Fall, Leaves, Fall

 I've been collecting art beads for over a decade now and I'm pretty good at remembering who made what and when, but for the life of me, I can't recall buying these delicate ceramic leaves.  It's very possible they were included in a package as a gift or a trade at some time.  So if they look familiar, please help a girl out!  lol. They are lovely!

I designed these freestyle- just doing what felt right.  I usually make all my necklaces that way as well, no beadboard.  It's like dabbling on a canvas with paint to me.  These feel tribal with a wee bit of Victorian.

I made the faux tin pieces (on copper) last year at an autumn beading retreat with Heather Powers.  There won't be a retreat this year because of social distancing so I'm really missing being in South Haven, Michigan, right now.  Maybe that's why I pulled these out to work with.

The ornate rings are vintage, as are the tiny wood beads by Miriam Haskell.

Here are some stunning lampwork headpins by my favorite artist Kimberly Rogers.  Falling leaves upon falling leaves with an almost birch tree background.

The accent beads are hollow vintage brushed silver-tone with a light aged patina.  Amber rhinestone oxidized spacers for a little sparkle.

It's an hour and a half past midnight and I'm late with this posting -- life has been busy lately!  Hope I squeezed this in just in time...but I don't think so...lol 

 Please take care and enjoy the season.     Love to you all ~

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

"Pins and needles, needles and pins, it's a happy man that grins."

Joan Miller, my Queen Of Halloween bead maker, just had her first show of the season and I was lucky enough to purchase these wonderful little autumn-inspired flowers. Fresh green and butter yellow are one of my all-time favorite color combinations. 

I always see little fancy black spiders in the center, do you?? Anyway...

I wanted to play up the beautiful green so I added some lovely vintage glass beads with small black slashes.  They have a wonderful matte finish and look very much like pods.

I could have left them alone at that point, but oh heck, it IS almost Halloween and I had the most perfectly adorable, teeny-tiny skulls, sooo... look who is now popping out of the pods...lol

My favorite thing to do in a design is add a little element of surprise.  From a distance, they are just pretty little flowers, but up close, someone is looking back!  My friend, whom I bead with every Saturday night, saw the earrings from across the table and said "Oh, how pretty!"  Then looked closer and went "Whoa!"  We've been friends forever and REALLY, she should have known better!  lol

Thank you so much for joining me and having a look at what I've been up to!  I'll be back in two weeks' time!

Loralee XO 

loraleekolton.etsy.com

Autumn Glow

As summer days start to fade a bit, I'm looking ahead toward autumn jewelry designs. Although I'm sad that summer will end soon; I really love fall colors! Our early autumns are usually quite sunny and pleasant  here. I love the glow of the sun as seen through a canopy of autumn colored leaves.

I made today's earrings with this image in mind. I started with some small lampwork glass beads by Beads and Botanicals. Brass bead caps fancy them up a bit. Three really cool, fluted vintage beads in yellow and orange dangle from each earring. The vintage beads are acrylic and weigh next to nothing, so although they have a definite presence, they are very comfortable to wear. I wire wrapped the brass around the tops of the vintage beads for an extra decorative touch. I would wear these year round, but especially late summer through November.

What's on your autumn bucket list? We'll be crunching through leaves, taking photography trips and celebrating our granddaughter's first birthday. The Autumn Glow earrings are available in my shop now.  I'll see you again in two weeks.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Keep On Haunting Me

 October Greetings, Beady Ghouls! 

Rustic, spooky, yet hauntingly glamorous with their golden touches are these wonderful enamel houses by Anne Gardanne.   

I used a sweet little mix of vintage bobbles:  AB faceted crystals and peeled vintage faux pearls.

Darkly oxidized metal bead caps with soft lightweight rattling chains - a must for every haunted house.

👻

Garden spirits of a summer gone by.  

Lightweight polymer leaves by Heather Powers, etched lampwork glass with touches of autumn color by Kimberly Rogers and carved bone spirited little folk.

Boo! From, Luna!

Thank you, as always, for popping in and having a look at what I've been up to.  I love hearing from you and appreciate your time!  Wishing you all the best of this glorious season!  I'll be back in a couple of weeks with some bold spooky designs!

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~ artful in beads.  

P.S. I haven't had time to list these earrings but feel free to message me!

We're All Ears :: September :: Ode to Autumn

Well, Autumn has not disappointed me yet! She has been mercurial...one moment prancing around like summer rising and the next moody, misty and damp. The colors are just starting to make their debut, while at the same time leaving a crunchy carpet underfoot. She never ceases to amaze, delight and surprise me.

For this challenge - this Ode to Autumn - I decided to sit down with art beads that were leaf shaped. What I came up with for my "leaves" was, at times, surprising.

Resplendent

This first pair started with those handsome carved blood red tiger eye leaf beads. I never know what I am going to find when I sit down to do this, and that bag with the burgundy colored leaves (I also have them in a creamy mother of pearl) literally fell into my lap! I have a little bead shop in my town called the Blue Bead, and although they don't carry much that I like to use, I still feel compelled to go in every now and then to buy something. These were the best find ever! I went over to my tower of black jewelry trays - there are about 8 of them all stacked together with the little flocked inserts holding layer upon layer of art bead treasures, like a sort of beaders' archeological dig - and spied these tiny ceramic flowers. They are from Summers Studio. Miss LeAnn Weih was the artist and I got to know her a bit many years ago when I first started out. I loved her ceramic treasures. But she stopped making things like this back in 2013 or so. I do miss her, so wearing these would remind me of her.

Forest Tapestry

Another artist whose work I have hoarded and who I admire very much is Nancy Adam of Round Rabbit. She is also not making new ceramic treasures. So whenever I unearth them in my tower o' art beads, they always take me back. Typically, I have one-offs and orphans in my collection, but I was lucky enough to have a pair of these marquis-shaped charms (I also have them in a rich purple). I know that these are not leaves, per se, but they have that leafy shape and the colors were just perfect for this season. I paired them with tiny celadon-hued jasper briolettes (at least I think this is a jasper...as I have a whole strand that are each a little different and no notes on where I got them nor what they are called). The design reminds me of intricate tapestries as well as the intricate veining on leaves.

Leaping Greenly

The title of these earrings is a reference to my all-time favorite poem by e.e. cummings, the first stanza goes like this

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
 

These charms really look like the real thing, don't they? I got them from Terri DelSignore of Artisticaos. The finish is very matte, almost chaky, and I wonder if they were actually made from molds of real leaves, because they look so realistic. I paired them with some dichroic baubles from Maryse Fritzsche-Thellens of Glass Bead Art. I originally bought an entire set of these fabulous beads in a variety of rainbow colors. These remind me of glowing embers in a fire.

Thanks for taking a walk with me and my forest of earrings! I am looking forward to seeing how you interpreted your own Ode to Autumn. Here's to the return of sweaters and glorious sunsets and apple crisps and the forest's foliage at its finest! Happy fall!

5 Artists To Make One Pair Of Earrings

5 artists and 5 different materials and textures:

Brass handmade rings with a saffron patina by Missficklemedia

Woven beads by Rebecca Anderson
Polymer discs by Heather Powers
Vintage rustic plum wood beads
Glass headpins by Kimberly Rogers

I began with the luscious pumpkin orange etch glass headpins. These have to be one of my favorite headpins that I have ever purchased from Kimberly. 

 I felt like going in a jewel tone direction, so paired them with rich plum vintage wood beads.  I pulled both colors together with some polymer discs by Heather Powers.  This is precisely why I love Heather's cane beads!  

I created a little visual space to the design by adding the hand forged rings by Shannon German.  I almost called it complete, but something was still gnawing at me.  I decided to look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.   The next day I started playing with different beads to partially fill the hole of the rings.  Nothing seemed quite right until I opened my little tin of woven beads I had in my stash.  Ahhh, I found the perfect color, size, and the texture the design needed all in one small bead. 

Well, that's all for now!  I'll most likely be back on Oct 3rd with something spooky!

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~  artful in beads

We're All Ears :: September Inspiration :: Ode to Autumn

"Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons." ~ Jim Bishop

Dear Autumn-

You are so impossibly, ethereally, unbelievably beautiful.
Your sky is a bit more expansive and bluer than it was just a few days ago.
Your clouds are a bit puffier making sunsets so achingly gorgeous.
Your air is a bit crisper causing me to want to bundle up even as your waning sun warms me.
Your trees stand a little taller proudly showing off their forest finery for all to see.
You never cease to take me by surprise, turning cool and smelling of earth all-of-a-sudden overnight.
It takes my breath away each time it happens.
I welcome your return with open arms.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~ Albert Camus

Don't get me wrong. I do love all your sister seasons, each serves her purpose in time.
But none can compare to you, my dear Autumn.
It is maddening that you gift me with the shortest time together.
All the more reason to treasure each shifting landscape,
each lengthening shadow, each dappled leaf.
Oh, that I could bottle you up to keep through all the year!

I am truly, madly, deeply in love with you, Autumn!
And I know that you love me, too, as you never fail to come to me,
as if in a the most lovely of dreams, wrapping me up in your beauty
and whispering truths about the meaning of life every time you pass this way.

My life is better because you are in it.

Love, 

Me

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

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.

~

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!  

~

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

The Most Humble of Finds

Never trust a person who doesn't appreciate a good walk, hike, or meander through the woods.

My day job involves working from home, which is a huge blessing, but it can also mean that I work up a hell of a case of cabin fever every now and then. Not being a hugely social person, at these moments I tend to flee the house in search of parks instead of humans. And what does a girl like me do when she's taking these hikes? Well, she collects bits, of course. Sometimes it's just one or two things, sometimes it's a couple handfuls wrapped in the front of my shirt and weighing it down like a sagging potbelly. I'll come home with any number of natural wonders: hawk feathers, flaming red maple leaves, shards of bone, a squirrel-gnawed walnut, a rusted-out nail, or--if I'm really lucky--a trilobite fossil. 

Here in southwest Ohio we are rife with fossils from the Ordovician period---that's 450-500 millions years old! Whole cliffsides are just stratified with them. Erosion and time ensure that our creeks are always teeming with brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, gastropods, and horn coral. Talk about treasures!

Several weeks ago I was taking a hike at French Park, one of my favorite local parks. Being autumn, the leaves were turning and falling and the tree nuts were doing the same. I came across a grove of massive oak trees and the forest floor was littered with--you guessed it--acorns. I'm sure no one will argue that an acorn cap is quite possibly Mother Nature's perfect bead cap. Now, I've always seen jewelry makers dabble with cast metal or ceramic or polymer clay acorn caps. But what about using actual acorn caps in designs? I picked up a handful, inspected, checked for hardness and durability, and then decided to take some home to play around with. 

Back in the studio, I drilled a hole in each top and gave them a healthy coat of wax to help preserve and waterproof. It seems so elementary and so obvious, but it feels so...right. Here's the first pair I came up with, featuring a pair of deliciously grungy sawdust fired ceramic beads made by our own Claire Lockwood of somethingtodobeads. I strung everything on a couple of my fat pitted copper headpins and topped them off with wee black filigree bead caps and a dot of blackened silver solder. 


Just goes to show, art can be found in and created with just about anything, even the most humble of finds. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Firey Carnelian Gemstone. Rusitic Silver Hoops.

Happy Halloween! 
So much going on today. 
Thank you for joining me!

In my last post I shared a leaf photo that had inspired me. And I never tire of looking at leaves in Autumn. I walk often and take a lot of photos. I took this one last week... 

The color of the leaves absolutely captivated me and still does. The rich hues of the reddish brown are stunning. Maybe that's why I've been wearing Carnelian all week. 

Carnelian gemstones have always been a go-to favorite of mine. The translucent colors can range from orange to reddish brown. These odd little nugget shapes often remind me of apples. 

According to my book the illustrated book of Healing Crystals, Carnelian is a very positive energy stone. "Carnelian is above all a crystal of personal happiness and fulfillment; if you believe in your unique talents and follow your personal goals rather than those set by others, you can achieve anything." Which I think goes for anything in life whether or not you wear gemstones! However, I do get a real sense of positive energy from this stone. 

Look for this set to be available with my next Art & Soul Jewelry shop update in about 2 weeks. TBA. 

Peace & Love, 

Rustic

This week I was in the mood for something rustic. Perhaps it's because autumn is on its way. I love the air in the autumn. I go on morning walks on the small road between the fields by my house. Lilo the cat, most often walk with me. He's very nice company. See picture further down :-).

Art beads:
Green ceramic charms - HappyFish

Other ingredients:
Black horn beads
Dark teracotta pony beads
Grey and aqua blue rustic glass discs
Pale yellow rustic glass beads
Hematite discs
Oxidized copper wire (messy wrapped)
Handmade earrings hooks (oxidized copper)

All my best,

Malin

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

The Art of Restraint

A very kind woman gifted me with a very generous compliment the other week:

"...you do something very mature, as an artist. You know when to stop with a piece. Most people load on all but the kitchen sink, but your pieces are restrained and elegant. That is a rare quality." 

When I stopped grinning, squealing, and blushing like mad, I had to pause and think, because she hit on something that I strive very hard to emphasize with my pieces: less is more; more is just more. 

As designers, it can be hard to self-edit, especially when you're surrounded by mounds of attractive, colorful, shapely unique beads:

"Ooooooo, I've always loved these beads, let's add in a couple here."
           and
"Ack, the colors of these match those perfectly, let's add in a couple here."
           and 
"Crap, I forgot I wanted to include these stones, let's add in a couple here." 

And before we know it, our designs can get unwieldy, impractical, and sometimes gaudy. 

Knowing when to stop or when to remove components from a design can be a tricky thing. We may feel like we are dumbing things down, like we haven't invested enough time and creative energy into a piece, like it's too simple. I'm here to tell you that's BS! Unless you're planning on hitting the red carpet, a runway, or an art gallery opening somewhere, most people don't typically wear ginormous overwrought pieces of jewelry. Not that there's anything wrong with statement pieces - I do plenty of those - that's a discussion for another day!

 
Case in point: these demure ceramic raku squares from local artist Jennifer Pottner of Urban Raku. Her work is INCREDIBLE. I visited with her the other week at a local bead show and snagged this pair from her table. Their muted, velvety dark gold and plum hues really spoke to me - the colors of autumn without clubbing you over the head with pumpkins and scarecrows and bright orange and all that. The size on the squares was enough to make a statement itself, plus I didn't want to cover up too much of that beautiful finish. So I chose to give them simple ridged soldered "belts". Sleek, geometric, artful, and restrained as all get out.

So the next time you're feeling the need to do more, ask yourself if you could actually do with a little less :) 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

Acorn Earrings

When we were in Oaxaca, Mexico last winter I found this necklace made out of drilled acorns.  Once back in the States, I took the necklace apart and have found several uses for the acorns.

 Today's earrings combine two of the acorns with some woodsy colored ceramic components by Marti Conrad.

 The earring are quite simple, but they are fun and combine well with lots of casual outfits. They'd be great to wear from September through the end of November.

I'll be adding these earrings to my shop later this afternoon.

-Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Jodhpur

During our travels we visited Jodhpur, the beautiful blue city in Rajasthan, India. Of course we visited the famous Mehrangarh Fort. According to Wikipedia:  “it is one of the largest forts in India. Built around 1460 by Rao Jodha, the fort is situated 120 metres (400 ft) above the city and is enclosed by imposing thick walls. Inside its boundaries there are several palaces known for their intricate carvings and expansive courtyards”.
 

The colors and shape of these beautiful handmade polymer clay beads by Cindy Hinds reminded me of that place. I combined them with handmade pewter charms by Invicite, handmade copper earwires by Faerystones, a bit of Czech glass and some gold and silver plated spacer beads. These are available in my shop.

Hi, my name is Janine Lucas. Originally I’m from the Netherlands but since 2006 I live where our mobile home (a converted truck) is parked. Currently my hubby and I live in Greece but for some years we have traveled Asia and the Middle East.
Next to my official job as a management consultant I am a jewelry designer and (art) bead collector/hoarder/addict (depends who you ask).

This is my first post as a regular contributor of Earrings Everyday and I couldn’t be more thrilled and proud to be part of the wonderful Earrings Everyday team. As a matter of fact I did some really crazy happy dances around our truck once I’ve got the word. I hope you will enjoy my postings.

Wishing you a wonderful day,
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

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