Autumn Leaves

Hello, today I'm sharing several pairs made with Foxpaws' porcelain leaves.  These leaves are exquisite, so lightweight yet sturdy and so much detail in such a small surface.  I hope you like what I've done with them.  

Just look at those colours <3 

For this pair I simply wire wrapped a square frame with large rhinestones with matte gold seeds.  I added lampwork nuggets by GlassBeadArt.  

I've had these copper and silver connectors from Janis Rietdyk for a while and thought the cobalt of the leaves looked perfect against the browns.  But I felt like it needed more.  So off I went about wire wrapping even more connectors, this time in cobalt blue and gold.  I managed to fit/layer them on top of the discs.  

And finally, for this I wire wrapped rainbow hoops emphasising the cobalt/blue of the leaves

All of these are currently available in my show today.  Hope you can join me in The Jewellery Show.  That's all for today.  

See you soon. 

Suhana

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Mermaids

Happy Thursday, everyone! 💗 

For this post, I wanted to make simple earrings that would incorporate elements I already had with some new items. 

I was inspired by a visit to Shannon German's great store, Miss Fickle Media, one of my long-time fave places to shop.  I found these wonderfully textured brass leaves with a beautiful verdigris patina...and a string of gorgeous tiny (2mm) Paradise Blue quartz heishi beads:

                

The brass leaves are small and delicate, about 1-1/8 inches long, and very lightweight, so I got the idea of decorating them with möbius rings (also called rosettes) at the tops.  I had some beautiful chainmaille rings in teal blue/green niobium "Mermaid" mix that worked perfectly for the rosettes, and also some sturdy sterling rings to attach them to the leaves.

I made a tiny wrapped loop on one end of some 26-gauge sterling silver wire and then strung on it the little blue quartz and some sterling silver heishi beads.  I guided the other end of the silver wire into the bottom hole of the leaf, pulled it snug, and bent it upward at the back, then trimmed it to about 1 cm. Then I slid a sterling ring through the loop in the wire and then through the top hole in the leaf.  Before I closed the sterling ring, I also looped it through the rosette of niobium rings.  

When I finished that step for both earrings, I glued blue paper to the earring backs to cover and secure the wire (see above).  The last step:  sterling silver ear wires, an extra from Miss Fickle Media (thank you, Shannon, my dear!).  💗

Thanks for reading--I'll see you all in October!  💗
xoxo
Meridy

My Shop
My FB Business Page

A Happy Fall Out

 

 

It's been a busy week so far, invoicing and packing orders after a show over the weekend. Today I'd planned to make  a new pair for the post but sod's law says that the cold that has been brewing as a sore throat since last Friday chose today to make its debut in full technicolour! So with a head full of cotton wool, I offer you this pair that I hadn't had time to photograph for the show. 

 

 

Blood red lampwork criffles from Kimberly Rogers  dancing flirtily above ceramics from one of my all time favourite makers HappyFallout. Sadly, another not making any more.  Great contrast of red and green - picked up in the Czech glass bicones - and an interesting placement of holes!
The beautiful 'tangled' earwires you will recognise as Lucy Haslam's.

                 That's my lot, I'm afraid - hot vimto, ibuprofen and bed is calling me! Keep well.


                                                          Lindsay xx

                                                      My Etsy shop

                                                     My Facebook page

We're All Ears :: September :: Ode to Autumn

Well, Autumn has not disappointed me yet! She has been mercurial...one moment prancing around like summer rising and the next moody, misty and damp. The colors are just starting to make their debut, while at the same time leaving a crunchy carpet underfoot. She never ceases to amaze, delight and surprise me.

For this challenge - this Ode to Autumn - I decided to sit down with art beads that were leaf shaped. What I came up with for my "leaves" was, at times, surprising.

Resplendent

This first pair started with those handsome carved blood red tiger eye leaf beads. I never know what I am going to find when I sit down to do this, and that bag with the burgundy colored leaves (I also have them in a creamy mother of pearl) literally fell into my lap! I have a little bead shop in my town called the Blue Bead, and although they don't carry much that I like to use, I still feel compelled to go in every now and then to buy something. These were the best find ever! I went over to my tower of black jewelry trays - there are about 8 of them all stacked together with the little flocked inserts holding layer upon layer of art bead treasures, like a sort of beaders' archeological dig - and spied these tiny ceramic flowers. They are from Summers Studio. Miss LeAnn Weih was the artist and I got to know her a bit many years ago when I first started out. I loved her ceramic treasures. But she stopped making things like this back in 2013 or so. I do miss her, so wearing these would remind me of her.

Forest Tapestry

Another artist whose work I have hoarded and who I admire very much is Nancy Adam of Round Rabbit. She is also not making new ceramic treasures. So whenever I unearth them in my tower o' art beads, they always take me back. Typically, I have one-offs and orphans in my collection, but I was lucky enough to have a pair of these marquis-shaped charms (I also have them in a rich purple). I know that these are not leaves, per se, but they have that leafy shape and the colors were just perfect for this season. I paired them with tiny celadon-hued jasper briolettes (at least I think this is a jasper...as I have a whole strand that are each a little different and no notes on where I got them nor what they are called). The design reminds me of intricate tapestries as well as the intricate veining on leaves.

Leaping Greenly

The title of these earrings is a reference to my all-time favorite poem by e.e. cummings, the first stanza goes like this

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
 

These charms really look like the real thing, don't they? I got them from Terri DelSignore of Artisticaos. The finish is very matte, almost chaky, and I wonder if they were actually made from molds of real leaves, because they look so realistic. I paired them with some dichroic baubles from Maryse Fritzsche-Thellens of Glass Bead Art. I originally bought an entire set of these fabulous beads in a variety of rainbow colors. These remind me of glowing embers in a fire.

Thanks for taking a walk with me and my forest of earrings! I am looking forward to seeing how you interpreted your own Ode to Autumn. Here's to the return of sweaters and glorious sunsets and apple crisps and the forest's foliage at its finest! Happy fall!

5 Artists To Make One Pair Of Earrings

5 artists and 5 different materials and textures:

Brass handmade rings with a saffron patina by Missficklemedia

Woven beads by Rebecca Anderson
Polymer discs by Heather Powers
Vintage rustic plum wood beads
Glass headpins by Kimberly Rogers

I began with the luscious pumpkin orange etch glass headpins. These have to be one of my favorite headpins that I have ever purchased from Kimberly. 

 I felt like going in a jewel tone direction, so paired them with rich plum vintage wood beads.  I pulled both colors together with some polymer discs by Heather Powers.  This is precisely why I love Heather's cane beads!  

I created a little visual space to the design by adding the hand forged rings by Shannon German.  I almost called it complete, but something was still gnawing at me.  I decided to look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.   The next day I started playing with different beads to partially fill the hole of the rings.  Nothing seemed quite right until I opened my little tin of woven beads I had in my stash.  Ahhh, I found the perfect color, size, and the texture the design needed all in one small bead. 

Well, that's all for now!  I'll most likely be back on Oct 3rd with something spooky!

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~  artful in beads

Pretty pastels

More Claire Lockwood beauties from me. But I must apologise as I realise that the fabulous Suhana Hart used Claire's porcelain discs in her recent EE blogpost! So you can see a slightly different use of them here.

I had 2 beautiful pairs from an update of Claire's some time ago. Gorgeous off white background with grey black detail and soft accents of pink or lilac. They are really rather lovely. I combined these with pretty lampwork sea glass nuggets in co-ordinating colours by Joanne Joyce

I finished these off with a pretty czech glass briolette. The lilac ones have sold, but these pretty pink ones are available in my shop (link below). I love the contrast of the pastel shades with the dark oxidised copper wire

See you in a couple of weeks :-)
Utterly Lovely Stuff

Colour mixing

Hi everyone, I have 2 pairs to show you today, both with Claire Lockwood's porcelain discs.  I have layered them with silk and chain.  Hope you like the results.

I kept the first pair short, I'm trying really hard to make shorter earrings as I keep getting asked to make them. Porcelain discs with silk in 2 colours, zircon chain topped with polymer roses by Neli Da

I've kept these long but they can easily be made shorter by trimming the chain.  I love to add accent beads in colours that appear nowhere in the main components of a piece.  Here the porcelain discs have grey/black, orange/red on them.  I decided to go with pink roses and bring them all together with silks in maroon and orange.

That's all for today.  More in 2 weeks time.  These earrings are now available in my show which is running today in The Earring Show group on Facebook.  Hope you can visit :D.

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Complementary Beauty

After not making much jewelry for the last month or so, I'm happy to be back at work creating with some new and deliciously colored and textured beads and components! 💗 

The design of these earrings is simple, because I wanted the component parts to shine without any fuss.  There's so much wonderful texture in Kristi Bowman Gruel's painted copper charms--colorfully cratered little moonscapes!--and I echoed their hollows with hammered bead caps in antiqued copper.

Beth Mellor's lovely stripey blue-and-green lampwork glass beads--as serene and cool as the charms are busy and warm--pick up two of the charms' many colors. The beading on the glass beads adds balance (and a bit of whimsy), and I mirrored the little beads with tiny beaded copper beads, tucked in just below them.  

As always, thanks for reading!  I'll be back again at the end of September.  💗

xo
Meridy

My shop (Two Trees Studio)
My Facebook page   

A Question of Balance.

Asymmetry. Not always easy, is it? To some it comes quite naturally, to others not so much. My head veers to the matching pair and I have to force myself to deviate. And how to achieve a sense of balance when your components/sizes/colours are different? This pair was a case in point.

 

 

These great neutral tribal patterned stoneware beads and charms are of course by the one and only Jana Bliznakova, but one is different in shape and considerably shorter than the other. The answer came in the form of this one off crusty soldered headpin that Lucy Haslam made for me. Fits perfectly with the design and balances the length. In the centre we have black crusty lampwork criffles by Kimberly Rogers - Kim and her husband Dave are about to set off from Alaska  to come over to the UK and we are hoping to meet up again (not least because she has a huge stash of stuff for me!) Criffles just make any design dance; like little ballet tutus. Joyous.

                                   Hope you all have a good week - see you again soon. 

                                                                 Lindsay x

                                                             My Etsy shop

                                                        My Facebook page

Colorful

Hello lovelies,

How are you today? I am back in the Netherlands for work and I miss the Greek sun already. Here the skies are gray, with sometimes a bit of rain. This weather calls for colorful earrings. And what better way than create some with those wonderfully colorful, funky, bright earring charms made by the uber talented  Helena Benkoczka from Areto. I combined them with bits and pieces and handmade ear wires of Lucy Haslam from Faerystones. Lightweight, colorful and fun.

These will be available in my first show of this year in the facebook group The Earrings Show on October 1st. Hope to see you all there to join in the fun.

Wishing you all a wonderful day full of laughter, flowers and butterflies.

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

We're All Ears :: September Inspiration :: Ode to Autumn

"Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons." ~ Jim Bishop

Dear Autumn-

You are so impossibly, ethereally, unbelievably beautiful.
Your sky is a bit more expansive and bluer than it was just a few days ago.
Your clouds are a bit puffier making sunsets so achingly gorgeous.
Your air is a bit crisper causing me to want to bundle up even as your waning sun warms me.
Your trees stand a little taller proudly showing off their forest finery for all to see.
You never cease to take me by surprise, turning cool and smelling of earth all-of-a-sudden overnight.
It takes my breath away each time it happens.
I welcome your return with open arms.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~ Albert Camus

Don't get me wrong. I do love all your sister seasons, each serves her purpose in time.
But none can compare to you, my dear Autumn.
It is maddening that you gift me with the shortest time together.
All the more reason to treasure each shifting landscape,
each lengthening shadow, each dappled leaf.
Oh, that I could bottle you up to keep through all the year!

I am truly, madly, deeply in love with you, Autumn!
And I know that you love me, too, as you never fail to come to me,
as if in a the most lovely of dreams, wrapping me up in your beauty
and whispering truths about the meaning of life every time you pass this way.

My life is better because you are in it.

Love, 

Me

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Glowing In The Night

Striking polymer headpins with an amazing crackle and glowing finish by Kimberly Rogers of
Numinosity Beads.  

The design challenge for me was, that the headpins are very bold and I wanted accent beads that were just as bold but didn't compete with each other.  I had these lovely matte black vintage lucite accent beads with brilliant gold stars and thought they'd be perfect mates.  They work well because they are predominantly black.  Also, having one component with a matte finish and the other with shine is a nice contrast and gives more definition.

The headpins are substantial in size but being polymer also, super lightweight!  Lucite is also very light so they make a nice statement earring without losing any comfort.

I love that the stars are carved and not just printed images.  I also added a little rhinestone spacer for a little extra sparkle.

Kimberly's headpins and beads are a favorite of mine; I'm a huge fan of her work!

Luna and I thank you for stopping by and will be back in a couple of weeks

 ~ Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~ Artful Jewelry in Beads

Sometimes simple is best

Hello!

For today's blog, I searched my recent haul from Claire Lockwood's shop update. Claire's ceramic pieces are exquisite. The colours are always a delight -vivid and earthy at the same time. They are so very beautiful that I use them sparingly, and often take them out of their box and give them a little stroke...

And so I faffed about with these for ages, believe it or not. Sometimes, the more beautiful the components, the longer it takes me to decide what to do with them. And I love these. I've bought several pairs of Claire's crescents/half moons in the past and love the shape of them. These are the most wonderful dark, indigo blue with a rustic stone coloured, textured  stripe.

In the end I stopped faffing, because sometimes simple is best....So i added some lovely oxidised copper links by Lucy Haslam and some pretty co-ordinating seed beads

So, if you're stuck -think simple! When it comes to beautiful components like these, you really can't go wrong. If you like these gorgeous components, be sure to like Claire's Facebook page -she posts details of when her shop updates are happening, and they sell like hot cakes so you have to be quick off the mark!
These beauties are up and listed in my etsy shop
See you in a couple of weeks!
Sue x