Scary Melting Faces

I was excited when these wonderful, copper, melting faces, from Kristi Bowman Design, arrived the other day. Such a great and timely inspiration.  

I linked the melting faces to some beaded components made by Anna Pierson. The rustic look of the beads looked great with the copper. I then wrapped Wooly Wire around the bottom links and added my own handmade brass ear wires. I love how they turned out. I hope you do too. The Melting Face earrings are available in my shop now.

Stay safe friends. May Halloween be the only scary thing in your life. See you again in two weeks!

Linda Landig Jewelry

Owl - Hoopla

Hello, friends!

I'm in an autumn state of mind! 

Ready for some pretty color and a little whimsy?!!

Sweet enamel owls by Cathleen Zaring of Blue Hare dangling from a branch of natural black walnut.

Even the backs of the owls are finished beautifully in a lush hue of green.

And some wonderful asymmetrical ceramic hoops by JosephineBeads .

Rustic and cool fabric wrapped beads by Anna Pierson of Sagahus Components.  I added some matte black on black beads for texture.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  It's always fun to share what's happening on my worktable. 

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

I can also be found on Instagram and Facebook under my name. 

Simple, But Significant

Hello, friends!

This past week I've been working on a few projects and in-between, have also been playing around with random things living on my worktable.  So, for this blog post, I have an eclectic mix for you.

I may have mentioned in past posts one of my favorite quotes from Mad Men: "Make it simple, but significant."...you'll probably hear it from me again down the road because it's become my mantra.

Lovely artisan enameled discs by Anne Gardanne and wire wrapped fiber cocoons by Anna Pierson.

Outstanding lampwork headpins by Kimberly Rogers that I've looped and added tiny vintage Miriam Haskell wood beads to.  The wood beads were surprisingly delicate to work with, perhaps due to their age.  They are well worth the risk, as they are beautiful.

Vintage Japanese opal glass with delicate frit.  I added artisan hollow glass dangles to the bottom.  I am embarrassed to say I cannot remember the name of the glass artist but I will try to find out and update my info so bear with me!


Thank you so very much for stopping by today and seeing what I've been up to.  As always, if you have any questions please feel free to ask here or message me.

Loralee xo

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

https://www.etsy.com/shop/loraleekolton

Let it Snow

This weekend we had the first snow of the winter up here in the north of England. We don't have it often, and it wasn't that deep compared to some areas, but still the kids were out on sledges and snowballs were flying. The roof of my conservatory-cum-studio was covered in beautiful ice patterns and I was contemplating the different patterns in the snowflakes. No two snowflakes are alike - each one is formed from a single ice crystal which falls through the atmosphere as snow. I was moved to dig out my stash of snowflake charms for this week's earrings - my last post before Christmas.

 

And who better to start with than our own Jetta ? These lovely blue and white snowflakes are incredibly detailed. With wooden 'branches' and swarowski pearl snowballs, they have a little winter woolly fibre scarf !














Here we have some vintage BoHulley pure white porcelain charms, with tiny pearls, bright red lampwork, and gingham connectors from Anna Pierson wired in red enamelled copper to Faerystone fancy earwires. 







Next up a bit of sheer glamour. Sparkly glossy Petra snowflakes with magnificent swirly silver lampwork beads from Juliette Mullett of Avette Glass.

And the final pair, below - the uniqueness of snowflakes - mismatched stoneware by BoHulley with spotty beads (have I told you Ultraviolet is Pantone Colour of the Year for 2018 - I'm so excited!) with Anna Pierson carved bone birdy nests and Faerystones violet earwires.







So, here we are....Merry Christmas to you all, have a lovely time and see you on the other side!
                                                        
                                                                     Lindsay

                                                                My Etsy shop
                                                            My Facebook page

Gone To Seed

Happy November, my seedy-beady friends!  Loralee here, today I'm sharing  sculptural botanical beads by Melissa Gabelle of The Clay Hen!  

I love the rough texture of the petals and the bold lines.  I wanted to carry those lines back to the top so, I added some fabric beads by Sagahus with blackened steel wire and that same yellow-green.  I originally was going to wire-wrap the petal to the fabric connector, but thought the tip was too delicate.  Instead, I tried an oversized hammered jumpring and added some larger seedbeads.  It turned out much better this way!  It protected the charm, added more variety of color, and the suggestion of seeds that I was envisioning all along.

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Such a beautiful rich brown color with that beautiful pop of yellow - it's a favorite of mine.  To me, they are Georgia O'Keeffe-esk, but at the same time, with the use of the heavier gauge wire, look somewhat urban/industrial.  

For the seeds I used, Czech glass, teardrop Picasso beads. They are matte with soft painterly spots of yellow...I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I discovered them in my stash!  Don't you love when things fall together like that...just meant to be!  

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I paired these open pods with some wispier fabric wrapped beads, again, by Sagahus.  The feathery fabric pieces match the gentle brush strokes of paint used on the pods. I have a tendency to oxidize most things but these are amazing in bright copper.  Eventually they may have a more subtle natural patina.   At a recent beading retreat I was gifted some fine (26g, I believe) braided copper wire.  It made the most beautiful wrapping.  *Psst...thank you, Lin Standke xo

November is always bittersweet for me, as I say goodbye to my favorite season.   However, I've started pulling some wintry things out now....it's time.

Many thanks for joining me today, it's wonderful to hear feedback especially when you work alone in a studio for so many hours...lol . Until next time!

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton Jewerly

Versatile Components - Wire and Fiber Connectors

Have you had a chance to see Anna Pierson's wire and fiber components?

She does her business primarily in her facebook group as SagaHus Components

She makes all matter of lengths and color with her "cocoons" and mixed some with glass and pearl beads as well for charms and connectors.

I did a something a little different with the wire wrapped saffron cocoon I got from her and doubled them up and dangled my torch fired enamel "numi-sticks" against salmon skin leather shields here.

Here I have left them full length and I thought they became complete in this simple design with HappyFishThing's organic and bright ceramic charms

Anna is having an event in her facebook group today but don't worry if you miss this one as she posts  new collections often.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

Numinositybeads component group

Good Fortune - Vintage Meets Fiber

Nothin like a few new components that come into your possession to inspire a new design.

Oh, I have hoards of beads but these are some of my newest.

I was at the Alaska Bead & Gem Show as a vendor down in Anchorage at the beginning of the month. They had brought in a vendor all the way from Texas. Not an unfamiliar name as I had seen Sandy Schor's booth at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. They had a plethora of vintage beads. These little textured "fortune cookies' fairly  jumped out at me.

Actually I had hallmarked  them for another one of our designers that posts here and immediately posted off a picture to a certain amazing designer Claire Lockwood as  I could see her doing something amazing with them as well. I find it kind of funny now that when I'm bead shopping I  kind of end up spotting things for others!

I must say that feeding the wire thru the corner of the fortune cookie was a bit of a challenge but I persevered  and was delighted to see my wire emerge so I could continue with my idea.

           

Also Anna Pierson of SagaHus has been making some really cool fiber connectors and has been posting new ones weekly in her facebook group.

I have to admit that I made these at the last minute as I'm flying out to New England tomorrow and will be taking a polymer clay workshop with Christine Damm of storiestheytell.blogspot.com which I'm really looking forward to.

Enjoy your summer days and see you when I get back.

Kimberly Rogers ~ NuminosityBeads

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

www.instagram.com/numinosity/