Seasonal "Twigz"

Hello!  I have something totally new to share with you tonight!

We all have our favorite beadmakers and one at the top of my list is Kimberly Rogers of Numinosity Beads.  I can always count on her to challenge me as a designer which I thrive on.  

One of her latest creations is called "Twigz", they are made of glass on a zigzag of steel wire.

Shown above, are a pair in blood-red garnet glass. I have added lovely mismatched, mellow, Miriam Haskell glass pearls, heavily oxidized caps, spacers, and vintage accent beads. I kept this pair elongated, slim, and elegant.  I purposely left a bend of steel wire exposed as a design element. I think it lends a bit of delicacy and grace if you will.   They have a very gothic vibe.

And moving on into winter ~ Icy Twigz

Here are a pair in etched black glass with hints of blues and greens.  I have wire wrapped some dark grey silk to the top with the tiniest clear AB Swarovski crystals I could find.  

It's hard to photograph just how spectacular the large antique tin-cut crystals are at the top.  They just dazzle in the light.  I used handcrafted ear-wires by Lucy Haslam with that lovely dark twisted effect.

Well, thank you so much for taking a look at what's happening currently on my work table!

Until next time!  Much love from me and the studio cats.

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

Evolution

Hi lovely earrings lovers,
How are you all doing? Any holiday plans? We will go to a tiny house in the mountains this month. It is just a 45 minutes drive from the campsite where we live but it makes a huge difference. Cooler and most of all.....quiet.The campsite is always extremely busy during the month of August. I will take a large portion of my beads with me, so it will be a sort of bead retreat for me :)
Ok, what do I have to show you today? Evolution of an earring pair. Well, that's what I like to think, I hope you feel the same when you see this.
When a piece of jewelry doesn't sell (or I don't like it) I take it apart and create something new with the components. That's what I did with these glass discs made by Debbi Sanders.
This is the first attempt, back in 2015(!):

Combined with lampwork glass head pins from Linda Newnham and vintage lucite.
My second attempt from 2018:

The design was getting better, but I still wasn't too happy about it.
So I took these apart last May and made my last design: 

Combined with lampwork glass beads from Lesley McIver, Czech glass and ear wires made by Lucy Haslam. And I am totally happy with these. You know, when you are in "the zone", the pieces seem to design themselves. That's what happened here. What do you think? You prefer the last design or rather one of the previous ones?

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 here. Share the love.

See you in two weeks.Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of laughter, evolution big or small and lots of love.

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Playing with envelopes

Well, that is what these beads were in the first place. Before I went ahead with lots of paint and the heat gun. Making these beads is so much fun and it's like Tyvek is alive when heated. 

This is my first ever batch of Tyvek beads and not as perfect as I wanted them to be. So I made new onces with other colors.

 This is what I made with two soft green/yellow Tyvek beads. I combined them with handmade glass head pins (artist unknown) and handmade ear wires by master basher of metal Lucy Haslam. 

These are now available :)

Thank you so much for looking and your support for Earrings Eveyday :)

And you know I love to know what you think of this design, so don't be shy and leave some words.

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

Janine

Oops

Hi friends. 

Yep, oops, that was what I thought some minutes ago. I completely forgot it was my turn today. But, luckily it is still Thursday...

My earrings today are not new but made for one of my shows on facebook this month. As I am not so into Christmas, they are not very Christmassy. But they have some sparkle :)

These are made with lampwork glass headpins from Jodia Elasia Schiavo, glass beads from Jennifer Powers and handmade ear wires by our own Lucy. 

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 joy, laughter and Christmas pudding,
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

In Praise of Patina.

Today I'd like to welcome as our guest my very good friend and partner in crime Lucy Haslam. For those of you who don't know Lucy - she's not only one of the kindest people you could wish to meet but also a basher of metal and twiddler of wire par excellence. She has made me some of the most innovative components I've ever used in my own work. But she also makes jewellery herself, so let's shine a light on her!

                                                                Lindsay x 

Hi, I'm Lucy from Faerystone and I would like to thank these lovely ladies for asking me to join you today. I've been making jewellery and findings for a few years now and love nothing more than twiddling wire and bashing metal. When I was asked to guest here I had soooo many ideas, but what stuck in my mind was patina....I love it! 

Both these pairs are made with sterling silver wire and sheet which I have cut, soldered and hammered. The little Ruffles are discs of silver that I have twiddled and bashed to give them a wrinkly feel. The little discs have been dimpled and the rings hammered and soldered.

 

The thing is both sets are made using the exact same silver wire, metal and gemstones (well, ok I did substitute black onyx instead of rock crystal on the dark ones) but other than that the rock crystal rondelles and the labradorite faceted drops are the same.
Here the silver is left pure and clean, the gemstones look frosty and clear. Glamorous sparkly party earrings. 

 

But as soon as I add my dark patina they change the mood - dark and gothic, the gemstones look misty and moody, the silver now darkened has a deeper sheen, a darker soul.

 

 

And this is what I love about patina, a bit like me and my friend Lindsay Philipson, she's all dark and goth and I'm all light and magical lololo. (ed. - what rubbish) 

Thank you for having me ladies, its been such fun. These earrings will be available in our A Christmas Carol show on The Very Nice Group page. It would be lovely to see you there.

 

Love Lucy.

 

My Etsy shop

 

 

Foxy

Hello, hello,

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. To be honest, I am not familiar with this event as it was not that common to celebrate this in the Netherlands, at least, not in the area where we lived.
So, no Halloweenie earrings from me today. Just a pair which features one of my favorite wild animals: the fox. I have never seen wild foxes when living in the Netherlands, but where we live in Greece we see them often. I know our chicken farmers are not too happy with them, but I always love the sight of them.

Recipe for these:
Faux tin charms by Helena Benkoczka
Copper earwirs by Lucy Haslam
Czech glass and brass disc beads.

Nice short and lightweight.

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 joy, laughter and beautiful nature,
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Stacked earrings

Hello hello hello *waiving like some sort of possessed woman*, how are you all doing? I hope you are enjoying a wonderful day, with sunshine and laughter.

Last Monday I had an earring show on Facebook, which "forced" me to finally sit down and make earrings. Hence the "possessed" woman. Yep, I went on a wild earring creating frenzy.  
No time to eat, no time for grocery shopping, just bead bead bead.  And buy buy buy LOL, Because, hey, I was planning to sell earrings, meaning I could use that money to buy new beads. Upfront of course, as I "needed" them to make the earrings for the show. Hubby mumbled a bit in the corner about the illogical thinking and already having more beads than I could ever use. Well, what does he know. Everybody understands a jewelry designer needs beads. Right? Right? Right! And no, I am NOT a bead hoarder. Really, I am not. One day I am going to use them all. Really.

Well, enough of the rambling, it is time to show you some of my creations. I love stacked earrings and I so admire the work of our own Malin de Koning, the stacked earring queen.

Here are some of the pairs. using most Czech glass beads. Of which one can never have enough. Right? Right!

And here a stacked pair with some beautiful ceramic charms made by Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth and tiny birdies made by Karen Trezise from Ditsy Blue Beads. And of course ear wires made by Lucy Haslam from Faerystones.

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.

Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of sunshine, laughter and love.
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

A Question of Balance.

Asymmetry. Not always easy, is it? To some it comes quite naturally, to others not so much. My head veers to the matching pair and I have to force myself to deviate. And how to achieve a sense of balance when your components/sizes/colours are different? This pair was a case in point.

 

 

These great neutral tribal patterned stoneware beads and charms are of course by the one and only Jana Bliznakova, but one is different in shape and considerably shorter than the other. The answer came in the form of this one off crusty soldered headpin that Lucy Haslam made for me. Fits perfectly with the design and balances the length. In the centre we have black crusty lampwork criffles by Kimberly Rogers - Kim and her husband Dave are about to set off from Alaska  to come over to the UK and we are hoping to meet up again (not least because she has a huge stash of stuff for me!) Criffles just make any design dance; like little ballet tutus. Joyous.

                                   Hope you all have a good week - see you again soon. 

                                                                 Lindsay x

                                                             My Etsy shop

                                                        My Facebook page

Summer and butterflies

Greetings from Greece.

Summer is in full force here in Greece, after a short spell of colder weather with rain.

Most of my family, our Greek neighbors as well as other expats, living in our village all think we are pensioners, spending our days blobbing on the beach, sipping cocktails and enjoying the delicious Greek food. If only. Our lives could not be more different.
Both my hubby and I work full-time in our camper van, doing our day time job. Just like other people. With 3 fans working full force (we don’t have an airco) and drinking plenty of ice cold water.  But at the end of the day we do enjoy some downtime, swimming in the sea, drinking a freddo cappuccino in the village and have laughs with our friends. Life here is good and we know we are so blessed and fortunate we can live the life we live.

With all the blobbing  (LOL), I did have some time to make a pair of new earrings. I love moth and butterfly wing beads so I was thrilled to score a pair of handmade lampwork ones, made by Silvia. I paired them with beautiful lampwork glass beads made by Jennifer Powers, aquamarine, Swarovski  spacer rondelles and vintage Lucite beads. And of course handmade ear wires by my friend Lucy Haslam.

I hope you enjoy a wonderful summer day. Are you on holiday and if so, where? In any case, I wish you all a wonderful day, full of sunshine, laughter and butterflies.

See you next month. 

Thanks for looking and you know I love to read your comments so don't be shy and leave some words. 

Janine

Short and sweet

Hello, hello,

This is going to be a short post about sweet earrings.
Reading the post from Chris and admiring her fabulous earrings with those amazing porcelain charms from Emma Wilson, I suddenly remembered...wait a minute...I am sure I bought some of Emma's charms...but where did they go...hmm perhaps this box...nope....ahh perhaps that box...nope...hmm I am absolutely sure I bought some...nope, not this bag...perhaps the next bag (by now it is complete chaos in our mobile home, the floor is covered in bags and boxes). But I found them! Whoop whoop. 

 I kept the design simple, with larimar chips in the same blue color as in the charms, Swarovski crystal rondelles and pinkish Swarovski crystal beads. With sterling silver ear wires made by Lucy Haslam.

Thank you Chris for jogging my memory and giving me inspiration to make these.

Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of laughter, wonderful flowers, inspiration and love.

See you next month. 

Thanks for looking and you know I love to read your comments so don't be shy and leave some words. 

Janine

Spring color: denim

Hello peeps,

Hopefully you're all enjoying a gorgeous Spring. As I understand there is even a heat wave in the UK. Here in Greece spring is in full bloom but the last couple of days we had some really heavy rainfall. Which is perfect for nature, as we haven't had rain in quite some time.

Whatever the season, whatever the weather, denim is always the right color.

These earrings are made with blue fossil coral, vintage German glass beads and of course handmade copper ear wires by my very talented and immensely funny friend and twinney Lucy Haslam of Faerystones. These will be available in my shop in a couple of days.

Wishing you all a wonderful Spring day, full of laughter, wonderful flowers, singing birds and love.

See you next month. 

Thanks for looking and you know I love to read your comments so don't be shy and leave some words. 

Janine

Happy Tuesday

Hello peeps,

Wishing you all a happy Tuesday!

Beaded beads, Rebecca Anderson, the curious beadshop

Lampwork glass beads,  Raida Disbrow, Havana Beads

Copper ear wires, Lucy Haslam, Faerystones

Wood, Czech glass, brass charms

Thanks for watching. See you next month.

Janine

 

Shades of grey with a pop

Hello friends, I hope you all have enjoyed a wonderful weekend. Here in Greece if was warm enough to officially “open” the swimming season… we hiked in the mountains and ended the day with swimming in the sea. Wonderful.

As you might know I have set myself a challenge this year for Earrings Everyday: making earrings with long hoarded beads. The beads have been hoarded for various reasons: I could not part with them, I just had to have them without any idea what to do with them, or I bought them with an idea in mind which I had forgotten about once I received them, some I completely forgot about (yes, that happens) etc.

Today I set myself an even more difficult challenge: make three sets of earrings with the same beads.

I picked these wonderful handmade polymer clay beads in various shades of grey. I bought these in 2011 from a shop on Etsy called Peak View Creations. Sadly, this shop doesn’t seem to exist anymore. I then picked bright yellow handmade lampwork glass beads made by Amy. I am an official hoarder of the amazing muse packs from a great friend Claire Braunbarth from SmittenBeads, so I picked a pack and use some of the beads in them.

Here are pictures of the earrings. Let me know which design is your favourite.

 

Thank you so much for looking and I hope to see you in a couple of weeks. 
Here on Earrings Everyday we appreciate and love to read your comments. So don't be shy and let us know your thoughts.  Wishing you a wonderful day, full of joy, flowers and sunshine.

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Trying out some new stuff

Spending time in the Netherlands has it advantages. There are many arts & craft shops in the small town where I used to live, carrying a myriad of things. As usual, I couldn't resist so I bought textile hardener and some acrylic paint pens to play with.

These earrings are my first try-out of both. I made a “cage” with wire and covered it with bright orange sari silk. A great way of using left-over silk. 

I “painted” the sari silk with the textile hardener and let it dry.Voila, handmade, lightweight, paint-able headpins.

The textile hardener turned the bright orange color into red. I painted some primitive motives with the acrylic paint pens on the headpins, added some old trade beads and strung them on handmade ear wires made by Lucy Haslam (Faerystones). The end result is completely different from what I envisioned as well as completely different from my usual style (if I have any) but I am very pleased how they turned out.

Thank you for looking. See you in a couple of weeks.
And you know, I am always happy to read your comments, so don't be shy and let me know your thoughts. I will always reply.


Wishing you a wonderful day full of joy, sunshine and butterflies.
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop
My website/blog
My facebook page

Nostalgia in Reverse

 

I just had to get in on some of the Helen Backhouse's HelensBatCave

wonderful polymer clay pieces. She does exquisite painting on lightweight polymer clay from molds  ( moulds where she comes from) that she creates from shells, leaves, pods and flowers. Let me tell you these are hot items!

I squirreled away some of the raw ruby nuggets that I picked up at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show and even kept a couple of my "kerfuffle" lampwork discs and wired them up with some tiny bone vertebrae and finishing off with my favorite  Lucy Haslam  FaeryStones earwires

 I must add that Helen leaves it to to you  for the placement of the holes. I was able to use my small punch for my holes.

Long yet lightweight. Colorful and springlike

I wish you all a happy spring. I am on my yearly northward journey to Alaska to experience springtime all over again.

Thanks for looking!

Kimberly Rogers 

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

https://www.instagram.com/numinosity/

https://www.pinterest.com/numinosity/designers-using-numinositybeads/

Plumbing the Rocky Depths

Some beautifully etched zipper pattern beads by Bernadette Fuentes that I picked up last year at the Tucson Gem Show paired with some of Petra's Scorched Earth daggers. The most recent elements are the crusty limpet bead caps I made. They are lampwork.

I saved Bernadette's beads for a long time, I wan't sure if I would ever use them, maybe just keep them in a collection. I don't buy lampwork all that often. These beads kind of just lined up on my worktable. I just wasn't sure at first if the bead caps would work but I'm pleased with the result.

The combination of the crusty bead caps, silky etched lampwork and then the glazed daggers stack up for a nice effect.

Here's a better view of the little cruster limpets that seemed to want to hug Bernadette's beads

I like to give the option of offering shorter earwires. Not everyone seems to be comfortable wearing long earrings like I do.

Do you suppose I was subconsciously inspired by the colors and patterns of the mine that we drive by here in Bisbee, Arizona?

Thanks for looking!

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

https://www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

https://www.instagram.com/numinosity/

Flying South

I had the occasion to purchase some of Heidi Ahrens Williams of Azteca Designs Boutique handmade copper feather headpins. She's going to be auctioning some off in her facebook group on October 16th!

I knew I wouldn't need much embellishment to complete the design.

That's the beauty of handmade artisan components. There is so much inherent beauty in them  that you almost can't go wrong with your pairings.

These extra crusty beads with my handmade murrini cane were put aside for those something special earrings. Heidi shipped so fast and when I received the headpins I just knew that they were meant to accompany them. I used my favorite Lucy Haslam's (Faerystones) extra long earwires but they could be easily swapped out with shorter ones for a little less dangle.

Since we are heading south soon to our desert home I named them "Flying South" because of the feathers and the desert colors in the beads.

Thanks for looking!

 Kimberly of NuminosityBeads

e t s y   www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

f a c e b o o k  www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

i n s t a g r a m   www.instagram.com/numinosity/

p i n t e r e s t  www.pinterest.com/numinosity/

and my f a c e b o o k auction and sale group 

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/