Pyrite Ashley Schenkein earrings

And remember, you’re never too old for Fools’ Gold…

Spring 2012 Trends

Have you been oogling over Spring 2012 runway fashion and accessories the way we have?!

Spring is in the air, and the jewelry trends for Spring 2012 are all about color, style and glamour. From floral fetishes to futurism, we loved how the designers got creative with all the trimmings – long, linear pendant necklaces and earrings; bold gold statement pieces and an array of colorful gemstones.

What’s more, handmade jewelry ranked a top position among the top trends this year (yay for handmade)! Clearly, all the effort that goes into creating each handmade masterpiece is priceless, and giving a very raw and elegant finishing look.

Spring 2012 Top Trends we’re in love with:

• Tribal: A fun way to freshen your style, look for a color motif that fits your wardrobe. Hint: Add orange jewelry to blue wardrobes, add blues to neutrals, greens to earth tones, bright stones to bright clothing, and neutral motifs to anything for guaranteed day-to-night sophistication.

Tribal Trend

• Pastels & Sorbets: Citrine sherbet? Cotton candy? Key Lime Pie? Yes, please! With this trend, a gemstone pendant necklace on a chain is simple, yet impressive. Try an amethyst, citrine, aquamarine and topaz. Oversized rectangular rings also make a powerful pastel fashion statement. Choose a blue or pink topaz, amethyst or prehnite.

Pastel Trend

• Floral: Give new meaning to the concept of spring flowers – infuse your accessories with muted spring floral patterns (like our Cuenca earrings!).

Floral Trend

• Flashy, Sassy Earrings: Button & stud earrings have been a hit on the red carpet, particularly in fresh & unexpected motifs, and are a current and classic must-have for any wardrobe….BUT long & lean are making a splash this spring! In funky color – or in a classic glam gold style – great lengths made headway on the runways. Our Atlanta Gold Mixed are a perfect blend of tribal and timeless with just the right amount of long-and-lean! (Wear 101: Pair vertical, dangling earrings to a special occasion dress for an style focal point and talking piece.)

• Chunky Bracelets: Think bright colors, geometric shapes, tribal effects and the combination there of! Don’t dismiss your grandma’s taste either -  woven basket patterns and checkerboard-style links are great when layered with funky bangles. Our leather bracelets and Tag Me Collectionallow you to customize your layered look to stay on trend and true-to-you!
  

  Layered Chunky Bracelets

• Jazzy: Perhaps in part of the now-filming remake of The Great Gatsby and HBO’s current hit Boardwalk Empire series, the Jazz Age – translated via flower-motifs and Art Deco-inspired looks – are popping into bridal and fine fashion jewelry.

• Layered Pendants:Bigger is better? Take your pick! Layering pendants of all size is a foolproof way to amp up your style, day-to-night and every moment in between.
  

  Layered Pendants (we love this look!)

• Pyrite: Fun, funky, and inexpensive, pyrite is appearing in a number of indie jewelry designers’ collections. And why not plan ahead? Pyrite’s smoky color is ideal to transition into fall fashion.

• Yellow & The Golden Rule: Citrine is still holding it’s own as a style-setter and go-to option for any ensemble (check out our Citrine stash), due to it’s versatile color. Citrine is the new black? We wouldn’t go that far, but pairing the two together makes for a winning week and weekend wardrobe. Bonus: gold jewelry possesses a timeless appeal that can be worn now and for years to come. Wear it day or night; it’s always in good taste.
  

  Citrine

The good news? Our design philosophy is totally in line with the ever-evolving seasonal trends, giving our loyal and amazingly stylish customers easy-to-wear designs that match or compliment both their wardrobes and the latest fashion trends. And there’s something for everyone – from all-out glamour to casual chic…so cheers to many more trends to come!

Sparkle & Shine ~

Kenya: The African sun IS as amazing as they say!

I’m officially back from a whirlwind trip to Kenya and Lisbon, Portugal and wanted to share of few of the images. What serenity, wild abandon, natural spirit and inspiration can be found in every moment and every new encounter!

Enjoy the pics!

Kenya: Visiting a Maasai village. That's my mom to the left and sister to the right.

Kenya: Giraffes on our safari adventure.

Kenya: Elephants grazing in the wild - they're enormous!

Kenya: We encountered a dazzle (another word for herd) of zebras. Their patterns are so beautiful and unique!

Kenya: While visiting a jewelry and bead-making factory, this colorfully-dressed group of women workers posed in front of the factory. They are so sweet and telented! (Yes, I did sit down and make a few pieces with them.)

Onto Lisbon, Portugal…

Portugal: The ages-old architecture in Lisbon stimulated crazy amounts of inspiration for some new pieces (stay tuned - we'll debut them soon)!

Portugal: A few interesting pieces of jewelry I came across.

Portugal: More inspiring architectural shapes and patterns.

Portugal: It's a little hard to see, but what a cool necklace!

Portugal: Again, Lisbon's natural and organic beauty really stimulated the senses. I thought this tangle of trees created a particularly interesting tangle of elements!

Portugal: And the colors! Everywhere we turned, punchy pastels (so on trend this season) and muted primary colors brightened up the day.

Hope you enjoyed the pics! I’m FULL of inspiration and – over the course of the next few weeks – you’ll find me locked in my studio, designing away for new lines that will debut next month and in the Fall.

We’ll be posting more pics to an album on our Facebook page, so LIKE the page and watch what we’re up to!

Much international love…

A vintage Leap Year pin from Leap Year 1936.

Happy Leap Year Day!

Today – February 29th – doesn’t happen everyday. Only every four years, to be exact!

Apparently, Earth doesn’t travel around the sun in a precise 365-days-per-year pattern, and people born on a leap year will only have a birthday 25% of the time. While that could mean fewer celebrations on your actual day of birth every year, it does mean that when you’re 100 years old, you’ll have only celebrated 25 actual birthdays, giving TRUE meaning to the phrase “young at heart”!

With that in mind, what better time than to gift yourself with a sparkly Leap Year birthstone?! Here are a few suggestions from our collection, whether you’re looking for something to help you celebrate every 4th birthday, or even every year on February 28th (pssst – your other birthday, in our minds)…

Leap Year birthstone earrings: Amethyst

Make yourself a personalized Leap Year necklace from the Tag Me collection!

And – for those sneaky enough to realize that if you choose to celebrate on March 1st the years in between, meaning you get two birthstones (lucky for your Wish List), then aquamarine is also your stone!

Wish List "Wants" for the Leap Year baby (we won't tell your sneaky secret)

So, shop away, Leap Year Baby, because today is your day to sparkle and SHINE.

Happy Leaping – xox!

PS – Don’t forget to make yourself a celebratory couture Leap Year cocktail – the recipe looks deliciously vintage.

Invented by Harry Craddock at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1928, the leap year cocktail is sweet and bitter, but not exactly bittersweet. Hmmm...

And – as a designer who is naturally inspired from almost everything I come in contact with – I have to confess that it’s single-handedly the most baffling question to answer. My inspiration comes from EVERYWHERE!

So, this month, with trips to Kenya and Portugal on the docket, I’m putting myself up to the challenge to answer (with fact) the illusive inspiration-origination question…

Map of Kenya

So, Kenya. While I’ll provide a more thorough trip summary in this blog when I return, all I can say for now is that it’s anticipated to be a VERY magical place, and it’s rumored that no other country on earth can offer as much to see and do within the borders of a single country. From pristine beaches and coral reefs, to equatorial forests and snow-capped mountains, searing deserts and cool highland retreats – many of these things untouched by the modern world – there are endless opportunities for adventure, discovery and relaxation.

Certainly, as a jewelry designer and philanthropist, I’m interested to know more about jewelry design in Kenya while I’m there, including a line called Kazuri, the Swahili word for “small and beautiful,” which symbolizes not only the actual beads that make up the jewelry, but also the process in which the beads are made: in a workshop full of Kenyan women, where each bead has to be carefully shaped, polished, fired, painted, then fired again.

Kazuri

Ashley Pittman‘s collection also comes out of Kenya, as does The Leakey Collection. All three gorgeous, all very different. Stay tuned for details upon my return.

Ashley Pittman

Next up?  From Kenya, we’ll continue our travels to Lisbon, Portugal, Europe’s wester-most and sunniest capital!

Europe’s second-oldest capital after Athens and once home to the world’s greatest explorers like Vasco da Gama, Magellan and Prince Henry the Navigator, Lisbon is now a place where modern travelers can discover scenic vistas from every angle, charming vintage trams and medieval villages and a lively but serene environment with an insatiable appetite for long dinners, coffee breaks and nightlife. Ahhhh, my serenity – AND my dancing shoes – are packed and ready!

Lisbon

Lisbon is also exudes the romantic decay of Venice, the exoticism of Istanbul, the laid back nature of Rome and echos of San Francisco, from international design and contemporary art, to treasures of East-meets-West (just like my collection!), to the ancient art of tile painting and gilding.

So off I go to shop and savor Bairro Alto and Chiado, Lisbon’s cultural and bohemian heart full of shopping, nightlife and plenty of INSPIRATION.

Mais tarde…

Welcome to all of our friends, family and loved ones – again – to our new blog!  This is the start of a fabulous new journey for Ashley Schenkein Jewelry Design, so what better way to kick off the Love Month of February 2012 with the debut of the NEW Ashley Schenkein Jewelry Design website and blog!

We couldn’t be more excited to show off our fabulously chic and sophisticated new site, so have a look, shop around and see for yourself all of the gorgeous new pieces and – of course – all of the timeless classics that define the signature Schenkein style (like Sayulita in gold).

AND…since it’s Love Month, we wanted to share a few fun facts & trivia about Valentine’s Day since, after all, jewelry does play a significant gifting role…

• Shoppers spent $15.7 billion in 2011 on their loved ones for Valentine’s Day, including small gifts to loved ones, friends, family, classmates, co-workers and their furry friends (Happy Heart Day, Fido!)…

• Gifts of jewelry in 2011 made up 17.3% of that $15.7 billion…

• Pet gifts in 2011 rang up a steep $637 million (but keep those pets safe!)…

• 53% of women said they would dump their boyfriend if they didn’t get them anything for Valentine’s Day (sorry, Charlie)…

• 180 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion (we love Paper Source!)…

• Nearly 50 percent of all Valentine’s Day cards are purchased within the six days prior to the holiday (hats off to those New Years Resolutions to be on time)…

• 2.2 million - The number of marriages that took place in the United States in 2011, and 10% of those couples got engaged on Valentine’s Day…

• There were 24,973 jewelry stores in the United States in 2009. In February 2011, these stores sold $2.27 billion in merchandise. Can you even imagine what sales will be this year???

• 15% of women will send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day, which makes it totally okay to shop for yourself, as well…

So Happy Love Month, accessoristas!  Stay tuned for more fun, favorites, contests and giveaways, sale info, special event invites and so much more!