GUEST POST :: Sarajo Wentling of SJ Designs Jewelry

Hello, lovelies! 

Sometimes we have an extra day or two in a month and when that happens we like to extend an invitation to designers that we enjoy to have them share their unique design perspectives. Today, the Earrings Everyday crew welcomes Sarajo Wentling of SJ Designs Jewelry. Sarajo is a regular in our monthly challenges, loves to use art beads in her designs, hand patina on metal is a specialty of hers, and she has a self-directed weekly earring challenge called New Earring Monday where she shares her latest and greatest earring pairs. Sarajo is from Minnesota and lives with her craft-beer loving husband Eric, who is also a gifted photographer. She uses one of his photos for her inspiration today. Check it out! ~Erin

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Photo by Eric Wentling

Fall is my favorite season and it's far too fleeting in Minnesota where it sometimes feels like winter has its icy grip on us for more than half the year!  These earrings are both a nod and a fond farewell to my favorite season and all its fabulous color.  I started with some yummy lampwork glass rings that I bought from Alice St. Germain of Succulent Glass at Bead Fest Philadelphia.  Their colors instantly reminded me of fall and made me think of a photo my husband had taken of some changing maple leaves.  I had just the perfect color Czech glass maple leaf beads to dangle from the lampwork rings to add a fun flair.

Fall Finery by Sarajo Wentling

I haven't done too much wire wrapping in my jewelry making pursuits beyond simple wrapped loops and bails so I had to overcome my fears of "messing up" and wasting wire.  (Seriously, why has it been so intimidating to me?  The worst thing that could possibly happen would be destroying a few cents worth of wire and having to try again.)  Anyway, I bucked up my courage, cut a length of wire and started to play.  And you know what?  I didn't mess it up at all!  Not only that, I really liked the way my wire wraps turned out!  They aren't overly precise but I think that works with the imperfect shape of the lampwork rings and the organic nature of fall foliage.  

Sarajo Wentling
Sj Designs Jewelry
http://sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SjDesignsJewelry

Holly Daze

I created these earrings for a holiday show last week. I wanted something that was a nod to the holidays but could be worn all winter. I looked to holly leaves for my inspiration.

These were cut from sheets of copper,shaped and textured and then given an antiqued patina.

This was my reference for my inspiration, a botanical painting from 1819.

I created pendants, ornaments and two styles of earrings. The more traditional holly ones with the little red seed beads were a hit too.

I'm not quite ready for the holidays yet, give me a few more days and maybe a snowflake or two!

Swinging Lightly

I'm finding that the smallest of polymer pieces that I've made are so versatile.

The double holes afford more options in designing

I often get remarks from women that find they can't wear heavy earrings anymore but enjoy the length and variety of the boho style.

Using lots of jump rings both steel and copper you can achieve length and lightness.

I found these little glass baubles with a sort of titanium light iridescent finish recently to lightly swing.

The polymer pieces are so easy to make. I used the Blue Bottle Tree Rustic Beads tutorial for the varied affect.

You can see that the bauble beads have a hole from side to side across the top.

 I was so happy that the hole was big enough to accept a jump ring.

Copper earwires by Faerystones

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you that will be celebrating today!

Thanks for looking at my NuminosityBeads Creations!

Kimberly Rogers

e t s y   www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

f a c e b o o k  www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

i n s t a g r a m    www.instagram.com/numinosity/

p i n t e r e s t  www.pinterest.com/numinosity/

and my f a c e b o o k auction and sale group 

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

Yee Haw ☼

Calling your inner Cowgirl, ☺

This is a nice twist to utilizing a looped bail, turn it upside down I say!

I've found this design to be very versatile and fun to work with. I chose leather in these postings, but I can also see looping wire & fabric, perhaps different colored leather with some African beads...Uh-Oh, the mind is spinning, may have to go back to this one soon.

  

These other 2 designs show the bail at the bottom with numerous potential to what your drops can be.

So if your looking for some inspiration, I hope you found it in my post.  Have a wonderful creative day and we'll see you in two weeks, ☺

Yucca Bloom Etsy Shop

Yucca Bloom FB

Blueberry Blues Gray Blue White Color Scheme

This morning I was on a popular social media site that regularly posts ads off to the right. Of course they catch your eye and then you go back to doing what ever you were doing... but sometimes they really get your attention. Like today.

It wasn't so much the cute sweater I noticed but the colors. Grey, dark cool blue and white. Really caught my eye and had me instantly thinking about how I can translate this to jewelry. 

What beads do I have? 

I am imagining a *collection* of jewelry at this point...

My next action was to head over to Pinterst to find inspiration. And inspiration I did find. I wont re-post here so as to not violate any copyright laws. If you'd like to see some of the inspiration seeds I found, please check it out! https://www.pinterest.com/artsouljewelry/color/ 

 What I decided upon were some of my handmade ceramic beads with a lovely gray glaze, blue-gray coral, cool blue Czech glass, fine silver nugget charms, and white moonstone.

The ear wires are made to match with super huge balled and hammered ends. Honestly, I struggled with these a while. But finally, finally was able to get them to hold.

Look for these with my next shop update, Tuesday December 1st! 

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! 

 

Kaleidoscope

 
According to Wikipedia:
A kaleidoscope is a cylinder with mirrors containing loose, colored objects such as beads or pebbles and bits of glass. As the viewer looks into one end, light entering the other end creates a colorful pattern, due to the reflection off the mirrors. Coined in 1817 by Scottish inventor Sir David Brewster, "kaleidoscope" is derived from the Ancient Greek καλός (kalos), "beautiful, beauty", εἶδος (eidos), "that which is seen: form, shape" and σκοπέω (skopeō), "to look to, to examine",[4] hence "observation of beautiful forms."

 When I was a child my parents gifted me a toy kaleidoscope for Christmas. I was mesmerized by the amazing changing colors and just could not stop looking. Pure magic.

These fun and colorful lightweight wooden art tiles made by my good friend Janice Everett of J-Lynn Jewels brought back these happy memories.I first made a couple of earrings in this style for the interview with her, as a give-away. I love the style so I made a couple more.

Combined with gemstones, Swarovski crystal and handmade ear wires from another good friend Lucy Haslam from Faerystones they make fun, lightweight and bohemian earrings.

 Which one is your favorite?

 These are now available in my shop.

Thanks for looking!

Wishing you a wonderful day,

Janine

Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop

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We're All Ears :: November Reveal

Gah! I have pods on the brain!

I so enjoyed making the polymer clay pods at Heather Powers' Inspired by Nature retreat this year in October. There is an endless variation of seed pods in nature and just about anything looks like it is alien, but still plausible, so you can really go wild with seed pods. I got so intrigued that I came up with some more inspiration photos. I think that I will be paying closer attention to the plants in the world around me from now on!

Sorry for the hideous image quality... I forgot that I saved this on my work computer and I didn't send it home so this is a picture of a printout. Doh!

In addition to making earrings for this challenge, I am currently working on making a multitude of pods, in at least five different varieties. I have shot them in black and white to showcase the forms, as they will be colored eventually (when I figure out what colors they need to be!). I also quite like them in white, and might consider that for a future batch. Can you pick out the images in my inspiration photos that inspired each pod?

 

I plan to magically whip them into a pod-ilicious jewelry set for a gallery exhibit I have always longed to be in at a Central Wisconsin art gallery called the Center for Visual Arts. This annual exhibit is called 'Midwest Seasons' and is interpreted in a variety of mediums. I have tried {unsuccessfully} to get in previous years. I am hoping that this will be my year! (And if it doesn't work out, there is always the 'Winter Garden' exhibit at the same time in our local Riverfront Art Gallery.) Keep your fingers crossed....that I can complete the pods, make the necklace, get it entered in time for the deadline...by Saturday... and that it makes it in! It really would be a feather in my cap to be juried into this exhibit.

So many different shapes to choose from in the world of pods! I have been down a rabbit hole by typing in 'seedpods' in Google and perusing he images. I had some pods from Heather's retreat that I had made in matched sets and I made one more as an experiment shape. I like the earthy colors and the odd organic shapes. I don't mind that they are not exact, in fact, I celebrate that!

Peaseblossom Pod
Hand made pod headpins, hand-patinaed leaf beads, copper leaves, embellished ear wires

Amber Lotus Pod
Handmade pod headpins, amber carved leaf beads, copper leaves and wired ear wires.

Passiflora Pod
Handmade pod headpins embellished with wire, handmade copper ear wires.

So which pod shape is your favorite?

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Some Giddy Day

I'm dashing out today so it'll be short and sweet from me. Here's a pair with some of EE regular, Kimberley Rodger's enamelled tin droppers.

I've added in some rusty vintage discs, some shell roses, some plain ceramic pebbles and oxidised copper bicones. 

Bye for now, Claire

www.somethingtodo.etsy.com

www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com

www.somethingtodobeads.etsy.com

Spinners

Earlier this summer I wrote about how I had bought a bike and was beginning my cycling journey in an effort to combat this "jeweler's ass" that I've mysteriously managed to amass *cough*...

I'm happy to report to that I'm steadily winning the war. But more importantly, I have an empowering way to get outside, move, savor the changing of the seasons, and be alone with my thoughts.

I have approached my bike with the same kind of blossoming passion that I approach jewelry. It started with an uneducated leap of faith and has gradually turned into an all-encompassing learn-as-you-go journey. I feel that I'm part of a community and am so grateful for that--that goes for both cycling and jewelry making. My heart is full.

So in the vein of "spinning", here's a glowy little pair of spinners that I created several weeks ago. These feature a pair of lampwork glass Basha beads from her "blue black" series. I speared them on hand forged copper and wire wrapped them just-so, allowing them to rotate freely on their spindles, throwing light every time you move your head.

Happy Wednesday!

Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

It's the Great Pumpkin!

Pumpkin Orange Ceramic Earrings

It's the time of year for harvest colors and images, cornucopias, dried flowers and cornstalks. You get my drift? My favorite one is Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, so these brought to mind that image.

There are four pieces of heavy wire, two forming the loops and two that will eventually form the ear wires. After attaching the wire to the ceramic focals (from Outwest on Etsy), I hammered the wire loops and the tails to the desired hardness. Czech glass dangles hang playfully from the primitive copper loops.

Linus, Charlie and I haven't lost faith. The Great Pumpkin will come, but maybe not this year.









Gloria Ewing

Chrysalis Tribal Jewelry
Chrysalis Too on Etsy

Paris, I Grief

Earrings as a tribute to all the victims of the terror attacks the past weekend. They didn't happen only in Paris, but even so I've tried to make something slightly reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower. Simply because it has come to be used in many images to symbolize the events.

Red ceramic macaroni beads by Elaine Ray

Matte white distressed lucite rounds

Matte blue metallic hexagonal seed beads

Oxidized copper wire

Handmade earring hooks by Songbead

All my best,

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Forest Floor Earrings

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." - Henry David Thoreau

Isn't it true! There is so much beauty that we trod over. Take a moment to notice the small, the forgotten, the overlooked, the mundane. There is untold charm and inspiration there.

These ceramic components from Firefly Studio Designs are the perfect background for these copper leaves and golden Humblebeads disks. 

And why not make a second variation? These ones capture the forest a few weeks later when the leaves have blown away, stark branches and dried leaves have lost their color but not their intrigue.

Soaking in each day of November and not rushing a moment.

-Heather
www.humblebeadsjewelry.com 

Thong Earrings? Oh My!

A good friend arranged to come out  for a "crafternoon"

out in the boonies where we live over 100 miles down the Alaska Highway from where she lives. She's a hat maker, Heather of Mountain Heather Hats but is quite talented with her designing  and also works in her husband's commercial cabinetry shop utilizing her designing skills

She brought down some shiny bits of metallic leather that  Etsy seller FlorenceOliver had given her and she was generous to share some bits with me.

Heather has bought some components from me over the past few years and never seems to have the time to sit down and make some since that isn't her line of business although she did used to design an sell jewelry at one point in her crafting days.

I simply cut a little leather to run through the poly pieces and glued them together at the top where I punched the hole. The leather is so easy to cut and took me outside of the metal wire realm!

Thanks for looking at my NuminosityBeads Creations!

Kimberly Rogers

e t s y   www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

f a c e b o o k  www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

i n s t a g r a m  www.instagram.com/numinosity/

p i n t e r e s t  www.pinterest.com/numinosity/

and my f a c e b o o k auction and sale group 

/www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

Re-Cycle, Up-Cycle....It's all Good!!!

I must say that creating jewelry is a lot more fun when you can add interesting elements to the mix. Up-cycling, re-cycling, re-vamping....what ever you want to call it, I love doing it!! Like putting a puzzle together; mixing the old with the new to create quite the attraction. I have my favorite local consignment stores I hit about every week or so and always find something with potential.

These little pretties show off Austrian crystal flower sections from a retired Sorrelli necklace with stunning Artisan lamp-work by the extremely talented Terry Turner of Silverfish Designs.  I love her beads!!!

I think they're pretty drop dead gorgeous and even though they've already sold, I still have the rest of the necklace to make other pieces with, ☺

So next time your looking through your old jewelry or inherited pieces from family members that you don't wear, give it some new energy, you never know what you might end up with. 









Thanks for stopping by and I hope I did my job and brought your some inspiration ♥

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Romance is Alive

I see crystals and think, Romance! I love amethyst, lavender, plum shades in just about anything! 

 

These earrings feature hand forged .999 pure silver hoop rings with tiny spiral images, amethyst Czech glass fire polished crystals wrapped with fine silver spiral headpins. Bronze Czech glass crystals at the top connect to hand forged sterling silver ear wires. A rustic, antique finish complements the shiny crystals!

Available at Art & Soul Jewelry

Peace & Blessings, 

Rays of Sunshine

Most of you will probably know Cathleen Zaring from Blue Hare Art Wear. She just makes the most amazing enameled (earring) charms. 

 

 When I opened my parcel, these charms were the first I saw. And my mouth dropped open. Such vibrant brilliant colors.

 

These charms are so beautiful; they didn’t need much to turn into earrings. Just a couple of yellow Swarovski crystal, some brass links, beads and some chain. I painted the brass links so the color exactly matches the crème/brown of the charms.

 

 Voila…”Rays of Sunshine” is born.
Now available in my shop.

Thanks for looking!

Wishing you a wonderful day,

Janine

Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop

My website/blog

My facebook page

We're All Ears :: November Inspiration

Papilionaceae seed pods

The last weekend in October found me winding my way along the coast of Lake Michigan to the sleepy little tourist town of South Haven for the 5th annual Inspired by Nature retreat hosted by Heather Powers. This year the theme was inspired by the forest floor. One of the things we did was investigate the unique shapes of seed pods.

We were given instruction on replicating different species of pods and then painting them. Mine turned out quite alien looking, but they really do resemble something that is not of this world!

Mahogany tree seed pod

So I went in search of some more inspiration, and found that in the form of vintage botanical illustrations. This art depicts the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in pen and ink or watercolor paintings. They were frequently published in books, magazines devoted to their study, and seed catalogs. I would dearly love to unearth a vintage book or magazine devoted to this commonplace art! I find it fascinating.

Seed annual, 1908

So this month, I thought we could honor the seed pods that might be all about us. It really has made me stop and search for these tiny treasures! Since the illustrations don't really have much in the way of color, my hope is that you will focus on the form of the pods, and let their shape be your guide for your creations. It will be fascinating to see where this one takes you!

Join me for the We're All Ears reveal on
Friday, November 20th!