Going Geometric

 Geometric shaped earrings are a big trend now, so I thought I'd make some geometric ceramic earring charms. I started with shapes you might expect. Half circles, triangles etc.

But then next I cut hexagons in half and then cut a half hexagon shape out of the middle! And those are the earrings I'm sharing today.

I used moss green and blue pigments on the clay and then a clear glaze overall.The are quite fun swing lightly from the earlobes.

I hope you are well and, if in the northern hemisphere, that you are blessed with sunny days. Take care my friends.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Silver tassels

Hello Earring People!

Here we are in May already and despite the strange times we are living in, nature carries on doing her thing. My garden is awash with flowers and blossom at the moment (I don't really garden, so this is always a source of amazement to me).

I've been enjoying taking some time to create some jewellery this past week. This particular design has been fun to make! The first pair feature aragonite -a pretty pale yellow stone which is an earth healer, apparently and symbolises truth and understanding.

I set these in little squares of silver, which I also stamped with some simple pretty lines and added the silver tassels to finish them off.

This next pair feature turquoise cabochons, and honestly -who doesn't love turquoise and silver? Such a pretty combination. And it is supposed to bring calmness and serenity, so what's not to love? I kept the setting simple for these and kept the focus on the stones, with tassels for extra prettiness.  

These will both be in my nextshowcase over on The Jewellery Show at the end of May. I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Stay safe and well

Sue x

Hoops again!

Hello! Hope you're all keeping safe and well.

Well, in these strange times I found myself reading too much news and getting rather overwhelmed with the state of things. So, I consciously took a step back, reduced my time checking the news and spent some time at my little workbench. The result? Feeling much better.

Now, I've mentioned in my  last contribution to the blog that my silver stash is dwindling, as my main supplier has shut their doors for a little while to keep their staff safe. And rightly so. So I have been looking at every little tiny bit of silver i have with new eyes! How can I turn this into something pretty? Will I have enough to make a pair of these? I have very little sheet left, and a little more wire -so, I thought I'd make some pretty hoops.

I love hoops. They feature in oh so many of my designs -old and new. Love their versatility -how they can be the main feature of a design, or simply an accompaniment to a striking component -be that an art bead or a gemstone.

Now, this pair are a gift for a fabulous friend who has cheered me on in my silver jewellery endeavours! They started out as a simple bit of wire, soldered at the top and shaped on a mandrel, with a little light hammering to harden their shape. I had some leftover semi-circles of silver from an earlier design, which just needed to be filed to to same shape and size, and then hammered to give them that pretty texture. Finally, soldered onto the hoops, oxidised and buffed to a shine -for a contemporary, but edgy look. Hope she likes them!

These others are made from slightly thicker pieces of sterling silver wire. I found a piece of beaded wire in my stash that I'd completely forgotten about, so once the hoops had been soldered and shaped. I cut the beaded wire in two, and wrapped it along the bottom half of each hoop. I made some earwires for this pair, and had a little of the beaded wire left, so added them around the join, just to embelish them and echo the main design.

So there we are! And if you don't have a torch for soldering, hoops are still so easy to make -you just need to know how to wrap wire, and have something to wrap the wire around! 

Hope you are finding something creative to do to keep you calm in these difficult times. Keep safe and well, and I'll be back in a couple of weeks

Sue

Beaded embellishments

Hello Earring Folk!

A brief one from me this time. Look at these gorgeous ceramic connectors by Petra Carpreau. They have a beautiful soft bronze glaze. Petra's connectors are always fabulous -so versatile. I'm often tempted to just pop them on a pair of earwires and leave them be! However, I thought I'd play with these a little.

In both pairs of earrings, I've used silver and bronze seeds beads wrapped on wire. I love the simplicity of these pebble connectors -they're very tactile. I've added oxidised brass hoops to frame the seed beads and replicate the shape of the pebbles.

This next pair feature Petra's connectors and her super popular ceramic drops. They both have the same bronze glaze, and I added the seed beads to add a little boho flair to them. These are party earrings I think!

So that's me done for this month. I'll be back at the beginning of December

Sue

Utterly Lovely Stuff

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

 

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

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

Druzy wheels

You know how sometimes you have components in your stash, and you forget all about them? Then rediscover them? Well, that's what happened with these fabulous druzy wheels. I think I must have bought them at least 1, maybe even 2 years ago from Sylvia Stungo's shop of semi-precious wonders.

So I was searching for some inspiration in my boxes and boxes of beads, and came across them. I think I had originally abandoned them as the holes weren't quite large enough for the wire I wanted to use. Well, it turns out I just needed to be a bit more persistent!

Look at this lilac/pink pair. The sheen on these is just gorgeous! I am always drawn to hoops, so of course needed to hang these from hoops of oxidised copper wire, with some matching czech glass. I wanted to keep the colours fairly uniform to accentuate the the contrasting sheen on the sides of the wheels, so added some recycled glass chunks in a similar shade.

 I went for a bit of contrast with the second pair. Same design, but with tiny pyrite rondelles for contrast, and blue kyanite.

So, it pays to revisit components you've abandoned and forgotten about! The pink pair have sold but the blue pair are available on my Facebook page this week, and then will be going into my etsy shop

See you in a couple of weeks 

Sue x

Summer colour!

So we have had a taste of summer over here in the UK. And it has inspired me to create some earrings with bright summer colours.

My starting point was Petra Carpreau's ceramic sticks. Love the vibrant reds yellows and oranges in these two pairs. They scream hot summer sun. 

In this first pair they are accompanied by some large juicy cherry red agate barrels. Just luscious...

The second pair have some delicious carnelian and pyrite rondelles. Love the sunset colours in these. And of course, both pairs have oxidised brass hoops to frame the ceramic sticks, for that extra bit of drama :-)

All of the semi-precious gems are from Sylvia Stungo's shop -a treasure trove of pretty things. These earrings will be available in my show this week over in Facebook Land -look for The Earrings Show.

See you in a couple of weeks

Sue

Purple or green?

Hello!

It's been a gorgeous Easter weekend here in the UK. Bright and beautiful. And speaking of bright and beautiful, I received my latest batch of goodies from Petra Carpreau recently! And these rather lovely connectors caught my eye straight away.

First off...purple. These connectors have a lovely long loop, which I wrapped with some oxidised copper wire and little seeds. I framed them with some small oxidised brass hoops and added some pretty amethyst beads.

The green ones were next... I kept the same elements of the design, but added some brass spacers and tiny czech glass. I love both colours -can't pick a favourite! What do you think? Purple or green?

They'll both be available over on The Jewellery Show on Facebook on Friday/Saturday. See you again soon!

Sue x 

Utterly Lovely Stuff

New ceramics

Hello! Here we are, half way through April already. I've been busy working on some new earrings for a showcase over on The Jewellery Show in Facebook Land at the end of the month. I was lucky enough to come across a fabulously talented ceramic artist called Nitta Elomaki of Corvus Ceramics. She makes beautifully delicate, rustic pieces and I've had great fun playing with some. Let me show you what I came up with.

First off, these pretty green glazed charms. Beautifully textured. I wanted some length  to these earrings -so, added some pretty chrysocolla rondelles, oxidised brass connectors with pretty little green seeds. A bit grungy. A bit elegant too.

Next up -these little textured moon charms. I love these! I added some delicious textured raku beads, stacked up with tiny little greek metal spacers peeking out between them. And some little brass oxidised hoops of course, for a bit of symmetry.

Go and check out Nikki's page on Facebook. These lovelies will be available at the end of the month on The Jewellery Show
See you in May :-)

Bold, Brown and Boho

Lately I've been making an effort to work through my mound of UFOs (Unfinished Objects). I have an embarrassing number of jewelry projects that I've never finished or pieces that I no longer like or which aren't in fashion anymore.  I'm determined to either finish them, rework them or cut them apart and use the beads for something else. Today I'm going to share a pair of earrings I made a long time ago, for Earrings Everyday, but which I never liked much.  In fact I never even listed them on my website, because I wasn't satisfied with them.  Here's the original version.

The dangly beads on the waxed linen always looked too bulky with the fat ceramic drops, and the waxed linen caused them to stick out awkwardly over the rounded drops. Also the drops have a beautiful glaze on them, which the beads pretty much covered up. The earrings look OK in the photo, but in real life - not so much.
Sooo...I cut them apart and tried a bunch of variations till I got what I liked. I love the colors of those little barbell shaped beads in combination with the ceramic drops, so I wanted to keep them. Here's what I came up with.

The new version was hard to photograph because the little dangles fall off to the side when the earrings are horizontal, but you can see how there are beautiful shades of caramel, chocolate and coffee in the glaze, (sounds like a restaurant menu!).  Here's how they hang when worn.

The mother of pearl hoops used to be part of a necklace that I also took apart and re-purposed. The earrings look so much more airy and uncluttered in their new form. Unlike the first version of these earrings, I have listed this remake in my shop.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Siren red

Hello Earring Lovers!

I have been making quite a few pairs of earrings for a showcase at the end of this month over in Facebook Land. I particularly enjoyed making this pair.

The starting point was a pair of delicious enamelled 'tinnies' by Kimberly Rogers of Numinosity. I love everything about these! The shape. The colour (that siren red!). The texture. They remind me a little of a Rothko painting -dense colour and lots to see the more you look.

I wanted to accentuate the angle of the charms with some oxidised brass. I like the way they make the tinnies background, rather than foregroud. Some pretty contrasting czech glass and a little oxidised brass hoop to add to the clean lines, and voila! 

Hope you like them. There'll be in my showcase over on The Earrings Show on the 29th March (Facebook). See you next month :-)

Sue

Utterly Lovely Stuff

Glorious Geometrics

Hi, everyone!  The first thing I'd like to say about these earrings is that I really loved making them...even if they were time-consuming.  😉

As a chainmailler, obviously I like working with metal, but as a woman who for years transcribed the (sometimes unintelligible) dictation of doctors, I now find myself with arthritic thumbs that aren't up to heavy-duty metal work anymore.  These days, the idea of making chainmaille in stainless steel--famously hard to work with--is a little scary at best.

But I really enjoy working with wire that's easily manipulable, and with chainmaille rings in softer metals.  So every now and then, rather than pair beads with beautiful components like these (made by Marlene Kazor Quigley of MarKazo Art), I create something out of wire instead.

 

In this case, I made circles out of several wraps of copper wire, antiqued and tumbled them, and wired onto them tiny beads in colors that bring out the vivid hues of Marlene's enameled copper triangles.  I even wrapped some little beads to the ear wires.

I always did like geometry.  💗

Thanks so much for reading!
xoxo
Meridy

My Shop
My FB Page

Dark hearts

Blimey...where does the time go! I know it's the beginning of March and I should be making earrings inspired by Spring. Unfortunately, I've never been terribly good at doing "seasonal"...

So these gorgeous ceramic ball and heart drops are by Petra Carpreau and they are clearly much better suited to a February post and Valentine's Day...Sorry!

The hearts have a gorgeous deep red glaze, and grungy feel to them. I thought I'd dress up the connecting bits of wire with some pretty silver seed beads to match the silver ceramic ball.

 And, of course -there have to be hoops. Beautiful dark oxidised brass hoops to frame the ceramic pretties and add some extra swing.

So there we have it! Dark hearts. Nothing to do with Spring, but I hope you like them anyway. There'll be in my showcase at the end of this month, over on The Earrings Show.. 

See you in a couple of weeks :-)

Sue x

Dreamy ceramics

Hello earring people! I've been having a bit of a break from jewellery of late. I made so many new pieces for a showcase a couple of weeks ago, I was spent! I was happy to take out my tools and look through some recent purchases of components for today's blog.

Now, these ceramics are by Spanish artist Mari Carmen Rodrigez Martinez of Majoyoal. If you haven't seen her work before -go take a look. Her glazes are just beautiful. The pair I made for this blog are a beautiful pale green with lemon tones. 

I added some rustic African brass beads to accentuate the ethnic feel to these, and finished with some brass jump rings and spacers to highlight the pretty details on the ceramic charms. I like using jump rings for decoration, rather than just as a way of connecting things together                              

 Below is a pair I made for my last show with gorgeous pieces also by Mari Carmen -this time with beautiful blues and indigo. I used some aqua recycled glass chunks with these, pretty twisted jump rings and silver leaves.

Both pairs are in my shop.

Thanks for popping in! See you in a couple of weeks 

Sue x

In the Dreamtime

Some designs just seem to turn out dreamy and abstract, and in the case of these earrings, pastel as well.   

A while back I fell in love with these lovely pink coin beads, below (found at Arte Bella Surplus on Etsy), and I wanted to try making earrings with them using my thread-wrapping construction.   

I had a pretty strong feeling it probably wouldn't work, because wrapping beads and components together with thread/cord requires torque upon the components...and there was a natural frailty built in to the stacking of the coin bead, the small Caribbean-green Czech glass rondelle, and the rose-colored glass disc.  What would be stable wired might not be when pulled tight on cord.  

As it turned out, I ended up needing to wire wrap the earrings to give the beads the stability they needed to stay in place.  But in the end I still had fun with some fiber by wrapping pale lavender Irish waxed linen thread around the tops of the beautiful polymer clay components by Jeni Houser Alasad of Auntie Moons.  💗 

As I write this, it's raining gently outside my window, after a day of heavy rains; it's been a busy day, and I'm ready to rest.  When you read this it will be Valentine's Day, and I wish you all love and best wishes!  I'll be back in two weeks with something new.  💕

xoxo
Meridy

My Shop
My FB Page 

A bit of gold 'n silver

Hello!

I turned to Inviciti for inspiration for this week's blog. Vincent 'n Nooma make gorgeous pewter charms and I had a little delivery from them recently. These charms had a series of holes, just perfect for threading seed beads through. I chose the accompanying bead first. After trying out various lampwork beads, I settled on these rustic African brass beads -I like the mix of metals and tones -mixing the gold/brass with the silvery tones of the pewter charms.

I wanted to add some texture and so added these twisted silver toned jumprings and silver spacer beads. Tiny brass coloured seed beads threaded through in the charms complete these pretties.  

Hope you like them! I'll pop them in the shop 

See you next time :-)

Sue x

Don't forget the earwires!

Hello earring lovers!

Today's blog is all about earwires. Well, a particular design of earwires I love working with, by our very own Lucy Haslam of Faerystone. Now, our Lucy has a talent with metal and creates all sorts of wonderful things. These twirly earwires are (I think) among my faves of her creations. You could really just pop them in your lobes on their own, with no adornment! Earwires are usually things we (or certainly I)  hook on, right at the end of creating a pair of earrings , often without much thought. while the beads that hang from them are undoubtedly the stars of the show. But sometimes it's nice to give them equal billing!

This first pair, feature gorgeous ceramic drops by (of course) Petra Carpreau. The most beautiful turquoise glaze on these. I added some little hand forged copper hoops and a little ring of turquoise seed beads and a teeny tiny seed on the base of the earwires to echo the design.

This next pair feature beautiful glass headpins by Kimberly Rogers of Numinosity Beads. They are so feminine and pretty. This time I wrapped some seed beads around the earwires themselves, so they were really an integral part of the design.

And that's that from me this month! These and many more will be available in my showcase over on The Jewellery Show in Facebook Land on the 26th Jan. Do pop in and say hello!

Sue x

Utterly Lovely Stuff