Easy Breezy Summer

When I sat down yesterday to make something for today's post I gave myself guidelines, not at all what I usually do. But the requirements were, only a Few Components (Easy), Lots of Movement (Breezy), Colorful (Summer), and Lightweight (back to Easy ;). Lightweight to me is anything under 0.22 oz, 6 grams and under. Once the earring gets up to around 0.20, it is definitely still lightweight, but the older I get, the less tolerant my ears are for weight. Something we've talked about here before. So I'm really happy when I can keep them around 0.18, all of which these are. But it does really limit what I can do.

Weighing the components in the top pair, I knew it wouldn't work if I used wire, so I wrapped them with teal waxed Irish linen. They still swing because the linen is wrapped onto soldered jumprings, so they move a lot. The other two pairs I used wire, using the X wrap that always adds a bit more of a rustic/edgy feel to me, and I was able to kept them all within the lightweight limits.

I also planned to make lovely, light and airy pictures to go along with the Easy Breezy vibe, but by the time I had them ready to photograph, it was 8:30 last night and we were in the middle of a thunderstorm. So quick-on-slate pictures is what I ended up with, and gratefor for them I was! :) I hope you can use a little imagination.

See what I mean about the imagination? The pics just don't do the summery, colorful earrings justice.

Top left: Bird Wing Manified Ceramic Slices by Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy - Lampwork Glass by Terry Turner of SilverFishDesigns - Raspberry Enamel Copper Beads by Alison Page of AlisonPageStudios

Center: Enameled Copper by Alison Page of AlisonPageStudios - Lampwork Glass by Julie Burgard of Outwest

Bottom Right: Summer Sunrise Ceramics by Jana Bliznakova of HappyFishThings. The other pieces are vintage acrylic and Indonesian glass.

I do hope you are all having a wonderful Spring. . . . . it's been Summer Weather here for a while now. Weather we used to have in July, maybe, for a few days, seems to have become the norm, and months earlier. 95 in May, in Michigan, is just weird! lol Lots of people love it, so for all of you I am very happy. :) I wish everyone the Best Summer Ever!

Thank you for stopping in and letting me share my stuff with you.

norbel
SheFliesAgain

Unfurling.

A quick fill-in post from me today. It's been a lovely week here for half term and I've spent a lot of time in the garden.  We all get excited to see buds start to bloom but how often do we really take notice of the leaves beginning to unfurl?
No-one notices the beauty of leaves quite like Helen Backhouse. As well as being a painter and illustrator by trade, then branching out into making the most beautiful polymer clay pieces, she's also a very accomplished photographer and has a real knack for picking out the less obvious features and textures that others would pass over. 
Take these furled leaves; the colours and textures are lovely but the way she has shaped and curved them round is so unusual. The copper 'leaf' headpins complement them well, along with the carved bone beads in honey shades (Numinosity ) and the 'pop' of wine in the greek ceramic cornflakes - one of my favourite staples, and now in several new colours from Smitten Beads.

 

 

 

Organic and rustic - hope you like them. Tell us what's looking particularly good in your garden just now? And I'll be back in two weeks!

 

Lindsay

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook page

 

 

 

Snakeskin

Incredibly beautiful Lampwork Headpins by Janell Nelson with Copper "Snakeskin" Bails.

Lampwork headpins are one of my favorite things to use and I'm always looking for ways to use Snakeskin in my copper work.

Super cool and unusual!

These earrings are available here in my etsy shop.

*Snakeskin Earrings*

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook

The Metals

Hi everyone, it's busy busy in the Hart household so another sweet little post from me featuring some of my newest painted metal components. I hope you like them.

First pair with some unusual shaped connectors.  These were very fiddly to paint (only 6mm wide), I don't think I'll be in a hurry to paint more of these.  I added brass caps and tubes on top and Czech glass flowers.  I also added some chain and stars.

For these I used slightly curved brass tubes and added various brass findings including some silver plated brass crowns hiding inside the raw brass caps.

Final pair similar to the first but I've turned the top section upside down to give them a slightly different look.

These are available in my Etsy shop now.  I'll be back in a couple of weeks time, hopefully with newer designs.  Until then, have a lovely weekend <3

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Buttoned Up Beads

Jewel Tones (with Caramel)

Hey, everyone! It's good to be here.  I'm still alive...still coughing, but feeling almost normal.  My husband (who caught bronchitis when I did, the lucky man) and I have been babysitting our almost-3-year-old grandson this week, but even so I managed to get a pair of earrings made.  YAY!  ❤

I've been wanting to use these wonderful textury pewter components by Vincent and Nooma Cav of Inviciti for a while, and once I got my hands on these beautifully color-dappled lampwork beads by Terry Turner of Silverfish Designs I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.

I hadn't made bead-wrapped earrings like these in a long time (and none exactly like these), so choosing the tiny beads was a treat.  I had the tops of the earrings finished, with just the wrapping of the beads around the pewter triangles to go (using the cords left from wrapping the top part of the earrings together).

I picked out a couple of seed bead colorways and tried them out; one wasn't quite right, so I slid the beads off the cords and put them to one side.  The other set was almost right, but again, not quite.  I ended up combining parts of each seed bead group to get the colorway I finally used:  15/0 3-cuts in Rusty Orange Gold Luster, 15/0 Transparent Dark Lilac, 15/0 3-Cut Cranberry Gold Luster, 15/0 Magenta-Lined Gray, and 15/0 Transparent Dark Magenta AB.

The rondelles in the little silver caps at the tops of the lampwork beads are rosy-gold Czech glass, and the tiny rondelles at the neck of the charms are 4mm Swarovski crystals in Crystal Copper.

I really love the richness of all the colors in Terry's lampwork beads and the tiny glass beads

that echo the colors.  I hope you enjoyed them all too. ❤

Thank you so much for reading--I'd love to hear what you think!  

I'll be back on June 14.  

xoxo

Meridy

My Shop

My FB Page

Les Fleurs du Mal.

Buds. They're all over the place. On my clematis (purple of course), on the roses (Albertine - an old English climber with a wonderful scent), on the iris, on the aquilegia - granny's bonnets, we call them here. Anyhow, you get the idea. A garden full of promise. I love late spring - all still to play for.

I wanted to make some floral earrings this week, but floral with a difference. I began with the tiny ceramic buds by Robyn Cove, beautifully graduated from white through lilac to purple. Violet sari silk hoops by Anna Pierson, gold bicones and tiny ceramic seeds. Looped with black chain. A dark evil type of flower -  fleurs du mal.

 

Hope you like them. I'll see you again in two weeks - and by then, we should have blooms!

 

Lindsay x

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook Page

 

Bloom And Sparkle

I adore this time of year.  The rhododendrons are in their full glory.

Lilacs are filling the air with their intoxicating perfume.  I have a big bouquet of bright yellow day lilies on the fireplace mantle.  And pink tinged dogwoods fill me with joy. Everywhere you look right now is glorious.

With this bounty of blooms, I can't help but make flower themed jewelry. Today's earrings are brought to you by the colors magenta and green, with inspiration from the large camellia bushes in our back yard.

The shiny dark green leaves with the raspberry pink of the bloom got translated into these earrings.

Unfortunately I no longer remember the name of the artist who make the magenta and green lampwork flowers, but they were the launching point for these earrings.

I had some magenta beads that were a perfect match to the flowers.  I added some rhinestone discs and Czech glass bell flower accents to complete the design.

The Bloom and Sparkle earrings are available in my shop.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Lilac

Well, we are enjoying beautiful weather here in the UK...so unexpected! Bright sunshine, blue skies and the flowers are blooming. Now, I love lilac. Really love it. The smell. The shape of the little individual trumpet flowers and the shape they make on the bough. Did I mention the smell? One of my favourite smells. I don't have any lilac in my garden. I keep dropping hints and hope that someone will buy me one, and plant it for me. But this hasn't happened. I think I had better get one myself

I got these beautiful ceramic drops in Petra Carpreau's recent update. The colour is just sublime -lilac and almost luminous. It's an intricate design too -a great combination of wire and ceramic clay -grungy and pretty at the same time

I've just added some textured silver plated jumprings and spacers and rustic silver plated brass textured tubes by Russian artist Anna Chernykh

I think these will be available in my next showcase over on The Earrings Show at the end of June. That's all from me. see you in a few weeks

Sue x

Utterly Lovely Stuff

We're All Ears :: May Reveal :: Movement + Momentum

I wish that I could say that I have progressed further into my art-making for this upcoming show, but I can't. I have been a bit frustrated that I have bitten off, as usual, more than I can chew. But it is starting to coalesce, so that is good. Keep sending me good vibes and major mojo! I need all the support I can get!

I have gone back to reading the book Calder Jewelry. Finding this out of print book a few years ago and getting it for a steal cements it as one of my very favorite resources.

Calder's use of materials is genius to me. I love the way that he manipulates wire and repeats patterns, like swirls and spirals. He created his jewelry in overlooked base materials, like brass and steel, which is what I feel most comfortable working with, especially steel.

So in true Erin fashion, I left this task to the absolute last minute. And almost forgot. Then I saw no less than 3 sticky notes that clearly said in all caps - EARRINGS EVERYDAY! Whoops. Saved by a sticky note.

I decided that I would use steel wire to attach these gold plated brass drops that I picked up at the Bead & Button show a few years ago for some reason I can't quite recall (which is most of the things in my studio). The challenge was to make the coils and bends in the wire that would balance.

I like the direction that these are going in and I will be focusing on these simple forms and materials to go along with the polymer clay mokume gane that I am working with for other jewelry and hopefully - gulp! - some actual mobiles a la Calder.

Now it is your turn. Show us how you channeled your inner Calder!

On The Worktable, Part Two

Hello, hello!  I just finished up my little project that I wrote about last time~

Here are the last pair of charms that Foxpaws sent in our handmade trade!

The richness of the red Jasper stones really brought out the beautiful detail and made them pop.  The stones are oval in shape, and I wanted to prevent the stones from turning so I crossed wrapped them.  

Here are the original supplies that I had pulled.  The vintage beads are an amazing match in color, but I thought they were just a bit too slim and got lost next to the bold, wider charms.  It was actually a difficult decision because the fabric cocoons were incredibly cool and had oodles of texture, but I wanted to add more color without adding additional length.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by!  Until next time, when we meet again in June!

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~ artful in beads

Leaves on a Stem

A simple yet effectful design, all in the combination of the components.

Ingredients:
Large faceted acrylic leaves
Sari silk, slightly wrapped by 24 gauge heavily oxidized copper wire
Handmade oxidized sterling silver earring hooks



All my best,
Malin

Summer is here!!!

and that means we can bring out the colours? Maybe for a short while as summer doesn't last long here - I like it this way as pollen is not my friend!

Anyway, I received my first package from Jeni Houser Alasad recently and below is how I've interpreted some of Jeni's gorgeous components.  

*Group shot*

 

For this first pair I wire wrapped some hoops with dark purple seeds and green flowers to echo some of the colours of the components.  I softened/neutralised them slightly with the addition of Vintaj  connectors and added a teeny bit of fabric below the ear wires to complete the look

 

For this pair I wire wrapped hoops with cup chain and flowers and hung the yellow componnets from them.  Above the hoops I added some Druzy beads (I think) from Kimberly Rogers

 

 

It's a short and sweet post today.  Hope you're enjoying the sunshine.  See you soon.

 

Suhana <3

 

Oh these earrings will be available in my FB trunk show next Tuesday in The Jewellery Show.  Hope you can join me <3

A Lick and a Promise

"A lick and a promise" is a phrase that my mom used to use to describe making our house presentable now and doing a full housecleaning later.  I'm afraid that my post today is going to be a little bit like that--short and hopefully presentable!--since I've caught my grandson's cold/bronchitis.  I'm not feeling so great, and on top of that, the cough/cold medicine has zombie-fied me to the point where all I really want to do is stare into space 😵 or curl up with a blankie and pillow. 💗

But I still wanted to share these new earrings with you since they just feel so much like

summer to me, with all the flowers and aqua and lavender!  The lovely blue-and-purple

striated-and-dotted lampie beads are by Terry Turner of Silverfish Designs, and

Raida Disbrow of Havana Beads made the exquisite enameled charms.  I added Czech

rondelles and discs, in purple and aqua; leafy copper bead caps; tiny aqua Swarovski

bicones; and even smaller seed beads, also in aqua.  Thank you, Raida and Terry, for

making these gorgeous beads and components that allow me to make beauty in turn.  💗

Thank you all for being understanding.  I promise to be back next time

(May 24, I do believe) with an entire "housecleaning."  😊💗

xoxo

Meridy

My shop

My FB Page 

Sand Between Your Toes

It's the time of year when minds turn to booking your summer holiday - if you are as late in doing so as  I am!

Thinking of beaches and rockpools, clear azure seas, hazy mountains in the distance; a cool glass of wine in a beach bar in the evening, watching the red sun slowly go down behind those mountains. Bliss. I can almost feel warm sand between my toes.

This week I've even foregone my normal dark wood photo background for this whitewash wood/white sand one. I must say, it was a lot trickier to get the right exposure on a light background. 

My friend Helen Backhouse recently took a trip to London to meet up with some friends over from New Zealand. The guy is an absolute expert on shells and always brings her some new ones with which to make moulds for her polymer clay pieces. In their honour she has come up with some wonderful new matte sorbet colours, as shown in these two pairs. Soft lilacs and blue/greens.

This pair are so full of texture I thought I'd add some more! The little lampwork beads with tiny shells and sand particles on I've had for years but are from Mayahoney. I've tied them with lilac waxed irish linen cord and seed beads. 

 My second pair have larger smoother whirly shells wrapped with bronze wire to chunky amethyst cubes and amazonite rondelles, perfectly echoing the colours Helen has used for the shells.

I hope these put you in holiday mood! I've a few shell pairs now in my Etsy shop.

 

See you again in two weeks

 

Lindsay xx

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook page

Spring color: denim

Hello peeps,

Hopefully you're all enjoying a gorgeous Spring. As I understand there is even a heat wave in the UK. Here in Greece spring is in full bloom but the last couple of days we had some really heavy rainfall. Which is perfect for nature, as we haven't had rain in quite some time.

Whatever the season, whatever the weather, denim is always the right color.

These earrings are made with blue fossil coral, vintage German glass beads and of course handmade copper ear wires by my very talented and immensely funny friend and twinney Lucy Haslam of Faerystones. These will be available in my shop in a couple of days.

Wishing you all a wonderful Spring day, full of laughter, wonderful flowers, singing birds and love.

See you next month. 

Thanks for looking and you know I love to read your comments so don't be shy and leave some words. 

Janine

Incan Inspiration

So it's been a while since I made anything. My beads and tools have remained untouched for weeks, mainly due to a hugely busy time in my day job. I've missed being creative. It's been a bit daunting sitting down to try to make something again. My mojo has been much neglected and so.... disappeared!

When I'm short on inspiration and confidence, I turn to past designs to help get things moving again. I have a stash of Suhana Hart's beautiful painted brass charms which are sealed with resin. They are beautifully intricate and colourful, and I've used these daggers in similar designs for a previous blogpost. These particular daggers are stunning. They were painted by Suhana's husband Martin (what a creative family!) and they remind me of Incan designs. I thought I'd build on this and used brass hoops as a frame for wrapping seed beads in co-ordinating indigo and turquoise colours. I have some vintage beads in my stash, and these seemed to finish off the Incan vibe well, and added some interesting shape and texture.

And here's a shot of them hanging in all their Incan glory

That's it from me. Hugely grateful to this blog for making me sit down with my beads again! See you in a few weeks

Sue x

Utterly Lovely Stuff

We're All Ears :: May Inspiration :: Movement + Momentum

mo·men·tum

/mōˈmen(t)əm/

noun

1. the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.
2. strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events
3. the impetus gained by a moving object.

I am extremely busy mounting an art exhibition that will go up at the end of June and run through the end of August. The show is called "Momentum: Art in Motion" and all the artwork will either have actual movement or be evocative of movement. It is lovingly inspired by my daughter and her fabulous dance troupe.

Alexander Calder is one of my very favorite artists and also an inspiration for my exhibit. His mobiles are fascinating in their simplicity. I enjoy watching and studying them as they glide through the space on the mere current of air.

Rouge et Noir, 1955, Alexander Calder

Since Calder and his mobiles are a big part of my inspiration for this exhibit, and I have a very tight deadline of getting all the work in my head out of my hands, this month we will be inspired by Alexander Calder and his modern mobiles.

In 2014 the famed auction house, Christie's, sold nine of Calder's mobiles that were inspired by a little known trip he took to India. Below is a short video of the works.


Here are links to short videos showing each of the mobiles up for auction. They ranged in value from $500,000 to almost $12,000,000! Awesome!

Earrings are the perfect embodiment of kinetic sculptures. So this month, to help keep me on track with my lofty goals of new art every day in the month of May dedicated to my exhibit, our inspiration is the mobiles of Calder for our We're All Ears challenge. Pick your favorite Calder mobile and make some earrings inspired by it!

Looking forward to seeing how you translate the theme of MOVEMENT + MOMENTUM into earrings on Friday, May 18th!

Owls On My Worktable

Hello Beady Peeps!

Recently I had the opportunity to do a handmade trade with Foxpaw Beads.  I chose some items for myself that I had been drooling over, and in return, she sent me some of her favorite charms to create earrings with.  Here are one of three pair.   :)

Two little carved ceramic owls of different sizes with horizontal holes.

I adore the body pattern on the owls, one had stripes and the other, dots.   I really wanted to play on that feature so I did some digging and found some nice pieces in that rich reddish brown and subtle grey.

I used an orphan African ceramic Kazuri bead with stripes and dots.  Next, I found some wonderful spacers by Heather Powers of Humblebeads with a feather like pattern and a deep pink base.

I needed to build some height onto the shorter of the two, so I added a large pinkish/grey, rustic vintage pearl.  I think it added light and softness to the design, as well as length.

Work in progress shot.  A little decorative support to keep them steady.  I continued the wire wrapping partially around the frame and clipped off a couple of wires.

♡

I've fallen for these guys and I'll be sending a piece of my heart back with them.

♡

This is the next pair I'll be working on.... I'm still deciding my direction - we shall see!   I will show you the final design next time!  

As always, thank you for stopping by and having a peek!  

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~ artful in beads