Rustic ceramic, African flowers, Leather

Hi, everyone!  💗

Lately I've been experimenting to see what different types of earrings I could make pairing beads I've had on hand with Czech glass, chain, fiber.  I've also been making beaded leather necklaces recently, which got me to thinking, why not use thin leather cord to tie some earrings together?  (Not that this is anything new--in fact, I've made a few earrings knotted together with leather in the past--but somehow this felt different.)

I had the beads I wanted to use:  carved African flower beads and rustic, red-and-black ceramic triangles by Sarah Kandell-Gritzmaker of Slate Studios Supply.  I picked some tiny black lampwork glass rondelles by Beeboo to use as well. 

I kept the design simple, using only the three components.  I fastened the 0.5-mm leather to the charms with lark's head knots, and then fed the two ends of the leather cord through the rondelles (a tight fit) and the flower beads (just right).  At the top of each flower bead I made a loop and tied a small barrel knot in each of the leather pieces, cutting away the extra cord, and adding tiny drops here and there of good ol' GS Hypo cement to make sure the knots stay just where they are! 

And then they were finished.  😊

Thanks so much for reading, as always!  I will see you all in two weeks.  💗

 xoxo
Meridy
My Shop

Oh, I do like to be beside the Seaside

Thoughts are turning to seaside holidays so we set a challenge in The Very Nice Group for all our members; make something in a seaside theme. We have beaders, knitters, glass artists, metalsmiths, textile artists, painters and other crafters in the group, so I'm hoping for some exciting entries. Amongst mine are these two pairs of earrings; very different in style and colours.

The first pair are dark and tentacly (is that even a word?) - they remind me of a crab or lobster claw. Greek copper beads with a great patina are nested together with rustic biwa pearls wired inside. 

My second pair are colourful as a saucy seaside postcard; asymmetrical, with beautifully detailed bronze starfish and shell by Lesley Watt, a lampwork shell by Rita Bennett, lampwork bead by Jo Wadman, soft  pink freshwater pearls, and rustic Czech glass. Both ends of the seaside spectrum - the colour at the end of the pier, or moody windswept Welsh coastline. You choose!


Pop over to our group and view the challenge entries - on Sunday 7th July. Should be good!

                                                          See you in two weeks

                                                                    Lindsay x
                                                                                                                      
                                                                
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Purple Polka Dot Earrings

I have had these beautiful German glass beads for something like 25 years! I remember the town where I bought them, and that's how long its been since I was there. Why haven't I used them before? They've waited so patiently in the shadows, but at last their time has come to shine!

In addition to the German glass beads, I've included Czech glass and a delightful metallic flash from small, square hematite beads. Swaying beneath the German glass beads are purple glass flowers, threaded on Sterling silver "paddle head pins". The sweet little flowers are accented with more square hematite beads and small lavender glass beads. These beads may have been ignored for 25 years, but I think the earrings were worth the wait. The Purple Polka Dot earrings are available in my shop.

Summer has officially arrived, at least in the northern hemisphere.  I hope it is pleasantly warm and sunny where you live. See you in two weeks.

Linda Landig Jewelry

We're All Ears :: Storms May Come

Sorry for the lateness of this post. Had some computer issues which cut into my creation time last night, much like a storm that causes a blackout. The thing about storms, is that they will come. But how we react to them, how we prepare for them and how we pick ourselves up after them, is the key. So I got up, sketched a few ideas, pulled beads that worked for them, set a timer for myself for one hour and got to work.

I had planned to do three pairs of earrings inspired by the cycle of a storm. Raindrops. Lightning. Rainbows. But I only had time to create two of the designs, although I did make a variation of one, so ended up with three pairs.

First, comes the rain. Inspired by the picture with the drops in the puddle. Each drop on it's own is small and seemingly insignificant, but together they can become a flash flood. dripdripdrop....

And then comes the rainbow. Roy G. Biv is the way to remember the colors of the spectrum. Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue, Indigo, Violet. But a rainbow is more than just a beautiful sight, it is symbolic for coming together, accepting of all so I added a Love Knot of jump rings at the top. And since I couldn't decide on the order, I created two variations to celebrate whatever way you want to go.

Now it is your turn. Show us your stormy weather earrings!

flower power... well, sort of

Hello Earring friends,

How are you all doing? Hubby and I are in Germany for a couple of days. He needs to go to a big 4x4 exhibition for his work and I will be driving hem from our airbnb to the show and back again, cook and do my daytime job of course. I am so happy I can work from anywhere in the world, as long as I have a good internet connection. I just log in to the main computer at our office and I am good to go.

With all the deadlines going on, I did manage to squeeze in some time to make these earrings.

Gorgeous art tiles made by Janice Everett with a lovely paisley print in beautiful colors, lampwork glass beads by Chet, ceramic bead caps, Swarovski crystal, aquamarine and a flower bead. 

These will be available in my next show on Facebook (July 10).

Thank you so much for looking and your support for Earrings Everyday :)
And you know I love to read your comments, so don't be shy and leave some words. 

See you in two weeks.Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of love, joy and flowers .

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Asymmetrical Electroplated Devil's Head Pods - Say That 10X Fast!

One of the most exciting things I discovered (and scored) at Bead & Button a couple of weeks ago, are these electroformed pods made by Hank Russ.  Can I get an oooh- ahhhh, beady peeps!?! 😼

Hank always wanted to work creatively with his wife, Lisa Peters of Lisa Peters ART, but was uninspired until he started electroforming. Hank loves to work with metal and this is a wonderful new facet to the business! Lisa makes some of the most beautiful ceramic beads, cabs, and buttons I've ever come across.  I've been working with and collecting her beads for a long time now and I am so excited about this new collaboration!

The pods, also known as “Devil’s Heads” are the fruit of Trapa natans, a plant commonly known as a Water Chestnuts. 

Although substantial in appearance, they are incredibly lightweight and perfect for earrings!  I was shocked when they were placed in my hand!  Jewelry must feel comfortable, especially on the ear and these are! 

Keeping with the rich, dark mood they possess, I paired them with some beautifully textured vintage glass pearls, twisted glass with added copper sparkle and some glittery accent beads from my stash that were gifted to me.  I felt these really enhanced the copper.

Hank sold out at Bead & Button but I was told he can take custom orders with a 2 week lead time. I've attached a link below:

 lisapetersART.dotcom


Hank and Lisa collecting seed pods on their hikes along the Palisades.  

                                                 Oh, and  Pussy Willows, too!! Yasss!

I had a blast at Bead & Button and already looking forward to next year!  There is nothing like meeting the bead makers personally and hearing the backstories - it makes the beads all the more special!

Thank you, as always, for stopping in and having a peek at what's going on on my worktable!

Until next time!

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com  

Sunshine Happiness

Morning lovely ones how are you all? Is it horrid and wet with you too? I must admit here in wild and wonderful Wales it has been a wee bit damp !!!!
So when I received these fabulous beads from Karen J Leonardo I was amazed by their sparkle and glow. They are like little golden eggs ...... sunshine !!!
Oh I really wanted to make something spectacular with these beauties as I adore Karen’s work.
I set to getting out all my best pieces to add to theses stunners but nothing seemed to fit, now anyone who knows me knows I’m not a “ less is more” girl lololo , in fact I have to walk away sometimes to stop myself from adding.... just one more bead/dangle/crystal .... you get the picture!!

So I was going full on fancy with these sparkly babes ....... but it just wasn’t happening.......!!!

Then I thought about my new patina that I have named “ Ginger” very silly I know but it’s a cross between raw copper and aged and has a lovely warm glow , perfect I thought and yes the colour seemed to accent the warm glowing sunshine yellow of the beads.

I found the soft gentle tones of these butter yellow jade beads seemed to make the beads glow more and when I found the gorgeous chunky faceted citrine.... well match made in heaven!!!

I added a tiny ginger copper twiddlers to each earring and hung them from my ginger tangled earwires and ohhhhh how they glowed .... as you can tell I had trouble photographing them as they just glow soooooo much. 

Yep sometimes “ less is more “ 

These are such happy sunshine earrings they make me smile 😊 

Love and hugs to you all Lucy from Faerystone 

Roman Shields

Hello! Looking for inspiration for today's blogpost, I came across these etched copper discs. I've had them for ages, and I can't remember who made them ... But I love the texture of them; they remind me of little shields.

I knew I wanted to add some little Roman glass rondelles (going with the ancient theme), but also wanted an additional focal point.

 Step forward these delicious lampwork headpins by French artist Carol Pons of  Brume de terre. Now Carol makes some fabulous enameled pieces, which are very popular at the moment. But I also love her lampwork glass and copper components -always beautiful.

I tried to match up the colours of the headpins with the Roman glass in my stash.

So there we are...Roman shields... they are listed here

See you in a few weeks  

Sue x

Faces in hoops

Hi everyone, it feels like forever since I posted here.  I have some simple hoops to share today.  Simple in the sense that I have not added anything to the components.  They're pretty large - around 40mm across so I thought its best to leave them as they are.

I painted the faces in Verdigris, jade, pink, purple and orange. 

I then found some hoops to fit the faces and wrapped them together along with cup chain in complementary colours. 

Here they are - now listed on Etsy.  I hope you like them.  

See you soon <3

Suhana 

Suhana Hart Jewellery

Colors of the Elusive Kind

From my thesaurus:  

Elusive:  Ambiguous, fleeting, illusory, slippery, subtle, tricky, puzzling....

I really wanted to capture the colors of these earrings, made with beautiful hollow glass rounds by Beth Mellor (who also made the tiny, colorful glass rondelles) and ribbed and enameled copper charms by Cathleen Zaring.  Unfortunately, the colors of the earrings in my photos kept coming out darker than what my own eyes were seeing.

I photographed the above photo and the next photo below in diffused late-morning sunlight. 

In this lighting, it's really hard to tell that the round beads are hollow, which I'm sure is an effect of the light purple color of the glass and the additional color applied at the "equator" of the beads.  

This last photo was taken in full morning sun, which of course makes the hollow beads a bit more obvious...but the colors are still darker than they are in the hand, and what registers on my monitor as blue in the charms is actually a medium-value periwinkle to my eyes.  

  

At any rate, they're definitely pretty earrings.  😊 I'll be listing a lot of pretties at Two Trees Studio over the weekend (I'm so far behind that it's almost laughable).  As well, excuse the lateness of this posting...it's almost Friday by now, isn't it?  All my best to you!  💗

xoxo

Meridy 

Two Trees Studio 

Moons of Jupiter

At the end of last week a friend shared a Facebook post about the four largest moons of Jupiter, which could be seen this week in the night sky much more easily than normal - for some, with the naked eye, for others with binoculars.

 

I got all fired up with ideas for earrings, and spent the weekend dreaming up designs to represent the moons; called the Galilean group, because they were discovered by Galileo. Europa and Io were easy, as I had a large stash of silverleaf and picture jasper - earthy and rocky.

Callisto and Ganymede though, proved somewhat more difficult as I could see those sparkly bits quite clearly, and no natural stones quite hit the mark. Cue some fabulous ceramic pieces from Natalie Fletcher-Jones of Peruzi. I originally bought them because they reminded me of Van Gogh's painting Starry Night, so they were more than apt for Callisto and Ganymede. 

 

The brighter pair of drops I matched with black hand cut tourmaline and picture jasper. Black copper earwires and twiddlers are by Lucy Haslam.

The softer coloured pair of rings I attached to some of Lucy's 'punkies' - hand formed copper soldered with silver bits, wired with milky swarowski crystals and topped with beautiful kyanite.

 

Have any of you managed to spot the moons yet?   

 

See you in two weeks

 

Lindsay x

 

 

My Etsy shop

 

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The Colours of a Rainbow

I have one new pair of earrings to show you all today as I was busy all week preparing for a components show at the weekend. I felt like making a very bright pair and came across these beautiful glass feather components by Bea Stoertz. Then, looking through my colourful lampwork collection to find the perfect beads, these by Régis Teixera screamed out at me. I just added a few extra touches with the bead caps and spacer beads, a bit crazy I know but a perfect combo I think. What do you think? 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              They will be available in my FB show later this week and this is the link to my group - Nicola Morse Jewellery & Components.

We're All Ears :: June Inspiration :: Storms

There have been a lot of strong storms around the country. Thunder bolts and lightning. Very, very frightening, indeed! But also winds and tornadoes and rain and even hail. I hope that wherever you are, there is not the threat of dangerous weather, or the aftereffects, and I hope that the raindrops are scattered but just enough to make the world bloom where you are.

When I think of storms I think of the kind where I can hear the rain on my roof. I love that. I am a cloud lover as well, and clouds are a necessary part of rain. There is magic in those fluffy water droplets all banding together, looking quite like a pillow or an explosion of cotton candy. Of course, I know that some clouds can be harbingers of danger and harm, like lightning and tornadoes. But despite that, I do believe that weather is fascinating and part of what makes this planet pretty special.

So for June we can be inspired by all that weather has to offer: storm clouds, lightning, raindrops, rivulets on the window, umbrellas, puddle jumping, and of course, rainbows. I hope that there is more sunshine than rain where you are, but if you are caught up in the storms that life brings, I hope that you can walk hand in hand with those you love and weather the storms together!

See you on June 21st. I'll bring my umbrella!

Glass and ceramic

Hello earring friends,

Nicola Morse had a de-stash a couple of weeks ago and I was able to BIN these amazing lampwork glass beads before anyone else did. They were made by Michelle Johnston, and are in a wonderful purple and fuchsia. 

I paired them with dark gray ceramic drops which were in my recent order of ceramic gorgeousness from Petra Carpreau, some spacer lampwork glass beads from Lonely Beads, Swarovski crystal and handmade earrings from Lucy Haslam.

Hope you like them.

Thank you so much for looking and your support for Earrings Everyday :)
And you know I love to read your comments, so don't be shy and leave some words. 

See you in two weeks.Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of love, sunshine and laughter. And of course a wonderful Pentecost.

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Tribal Fringe

Helloooo Bead Peeps!  This is a short but sweet posting today as I'm off to Bead & Button in Milwaukee, WI this morning!

True confession:  I have forgotten who made these lovely tribal ceramic connectors so If anyone can identify them, please let me know!  I've paired them with some wonderful African glass, wrapped sari silk and some vintage golden beads.

I made the fringe by recycling some scrap gold plated parts.  Originally, I was going to hang them from jump-rings but, I really wanted them splayed apart so I messy wrapped them directly to the wire connector to achieve that effect.  

Thank you for stopping by today!  Hoping to find some unusual goodies at B&B this week!  I'm also on the hunt for new tools.  Most importantly, I'm looking forward to seeing my beady tribe!

Loralee xo

wwwloraleekolton.etsy.com

Pinks

Good Morning lovely ones from a very damp and misty but still very beautiful Wales. Hubby and I celebrate our 25th Wedding anniversary today !!!
Of course we are so rock n roll sat in bed with a coffee laughing at all our past memories.
Anyhoo I wanted to show you these little pretties I made for our last show themed Game of Thrones.
I had received these beautiful ‘eggs’ from Karen J Leonardo knowing I would use them as ‘dragon eggs’. Thinking yes they will be all dramatic and gothic, but when they came I was blown away at how gentle they were, a soft mauve with highlights of soft bronze sparkles.

I

I knew they were going to be a very girlie dragon .

I had added my embossed silver discs in a soft smokey grey that seemed to blend with the greyish hints on the beads, but I wanted a wee bit more glam !!

So I had these pretty garnet nuggets that really sparkled when the light caught them and wrapped just beneath the eggs gave a glow to the silver too.

Really lovely pink sapphire rondelles to top them off and finished with my circles antiqued silver earwires.

So my gentle dragon eggs were born ...... not all dragons are fierce!!

Love and hugs ladies I’m off to celebrate, have a lovely day from me Lucy at Faerystone