Vestiges

Hello - It's been a while! I had to drop out of writing regular posts because I needed to find some more hours in my days. But, I'm filling in today, and it's nice to be back, albeit briefly. The Earrings Everyday team is so packed with talent right now, and I had the rare pleasure, earlier this month, to meet one of the other team members, the marvellous Kimberly Rodgers.

Here I am with Kim and that wonder woman, Petra Carpreau. This was a real rare treat and we had a fabulous time. And, Kimberly kindly came bearing beads, including some of her much sought after enamel components. So, I thought, today, that I'd share a new pair of earrings featuring some of Kimberly's work.

I've had these dagger shaped droppers for a little while. I actually made the wire frames up top for a different pair of earrings but the design didn't hang right; then I remembered these enamel pieces. I filled the frame with some yak bone beads, some grungy metal barrels, and some mismatched seeds; then I added some slinky chain dangles for a bit of extra interest.

Thanks for having me. I hope I'll be back here again soon.

Bye for now, Claire

something to do with your hands on Etsy 

something to do beads on Etsy 

something to do with your hands blog

Rhinestone chain

Hello, I'm back again and this time I'm sharing some earrings with rhinestone chain, which I absolutely adore.  I try and add some to every piece of jewellery I make :D. 

First I have these made with my very first Bea Stoertz enamel components.  Also featuring polymer roses by Leah Curtis along with my wrapped hoops and rhinestone chain.

Here I have wrapped rhinestone and brass chain around Petra Carpreau spikes and Leah Curtis roses.

Petra Carpreau ceramic with Nikki Tunnah lampwork

And finally I have teamed rhinestone chain with Cathleen Zaring enamel charms.

That's all for today.  See you again soon.
Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Fall Mood

I have to admit, October is a spectacular month.   It's the shift of seasons, the change in the light, crisp air and damp smells all preparing us for change and opportunity of letting go.

It puts me in the mood of creating fall colors, something different, earthy, rustic and organic.  I have two designs this week that I'm really excited to share.  

This first design is a collaboration of bone, wood, chain, glass, gemstones and leaves all capturing what I call Flourishing Fall.  

Are they not screaming EARTHY party of one!

My second design holds a more festive look for Halloween with the help of Kristi Bowman-Gruel, she sells these wonderful little pumpkin ghouls and if you're needing a pair to create with, you can get them from her website ►, Kristi Bowman Design.  She should be well stocked because we all told her to make more ☺, so don't wait, not sure how much longer she's going to offer them. I know I need to order more myself.

  Are they not just the cutest things ever!!!

I made two different designs utilizing different bead caps complimented with wiggly wires on the sides serving as the pumpkin vine.

Thanks for stopping by, share a few words if you can and remember to enjoy the season, embrace the change and don't forget to let things go, ♥

Lynn Ferro aka Yucca Bloom

By The Light Of The Moon

I'm so grateful our summer has been filled with many incredible weekends camping in the woods, in and around Washington state. Our last trip was about 3.5 hours east in Oregon. A place called (very fitting!) Paradise. 

We arrived just before nightfall. I was practically jumping for joy when I got out of the truck and saw where we'd be spending the next 3 days. It was *incredible*. 

A deep campsite, off the road with plenty of room, next to the roaring McKenzie River. So loud in fact that we had to raise our voices a little to talk to each other. It was heaven. 

Sitting by the campfire, I kept looking up through the trees at the beautiful moon. It was a lovely waxing crescent, so bright it seemed to light the sky. 

Inspired.

 Available at Art & Soul Jewelry 

http://www.artandsouljewelry.com/

Inspiration

According to the dictionary inspiration is:

1.
the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
synonyms: creativity, inventiveness, innovation, innovativeness, ingenuity, imagination, imaginativeness, originality, individuality; artistry, expressiveness, creative power, creative talent, creative skill, genius, insight, vision, wit, finesse, flair, brilliance, sophistication

the quality of being inspired.
synonyms: stimulus, stimulation, motivation, motivating force, fillip, encouragement, influence, muse, goad, spur, lift, boost, incentive, incitement, impulse, catalyst 

divine influence, especially that supposed to have led to the writing of the Bible.
   
2.
a sudden brilliant or timely idea.
synonyms: bright idea, brilliant idea, timely thought, revelation

When my muse wants to “cooperate” and I am in the flow I get my inspiration mostly from the colors of the beads. Especially from art beads. One can feel the love an artist puts in these tiny wonders of art. By looking at a beautiful art bead, designs often create themselves. 

Design Seeds: http: wanderlust/color-view31

When I am having my “beads play-day” and my muse is deciding to take a prolonged coffee break, I’m having a harder time finding inspiration. My go-to stop for instant inspiration is the website of Design seeds. The pictures are mouth watering gorgeous and the color palettes are inspirational.
 

 
If my muse is on holiday I find inspiration in design bead kids, like the muse packs from Smittenbeads, browsing the fresh picks from Lima beads, flicking through beading magazines or by picking up a bead embroidery project.

When that doesn’t work…Well I’m just calling it a day and go for a long walk in the mountains.

 

Glass headpins: Earthshinebeads
Copper earwires: Faerystones

These are available in my shop.
Can you tell what inspired me creating these earrings?
And of course I like to know what inspires you in your creativity?


Thank you for visiting. Wishing you a wonderful time, full of joy, happiness, laughter and lots of inspiration. See you in a couple of weeks.

Janine

Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop

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Wings!

Hello again. Today I bring you all things wings purely because I've made nothing but 'wingy' earrings these last few weeks :).  So here comes my barrage of pictures for you ;)

I think these were the first ones I made this time round with lampwork flower caps by Elaine Thronton and antiqued brass wings.  I loved them so much, I went ahead and made a couple more :D 

Lampwork flower caps by Elaine Thornton, brass wings and my wrapped rings.

Ceramic caps by Claire Lockwood, brass wings and wrapped rings.

             

Last week I also received my latest Claire Lockwood moth wings (need more of these!) and this is what became of them. Polymer daisies by Elise Canning

I also had a bunch of Susan Sibert Woodworth enamel wings (beautiful Stuff!).

Lampwork nuggets by Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens.

Some of these have sold, the rest will be available in my shared FB show with Cheryl Zink in the Artist Spotlight group or in my Etsy shop.

That is it for today, think you may have had enough of 'wings' already ;).  Thanks for looking and see you next time.

Suhana <3<3<3

Blessed with Cracks

Aren't we all, though? 

Conventional wisdom has taught us that cracks, imperfections, and vulnerabilities are bad. A sign of sub-par quality. Something to be avoided. 

Well, turn that thinking on its ear. Cracks are an opportunity to be flexible, to expand, to grow. They can also allow us a way to get rid of baggage that we don't need. If we are strong, inflexible, unwavering, and impermeable, then we miss out on so many opportunities. Cracks are a sign that we've been through hell and are here to tell the tale. 

Leonard Cohen, one of my favorite artists and poets, said it so well in "Anthem":

"The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."

 
Today's earrings feature a deliciously crackled and distressed pair of etched "agate eye" beads from Tibet. I burnished them with wax so they have that warm, soft, well-worn-through-generations-of-hands look. As I've been doing lately, I kept it simple, pairing them with faceted milky white ceramic beads from the ever talented Simona of Happy Fallout. Dots of blackened silver solder complete the crunchy industrial tribal vibe that you know I love. My own hand forged copper ear wires and pitted fat headpins complete the look. 

Proudly showcase your cracks, ladies and gentlemen! They are a sign of strength and openness--not imperfection. 

Happy Wednesday, 
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Wire is my Friend. . . .

. . . .except when it's not! 

Hello, and Happy Day to you!

I love playing with wire. And every once in a while something fun that I can use comes of it. I don't mean the soldering kind of playing; just taking various gauges of wire and trying to make things. In recent months I've been playing around with what what I call "bead frames." I haven't yet made one that actually looked like something I'd like to use, but I keep playing.  

So speaking of wire, which is my friend so much of the time, I have two earrings for you today. Two earrings, but they don't match. And no, they're not asymmetrical in design. They are two earrings, one each of both pairs I planned to share with you today. 

So yes, I love playing with wire. It's fun, it's therapeutic, and I love putting in something a bit quirky in designs. The problem comes in when I have to repeat what I did the first time! There is nothing so complex to warrant such difficulty in either of these designs, but I spent way too much time attempting to make the second earring for both of these. 
These earrings are not at all complete either. I'll say they're "half baked." Consider it a prototype. :) They will be oxidized and look more pulled together when finally completed. The Peace Sign with charms by Vincent & Nooma of Inviciti, and the Lampwork Glass by Leese Mahoney of GlassByLeese, will be oxidized to black. That will highlight the tiny silver beads around the frame. The same tiny beads run up and down the wire connected to the charm, on both sides.

The "Scream" earrings, copper by our very own Kristi Bowman-Gruel of KristiBowmanDesign, will be oxidized and buffed back to highlight the copper loops in the center. These pieces felt so not me at all but yet I wanted them, and in the end I loved them. I had a couple of more "Halloween-like" ideas I thought I'd try, but in the end I kept it more everyday wear, the ivory and black looked much better than the white and black I initially tried. And anything colorful didn't work for me. The lava stones add a bit of rustic, which you are not getting at all from my photos. The ivory Lampwork is shiny; I tried the matte version; didn't like it. The top bead you aren't seeing well either, really. It's shiny, but it has a very full Picasso finish underneath the shine. It's an interesting bead. :) This is probably a good time to apologize for the poor photos. I have lost the best place to take my pictures in natural light. So forgive me as I struggle to figure it out, or decide to depend on a light box. 

I have no intention of dropping these designs all together; I like them and will keep going. If I decide to make a change along the way, well, that's a designer's prerogative, isn't it? And I do that a lot! ;) Truthfully, I simply ran out of time to finish for today. Never did I expect to have such a problem with these. One, maybe, even though it didn't cross my mind, but both? Well, it is what it is. 

In the "Scream" earrings, it's a wonky piece of wire work to begin with, so it wasn't at all that I was trying to make them perfect one to the other as far as the wire. But it is the kind of design that for me requires the length to be the same. With many handcrafted components it's a challenge, but these two sets were perfectly matched. But length was the main problem I was having, and similarity of the loops in a secondary way. All I did was roll three rounds of wire on the step pliers with a wire pointing in either direction at the end. The wire facing down was bent inward to become the wire that the lava stone was put on, and then into the Scream face. The wire facing up was bent down and inward to wrap around the first wire. I then took a second wire and strung it through the middle of the three loops and wrapped it up from there.

The Inviciti Peace Sign earrings were a different story. I broke several pieces of wire from overworking while attempting to get this done. I could NOT get the wire centered in the kite-shaped frame, nor could I get it to come out the same size. Measurements did no good. Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I was so frustrated. Wire DOES, in fact, have a mind of its own, and you will never be able to convince me otherwise. 

So these earrings are not yet available; they will be but I don't know when. :) I've also attached a collage of a few of the things I've done with simple wire stuff; nothin' fancy; just fun little things that add a quirky something. These earrings have all sold; some of them recent, a few of them two or three years old. Like I said, I love wire; she simply doesn't always want to do what I ask her to. It's okay though; I'll keep her around anyway. :)

So thank you for taking time out of your busy day to have a look at what we've got going on here. We all appreciate it. We also appreciate comments or questions. We very much appreciate that! I'll be back in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, please let me know if you have some fun playing with wire! 

Thank you!

Happy Days to You!

Norbel Marolla

She Flies Again on Etsy

She Flies Again on Facebook

p.s. I wanted to mention that we are attempting to organize a request for a challenge made by an EE follower. Not all of us will be able to participate, but those of us who are able will be working on it. She has requested that we each start with the same elements, a pair of "something," to see how differently we all use the same pieces. Fun idea! So we're working on it and will keep you posted. We hope you'll enjoy it. 

Twisted and Turquoise

Ingredients:
African Turquoise nuggets
Pewter oval links (taken from a chain)
Pewter knot beads
Oxidized copper wire (messy wrapped)
Handmade oxidized brass earwires

All my best,
Malin
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

We're All Ears :: September Reveal

[Photo credit :: Erol Ahmed :: Chicago :: Unsplash]

I love all the different textures in the pictures of the cityscapes. There are lines and dots. There are spindles and squares. There are angles and intersections.

So for my earrings, I decided to play with the shape and colors and textures. I kept the shape consistent, but used different metals for their industrial palette and each with a distinct texture - from a hammer, a microfold brake or etching. I attached them slightly off-center to evoke that feeling of the perspective of the city landscape using square jump rings. The look of a modern skyline in a contemporary format.

So what about the cityscape intrigued you most? Show us what you made!

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Once In A Blue Moon

The other day, my husband and I were walking through the park and a band was playing Blue Moon a very old doo-wap song, originally written in the mid 50's, which had a second rise to popularity in the early 60's.   The song preceded my pre-teen and teen years, but somehow I knew a few of the words in the refrain.

That song came back to me as I was working on these earrings.

The lampwork glass hoops by Outwest made me think of blue moons. I paired the "moons" with lampwork glass head pins by Sue Beads and added a touch of sparkly with some faceted, metallic hematite beads.

I guess once in a blue moon, an oldie but goodie, can inspire a contemporary design.  What are some other things that happen once in a blue moon?

Linda Landig Jewelry

Discovering an Old World Look

I'm just over the moon with my new paper processing technique.  I've been working on this for a while combining my painting process and a similar paper applique process and ended up capturing both in one.  I call it my, "Old World Look",  these are a mix of batik patterns with a crackled finish that has me yearning to make nothing else at the moment.

I prep my copper by cutting, filing, hammering and then oxidizing followed by the paper cut out application, (this is my favorite part because skies the limit when it comes to patterns).

My last step is to apply crackle paste, let it dry and make the cracks more prominent with a dark rub. This affect is crucial to making the paper and copper look old.

As you can see in this bottom pic, I started going nuts when I saw all the different ways I can use the paper. 

I plan on expanding my efforts with different shapes and styles, perhaps necklace and bracelet focal's.

Thanks for your visit, take time and leave a comment if you can and we will see you again in a couple weeks.

Lynn Ferro
My ETSY Shop- Yucca Bloom

Hydrangea

Hello lovely earring fans. I hope you are enjoying a wonderful end of summer. Here in Greece we still have warm weather so we can still swim and enjoy the sun. My apologies as I have to keep this post short. I am a bit running behind with my work.
These earrings are a bit shorter than my usual style. The inspiration were the gorgeous lampwork glass beads from Into the Fire. Half of the set was etched for me on request. I think they turned out  beautifully.

They are combined with Czech glass flowers in a beautiful blue. The colours in the lampwork and Czech glass beads make me think of Hydrangea which I love. Of course with wonderful handmade antiqued copper ear wires made by Faerystones.

These are available in my shop. Thank you so much for looking. We here at Earrings Everyday love to read your comments, so don't be shy and write a few words. We appreciate it! See you in a couple of weeks.

Wishing you a wonderful week full of joy, laughter, sunshine and flowers.

Janine

Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop
My website/blog
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Asymmetry

Yep asymmetry is what I've been playing with recently.  My asymmetry is still balanced as you will see from the earrings.  Next time I hope to push the boat out a bit more ;).

First up are these with some beautiful Susan Silbert Woodworth enamel feather headpins. I started off by wrapping the cupchain on the big hoop using the wire on the headpin.  This is where it was meant to end with ear wires.  I must have spent about 2-3 hours just trying to add ear wires (one of those days) but it just wouldn't work.  I tried adding beads under the ear wire, caps - everything I could get my hands on (that matched) but nothing worked.  After several hours I admitted defeat and put them to one side.  There was no way I was going to waste more time.  I knew I would have to find a way of rescuing them or end up using them as trinkets :D.  I came back to them a few days later with 'a lightbulb moment' - in this case, to wrap some brass bits (hoops, ovals whatever fitted) and hoping they will work!  They did *phew* and here they are, slightly asymmetric with the placement of the ovals and I am finally happy with them.

Here's another picture

Next I have these with my own wrapped hoops (boy do these things take ages to wrap but I'm mad like that!) with beautiful polymer connectors by Helena Benkoczka and some bling :).

Another pair with Helena's polymer connectors and cupchain (possibly my favourite thing to use in jewellery :D). 

I've been hoarding these (I have a few pairs of these) from Claire Lockwood for absolutely ages.  They were already asymmetric with one spike being longer than the other, so I just added some stuff to balance them out.  Maybe next time I will be a bit more bold and try not to balance so much? We'll see.

And finally this pair - I've teamed Helena's connectors with Natalie McKenna's ceramic charms.


















That's all for today.  These earrings are destined for my next Earrings Show on the 16th.  See you soon.  <3

Suhana xxx