Elephant Sunset

Hey guys!  Not only have I been craving warmth these days but I've also been working on some animal themes for an upcoming charity event.  Mix the two together and voila!

The lovely drenched pewter elephants are by Kelly Luttrell of Soul Relica.

The accent beads are by polymer great, Jon Burgess.

I used blackened annealed steel, heavily oxidized vintage spacers and topped them off with a coiled wire bead cap. 

Thank you for stopping by my worktable!  See you in a couple of weeks!

Loralee xo

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

My Generation

From 15th to 18th August 1969, 400,000 music fans descended on a farmers field in Woodstock, New York, for three days of peace, love and music. Probably the most influential music festival ever held, it became legendary. I'm of that generation - in 1969 I was 18, just left sixth form after my A Levels, about to get engaged and life was magic, with music playing a huge part of it. Many of the bands playing were favourites - The Who, Jimi Hendrix (I'd seen him on tour in the UK a couple of years before, lying flat on the stage, playing his guitar behind his back !) Joe Cocker, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin - the list goes on.
This weeks earrings remind me of a 60's fad that I still love - tie dye. We dyed everything that stood still long enough - t shirts, skirts, shoes, you name it.  And of course, Jon Burgess components are recycled electronic bits with polymer clay - we recycled or re-used pretty much everything in those pre-plastic days. Anyone else make hippie necklaces from dried melon seeds? 
The beautiful mismatched lampwork in greens and blues is by Joanne Joyce, with African turquoise and raw rubies. I've played around with wiring them upside down.

 

 

 

 

 

A fun pair of earrings. Were you lucky enough to be at Woodstock? If so, share your memories with us!

These will be on sale in our Woodstock 50 show over on Facebook this weekend in The Very Nice Group - come and join in the nostalgia. 

 

Lindsay x

 

My Facebook page

 

My Etsy shop 

Forever Amber

I clearly recall reading 'Forever Amber' by Kathleen Winsor in my teens; it became an international bestseller, spawning a whole new generation of girls called Amber!

Abandoned on the streets of London, pregnant and penniless, 16 year old Amber St Clare manages by her wits, beauty, and courage to climb to the highest position a woman can achieve in Restoration England - that of mistress to Charles II.

                    Thank goodness that isn't the height of ambition for women these days!

Seriously though, this week's earrings all feature amber. Amber is fossilized tree resin, appreciated for its colour and natural beauty since Neolithic times. It comes in a range of shades from sunny yellow to dark and treacly. I love them all. The first pair is rustic - in mid shade, with rhyolith discs and copper shell segments by Helen Backhouse.

Next we have the sunny yellow with shimmery lampwork wing headpins by Juliette Mullet and faceted citrine. The rose gold findings add to the warmth of this pair - downright pretty.

And last, my favourites, looking ancient with roman glass and polymer clay vessels by Jon Burgess.

The amber nuggets and the citrine I used here are from Sylvia Stungo's shop Fizzy Elements; a real treasure trove of colour and texture.

 Hope you like them. I've also used them as three of my Instagram posts for the #100DayProject - #100DaysofArt which has just begun - are you joining in?
The top pair are gone but the other two will find their way into my Etsy shop over the next couple of days; and I'll see you again in two weeks time.

                                                                       Lindsay x

                                                               My Facebook page

                                                                  My etsy shop

Reading between the Lines.

Last weekend was my biannual visit to the Rock and Gem show at Harrogate - to stock upon my favourite gems and see what's new. It fit nicely with my plan for this weeks blog post - I took with me these polymer clay spikes from Jon Burgess to get some ideas of what to put with them.

Here's a selection of my top gemstone picks; ancient looking African turquoise, rough cut chrysocolla, labradorite, lapis chrysocolla, lapis cubes, leopardskin jasper, porcelain jasper, obsidian discs, shoushan, ocean jasper, and rainbow jasper. Lots of lovely colour and different shapes.

I'll be having some fun with these. For my first  pair with the pop of yellow, I used the black obsidian discs sandwiching yellow Picasso Czech glass. I like the bold mix, and vertical and horizontal lines.

The next pair uses some of Lucy Haslam's beaten copper washers and the marvellous rough cut chrysocolla - again, those horizontal strata lines in the stones really pick up the verticals in the spikes, as well as the soft green at their top end.  A much less strident pair. Simple blackened copper circular earwires (also Lucy's) finish them off nicely.

Clean and simple lines with pops of colour. Hope you like them - both are available in my  Etsy        shop.

                                                       See you again in two weeks!
                                                                  Lindsay x

                                                                 My Etsy shop
                                                            
                                                              My Facebook page

Feathered Stacks

Several weeks ago I got a message from the lovely Malin de Koning, inviting me, along with several other designers, to make up earrings from a pack that Malin put together and to participate in a blog hop to show off the results. Here's one of the pairs that I made.

They are perhaps my favourites of the eight pairs I made, and I'm very tempted to keep them.  The main black and white barrels are some I got recently from Jon Burgess, a UK bead maker, who works with polymer and opened an Etsy shop towards the end of last year.  I like the assymetry they bring to these earrings.

You can see the other earrings I made here. If you're interested you can also look at the the blogs of the other participants - Malin, Rebecca Anderson, Heidi Post and Leah Curtis - to see what they made.

Bye for now, Claire

www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com

www.somethingtodo.etsy.com

www.somethingtodobeads.etsy.com