Bold

and beautiful?!

I went for big for today's post.  I rescued these lampwork flowers (Yuliana Goldin-Dunn)

from a previous pair and attached them to brass flower blanks. I'd already punched some holes on the blanks as I wanted to hang stuff from them....but I had no idea what.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that designs half of an earring with absolutely no clue about what to do with the other half!

So top half done including the 2 teeny butterfly charms hanging on either side.  My mind went completely blank after that.  I tried hanging so many different charms to no avail.  The truth is I was feeling lazy...I wanted to just find the perfect charms to attach with jump rings, easy peasy - but it wasn't happening.  I knew I needed to make something.  I gave up in the end and went for these brass oval frames which I wire wrapped (the number of times I nodded off during wrapping......just coz I didn't want to do it) with blue and orange cup chain to match the lampwork.  

All matched up now and I think they look good.  If you like them, they will be available for purchase in my next FB show - on Monday in The Earrings Show group.  Hope you can stop by. 

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Classic Tribal Ceramics: New Design

I can't think of too many who do rustic tribal components and beads better than the wonderful Jana Bližňáková, and I'm fortunate to have been able to create with her distinctive art components for years. I'm happy to share these earrings, featuring beautiful classic rustic matte ceramic pieces by her, constructed with not much more than lovely red glass beads and 3-ply black waxed linen thread.

I love the "perfect imperfection" of these rustic pieces, and the shapes of the pieces themselves make them conducive to fiber wrapping.  Before I start working, I make sure my hands are clean, because dirt, oil, crumbs, cat hair (💗), etc., are not your friends when you're working with waxed thread.  (I can't tell you how many times I've had to waste time touching up photos because a fiber or a dog/cat hair showed up on my photos.)  I stretch the thread to straighten it and make sure it's not too waxy.  I thread the waxed linen through their various spaces, in and out, over and back, pulling it tight enough to make a stable earring but not enough to break anything (yikes!).  When I'm through, I tie the ends and then snip off the excess and go on to the next section.  There are four wrapped sections in this design.

When everything's finished, I glue the little thread ends to the back of the components and cover them with paper, which I glue and glaze after the glue dries.  I covered these earrings with red handmade paper:

The earrings are little (about 2 inches) and lightweight.  😊

Thank you kindly for reading!  I'll see you in the second week in August. 
xoxo
Meridy

My Shop
My Facebook Page

Industrial Decline

This week I was looking back on some old Instagram posts from a visit to Liverpool, where we stayed at the Titanic Hotel, beautifully and evocatively converted from an old rum warehouse.  Back in the 18th and early 19th century, Liverpool  Docklands were once a hub for the import of rum, tobacco, and slaves, and an exit point for emigrants crossing the Atlantic to the New World. Many of the huge old warehouses now lie dormant, rusted and overgrown, but are slowly being brought back into use as hotels and apartments, part of Liverpool's economic and cultural revival.

I was inspired to make a few pairs of earrings to reflect the architecture and colours; lots of old chain, rusty metal, algae, decay, decline. I saved this pair for the blog. 

 

 

 

The focals are Kim Rogers lampwork paizools, rusty and crusty. Tears, for a dying shipping industry. Tears, for those forced into slavery, to whom Liverpool has dedicated a Museum.  There's a nice ginger/rusty patina on the copper washers and earwires by  Lucy Haslam.

 

Those top beads are wonderfully marked leopardskin jasper. An evocative pair of earrings.

Hope you are having  a lovely summer - are you going anywhere nice for your holidays? I'm away to Greece next week hoping for some inspiration!
                                                                See you in a couple of  weeks
                                                                             Lindsay x

                                                               
                                                                        My Etsy shop
                                                                      My Facebook page

Turquoise Trio

A Facebook friend asked me to make some turquoise earrings for her niece. She said they should be under 1.5 inches long and be made with Sterling silver. Other than those two guidelines, she said I should make whatever I wanted to. Since I'd never met either her or her niece, it was impossible to know what style of earring the young woman would want. So I ended up making three pairs and letting my Facebook friend choose the pair that she thought would be best suited for her niece. Here's what I came up with.

This is the pair of earrings which were chosen. The disc shaped beads are Peruvian opals. Such a lovely milky turquoise! I placed Bali silver spacers beneath the opals and between the opals and the lampwork beads by Paradise Beads. I then topped the earrings with sterling silver beads. Unfortunately this is the only photo I took, before sending the earrings to their new home.

The other two pairs of earrings are in my shop now. I like all three pairs of earrings, but I think this pair is my favorite. They feature lovely hammered Sterling silver hoops with dangles of turquoise "cathedral" beads that are coated in silver on the tops and bottoms. I placed small embossed Thai Hills Tribe beads beneath the cathedral beads.

The last pair of earrings features the most wonderful, shimmery turquoise beads by Sue Beads. I can't stop admiring these lampwork beads. A photograph really can't do them justice. I used the same Sterling beads at the bottom of these earrings, as I used on top of the first pair. Then I topped them with some beautiful Sterling bead caps and more of the embossed Thai Hill Tribes beads.

So there you have it - a Turquoise Trio.  Which pair would you choose?

Linda Landig Jewelry

Summer Fun

Hi, I hope you’ve all had a good weekend.

For this first pair of earrings I have incorporated fabulous lampwork striped hollow beads by Alisha White, ceramic bead caps, lampwork spacers and Czech glass bead caps together with my colourful components. I make them by painting a design onto copper blanks and then applying a layer of jeweller’s grade resin. The colours are in pastel hues for a fresh summer feel.

For this next pair I have used gorgeous enamels in shades of lime green and dark blue by Kaz Baildon together with hollow lampwork beads and cones by Alisha White, and again with the ceramic bead caps, lampwork spacers and Czech glass flower beads. I love how the colours compliment each other, the earrings really glow making them perfect for the summer.

Thank you for taking a look. These earrings will be available in my group later today - Nicola Morse - Jewellery & components

It's a purple day

Hi lovely earrings lovers,

 

How are you all doing? Making plans for your holiday yet? Or are you on holiday already?
I still have some major deadlines in my daytime job, but managed to make these earrings last weekend. Our holiday start in some weeks.

Brass charms from Tierracast, with a little bit of purple paint from me, ceramic beadcaps, gorgeous lampwork glass beads from Lesley McIver,Czech glass in ok... green, Swarovski crystal rondelles.

I hope you like them. These will be available in my show next week on facebook. 

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. And do check out the other posts of my friends.

See you in two weeks.Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of love, happy holiday and laughter.

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Heart & Soul

                   I enjoy using symbolism in my work; I love when an idea hits you indirectly.

The eye connectors by Inviciti  were absolutely perfect for this design!  Some say eyes are the gateway to the soul and I think they're right.

To me, the large textured jump rings with the deep grooves symbolize radiance.

I almost lost my mind when I found these rare vintage sacred heart charms on the bottom!  I tried over and over to capture their detail and amazing color but it wasn't easy.   

I've never really been into"wordy" type beads per se. However, I do use them as a sort of contradiction.  For example, a "Lucky" word bead might be used with a black cat or something that normally evokes a darker meaning. 🙃

Thank you for checking out my worktable today!  Hope you found a little inspiration! See you next time! 

                                                 Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

https://www.facebook.com/loraleekolton.jewelry/

Stack 'em up

Hello there earring people!

So, I've been busy learning some new silversmithing skills, and so to be honest, I've not been paying attention to my beads and wire. I can get like this sometimes. If something takes my attention, I can be quite obsessive about it. But I wanted to create something non-silver for this blog, if only to prove I can still use that bit of brain!

So, I came across these glorious ceramic gold headpins and textured inky blue ceramic beads by the fabulously talented Claire Lockwood. There they were - having been hoarded in my beady stash for quite a while (I'm always reluctant to part with Claire's pretty things).

 I recently bought some very pretty lapis lazuli rondelles - two types - shiny/ smooth and rough and some pyrite. The inky blue of the lapis and the gold sheen of the pyrite are a good match for the colours in Claire's ceramics, don't you think? I thought they looked good all stacked up on the gold headpins. I like the matching colours, but also the contrasting shapes and textures. Stacking beads is a fairly simple design, but  a good opportunity to play with different shapes and colours.

That's me done for July! I'll be back in September
And these earrings will be available in my August showcase over on The Earrings Show in Facebook Land

Sue x
Utterly Lovely Stuff

Where is it?

My mojo, that is.  It's been missing for a while now.  I was not able to make a brand new pair for this post, instead I dug through my stash and found this one pair that I made a few months back but never listed. So we'll just assume I made these last night (the truth is I spent about 4 hours (my entire evening) fiddling with wire with nothing to show for it).  

So here we have a style I used to make a lot of.  Stacking involving a thin tube/stick.  Beads stacked are ceramic by PerlaYo, lampwork rings by Julie Burgard and tyveks by Carolyn Saxby.

Hanging view 

That's all for today.  I will list these on Etsy shortly.  See you soon <3

Suhana x

My etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Shinies!!

Hi again, everyone!  Yes, it's me, once again being distracted from other projects by shiny new things from Nunn Design.  And why not, I say!  (My husband has been known to call me "Maggie" because of my magpie habit of moving from one shiny object to the next.  He is a very intelligent man in most other ways.)

I bought the Nunn Design copper- and gold-tone rings last week (along with some small round silver-tone rings), and yesterday I got out the gold and copper rings, along with some fine brown leather cord (cut into two 18-inch lengths).  Then I just started experimenting with the rings and the leather. If I wanted to connect the oval ring to the round one, a lark's head knot was fairly obvious, right?  So that's what I did, bringing the two ends of the leather cord straight up through the middle of the oval ring.  Then I tied the leather ends in a maddening (but kind of nice) braided knot at the top of the gold oval.

So at that point, I had the two rings connected with the leather cord, and the ends of the cord were at the top of the rings.  The earrings at that stage looked rustic and tribal, and my first thought was finding African or another type of rustic beads, with a large enough hole to accommodate the doubled cord.  I have a lot of beads that fit the description, but I happened upon these green/silver glass beauties by hot glass artist Wayne Robbins.  I added 2/0 matubo 3-cut glass beads, tied loops in the leather, and hung my Shiny Objects on Two Trees sterling silver ear wires.  😊

      

These earrings are a kind of prototype, because I was feeling my way around all the way, but it was really fun to play around with the different shapes and textures and mediums. 

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back in two weeks.  💗

xoxo
Meridy
Two Trees Studio

 

Lumiere

Hope you are all enjoying some decent weather where you are. It's patchy here in the North of England but we are making the most of the sun, when it appears!

I've been making a lot of long, complicated earrings again and wondering what to make for todays post I reined myself in and went short, but definitely not sweet.

I had some Basha beads out, and was holding them up to the sun, admiring the rainbow they flashed on my wall. With Basha beads I always try to avoid overdoing it, because I don't want to detract from their singular beauty.

I simply stacked them on blackened copper headpins with a touch of gold, and crackled black agate drums - light and dark, juxtaposed. Lucy Haslam's original Tangled earwires complete them perfectly.  Lumiere - the torch.

            Should be popping these in my Etsy shop over the next couple of days, if you like them.
                                Have a lovely day, and see you again in a couple of weeks. 

                                                                             Lindsay xx
                                                                   
                                                                        My Etsy shop

                                                                      My Facebook page

Summer Colours

Hi, hope you have all had a good weekend. The earrings I am showing you today were inspired by summer colours. I love to play with bright colours in my earring designs and these are no exception. The gorgeous enamels are by Pearly Karpel and I really like the colourful swirl pattern on them which I matched up with glass lampwork flowers by Yuliana Goldin-Dunn and Czech glass flower beads.

The ear wires are purple hypoallergenic wires which i like to use as they come in a variety of bright colours and are kind to your ears. I have used waxen linen cord to attach the flowers which allows for some movement and I then added the beads to the cord which move around freely also.

Thank you for looking. They will be available in group later today - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1928101904099468/

We're All Ears :: July Inspiration :: Blueberries

We can now get blueberries all year round. But I remember a time when these sweet little treats seemed to only be available in the summer in the US.

Photo credit :: Andrew Thornton

It all started with the blueberries I was having for breakfast. And then I spied this stunning photo by my friend Andrew Thornton which lead me to muse on the intense beauty of the colors of blueberries, their star shaped belly buttons and the way they look when blended in my smoothie, such a beautifully delicious array!

These blue beauties are one of the few foods in this color on the spectrum, but in truth they are really more to the purple end. There is science that says that blue actively suppresses our appetites (and suggestion to put a blue lightbulb in your refrigerator or to eat off a blue plate to curb overeating). Blue- and violet-hued foods contain anthocyanins - antioxidants that benefit your brain function, hearth health and lower your risk of high blood pressure and cancer, which is good enough for me.

So grab some beautiful berries and join me on July 19th for a berry-licious reveal!

Bells

Hi lovely earrings lovers,

Today (well, this week, ok, maybe the past few months...) I have been engrossed in my daytime numbers work. Since last year I am the proud co-owner of a small accounting and coaching firm, me being responsible for the finance & accounting part of our clients. That means not much time for creating anymore. So, I almost forgot about my blogpost today. Suddenly I realized... wait, isn't it Thursday today? Ehh, the first Thursday of the month? Oh my goodness...blog post.., new earrings.., pictures... Luckily, I made these earrings a while back for my show next week.

Bell shaped ceramic beads by Nadia, ceramic drops by the one and only Petra Carpreau, ear wires from Lucy Haslam and some other bits and pieces.

I hope you like them. These will be available in my show next week on facebook. 

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. And do check out the other posts of my friends.

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

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

If The Moon Were Made Of Cheese

So, I love destashes and usually check them out when I can on Facebook. For me, it's a great opportunity to pick up artisan beads that people bought years ago but never found a use for.  It's especially exciting when I find some from a retired bead maker or sometimes it's a series that an artist is no longer doing. 

That's how these earrings came to be! The porcelain beads on top were made by Mellisa Gabelle of The Clay Hen and I found them in a destash!  I really didn't have a vision for them right away, but I have a weakness for pale yellow and these had a matte finish (another weakness of mine) with a cool metallic shiny center.  I love the unusual and with the added holes all over, they are just that!  

My immediate random thoughts about these beads were:  Swiss Cheese; Moon; Wallace, of Wallace and Gromit saying - "Gromit, that's it! Cheese! We'll go somewhere where there's cheese!" 

Yes, folks - this is my creative process  -  haha!!

So who else loves cheese?  Kitties do, that's who!  The lovely faux tin charms are by Helena Benkoczka. I combined these two components together not only for their whimsy but also because I loved the proportions of the two shapes together as well as the colors.

My little cheesy moon story was starting to develop!  By luck, in my crazy stash, I had some great
steely matte vintage stars which pulled the colors from not only the grey kitty but, the moon centers as well.

Wallace would remind you:  "Don't forget the crackers!"

A little tip:  On Facebook, just type destash in the search bar and it should pull up some nice destash groups for you!  If you have a hard time finding some I'd be happy to share some; just drop me a note.

Thank you for stopping by my work table today, hope you found a little inspiration!!

Loralee XO

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

Summer Trees

Hello Earring Folk!

I treated myself to some enamelled charms by Carole Pons of Brum de Terre recently. They really are the prettiest things.

Love the bright sky blue colour, as well as the pretty tree design. Perfect for summer, don't you think?

When I have components that are this pretty, I'm always tempted to just pop them on some earwires and leave them as they are! I resisted this urge!

However, I didn't want to over-complicate things, so i added some very lovely chrysocolla rondelles, some brass hoops to sit just behind the enamels and some little leaves -to echo the the tree theme.

Hope you like them! They'll be available over on my Facebook page

See you in a couple of weeks :-)

Sue x

Utterly Lovely Stuff