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

Ethereal Jewelry Designs

My earring designs usually are in strong colors, more in the jewel tone color vibe, but it is always wonderful to challenge one’s self with something new, such as components from Emma Wilson, from the United Kingdom. When I first saw Emma Wilson’s porcelain ceramic components I was blown away by the intricate markings and patterns on each piece. They were so delicate and detailed looking, but having an art degree in ceramics, I knew they would be very sturdy for jewelry components.

Emma’s porcelain components exude a sense of history, like they have been part of something else, maybe having been worn by someone in a gentler time or possibly that they have been places and have a story to tell and now they were just found and repurposed into these ornate bits and bobs. Emma’s pieces are frequently in tones of pale peach, blue and white, with gold ‘gilding’ in key areas. They are a delight to design with as I get to work with my smaller glass pieces and ornate headpins to enhance the story Emma has started.

Emma’s pieces can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/TheNatureofPorcelain , https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop//TheNatureofPorcelain, and on Facebook selling groups such as https://www.facebook.com/groups/LBAGalleriaDesignersShowcase/

Each porcelain piece in these photos range from 1.5 to 2.5 cms in length or about ½ to one inch. When  other artisan materials are added they are 2-3 inches long and are extremely light in weight on your ear.

The round medallion type earrings with dangling Swarovski crystals also feature Rose toned beadcaps and rustic lampwork glass by Jody Brimhall of Inspire Glass Studio at https://www.etsy.com/shop/InspireGlassStudio as well as on Facebook selling group pages such as: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lampworkbeadmarket

The pale blue bell shaped earrings feature lampwork glass beads from Patricia Ritchie of Australia, more Swarovski crystals and Silver Tinned Headpins by Sasha Crow.  Patricia’s work can be found on Facebook selling social media pages such as https://www.facebook.com/groups/lampworkbeadsfs/

Sasha Crow’s artisan pieces can be found at https://www.etsy.com/shop/crowscachesupplies

The smaller round components with small round impressions in the clay feature Terry Turner of Silverfish Designs at https://www.etsy.com/shop/Silverfishdesigns and Sasha Crow’s headpins.

For more information I can be found at: https:www.facebook.com/ChristineKaitlyn.3  and

https://www.Etsy.com/shop/ChrisKaitlynJewelry  or  http://ChrisKaitlynJewelry.IndieMade.com/

and on Instagram and Pinterest.

Chris Kaitlyn

 

When simple might be best.

Hello! How are you all? Feels like a good while since I've been here.

I hope you enjoyed Jetta Sellers' post yesterday. She is a sweetheart, and her work is great. Loved the Lettuce Leaves!

So simple. . . . the word simple really means something like having only one element, not compound. So the word itself may be improperly used here, but by simple I mean not complex, not complicated. So although that is not the definition of simple, in the context we use it, I think it's still the right word. When you look for an antonym of complicated, you get simple! lol

I am the least likely person in this group to talk about simple. That's a good enough reason, I guess, to talk about it! It's likely come up before. Sometimes I lose sight of what I'm actually creating, get carried away, and a pair of earrings could be put together and become a necklace! So I do like to try to focus on simple sometimes.

But about 4:00 yesterday afternoon, I still had nothing made for this post, let alone wrote the post, so when I sat down at my worktable I decided I was going to do simple. . . . really simple. So that's definitely one time simple is best.

For me, it's the artisan beads. So many of them, ceramic, lampwork glass, metal, polymer clay, are so perfect as they are, that they often sit in my collection for a long time, maybe forever, because they're beautiful works of art to me. They are the art form I collect. And so many times, the thought of adding something to them seems really wrong. It's very difficult to enhance something that I see as perfect. You wouldn't dream of taking one of Monet's Lilies series and add to it, to "enhance" it. Yeah, that's an extreme example, but to me it's the same thing. The only difference is that the artist that creates them, makes them specifically for the purpose of us adding to them. So of course, it's what we do. So here are my earrings for today:

These earrings are available for purchase in my Etsy Shop here

The beautiful ceramic components in the earrings, by Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy, I've had for a good while now. I have worked with them on a number of occasions and nothing ever felt right. They are just too cool on their own. Knowing that this is a huge decision for me, I decided to simply add one dangle to the bottom connector AND NOTHING ELSE. Nothing! :) I might have done that another time, but would certainly have worked on the top, also. But I stopped. And I love them. Really love them. That was a great lesson for me. What I added were three pieces on each, two silver metal beads and one rustic, natural Turquoise disk nugget.

Previously when working with them I was picking up on both the periwinkle color that you see on the earring on the right -- it's  minimal but it's there -- and they both have a bit of turquoise around the edge of the bronze clay that Petra uses in much of her work.

So being in a crunch is certainly one time simple is good. But it does have other benefits if one is able to make simple. I say"able to make" because using only a few pieces and making a fabulous pair of earrings takes great talent. It's not easy, not for me. So it's an exercise I should take up more often.

The other benefits include keeping the weight down, which for me has become an issue. I can't wear heavier earrings any longer. They hurt and pull down my lobes. Another benefit is price. Less materials, less time, equals lower price. That provides more women the opportunity to purchase handcrafted artisan earrings, often made with artisan beads, at a lower price point.

That's it for me today. I hope you are all heading into a fun-filled summer.

As always, we thank you for stopping in and spending a few minutes with us.

Happy Days to everyone. 

All the best, 'til next time!
Norbel

SheFliesAgain

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Ferris Wheel Earrings

I've been having fun making these ceramic Ferris Wheel components.  When I first started making them, I glazed them all in one color, like the pair on the right.  But now, I'm getting a kick out using all sorts of color combinations.  I have a lot of these in bisque form now, just waiting for me to cover them in happy colors.

So I grabbed a pair of my Ferris Wheel components to use in today's earrings.

Purple and lime green are such a fun color combination.  I paired the ceramic components with pretty faceted amethysts, some pressed glass leaves and handmade brass ear-wires.  These are just fun to wear and I think I'll be keeping them for myself!

Linda Landig Jewelry

The Love of Art Beads

Hello everyone and Happy April.

At the moment, this is feeling very surreal. Maybe it was meant to be, for whatever reason. 

I wrote a very long post. About my love of Art Beads. How I started making jewelry. My Art Bead Collecting, my passion for them as an art form, and a bunch of other stuff. 

Right now it's about 11:00 p.m. and I've had a really long day. My wrist is aching and my eyes are trying to close. Not complaining just setting the stage. :) I came back to my post to add the links for the earrings I just listed. I must have hit a Ctrl+A key combination and hit a key or the space bar and my whole post disappeared. I quick tried to Undo and I see that the Auto Save feature is saving it. The Undo did not work and it saved a completely blank page. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO. PLEASE NO. I tried to Undo yet again and it was hopeless. I looked around for somewhere there might be a backup but nada. 

There were six different photos in it, links to four or five different shops, links for the photos, all of which take a fair amount of time to complete, along with what probably amounted to three pages of blog. 

So rather than straining your eyes and maybe scratching your brain to read my lengthy narrative, this is it! Three new pairs of earrings made with Artisan beads by Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy and accompanying wheel beads by Jana Bliznakova of HappyFishThings. 

I am really very sorry but I just can't pull it together long enough to try to re-write it. 

Here are my earrings for today. With love and great big kudos to Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy.

Link to SheFliesAgain

Link to SheFliesAgain

Link to SheFliesAgain

As always, thank you so very much for taking the time to stop in and see what we've got going on, or maybe reading in your Inbox. We all appreciate it! Be back in two weeks. :)

With love, peace & happiness to all of you, each and every single day.
norbel
SheFliesAgain

Rustic Leather

hello everyone! i almost always love sitting down to write this post. sometimes having very little to say. 😊 other times having way too much i want to say. today is somewhere in between.

i have a hurt arm right now, wrist and the underside of the forearm. it's not an injury, just overuse, i believe, and that has me a bit concerned but i refuse to think about it too much. i have not been working. i'm on day 12 (starting to really twitch now), trying to rest it as much as possible but everything we do uses the arms so it's challenging, and it's only gotten a bit better, so i'll have to think about what to do next. please excuse the lack of capitalization. it's easier for me to type without using the shift key right now. i apologize. 

the point though is that i have not created anything. i decided i would make something for my post, and i would do so without using wire, as it's the pliers that hurt the most. i love wire. love it. i am not afraid of the discomfort, i can deal with that; it's what the discomfort is telling me that concerns me, so pliers are out for a bit. well, maybe next week i'll give them a try. ;) i only have so much will power to stay away!

I have made designs without wire before, but i wanted to do something more than that. 

i have been very inspired by our own kristi bowman-gruel and lynn ferro in their use of paints and other coloring agents and have wanted to try my hand at it for awhile. i've had these leather pieces for almost two years! so yes, it's been a while. the pieces were made by melinda orr of ORRTEC. melinda is a very creative woman, and my hat is off to her after i worked painting leather, something she does all the time. i originally had purchased a pair of these leather wedges already painted. so beyond being inspired by melinda, kristi and lynn, they are likely similar to the pair melinda painted. she gave me instructions on how best to go about this, and the steps she takes. i did modify the leather pieces a bit. i won't go into the long story. There's nothing to learn from it, otherwise i would. ;)

so i did the painting over a few days. i painted the solid black background, front and back, and let that dry, really dry, and then did the painting in steps, basically by color as i decided what i wanted where. it wasn't the best thing for the arm, but i was not using pliers and that was my goal. i had what i thought were the thinnest brushes but i cut one of them to an even thinner point at the tip. the areas to paint in are very small. some of the areas required repainting with black when i "painted outside the lines." :) 

after all the painting was completed, again i let them thoroughly dry. using melinda's method, i took a piece of sandpaper to them to roughen them up and age them, and bring out some of the tan-colored leather underneath. 

I strung tiny copper-plated link chain between the 3 holes. then using waxed irish linen i hung just about the last of my stash of antique venetian glass beads, more than 100 years old. i have set aside two beads for myself but other than that, this is it of the good ones.  

The tops contain copper spacers and blue green picasso finish czech glass beads on linen also, then attached to a copper-plated flat spacer ring which accommodated both the linen and the black niobium ear wires. 

i did end up having to use pliers for the six copper links which the chain is attached to; it was not pleasant, and that was a sad moment for me. 

all in all it was a challenge, really. the painting was a painstaking process but very fun to see them become. i would will definitely paint again, hopefully sooner rather than later! 

as always, i am so grateful you stopped in to check us out. i thank you for letting me share my passion with you. i do hope this finds you all healthy and well.

thank you!

norbel

shefliesagain

you can also visit me on facebook and instagram

be sure to leave a message or comment there and i will

send you a discount code for a first-time purchase! 😊

Inviciti

Happy New Year to everyone! I do hope you had some fun. 

I wrote a rather reflective post, not serious but reflective, and I thought, ya know, the hell with that! I have been in this reflective state off and on for the last couple of months and even I get tired of it. ☺ So I can only imagine how my friends might feel. And I didn't want that to happen here, too! 

So I decided to just have fun. I finally got a hold of a pair of Inviciti's color patina components. Both their dark patina and the shiny antique polished patina are very popular, and when it comes to the colorful pieces, look out, they disappear like money in my hands! By the way, they now also have a .com website. www.Inviciti.com 

This pair is tribal and colored in lovely greens, gold, rust and black. I had a conversation in my mind wherein Vincent 'n Nooma had a good laugh about -- hey, they even like our stick people! lol Vincent or Nooma, if you are reading this, I am only teasing you!! Ancient cave drawings are filled with stick people. I view a lot of ancient cave drawings, and it is true, including hunters or warriors like this guy. And I love them.

So what to do with them! These are put-on-an-ear-wire-and-wear-them components. When they are, which is often, I want to be sure to not detract from what they are, only enhance them. 

I know, I know, there is a lot going on here, but none of it, either individually or collectively, overpowers the focals. At least I don't think it does?????

I selected complementary colors but all are rather muted. The rusty orange beads are hand-dyed by Ashley Krause of DyedBoneBead. The tube-shaped beads are from Mali and are clay. Copper spacer beads help to protect the thin and often brittle clay beads. A bit of wire work in deeply oxidized copper, and topped off with green faceted Czech glass beads with a Picasso finish. Flattened brass-plated links hold vintage Kuchi clapperless bells, purchased from JewelsOfNomads. The shop has a lot of very cool stuff; prices are a bit on the high side. Just my opinion.

Thank you so much for taking the time to have a look at what we're doing here. We all appreciate it, regardless of whose post it is. :)

Take good care. I'll be back in a couple of weeks. 


norbel
SheFliesAgain

Scorched Earth, Inviciti, Numinosity & More!

Hello! I do hope everyone has had a joyful Christmas and is looking forward to a fresh, new year. It always seems to be a time of hope, regardless of what recent times have been like. There's no real reason to expect new and different, but to me a "fresh start" nonetheless increases the sense of change is in the air.

I have had a rough couple/few months. And the little girl of a muse that usually accompanies me seems to have vanished right before my eyes. I don't know what to think about that! :) But it has me bogged down in many ways, or rather, I suppose she's gone because I am bogged down in many ways. Onward and upward!

There are always one to three days at the end of the month that aren't covered with our regular twice a month schedule. That is when our visiting artists come in to share their beautiful creations. This month Kristi and I are picking up the two extra days at the last minute. Not having anything prepared, I decided to do what Lynn did yesterday and share with you some of my personal favorites from the last couple of months, and maybe a couple have been used as part of a post? Not sure! lol These have sold, but I believe some could possibly be available for custom orders.

BTW, you'll notice a new Artist Contributor appearing at the end of the column!! There are actually two; we don't have a design picture yet for the second. I'll wait and let you be surprised by who it might be. I, for one, cannot wait to have them both share their amazing work with all of us. They will be starting the second week of January! :)

Please note that the captions under the photos are links to the shops whose pieces were used in the designs.

NuminosityBeads
NomvulaCrafts
TheFickleBead

NuminosityBeads
EclecticPrairie
DyedBoneBead

DyedBoneBead

NuminosityBeads

HappyFishThings
DyedBoneBead

NuminosityBeads
DyedBoneBead

Inviciti
CrowsCache

ScorchedEarthOnEtsy

ScorchedEarthOnEtsy

My wishes are for all of you and all of your families and friends to experience a New Year filled with love, laughter, joy, and above all, peace of mind. I am honored to be able to share my work with you. Thank you!
norbel
SheFliesAgain

Girls just wanna have fun!

Making stuff is how I have the best fun! I feel very fortunate to have been able to share my fun with you for the last year! Thank you. Merry Christmas to you and yours, and my wishes to everyone for all good things in 2017.

Having been very inspired by Cindy Pack and her work with silver, I planned on making something with silver for this post but it didn't turn into anything "fun." :) So I switched tracks and decided that I would challenge myself somehow. Flexibility. After a few hours of pondering, I decided the challenge would be to work with Pearls. I've only used pearls twice, I believe. A friend, whose name seems to pop up in my posts often ☺, Susan Delaney, gifted me with four beautiful pairs of pearls, and I had a little stash of beautiful, small Keshi pearls from Debbie at TheFickleBead.

This post could be a veeeeeeeeeeryyyyyyyyyy long post with what went on during the time I worked to make these three pairs of earrings, but I won't; it'll be long enough as it is. ;) As an aside, I laughed out loud and read it to my husband while reading Erin's post last Friday. In no way was I laughing AT HER! She said she made 23 pairs of earrings in 2 hours! I was stunned! In awe! And jealous! lol Now, I am not exaggerating when I say that it takes me 23 hours to make 2 pairs of earrings. I truly am in awe, Erin! :)

The first pair is made with connectors that I purchased from Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy in the very FIRST order I placed with her on April 14 of 2013! I just haven't been able to give them up. :)

When I pulled out the pairs of pearls I received from Susan, I picked these first. It's likely difficult to see but they have a lovely texture and a very pretty white color. Oddly enough, I thought of these ceramic pieces almost immediately. And I love how they turned out. They are black stoneware finished with Bronze Gilders Paste. I added brass rings, the beautiful pearls, glass beads and brass at the bottom, with extremely oxidized copper wire.

The second pair also includes Petra's ceramics. I am not a fan of Picasso's work. But I loved it in this medium, and was thrilled to be able to get them. They're paired with wonderful rustic sticks of Rust and Blue Kyanite, purchased from Kimberly Rogers/NuminosityBeads, and another pair of pearls from Susan. These are smooth, glossy, round white pearls.

One of the difficulties I had throughout this project was that the teeny, tiny holes in the pearls require thin wire, 24-gauge. The lower connection was wrapped with 22- gauge on top of the 24. They sell large-holed pearls but these are not those, and they are much too beautiful to ignore.

The last pair was made with the Keshi pearls. An 18-gauge loop wrapped with 24-gauge. A separate piece of 24-gauge was used for the pearls, the

This pic depicts the purple beads
more accurately than the other

ends wrapped around the loop, wrapped a bit at the top of the dangle for stability. The pearls are thin, beautiful, peacock Keshi pearls, a lovely gray with metallic colors. The purple polymer clay beads were made by Jon Burgess of JBDRusticOrganic
and the accent beads are black, blue and green Vulcanite beads handmade in Nigeria.

   I do hope you had a bit of fun here with me today. I look forward to making the earrings and writing the post and simply being a part of this great group. When I say the "group," I mean all of you who enjoy taking a look at what we have going on. I am so grateful to all of you.

Once again, Merry, Merry Christmas
to you and yours, and all the best this life has to offer in 2017!

See ya next year!
Norbel Marolla
She Flies Again

Thrift Store Treasure

On Sunday, I was in a thrift store and saw this pair of earrings on offer for $1.00.  The tarnish on the silver metal told me that it was probably Sterling silver.  The style looks like it was from the transitional period between Art Nouveau and Art Deco. One of my favorite periods of art!  Let me tell you, I grabbed those $1.00 babies so fast it would make your head spin!  I knew I'd found a treasure.

I polished the silver and deconstructed the earrings.  There were a few small nicks in the silver, so I turned the silver pieces over to their best sides.

I added diamond shapes of Peruvian Opal and tiny Thai silver cubes.  I adore how they turned out.

These are keepers.  I don't think they will ever show up in my shop.  I'm wearing them now as I type this and I imagine they will make frequent appearances in my outfits.

Linda Landig Jewelry

In Space - Outer Space - Out of Space -

Full of Space

I feel as though I haven't been here in a long time. It's a good feeling to realize how much a part of my life this group has become. I've been with EE a year now. Time it does fly. I hope all of you had a peaceful Thanksgiving, and that you are now pulling out the Santa hats and getting in the groove. My husband does the decorating. Our home has become very festive this year. Now that he's retired, he has much more time to "play." He even has put up a pretty good-sized oval of track for the Lionel Trains he received as a young child. I love that. Movin' on. . .

So! I have another new shop for you! FullofSpace is the name of the shop where I purchased the focal beads for today's earrings. Once again, a good friend, Susan Delphine Delaney, is responsible for leading me to the shop. She has sent me so many inspirational Pins and leads that have led to real ideas and wonderful beads! Perhaps some of you have already found it as Carolina, the owner of the shop, has received a good number of sales since I purchased my beads on the 21st of November. I was surprised when I popped in last night to see all of the beads I had missed, but happy for her that she had been found by others. Her work is unusual, and I'm drawn to a lot of it. 

So here are the earrings I made. The beads came in a set of 8.

The hoop is not a heavier gauge and soldered hoop. It was made out of the same 20 gauge wire I continued on to the top, using the bottom strand for a few wraps at the top of the hoop, and then coming down one side. I did harden the hoop so that it's not wimpy. I did that by hand with flat-nosed pliers. I found that squaring off the bottom of the hoop made the beads feel more at home. 

The red bead is actually a natural, not-dyed, Red Sandalwood seed. I'm pretty sure I talked about this before, but if you missed it, these seeds are amazing in their color and gloss. I purchase them from TheFickleBead. And then of course the almost always present in my jewelry these days, hand-dyed bone beads, these in soft grey, are purchased from DyedBoneBead. 

These were a lot of fun to work on. I'm just finishing up a necklace with the rest of the cone beads. I love it. It's not listed yet; should be in the shop in the next couple of days. 

Thank you once again for taking the time to visit with us. We always appreciate it. Always grateful for feedback, too. Thanks so much! See you in a couple of weeks. :)

norbel
SheFliesAgain

how do things end. . .

. . . up the way they do?

Hello! Happy November, and thank you so much for taking time out of your day to give us a look.

I don't know how others design jewelry. I've never sat with anyone else while they were designing, nor had discussions about it. But for me, very often, I don't know what I am going to end up with. Sometimes it's great; other times not so much. But either way, it's a joyful adventure and a learning experience for me. And yes, I'll admit, sometimes a little bit, or more, of frustration. 

I hear people talk about sketching their designs, and that sounds so wonderful. They can visualize the beginning and the end. I do have some visual but it often ends up different. If I'm making wire or sheet metal pieces, those I do lay out on paper. Anything else generally starts with a lot of handcrafted components out on the table, and I take the ones that yell the loudest. "Me, me, pick me! "Nah, not me, I don't feel like working today." :)

From there, I ponder a bit where I want to go; I go through colors, textures, beads in my mind until something clicks, and then I might pull out many possible complementary things, glass, bone, metal, chain, linen, etc. I often do basic try this, try that. A lot of trying. And if after whatever amount of time I find reasonable, if nothing is working for me, I go back and start again with the other things I had out that are in their containers on my table, out of the way but close enough to pull them right back. Or something else entirely might pop into my head. That is basically how it goes. Not at all scientific. There are many times that I want to work with a specific something. Sometimes I can; sometimes I cannot. I think the bottom line is that it ends up being all about how I feel. My head doesn't get too involved. There are even the rare occasions when I'm not sure how it all got put together and all of a sudden it's done! Love when that happens. :) I would very much like to know if others work in this relatively haphazard fashion, or how do you generally work? 

Over the weekend I selected these sweet, little, pale blue handcrafted ceramic drops by Lorna of Balela Ceramics. She has a distinctive soft and muted style in much of her work, yet will also throw out the most gorgeous bright and shiny blue beads here and there.

You can find these earrings here

These drops were sweet and a bit whimsical. I wanted to "rustic them up" a bit so I selected stone-like ceramic beads, also by Balela Ceramics, and a simple handmade copper bead. That was all I had at that point. So I cut a long piece of copper wire and wrapped it around once, finished up the top, and then went back down to the other end of the wire and decided to wrap a whole bunch of it in a deliberately wide and messy fashion. I would have stopped there except that there was an ugly vacant space left below the wire, which showed only the bare loop at the top of the dangle and it all looked not so nice. But I didn't want to wire all the way down; I wanted the dangle to be able to move. So I added back in a bit of whimsy and created a series of "swags" with tiny 2 and 3mm beads along the bottom, sides and back of the wire. No more empty space, and I liked the result. 

You can find these earrings here

And that is how they ended up the way they did!

Thanks so much for visiting us. I hope you enjoyed my musings today, and I'll be back in two weeks' time. :)

Norbel Marolla
She Flies Again

To Crystal or not to Crystal

Hello everyone, and thank you so much for joining us.

I rarely use crystals in my work. Not that I don't love them because I do. As an object they are fascinating. The sparkle and colors, twists and turns, are mesmerizing. And sometimes I wonder why I don't use them? I think there is still a part of my process that isn't fully open. Why can't I use a Swarovski crystal rather than a Lampwork bead? I don't know the answer to that, and I think the answer is buried underneath what I think I SHOULD do rather than doing what pleases me. This writing, what I am writing right now, has brought this to my attention and it is something I need to explore. I always say, with all honesty, that I make what I like, not what I think I should. Yet if I like crystals and don't use them, that seems to belie the fact. It's amazing to me what sitting down with a "pen and paper" can do. So you have now just witnessed a revelation! lol True. The title of this post was not "To Crystal or not to Crystal" before I wrote this paragraph! 

Okay, back to the task at hand. I love both of the handcrafted pieces in these earrings. The beautiful, celestial, pewter pieces were made by Vincent 'n Nooma of Inviciti. I think this is my favorite to date of their work. And the headpins at the bottom! When I received these, I honestly felt I could never do them justice; still don't think I can. They are one of the most unusual pair of headpins I've ever seen. They were made by Sasha Crow of CrowsCacheSupplies. 

You can view the full listing here:

I had already added the Swarovski crystal to the pewter pieces, knowing I wanted to use them, but there was nothing else going on as far as a complete design. I simply put them aside and went on to other things. I have pulled out the glass/solder headpins frequently over the last couple of months, not necessarily with the intent to use them; I just love them! Many times I thought I would simply put a bead on them that I love and keep them for myself, but that never happens. :) 

Pondering what to add to the bottom connection of the celestial pewter, the idea of clear crystals, or Crystal Quartz nuggets kept coming up as a possible, and eventually the vision of the clear glass struck and I leaped from my chair -- literally lol -- and knew that is where they would go. Adding a simple silver metal spacer and a second Swarovski bicone was perfect. 

You can view the full listing here: 

 I began to have thoughts of adding Crystal Quartz dangles here and there and more silver. . . and then I stopped myself. I thought about it, talked to myself about it. I have a tendency to want to keep going. . . I'm not sure why that is. Both of these handcrafted pieces could stand on their own, with nothing added. Yet I often persist in adding more embellishment than they need. I am really working on that!

The psychology of creativity confuses me. I've worked hard to encourage myself and allow myself to be me, to create what I want to create and be okay with it. Things changed a bit when I decided to sell my "art" in an attempt to contribute to the family income. Long story there completely unrelated, but all of a sudden I went from the joyful time spent creating to attempting to think business. I've done that most of my life, not a big deal, but THIS is very different and it became a big deal. It is still something I struggle with, but it no longer causes serious anxiety or sleepless nights. I've learned to not allow life in general to do that to me, and that includes designing and the sale of same. 

What I think is required for me, and for anyone who has that tiny (or large) feeling of insecurity about their work is to STOP (in the name of love. . .  :) comparing my work to that of other designers; no bouncing around Etsy and Pinterest viewing the work of those who are more successful than I am, more talented than I am, better at marketing than I am. Those people will always exist. There will always be those that are better than I am in all of those areas.  Loving my work and being proud of my work is a must if I am to create honest work. 

So join me in being free with your designing. Don't allow visions of the designers and shops that are more successful than you are enter into your design process. Designing that way inevitably looks contrived.

For me it continues to be a process. For the most part, I am free of it. Then a dry period, or a dry-er period comes around and the little gremlins start trying to spin the wheels. I take those little angry creatures and pop them right off their tiny stationary bikes and stop the wheels in their tracks! It is NO fun that way! 

So my bottom line is, and it's always my recommendation to en"joy" creative time; create what makes "me" happy, not what I think others might like, not what I think might sell. I think that keeps my designs honest and fresh.

Well, that was not at all the post I had planned. :) lol 

Thanks so much for stopping in. 

Yours in joy,
Norbel
She Flies Again Etsy Shop

Ancient

Women in Ancient Times loved Awesome Earrings like we do! And very beautiful ones. Although I would imagine that those who were lucky enough to wear them must have been the elite of their time. 

Hello, and Happy October to you. Fall is my favorite time of year. I find it energizing. It's fleeting here in Michigan; we're lucky to have a small handful of sunny, cool days, but they are the best of the best when they come around. :) 

I've always enjoyed browsing images of ancient jewelry. History intrigues me. I am amazed by the beauty some were able to wear. Gemstones and gold! 

This particular image is of a pair of earrings that were made/worn in about 500 AD, during the Byzantine era, "earrings with pendant chains". It's said they were very popular during that time, but only five (5) earrings are known to have survived. There is one earring "in Baltimore," and a pair in the "Farrell Collection," each with pendant crosses, pearls and semi-precious stones. This image and the info came from the "Christie's" website, and these little lovelies fetched $15,000. 

FYI "The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople." 

What an amazing find, in such beautiful condition. 500 AD! I kept the image in a folder I have titled "Design Inspiration," where I have hundreds of images of stunning jewelry, from all over, including all of our EE talents. This one I have been enamored with for quite some time. 

Rather than use them for inspiration only, I decided to re-create the design in my own way, in our timeline, :), with the materials I love to work with. And there's also the fact that gold is a bit out of my price range. :) Perhaps someday, hundreds of years from now, someone will stumble upon my earrings, and think they're a fun find. 

So here is my interpretation. 



 I chose to use a plain hoop rather than a hoop with ear wire attached. As the AEs (ancient earrings) have a pearl wrapped to the hoop, I did the same. These sweet rondelle-shaped Pearls came from TheFickleBead and I am in love with them. They're a soft peachy ivory and have decent-sized holes. These are wrapped in 22 gauge copper wire.

The beautiful, faceted blue/green stones are Apatite. The way the AEs have the emerald wrapped made me chuckle. If you look at the wire above the emerald, there appears to be a headpin wrapped around the wire holding the emerald, right? Yet at the bottom of the emerald the wire is rather wound and bunched to keep the bead on. Christie's refers to it as a "large granule above the spiral." To me it's a headpin! lol So I used headpins to hold the Apatite, and then used another to create the "spiral" and the "granule." I also chose to put it on the opposite side of the hoop as the pearl, rather than on the same side.

Rather than use a chain, I braided copper wire. I started out with a heavier gauge wire, but  it was too much. Everything I used was scaled down compared to the AEs, as far as the diameter of the wire, the hoop, the length and dimensions of the emeralds and their findings. It just looked better, and I love it. I have never braided wire before. I do know that it is something I will do more often. What a great way to change things up a bit. Hanging from the "chain" are pewter arrow charms, made by Vincent 'n Nooma of Inviciti.

So that's that! This was really one of the most fun projects I've done. Thanks so much for stopping by. We all appreciate it, as well as your comments and feedback. Have a great couple of weeks. I'll be back Oct. 18. Thank you!

Norbel
She Flies Again - my Etsy shop