House of Raquel Jewelry, ROCKS!

Exotic-looking Raquel Roysdon is a beauty in her own right, but her House of Raquel jewelry items, crafted of semi-precious, beads and crystals, are beauties in their own right, too. Raquel was a student at UC Berkeley who had already been designing jewelry for a few years, when she founded the House of Raquel in 2004. Until recently, you could purchase her unique designs primarily at home and trade shows, but now, with an internationally-accessible web site (there's a blog, too) her pieces are available to everyone. Designer costumer jewelry is the hot item for fall. Raquel's well crafted pieces are unique and reasonably priced, yet they still feel like one-of-a-kind and not department store clones!

Many of these pieces, like the 18" necklace called: "Summer Love" $190.00 feature chunky pieces of genuine stone. This one, with large, irregular pieces of rose quartz, punctuated with iridescent clear round and teardrop-shaped beads with a surprise: three middle stones "caged" in delicate gold wire. The effect is feminine but not frumpy, fun for a party, but subdued enough in color and size to make it in a business meeting (I can just imagine this one dressing up a silky shell or a cashmere sweater). The necklace is Betty Rubble/Bette Midler/Paris Hilton.

There's a matching, 7- 7 1/2" bracelet called: "Lovestoned" $62.00 in homage to Justin Timberlake ("She's got me lovestoned, she's got me bad she knows I think that she knows. she freaky but I like it. She shuts the room down the way she walks she causes a fuss.")

Check the House of Raquel Jewelry Web Site : www.houseofraquel.com often to see what's new, what's on sale, and what moves you. You'll quickly build a collection you want to wear every day. You'll look fashionable, and you won't go broke, either.