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Monday, July 31, 2017

Welcome Loralee Kolton!

Hello, my name is Loralee Kolton, and I've been making jewelry for about 10 years now. I was thrilled when asked to do a guest spot as I've been a follower of Earrings Everyday for some time now.

I thought I'd share a couple pairs of earrings that are just off my work table. These stunning hand charms were made by Vincent 'n Nooma of Inviciti! They look old, unearthed, and I loved them the moment I saw them!



For the first pair of earrings I used a set of filigree buttons which I purchased from Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery. They have a vintage feel and a gorgeous pearlescent finish. I wanted to add a bit of color so I wired tiny glass coral and gold vermeil beads to the center where the button holes were. 



The second pair was an interesting evolution. I had these very old twisted brass rings that at one time had been soldered. For some reason, the solder had let go and were now open. I guess I could have re-soldered the rings, but I thought it would be more interesting to cut it away and add holes for some dangles. So I cut, hammered and filed the ends, then asked my cousin to use his drill press to make some meticulous little holes to the bottom and top. I'm so excited and happy with the result! Sometimes at first, what appears to be a problem, can turn into something more interesting if you give yourself some time to noodle it out.

Thank you so much for stopping by and having a look! I love making earrings more than anything, and I'm so thrilled to share my new designs with you!

Yours truly,

Loralee
LoraleeKolton - the Etsy Shop

Friday, July 28, 2017

Fun with patina

This week I got my Vintaj patinas out and this is what I made.  I've antiqued and patinated/patinaed everything except the dragonflies. 




I also patinated these but didn't get a chance to turn them in to earrings yet.


The earrings will be available in my FB trunk show shared with my friend Cheryl Zink in The Jewellery Show group from 9pm BST/4pmEST on Saturday the 29th.  Hope to see you there. 

If you comment on this post, feel free to give me suggestions as to what you'd like to see in the future :)

See you soon.

Suhana <3<3<3

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Colored Feathers, Colored Stones

It's so great to finally be over the flu--and it felt so good to finally be able to sit down and make some new earrings (five pairs in all--I did say it felt good to get back to making things, right?).  ;)  It's also wonderful to be back here at EE with all my beady friends.
You can find these earrings here.

These earrings are a variation on one of my favorite styles.  I made them with these pretty little bumpy purple-and-fuchsia lampwork rondelles by Deborah Crow Roesly, paired with vibrantly colorful polymer clay tribal feathers by Helena Benkoczka.







Complete "recipe" for the earrings:  Deborah's rondelles, Helena's feathers, 3-mm fuchsia Swarovski crystals, scalloped copper bead caps, 3x5-mm tanzanite Czech glass rondelles, small copper jump rings, 15/0 dark fuchsia seed beads, dark fuchsia anodized aluminum jump rings, fuchsia waxed linen cording, and dark pink anodized niobium ear wires.  








The earrings are extremely lightweight and easy to wear.  The backs of the feathers are covered with glazed paper to keep the cord ends tidy and out of sight.

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back again in a couple of weeks with some new earrings.  :)

xoxo
Meridy

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Aegean Sands

This time next week I'll be on my hols in Greece. It's one of our favourite destinations; the Greek people are lovely, it's laid back and relaxed, very family friendly, there's great food for non meat eaters and, of course, it's beautiful and packed with history. What's not to like?

Thinking about at least some time relaxing on the beach with the Aegean lapping on the sand, or walking for miles collecting shells and stones, is my cue for this week's earrings. Brought up at the seaside, I'm a sucker for shells of any kind and have been admiring the work of Greetje Boor of Gloa Glass for some time. In her last show I couldn't resist a couple of pairs - just look at the intricate detail on them - and on both sides too.

The first pair are soft translucent sea green - I paired them simply with creamy rustic pearls and tiny Picasso beads that echo the striped detail in the lampwork.



 
The second pair I glammed up a little with gold ceramic shells from Petra Carpreau, glossy garnet and gold swarowskis. I like the symmetry of these.
 
 
 
 
 
Perfect holiday wear, for day or night. And if its summer where you are, I hope you all have super holidays coming up too - tell us where you are off to?
 
See you in a couple of weeks
 
 
Lindsay xx
 
 

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Excavation

I was in the mood for making earrings this weekend, but was frustrated that there was no clear space on my table to actually be able to create anything.  Sigh.  I know many of you fight this battle too.

So I shoved some of the ruble off to the side and put some of it on the floor. I decided that I would begin excavating my work surface by just using the beads that were already on the table.  And I vowed to then put away any leftover beads from those that I used.  I ended up with three pairs of earrings and the start of a cleaner work space.

These earrings use a pair of my ceramic butterfly charms, paired with lampwork glass spacers, Czech glass flowers and Swarovski crystals.  Although the design isn't technically difficult, I had the darnedest time finding beads that had a pleasing balance of shapes, sizes and colors.  I like these earrings now because they have "happy colors"!

I have found that many of my customers are wanting shorter, less showy earrings, but designs that are still unique and colorful.  This pair of earrings fits the bill.  The brick red beads are vintage Lucite and therefore very lightweight.  The rounded triangle shapes are higher on the sides, with a "valley" down the center.  I love these unique shapes.  I topped them with verdigris bell shaped bead caps.  They remind me of opened paper fans.


Lantern Earrings
The brick red and black glass beads I used here are vintage glass.  They are sort of cone shaped, but with flat faces all around, rather than being smoothly rounded.  I topped them with the same bead caps as in the previous earrings (successfully using up the last of those bead caps, thus adding, maybe 2 square inches of cleared space to my table!).  These earrings remind me of little lanterns that you might hang in the garden on a lovely summer evening.
 If I keep excavating I should have a lot more earrings to share with you in my next post.

I hope you and yours are enjoying the summer, even as the "Back To School" displays are filling the aisles in all the stores.






Monday, July 24, 2017

Time to say goodbye - for now

Hi lovelies.
Yes, it is time for me to say goodbye. At least, as a regular blogger here on Earrings Everyday.
After two years I feel it is time for me to step aside and make room for other talented jewelry artists. There are so many very talented jewelry artists around, who have beautiful earrings to share with you.

In this last regular post I like to share with you a design I have been making over the years. It is a perfect way to use up left-over beads or just showcase a combo of beads you love. You can just about use any beads you like, in any color combo.

My first pair, made in 2010. Using Aventurine briolettes, Swarovski crystal and Swarovski pearls.

















A pair I made a couple of years back. I still wear these in summer. 


Normally I use ready made rings, but this time I made them myself with sterling silver wire. That's why they look a bit, well, what shall I say, not perfectly round. But that is what I like about handmade items. They are not perfect. Just as we all are. We are perfectly imperfect and that makes us all unique and beautiful.


I had some left over briolettes (Labradorite, no idea what the other one's are), sterling silver beads and rice pearls. voila, my beloved charm earrings.


Thank you all for looking. Thank you for the love I received from you readers and my friends here on earrings everyday. It was heart-warming. It kept me from slipping into a deep depression after my parents passed away. Thank you all, you are a wonderful bunch!

Sunday, July 23, 2017

We're All Ears :: July Reveal :: Visual Music

Hello everyone!

Please accept my apologies for missing my post on Friday, July 21st. I just returned home from the first ever Adornments Mixed Media Jewelry Retreat held at the gorgeous Chestnut Mountain Resort in Galena, IL. I was fortunate to be one of a team of four teachers. It was beyond fabulous. There were a series of torrential downpours the past few days and as such, we had the spottiest wi-fi around. So I was unable to post and could barely even get my texts to work. Despite that, it was the most inspiring space to create in, with a wall of floor to ceiling windows and a birds' eye view of the Mississippi River and Iowa beyond. This is just one of the spectacular sunset shots from our first night there after a rainstorm moved through. Breathtaking.


It will definitely be an annual event, so keep an eye out for information on next year's retreat!

Since I was carting about 1/3 of my studio the three and a half hour trek to Galena for the week, I brought along a few things that I thought would work for the earrings inspired by the visual music.

The video that I was struck by was the very first one, Debussy's Clair de Lune, with the ring, the colored dots indicating the notes as they played, and the strings denoting the length of each note. I used these internal snap rings from the hardware store to be my bead frame like the circle in the video.

I was hoping to find some red and blue beads that would fit, but I couldn't find two the same in what I brought. So I focused on just the blue ones, wrapping them haphazardly around the ring. At the end I wrapped some of the excess wire through the arc imitating the movement of the lines.


Now it is your turn.... show us what you made inspired by Visual Musical scores. (I hope you added in the link to watch it as I find them fascinating and mesmerizing and compelling to watch over and over again!)


Thursday, July 20, 2017

Can't decide? I've got you covered!

Do you sometimes feel like you have multiple personalities when it comes to accessorizing?

I do..... some days I feel bohemian and I'd love to wear long colorful dangly funky earrings and colorful flowy clothes, and other days I'm more 'subtle' minded and want something that can showcase my love of happy colors in a much more compact design.

If you feel this way too, then I've got you covered with this 'dual' offering today!

Still different, but with similar elements that can give you this particular vibe, no matter if you go long or go short :) Have you tried making a matching long and short pair of earrings too?

I've made these 3" long earrings starting with a pair of my handmade polymer clay headpins, and some fun sparkling Czech glass beads in various fresh summery colors:

http://www.MyGardenOfLove.Etsy.com


And I loved the drop section on these long earrings so much, I decided to make an almost matching mini pair for those days where we want to carry that same boho feel, but in a much more subtle way:

http://www.MyGardenOfLove.Etsy.com


Sparkling colorful Czech Glass beads, Copper and Gold-tone accents and findings, finished with Niobium Ear wires.

So, are you in the mood for "long" boho, or "mini" boho today? What's your general preference when it comes to earrings?

You can find my handmade jewelry making components and some of my finished jewelry listed in my Etsy shop HERE.

Enjoy the weekend!
Cheers,
Nathalie
Visit My Garden Of Love on Etsy HERE.
Visit The Crafty Tribe on Etsy HERE.


Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Scraps. . . continued

I didn't think Nathalie would mind if I picked up on her "scraps" idea. Her recent post really gave me pause. It was a good challenge for me, to pay attention to what I'm throwing away or simply tossing aside, without giving thought to what it might become rather than trash. I recycle many things in different areas of life, but I am quick to pitch loose odds and ends without thinking about it. The opportunity came up very soon.

The first pair is made from a small piece of tin I still have left from a vintage container. So in a way they're scraps. . . . but they're not really the pair that in my mind were made from scraps. :) The scraps are the second pair.

Earrings Available Here! 😊


These were made from what was left after cutting out the teardrop shapes in the first pair of earrings. It took some Dremel work to get the shapes nicely edged, inside and out. They were not joined at the top; that was where I made the first cut to begin the teardrop shape. I used a brass metal coating on the backs. They are too narrow for me to try to apply the backing I regularly use. 

I punched holes at the top of both ends. I used an aqua/green dye-oxide on vintage steel wavy disks. ***For whatever reason, those appear much deeper and brighter a color than they actually are. Strange. . . . as everything else is quite accurate. I tried lightening the photos at one point trying to soften the color. But the disks are simply not that bright.*** 

Using waxed Irish linen, I strung a single coral Czech glass bead and put both ends of the linen through the center hole in the disk, then one end through each hole in the tin, then knotting it. Pulling the strands tight caused the tin to bow ever so slightly and it looks great that way. Gives it a little bit of depth.

 I considered leaving the entire empty space empty after having tried at least two dozen different things to hang. Nothing worked. It was an odd feeling. I had all this empty space and couldn't fill it. It was baffling, actually. Frustrating too. I am not opposed to leaving empty space. Often it is what I would rather do, but in this situation I felt they really needed something.

I hung them up after finishing and left them as is. Later in the day I was looking for something for another project and stumbled on these Vintage very thin brass-plated findings. They worked, so I left them on. They are attached with waxed linen also, wrapped around the backs of the disk.

So my thanks to Nathalie for her post the other day, for making me stop to think about what I was throwing away, and giving me a new way to look at bits and pieces.

 Thank you for stopping in! I'll be back the 1st of August. Hope you are all enjoying the summer.

norbel
Visit me on Facebook & Instagram

Monday, July 17, 2017

Memory Lane

Hi, today I thought I'd take a walk down memory lane. Here are three pairs of earrings I made before, that I hope still can inspire you.

Ingredients:
Faceted pyrite drops
Yellow vinyl spacer discs
Hammered look rhombic lucite beads
Swarovski bicone crystals
Oxidized copper wire
Handmade copper earring hooks

Ingredients:
Stone pebbles, hand picked by a friend of mine near 
where I grew up, then she tumbled and drilled them
Swarovski bicone crystals
Oxidized copper wire, two different gauges
Handmade heavily oxidized silver earring hooks

Ingredients:
Metallic pewter love knot beads
Oval metallic rings
Matte turquoise nuggets
Oxidized copper wire
Handmade brass earrings hooks

All my best,
Malin de Koning



Friday, July 14, 2017

Rescued by leftovers.....

What do you do when you're faced with no inspiration at all...nothing...zilch?


(you can blame it on the lil lady up there btw, but I'll let her off 😉😍)



You turn to leftover components from a past FB show

and here's what they became:

Porcelain cap by Melissa Gabelle


Ceramic cones by Natalie McKenna




Hope you like them. Top pair has sold and the other 2 pairs are listed in my shop.  Hope you all have a lovely weekend.  See you soon.

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Thursday, July 13, 2017

A brief trip down memory lane...

I thought maybe that title was better than "I'm Soooo Sick."  :) 💗

Over the past ten days or so, almost everyone in our household has been sick, and it was my turn to come down with this flu (or whatever it is) when Roger and I returned from a fun weekend on California's Central Coast on Sunday. I was under the weather on Monday and in bed all day yesterday with a fever, and today (Wednesday) I tried to finish a pair of earrings I'd been working on before we left on our trip and realized that I just didn't have the energy to focus on them.

So if you can bear with me, I will save them for another time and instead share a few of my old favorites from years back.

These two pairs, from 2012, are some I made with leather using beautiful components by Karen Totten and Kristi Bowman-Gruel.  I made quite a few in this style; I loved making them, and people seemed to like them. It's hard to beat that!


            

The earrings below are from late 2013 or early 2014.  I don't think they ever made it into my shop, as I traded them to another jewelry designer (they definitely have a good home).   They're made with wonderfully rustic spiral beads by Barbara Hanselman of BHClaysmith and gorgeous asymmetrical drops by Rey of Grey Bird Studio.



These last two pairs are from early 2014:
         
          

The earrings on the left were made with Karen Totten's beautiful ceramic crescent moons, suspended by copper wires decorated by wrapped Czech glass and metal beads and by greenish-blue quartz rondelles swinging from a fancy copper chain.  The earrings on the right were made with gorgeously textured ceramic spikes by Robyn Cove of Ragged Robyn, topped off with little lampwork rondelles and glowing lampwork glass beads by Basha.  Yum!

It was fun looking back on the things I've created in the past and noting how my tastes have changed and my techniques have grown...and loving all of it just the same.

So...this is what I offer you today.  I promise I will be back with new (and hopefully beauteous) earrings in two weeks.

I hope you're all well and not catching any nasty flus!  Drink Emergen-C!  Take care.

Love to you all,

Meridy


Wednesday, July 12, 2017

From a Sarcophagus.

A creative slump. We all have them. Doesn't often happen to me but this week I've struggled to even summon up a pair of earrings.

I've been super busy over the last month with village events, real life and on-line shows, and grandchildren stuff and reckon I'm just tired and in need of a holiday - cue Halkidiki in a couple of weeks time to recharge my rapidly aging batteries!

So for this weeks earrings I decided to take Janine's advice and revisit an old design. Looking through albums from a couple of years ago, I found a pair I really liked and decided to make a new, differently coloured version - the originals had green kyanite with the red enamelled tins.





The enamelled tin sticks are, of course, by Kimberly Rogers . Those gorgeous lapis lazuli discs come by recommendation of Norbel, from funkyprettybeads. Very rich, with the deep red. Favourite colours of the Egyptians; Tutankhamen's sarcophagus abounds with lapis, although with gold rather than copper.
The etched copper rings are sadly no longer available - they were from Tracy Smith, of Cinnamon Beads, who is now concentrating on her jewellery (more's the pity - her copper findings were second to none). Those Tangled earwires are by none other than Lucy Haslam, who is re-opening her findings shop with some new, exciting things for us in mid-August after her move to wild Wales. Hurray, I hear you all shout. Not before time, ya slacker (don't tell her I said that!)




 
 
 
 
And they've set me off on a real red and blue thing...so expect to see more of these colours together. I'm busy studying my guide book from the Museum of Egypt in Cairo - I feel a collection coming on!
 
 
See you in  a couple of weeks.
 
 
Lindsay
(Precious Violet)
 
 
 

Monday, July 10, 2017

Stacked

Greetings from sunny Greece.

This week we will have our second heatwave of this year, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius. We have no air-conditioning in our mobile home, so it will be a bit warm. At the end of the day we will possibly head to one of our favorite beach-clubs to swim and enjoy the beach.























As I couldn't get enough of stacked earrings I made another pair with beads from one of the beautiful muse packs from Smittenbeads.


Thanks for visiting. Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of joy, happiness, laughter and sunshine. See you in a couple of weeks.
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Friday, July 7, 2017

We're All Ears :: July Inspiration :: Visual Music

June 22 was the 117th birthday of an artist named Oskar Fischinger, as I learned from a #GoogleDoodle. If that name doesn't sound familiar, you likely have seen his work in the animated Disney classic, Fantasia. His work is the opening with the graphical representation of the notes.

Seeing that sent me on a quest to find out more about what I came to learn more.

I stumbled next upon a TEDx talk by Dr. Hunter Ewen entitled Music is a Visual Art. In that talk while sharing the visual representation of a score that allows for a musician to really grasp the concept of the musical sounds the composer is after, he said the following,

"So by visualizing this piece of music we are all of a sudden open to a number of things we might not notice when just hearing it. We can see patterns and sequences more easily. We can see which instruments are playing and where and how. We can see when harmony becomes melody. And we can see when there's one note versus when there's many notes."

I really liked the idea of seeing patterns and sequences and watching where the notes take us on the unique journey of the musical score. And that is when I stumbled upon the work of two artists in graphic notation or animated scores. I see a lot of possibility for crossing over into making beautiful jewelry.

Check out this score by Andy Fillebrown for Debussy's hauntingly beautiful Clair de lune




I love the circular representation of the score and the way the lights flare and trail off as the notes are held. It is mesmerizing.

Seeing this led me to believe there were other artists out there doing something similar and I landed on the YouTube channel for Stephen Malinowski or smalin. His visual representations are different, but no less compelling. Here is one of his takes on the same piece of music, but with a solo guitar instead of piano



The color are again mesmerizing, and I love the way they are connected by the lines.

I have spent many days just letting these animations play in the background. Each is so different and so beautiful.

So the challenge for July, should you choose to accept, is to find a piece of music with a graphical notation or animated score, from either Andy Fillebrown or Stephen Malinowski - they each have dozens and dozens to choose from - or any other artist really. Then represent that in a pair of earrings. The nice thing about YouTube is there is a little embed link that will allow you to grab the HTML code to put into your blog post. I would highly recommend that you share the visual in your post or at least a link to the one that inspired you.

Can't choose? Check out my favorites from both of them:

Beethoven, String Quartet No 16, 3rd mvt (opus 135)

Paganini, Caprice No 5 (solo violin)

Debussy, Syrinx (solo flute)

Debussy, First Arabesque (hearts/butterflies)

Bach, Fugue in C Minor, BWV 546

Bach, Prelude in C major, WTC I, BWV 846

Bach, Prelude in C Minor, WTC I, BWV 847

Situm, Ghost Waltz (solo piano)



Mozart, variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5vRrt0Q9Ew

Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yojDu3E9jls

Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody 9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6xWGVhZl1g

Tchaikovski, Nutcracker (Arabian Dance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGE1lt7xGis


See you on July 21st with your jewelry representations of these graphical notations of classical music scores!

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Scraps

Last week I mentioned that I had been going through my photos of years of jewelry designs I had created. And, I came across a few that touch on the subject above: These earrings are all made with scraps that were on my bench. Since I wasn't well this week, I didn't make anything new, but I wanted to talk about scraps and leftovers.

Do you aim to re-use everything leftover when you make jewelry? What do you do with all the scraps and odds and ends? Whether I work with metal, or polymer clay, precious metal clay, etc...  I re-purpose/re-use/transform scraps into new components and pieces. There's basically zero waste in terms of materials in my studio and I'm quite proud of that :)

Here's some earrings I made using scraps:

Tribal shields: Scraps of Sterling silver wire balled up, flattened, soldered to leftover pieces copper from another project, and everything is soldered to the sterling silver wire frame, and decorated with  two small Turquoise stones:

Tribal Sheilds by Nathalie Lesage


These Moonstone Moon Earrings are not made with scraps, but there's a part of these that ends up in other designs - I use a sterling silver round disc blank, and I offset it in my disc cutter to quickly cut out a crescent moon shape to make these earrings:

Moonstone Moon Earrings by Nathalie (Girard) Lesage

So when I make these, I'm left with 'eye shaped' or 'marquise shaped' pieces of sterling silver. Some of those scrap pieces ended up in these designs:


Mother Earth Earrings: The textured sterling silver piece (shaped like a marquise a bit - vertical) is soldered on top of the 'dome' in this pair. I textured the pieces and soldered them to the base round disc shape.

Mother Earth Lampwork & Sterling Silver Earrings by Nathalie Lesage


And in this pair of Kyanite Chandelier Earrings, I used that same leftover cut-out shape from the Moon earrings, but this time, I used them horizontally to make the foundation of this unusual pair of chandelier earrings:

Kyanite Sterling Silver Chandelier Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

So how do you like 'scrap' earrings? Are you happy with how much you can re-use and re-purpose in your own studio? Can you share some of your re-using tips with us? We'd love to hear what you do!

I will be back later on this month with new earrings to show!

Cheers,
Nathalie
My Garden Of Love Etsy Shop
The Crafty Tribe Etsy Shop