Wild Fire Girl

My wild days are over, and I'm not sad about it (I love sleeping now LOL... ) but there's always that little wild side of me that enjoys playing a bit with sparkles and glitter :)

I get the chance to create some Limited Edition work once in awhile, and this is one of those pieces:

I'm a member of The Artisan Group, and as such, I sometimes have the chance to submit some jewelry designs to stylists of various TV shows for 'consideration' to be used on those shows. 

Some stylists have restrictions or special requirements, while others give us carte blanche. 

You just never know what will strike a note with them. 

I enjoy the challenge, and hope that my designs will be selected (eventually).

I could so totally see these Swarvoski Sterling Tassle Earrings with this outfit:

Wild Fire In The Night by nathalie-lesage featuring a nail polish

I love the ultra light-weight feel of these earrings. Fun to wear, and so sparkly, it's crazy (did I say how much I hate photographing Swarovski Crystals? Ugh.... Even Polyvore messed up the image that I uploaded). All Sterling Silver, suspended on a pair of my handcrafted Sterling Silver Ear Wires.

These are going to be submitted to the Stylist of the Days Of Our Lives :)

I'll let you know if they get picked! Wish me luck!

You can find these earrings and my other designs HERE on my website.

Thanks and have a great day!

Nathalie Lesage

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Beach Girl

The weather is changing here in WA state. They say we will be in the 80's later this week. My inspiration keeps turning to spring and even summer. Everything is SO green... and bugs are coming out again. This will be our first summer with our new (rescue) dog Molly. She cracks me up the way she chases bees and pretty much anything that flies. One of these days, I'm afraid she will catch one... 

One of my first jewelry stamps - the dragonfly. I think I've only used it twice before. I'm really pleased with how these earrings turned out. I feel like the Iolite with it's royal blue color invokes images of tall blue Iris flowers... and the dragonflies buzzing about... 

Beach Girl by cindybeads featuring etched glasses

These earrings are available at Cindy's Art & Soul 

 http://www.cindysartandsoul.com

Peace and Blessings ~ 

Cindy 

Fire things up!

I've got a thing for rustic earthy colors, and copper is my metal of choice to convey that look and feel.

It is so beautiful, richly colored, luxuriously warm - I just love using it in my designs :)

Today's inspiration came from our weekly challenge over at SRAJD, and the theme was FIRE. 

So, you know that I HAD to go with Copper! :)

And I also HAD to hop over to my latest addiction (Hello Polyvore!) to make an outfit that I thought would go well... If I were several many pounds lighter, I'd definitely dig wearing this rockin' outfit with my earrings :)

Earthy Fire Outfit by nathalie-lesage featuring a sheer red lipstick

These earrings feature beautiful artisan Dichroic glass beads made by Paula Radke Art Glass. 

I love the shimmering burnt orange on the black base of Paula's beads, and the cool contrast between the textured copper and the smooth commercial glass slivers at the bottom.

Paula's beads have a flat back and rounded/domed top where the dichroic color is, so I had to figure out a way to showcase them to display their full beauty:

These one of a kind Copper earrings can be found on my website HERE.

Thanks for stopping by... have a fabulous day!

Nathalie

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Tangerine

I was inspired by this photo on Pinterest and when I found these tangerine Czech beads in my bead stash (I recently blogged about organizing my entire bead stash, check it out here), I knew they would be perfect to pair with these gorgeous Czech flower beads. I made the teardrops out of PMC3 and used waxed linen cord to tie it all together.

 

 

 

Drop of Fall by musicity on deviantArt

I thought Tangerine was a perfect name for these because the little Czech beads look like tangerines and Tangerine by Led Zeppelin (one of my favs!) came on my iPod during the creative process. Ha! Meant to be.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fab weekend!

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Kristy's Kreations Jewelry Blog

Kristy's Kreations Facebook Page

Star Factory

Star Factory

I am just enchanted by these Unicorn lampwork beads in "midnight special"--they make me think of a glowing nebula!

Photo of the Omega Nebula by NASA

The way these lampwork drops (available from Stinky Dog Beads) are configured, they are most stunning when viewing the drop section head-on, so I devised a design that would keep their shining faces front and center. Here I've combined them with amber, freshwater pearls in lime, and antiqued copper. The idea of a "star factory" must have also put me in an industrial mindset because the metal sections feel very hardware-like to me. And that's always a good thing!

I leave you with a stellar spire from the "Eagle Nebula",

and a little music to go with it:



Keirsten

Rocking Out!

 Do you remember collecting stones as a kid?  Maybe you had a favorite tin or a child-sized shoe box where you kept some of your favorite rocks.  Now that we are more or less grown up, we can still collect rocks.  Here's my latest collection.

One of my online bead buddies, Jeannie Dukic, of JKD Studio, sent me a sampling of her new line of polymer clay faux stone and faux pebble beads and and pendants.

Each stone is just as unique as real stones are, but instead of being a burden on your earlobes, these faux stones are as light as a feather.

 

I topped the "stones" with some rustic, faceted Czech glass and a bit of wire wrapping.

So show some rocker chic attitude!  I think these earrings would be fun to wear with this outfit, now that things are warming up a bit (at least it's getting warmer here, in Washington state).  The Rock Out earrings are available here: Linda Landig Jewelry.

Boho.com

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry on Etsy

Linda Landig Jewelry on ArtFire

Plum Afternoon

Casual earrings for spring - with a touch of color! 

by Cindy's Art & Soul 

Plum Afternoon by cindybeads featuring a floppy hat

Available on Etsy

Peace ~
Cindy

Mixed Metal Swirls

Recently I experimented with combining

 White Copper and regular Copper Metal Clay and here are the results.

 I love the look!

Some say they look like Petrified Wood or Sliced Agate!

Petrified Wood                                                                             Sliced Agate

I tried using complimenting beads on the wire wrapping

 but in the end they looked best wrapped simply with no embellishment.

Whether they resemble anything else or not I think they are very beautiful and interesting. I love how the where the 2 metals alloyed to created a third color where they connected. Exaclyl what I was hoping for.

If you'd like to see how I made them check out my post on Art Jewelry Elements HERE.

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Artfire

We're All Ears :: April Reveal

For April we are inspired by this tablescape from Pottery Barn. With the retro palette of sage, gold, cream and brown with touches of silver, this whimsical place setting could be from the 70s or today! There was a lot to be inspired by in this picture.

Here is what I created for the challenge. Since I was unable to complete the challenge for March, I was inspired to make four pairs of earrings for April.

Lasso The Moon

I was pulling from the golden color of the oil and the bird for this pair. I like the texture on the woven placemat and the hammered silverware. I spied these links on my beading table and it was serendipity that they already had great texture. These stars are one of those things I have had lying around for years. No, really. Mellisa of Chinook Jewelry sent these to me about 7 years ago! They were a mistake in that they were supposed to be beads with holes through them. But the wire got stuck inside during the firing process so they were unusable as beads. She had some sort of contest about what you would do with them, and I won them. It takes me awhile but every bead will find its purpose! I just wire wrapped the stars randomly for that lasso effect. And that is also a line from one of my favorite movies. Do you know what that is?


Fleuron

Another component that has been lying around forever are these cold clay (DAS) charms from Alona of Rafya. They have this great raised design that has been highlighted in gold with undertones of sage. I have these two very old vintage French books with hand drawings of architectural details that I love. They look right at home on this page, don't you think? A fleuron is a stylized form of flowers or leaves. I was drawn to the natural elements in the challenge picture, the leaves, the branches, the berries.

Spiked Lemonade

I imagine that in the Pottery Barn world they are having quite a feast on these tables! The glasses filled with what looked like lemonade intrigued me. More beads from my stash. These polymer clay beads from Heather Powers of Humblebeads were the perfect golden color, and I loved the way the lines mimic the textures on the skylark bird on the plate in this challenge picture. I hammered some aluminum blanks as a nod to the mod silverware, and the brown spikes are for the wood of the table.

 Well Grounded

The dark wood of the table and the fresh green stripes on the napkin along with the shimmering pressed glass is what inspired me for this next pair. I used a pair of bumpy barrel ceramic beads and some wasabi silk cord from Marsha Neal Studio. I tied them to a hexagon connector. And I am pretty proud of these ear wires (and the ones from the previous pair). I have always wanted to make my own, but I never have been able to make them identical, until now. I recently learned a trick to get my wires to come out the same on both sides using the technique in this tutorial from Jewelry Making Daily. But of course, I couldn't leave them plain, so I wire wrapped some glowing green pressed glass Toho square beads that remind me of the glasses on the table.

So, there you have it. There was so much of interest in this challenge picture that I probably could have gone on for days interpreting different parts of it. I hope that is what this challenge does for you... helps you to isolate the inspirations around you, allows you to flex your creative muscles and encourages you to use those beads that are just lying around to make something fast, fun and fabulous! Come back on Friday, May 2nd for the next We're All Ears inspiration challenge!

What inspired you?

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Banded

This is my ninth post for this blog and it's odd, for me, that this is the first time I've shared a pair of earrings featuring Scorched Earth elements.

It's odd because a large number of my designs, and particularly earring designs, feature Petra's ceramics.  Many of her pieces are sold in pairs that demand to be made into earrings.  And I'm sure that, in working with Petra's pieces, I've learnt a heap of earring-making lessons.  Perhaps, in holding off, I was trying to avoid being predictable, because I'm kinda addicted to them really.  You can see the extent of my problem here....

In this pair, I've teamed these gorgeous rich turquoise and bronze bands with some long drops of ruby zoisite, some antique brass caps, and some little czech glass accents.  I received the stones through error - the supplier sent me somebody else's order. I'm not crazy about ruby zoisite, to be honest, but I'm quite happy with these, and that, in no small part, is down to Petra's lovely ceramics.

They're available here in my Etsy shop.

Bye for now, Claire

(something to do with your hands)

Junkyard Queen

"One man's junk is another man's treasure"...

It's an aphorism that we've all heard before, right? I've always found it curious how something that some would consider junky, worn out, used up, and ugly could appeal so much to me. There's something about having a soul, having lived through a storm or two, having a story to tell. A little metaphor for us humanfolk, don't you think? The things that make us the most interesting and emotionally rich aren't always the things that make us pretty.

 



I know I'm not the only one out there who loves the junkyard aesthetic. I channel this primitive rustic look in all of my jewelry, but I was particularly tickled with how this recent earring pair came out. Rusty washers handmade by Kiyoi Designs out of steel metal clay, little blue kyanite shard "collars", and perfectly mismatched etched agate and carved wood bead toppers. 

 



These babies sold in a snap to my dear dear friend Susan who is a vintage-loving antiques freak like myself. I loved them so much that I created a second similar pair to share the love - available now in my shop. Embrace life's beautiful imperfections...y'know what I mean?

Happy Wednesday <3
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

The Beach at Tulum

Kyanite and Crystal Earrings

The old and the new, the rough and the polished; I am intrigued by this contrast. This particular design reminds me of a past trip to Mexico, specifically the Mayan ruins at Tulum. How dramatically the craggy rocks and the old structures stood out next to the brilliant blue green Caribbean in the background! I used rough kyanite nuggets wrapped in darkened copper wire, and attached faceted Swarovski crystal cosmic shaped beads in indicolite. Greek cast spiral drops contribute to the ancient character of these rustic dangling earrings.

2007
Tulum, Mexico















Gloria Ewing
Chrysalis Too on Etsy
Chrysalis Jewelry on Artfire

Blue Waters

Believe it or not, we are *still* dealing with snow, and you know it... I miss Summer so badly!!

Today, I've decided to venture for the first time on Polyvore, and oh my! 

I found so many beautiful things to inspire me,

and these are the earrings I made for my Carefree Beach Chic outfit:

Blue Waters Brazilian Blue Apatite Sterling Silver Hoops by Nathalie Lesage

I think these would go really well with the outfit I just created:

Wire wrapping is something I've been doing for a number of years (on and off), and which I really enjoy. It speaks to the bohemian woman living in my soul :)

These flirty 1" hoops are made with beautiful natural (untreated) Brazilian Apatite gemstones

and loads of hair fine .925 Sterling Silver wire wrapped on a pair

of my cold-forged Sterling Silver hoops.

I was lucky enough to have the super talented Eni Oken as my mentor a few years ago,

and I've learned a lot from her over time. It takes a lot of patience and time to do fine wrapping.

Since we're on the road and currently living in a place where "good" water is at a premium (we're on a campground with bad pipe water at this time), doing soldered jewelry - which requires a good amount of water for quenching, pickling, rinsing, tumbling, etc - is just not something I can do much of because we have to buy all the water we use for daily living. I have to be very frugal with it.

Therefore, I'm back to doing more wire wrapped jewelry designs instead :)

You can purchase these earrings HERE on my new website.

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!

Nathalie Lesage

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Coral Blooms

Oh how I adore the color coral! When I saw these art tiles from JLynn Jewels I knew I had to have them...they just popped with color! I wanted to keep them simple since the dog tag tiles are so vibrant, so I just paired them with a faceted coral glass bead and an orange bead that matched perfectly. The tiles are great because they are very lightweight and perfect for earrings.

I can picture them being worn with this fun ensemble....

Coral Blooms by kristyabner featuring summer straw purses

These earrings are available HERE in my shop!

Don't forget our April Inspiration Design Challenge. The reveal will be next Friday April 18th. 

Thanks for visiting our blog and have a fabulous weekend!

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations