Katy Perry's Cuffs in December, 2010 Bazaar

Bazaar
is my personal favorite fashion magazine. It is the only one I like enough each month to subscribe to. I also enjoy picking up Lucky at the newsstand on occasion to browse the trends and have a soft spot for Cosmo just for the quizzes and sex articles, but Bazaar is my favorite to devour, page by page, yummy haut couture look by haut couture look.

The December, 2010 issue of Bazaar pays homage to the fashionably intriguing Katy Perry. Her bejeweled lips and mug grace the cover and she lines the pages. I was particularly interested in her cuff bracelets on pages 290 and 291, by Designer, Alexis Bittar and available for a mere $175 a pop. They are metal, though I don't know if they are precious metal or not(not available on his site quite yet).

My fiance Steve Phillips and I started making strikingly similar cuff bracelets together this summer from recycled vinyl records. Steve is a vinyl sculptor and makes anything conceivable from recycled (unplayable) vinyl records; bowls, cuffs, rings, wall sconces, clocks, magazine racks etc.

Our cuffs are completely customizable, sustainable in design and sell for $22 with free shipping! Our cuffs are available on my Etsy.com store, here.


Images of Katy Perry Copyright Bazaar Magazine and available here in the full spread, 12.22.10: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/fashion-articles/katy-perry-style-pictures-1210?click=try&link=katy-perry-style-pictures-1210

Hand Cut Leather Bracelets & Necklaces

YazBerry Hand Cut Copper Leather Bubbles Necklace, available here.

As seen in September's Issue of Vogue, and noted by my friend Stacy Prince, leather jewelry is a fall fashion look. I realize we are well into fall, however leather is timeless, can transition into winter easily and is such lightweight, comfortable jewelry to sport.

Amongst the leather jewelry featured in Vogue this September, were some necklaces & cuffs by Ports 1961 that have a strong resemblance to my hand cut, leather lace jewelry. My gut response was, I bet their designers search Etsy for ideas and then make versions that cost 6x that of meticulously hand crafted cut leather work. Needless to say, cut leather is lovely and compliments and adds to so many looks. With metallic finishes, leather offers a lightweight metal alternative.

My friend, Juli Lederhaus, General Manager of the lovely Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, MA, shared this article published November 3rd on AOL with me, as she is familiar with my cut leather work. "Daily Dose of Style: Leather Bracelets" by Genevieve Cruz. Cruz highlights many styles of leather bracelets, mostly studded, however the top left bracelet bears a striking resemblance to a style I've been making for several years. YazBerry Stacked Bracelet Illusion Hand Cut Silver Leather Cuff available here. My design is nearly half the price of the Linea Pelle Collection bracelet, and is carefully hand "sliced" by me, in my studio in the USA. I've done a few variations on the multi-bracelet illusion cuffs. Here is an example: available here.

Coming up next: insight into the hand cut leather lace process. I've developed this highly technical, specialized leather working technique on my own, based on skills I've applied from Chinese & Japanese paper cutting. Many hours of freehand, surgeon level cutting goes into each leather YazBerry piece of jewelry.

For more of my leather work, check out my bracelets & necklaces on my Etsy store front, yazberryfashion.etsy.com