Empty Nest

For whatever reason (I’ve yet to discover a definitive one), I don’t tend to design earrings with my own enamels. But being a brand new year in the midst of a very strange season, I decided it was time to mix things up a bit and change all that…at least for today!

I recently designed a flurry of bird enamels (or maybe that should be a flock?) for a themed show and tried my hand at some enamels that were more like portraits than my typical outlined “cartoon” style pieces. Much to my surprise, the process of making small translucent strokes, firing, adding another layer of strokes, firing (repeat ad infinitum), was somehow mesmerizing. However, having no painting background, my poor birds, although changing appearance with each layer, were not looking at all like what I had intended after even after a half dozen firings! Perhaps they were better kept for my own designs, where I could take my time figuring out how to bring them to life. Which brings me (finally!) to today’s earrings…

Here’s how my birds started their journey after cutting copper sheet and laying down the first base coats (the poor things would have a quite a journey of color ahead of them before they left the nest):

 

If you are familiar with my earrings, you know that I don’t tend to do anything simple – I guess it’s just not how I am wired. But I wanted beads that would complement the birds without distracting from them (after all, they had already been forced through quite a metamorphosis). I think I found the perfect match in a beautiful etched pair from Regis Teixera, and added some leather flowers (how cool is that?) to keep in line with a more rustic vibe, rich amber-hued Czech glass flowers and rings, and an assortment of brass caps. I really like how these turned out, but I also am aware of just how much I have to learn (I would greatly appreciate any painting tips you might have)! It’s difficult to know just when to stop...

Who knows? Maybe I’ll have a few more pairs of bird earrings to add to the flock by next time. But for now, these will be available in my etsy shop, TwinklingOfAnEye later today

You can regularly find other new earrings in my fb group.

Thanks for spending a part of your day with me. See you in a few weeks! :-)

Cork Fabric And Ceramic

I've been curious about cork fabric ever since Lisa Peters Russ started carrying it on her website and since Heather Powers did a tutorial with it last week. Specifically, I wanted to see how it would look with my ceramic jewelry components.

So what is cork fabric? Cork fabric, often referred to as an ethical alternative to leather, is made with a thin layer of cork that is permanently bonded to fabric. No trees are cut down or harmed, so it is a sustainable product. It is strong, durable and flexible. You can even sew purses out of it! It is easier to cut than leather and it comes in many colors and designs. There are tons of beautiful patterns, but I wanted to start with solid color sheets as a background layer for my ceramic pieces.

I thought these rounded teardrop shapes would pair well with my yellow and blue ceramic earring charms and some silver spacer accents. What do you think? I have lots of ideas percolating in my head now, for more cork fabric jewelry. It's a welcome emotional boost to have something new to create with while we all shelter in place. I think I'm onto something fun!

Linda Landig Jewelry

Blue for you?

Last weekend my focus was to host a challenge in my Facebook Group for members to explore the new Pantone Colour for 2020 - Classic Blue. This also fit nicely with Erin's topic for We're All Ears this month.

There were some beautiful entries - jewellery, scarves, textile wraps, lampwork beads. We all came to the conclusion that Classic Blue was a lot more workable with than we had anticipated.

The first thing I did was to see what Helen Backhouse could come up with for me and these I thought were fabulous - deep rich classic blue with terracotta. Warm and mediterranean, full of texture.

This pair has shells in polymer clay, with copper, jasper and lapis lazuli - both the faceted drops and the larger, matte beads.

The second pair, ceramic shells with glossy, sky-meets-sea lampwork by Karin Hruza, wrapped in copper with vintage coral.

So are you a blue fan? Judging by the fashion magazines, you'll be seeing plenty of it this year. Both these pairs are now available in my Etsy shop. See you again in a couple of weeks. Take care!


                                                                         Lindsay x

                                                                   My Etsy shop
                                                                 My Facebook page

Some blue earrings

Hello, hello, hello wonderful earring-loving friends,

How are you doing? Has winter arrived at your part of the world? Currently I am back in the Netherlands, and it is getting cold. Next week we will return to Greece and I am looking forward to sun and warmer weather. 

My apologies for my absence in November. A lot is going on: very busy in my daytime job and I have started a new course in Tax Law. I guess I was afraid I would get bored LOL. And I started venturing into art journaling, painting and altered bookmaking. There just aren't enough hours in a day.

My earrings for today are blue, hence the obvious title. I always have a hard time coming up with original titles for blog posts.

These fun earrings have lots of movement and are made with some gorgeous polymer clay spike charms, made by the multi talented Sue-Lin Tarnowski, I was able to get my hands on and have been hoarding for quite some time. I combined them with amazing lampwork glass beads made by the wonderful Karin Hruza. 

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

Share the love, don't be shy and leave some words. And do check out the other posts of my friends here. 

See you in a couple of weeks. Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of laughter, joy and lots of love.

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Blue

Hello friends, how are you doing?

Last Friday we arrived back in Greece. And unbelievable, in the Netherlands the weather was much much better than here. Blue skies, spring weather. Here we have had rain almost every day and the blue skies are hard to find. The weather definitely is shifting.
So, I made some blue earrings. 

As you perhaps know I love love love lampwork glass beads. This month I had an interview with Juliette Mullett, such a gifted lampwork bead artist. I thought that the gorgeous beads I used in these earrings were made by her. Nope. She makes similar ones, but these are made by a different artist. And I just can't remember who made these. If you know, please mention her name in the comment, so I can give her proper credit. The polymer clay headpins and the earwires are made by me. These earrings will be available in my jewelry show later this month.

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 and a great Easter, full of joy, lots of (chocolate) Easter eggs  and blue skies

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

bubbles and butterflies

Hello friends,

Hopefully Spring has arrived at your place. We are still in the Netherlands and we have had some beautiful days of spring with sunshine and 15 to 18 degrees Celsius. Winter seems to have gone.

Some of you may have seen these earrings on Facebook already. They are made with gorgeous lampwork beads made by Juliette Mullett from Avettebeads in wonderful shades of blue/gray and black. Combined with butterfly charms, hematite in a blue shade and my own ear wires, embellished with farfalle seed beads.

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, spring flowers and butterflies,
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Snow Flurries

The weather here at the very end of Puget Sound has been completely free of snow - at least so far. However the mountains have been getting some nice snow - skiers rejoice! And its white in the eastern part of the state, where I lived for nearly 30 years. So even though I've been spared the white stuff this year, I was still inspired to design some snowy earrings.

I started with the pretty snowflake charms.  The large, ribbed lampwork glass beads were a perfect choice to go with the charms. The white glass that swirls throughout the blue beads reminded me of the way snow flurries blow and drift all around. The Snow Flurry Earrings are available on my website.

Winter is not my favorite time of year, but I did enjoy designing these earrings. Do you have snow where you live or are you in warmer climes?

Linda Landig Jewelry

Boxing Day Blues

The day after Christmas - Boxing Day. Why is it so named? In England and former commonwealth countries it was traditionally the day that servants were given the day off, and were given a 'Christmas Box'  from their masters to take home to their family.

The earrings I'm showing you today were the contents of a prettily wrapped box I gave to my sister Claire for Christmas. Not that she's my servant - the other way round, if anything - she's only a year younger than me, and we've always been very close, but she can still wrap me round her little finger!

I often make her a pair of earrings for Christmas but this year I wanted them to be extra special - she celebrates her 50th wedding anniversary on 4th January and she and my brother in law are going on their first cruise, to the Caribbean.  She's been a magpie since we were little and loves a bit of sparkle and glitter, so I bought some of  Suhana's crystal wrapped hoops in Claire's favourite aqua. She doesn't like them too long, and can only wear niobium earwires these days but the aqua niobium looks perfect. To keep them fairly short I wrapped swarowski crystal pearls in iridescent light blue underneath the top of the hoop.

                     Hoping she loves them, and has a great time on their cruise - they deserve it!

 

 

Take it easy today after all the festivities, and I'll see you on New Years Eve!

 

Lindsay x

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook page

 

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

Blue Elegance

One of my favorite lampwork artists is Sue Kennedy of Sue Beads.  I have a large collection of her lampwork glass beads, beaded beads and enameled jewelry components.  Clearly she is a multi-talented artist.  So for today's earrings, I am featuring some of Sue's lampwork glass bicone beads.

I hung them from some sterling silver double hoops and accented them with Bali silver dangles. I've always loved the combination of blue and silver.  That color combination just sings! I think these earrings would be great for occasions that called for a bit of elegance.

The Blue Elegance earrings are available in my shop, Linda Landig Jewelry.

Linda Landig Jewelry

A Grand Day Out

 

Last Sunday but one I took a trip over to Yorkshire, to the Harrogate Rock, Gem and Bead show. It's only a couple of hours drive and it was a lovely sunny day.  The show is twice a year and there is a lady there who doesn't sell on line whose wares are always top quality. 

 

Even though I know he'll be bored  after 10 minutes,  I'm not going to refuse an offer to drive me (then I can gloat over my goodies all the way home!) so along comes him indoors.  Sure enough, after a late lunch in the café and 10  minutes around the show, off he goes to listen to football on the radio outside. I proceed to cram a basket with fantastic gemstones with gay abandon. An hour later, I'm almost ready to go,  and back he trots looking decidedly sheepish. 'Er, don't be mad' he says ' but I fell asleep in the car with the radio on, and there might have been a door open.......anyway, the battery's flat. '

Where are our jump leads? Lent to our son. Cue sitting on the grass outside waiting over an hour for Green Flag to come and start it. Show's closed, café shut. Hmmmm. It's a good job it was worth it.

 

So here are this weeks earrings, with some fabulous slab larimar, the pink picked out with etched rose quartz, and aquamarine above. Those ice blue enamelled copper earwires  are from Lucy Haslam's new range.  

 

 

I also had a little foray into making a pair to echo one of Vogue's predictions for AW 2017; pink and deep green. These are malachite and rose quartz with gold, and Lucy's emerald earwires. Wasn't too sure about them, but they sold instantly from an Instagram pic, so maybe Vogue do know what they are about!  Do you study fashion predictions when designing, or just follow your heart? Or maybe both?

 

 

See you in two weeks

 

Lindsay

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook page

 

My Precious, My Own...

Hello! Happy Monday to you all. This is Norbel speaking (writing :) ). I'm sure many of you have noticed the number of changes there have been in our Artisan Contributors over the last several months. One thing I know for sure about life is that nothing stays the same. Things change; lives change. And that is simply how it is. Our wonderful, talented friends that have moved on are really missed. . . . by us and I'm sure by our readers. . . but there is always a silver lining. 😁 And of course, that is that we are able to welcome in wonderfully talented, new-to-Earrings Everyday artisan jewelry designers. You will be meeting three! We are very happy to welcome today Rejetta Sellers, who sells from her shop on Etsy, Jettabug Jewelry. We call her Jetta. We are sure you will enjoy both Jetta herself and her earrings. Here she is! Welcome, Jetta!

***

I love using artisan beads in my jewelry. I don't seem to have a favorite material: lampwork, ceramic polymer clay, enamel, patina, leather, painted wood. You name it and I will probably have some of it!

One thing I find myself doing is hoarding pieces from a favorite artist and only letting some go if I am able to buy more of their beads. Umm....I wonder if I am the only person to do this?

You see, for me, those little works of art are like collecting paintings for some people. Or having a favorite vase maker that you spend hours tracking down online. Going to an artisan bead makers shop is like going to a gallery for me. Being able to buy their work is thrilling and I display my pieces in clear boxes. My most prized pieces I display on my work desk to see them every time I create.

I made these earrings to sell in my shop, photographed them, and even wrote up my description. Then I found out Elaine Ray was retiring from making her unique ceramic pieces like these denim blue flowers.

A week or two later Teresa Hulley of Bo Hulley Beads announced she was taking a hiatus from bead making to pursue another dream. These amazing ceramic cream heart headpins had been in my collection for a while and look so perfect with Elaine Ray's flowers.

So these earrings never became available in my shop. They hang with my other favorite earrings and I wear them often. I love showing off my wearable art.

More artists have retired from bead making since the day these two ladies retired. And my bead hording has hit a new level of will-never-let-it-go. Do you have beads you can't let go of for one reason or another? I would love to hear about them. I might have some in my collection, too!

Jetta
JettabugJewelry

Garden Friends

We've had so much rain this Spring, that it seems now, we have much more little creepy crawlies and all sorts of 'friends' popping over in the garden... One of my favorite garden friends are beautiful  dragonflies!

I wanted to make some jewelry components that featured these cuties, and so I've created a handful of handmade dragonflies earring drops, and decided to use a pair to make these fun lightweight earrings:

The great part about making my own polymer clay colors is that I can pretty much 'match' any other component that I plan on using. In this case, I had this gorgeous green hemp cord that I wanted to use in some fun summery designs. It was perfect to use with the design I wanted to create:

A pair of my handmade green/blue dragonfly earring drops, Greek ceramic beads in dark blue, tiny seed beads in blue, and small TierraCast gold-tone rustic spacer beads, on fabulous green hemp cord.

The light flurry of beads/cords at the bottom represents that flutter effect that I feel/see when they fly around in the garden, like a light trail of happiness that they spread around.

Oh happy happy Summer Days....

What are your favorite garden critters?

You can find these earrings and more of my jewelry components HERE in my Etsy shop.

Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy the weekend!
Cheers,
Nathalie Lesage

Visit my Handmade Jewelry & Components shop here: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Digi shop here: The Crafty Tribe

Mermaid jewels

Some of my favorite color combos for the Summer are ocean greens and ocean blues. Add in some sparklies in the mix and I just become totally giddy lol

I like to mix things up when I create new polymer clay jewelry components, and this time around, I created some cool earring drops with fabulous glass cabochon that I have encased in polymer clay. I had those cabs saved aside to use at some point, and I figured, why not use them with Polymer Clay? I'm very happy on how each design turned out!

Here's the earrings I made with a pair of my latest handmade components:

Handmade polymer clay & glass chandelier style earring drops made by me, with little oxygen bubbles springing up all around; A mixture of Swarovski crystals and Czech glass beads, there's a little flower detail on each, with a tiny silver color glass bead in the center, like the flower in the hair of a mermaid :) and I used anodized aluminum jump rings in coordinating colors. These earrings are suspended on a pair of hypo-allergenic Niobium ear wires.

I love how the colors in the glass sparkle like the sun hitting the ocean. I love the movement in the colors and the feeling that you're holding a precious treasure. These are one of a kind.... a precious treasure indeed :) The glass set up feels like you're looking into the ocean through a porthole on submarine (I used to work on one of the Atlantis submarines in the Carribean, btw! It's magical!)

If you're interested, I have a few other pairs of one of a kind glass/polymer clay components that I will be listing in my shop HERE, along with these earrings.

Which colors make your heart giddy? Do tell!! I want to know what makes your heart sing :)

Cheers,
Nathalie

Visit my Etsy Jewelry/Components shop here: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Etsy Digi shop here: The Crafty Tribe

Around the Galaxy

What does the sky in your area looks like at night? Do you see the stars? Do you see the space station?

We live in a small quiet cul-de-sac where there's not much light pollution. We're very lucky in that. We're surrounded by large spruce trees (mainly). It's peaceful and quiet.

Each Summer and Fall, we enjoy sitting outside by the fire pit, camping style, and quietly gaze at the stars in the night sky. I have my lounge chair, my blankets (so the mossies don't bite me!), and I lay back and look at the night sky.

It feels so wondrous to me to look up and catch a glimpse at the vastness of our Universe... I love the energy and ethereal beauty of it all. I remember fondly a visit to NASA when I was around 8 years old. It blew my mind. I loved it! I also remember going to the (then) Planetarium Dow in Montreal to learn about the planets and the stars. It's was so beautiful and so inspiring!

That's how I try to live my life - Nathalie Lesage

It's not quite warm enough here yet to sit by the fire pit, and so I dream of what's to come. This is what inspired my "Galaxy Collection", based on the patterns created when I did this pack of Mokume Gane with polymer clay and silver metal leaf, recently:

I wire wrapped the top portion of my polymer clay drops with sterling silver wire, and added in a round 'moon' by the way of a smooth round Czech glass bead. It's half-clear, half-silver, and sparkles a lot in person.

The rings and metal beads all around, to me, are like various space stations. Think far away bases where space travelers all around the Galaxy can stop to get supplies, and meet others on their journey.

Soon the weather will be warm enough so that we can go explore the night sky. I can't wait!

I will be listing these earrings and other jewelry components from my Galaxy collection in my shop over the next few days.

Live long and prosper.... and enjoy the stars in your sky!

Cheers,
Nathalie Lesage
Visit my Jewelry & Handmade Components shop on Etsy: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Digital Download shop on Etsy: The Crafty Tribe

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

Once In A Blue Moon

The other day, my husband and I were walking through the park and a band was playing Blue Moon a very old doo-wap song, originally written in the mid 50's, which had a second rise to popularity in the early 60's.   The song preceded my pre-teen and teen years, but somehow I knew a few of the words in the refrain.

That song came back to me as I was working on these earrings.

The lampwork glass hoops by Outwest made me think of blue moons. I paired the "moons" with lampwork glass head pins by Sue Beads and added a touch of sparkly with some faceted, metallic hematite beads.

I guess once in a blue moon, an oldie but goodie, can inspire a contemporary design.  What are some other things that happen once in a blue moon?

Linda Landig Jewelry

Grounded In Blue

My last post, two weeks ago talked about color and inspiration from those colors. We (artists and humans in general) can be attracted to a color(s) and not even realize we are. Drawn to it over and over again. Choosing things, clothes, furnishings, throw pillows even from those color sets. Do you have some that come to mind? 

For me it's BLUE. And I wouldn't say it's my favorite color. I don't think as adults we really have ONE favorite color. However we can still be drawn to it and choose it more than others. Yes? 

my California vacation, 2013

 When I am at the beach, at the ocean, I am grounded. I wonder if maybe this is why I keep coming back to these colors. They inspire that feeling of being grounded. 

At home. At peace. 

So then once you realize this color has a hold on your attention, you begin seeing it everywhere. And that's where I am at. 

This morning I thought about my blog post and what I would write. A particular artist came to mind and her music videos. Iammiamiwhoami Because in my minds eye I suddenly realized that all her videos are filmed at the ocean and beach. The color set I've been drawn to....

sold

So I went back to look and noticed there's a link in the title image To Whom It May Concern. I clicked through, and it's a Nordic Clothing line. Fantastic! More of my colors! I encourage you to take a look and see if you are pulled in too. There are some beautiful prints for sale as well here.

I have been inspired to create a new jewelry collection in this line of colors, entitled Winter At The Beach. It's in the budding stages still but growing quickly. It's such a small collection I am not really advertising it yet. However, you can see the collection here: http://www.artandsouljewelry.com/collections/winter-at-the-beach  More will be added in later today December 8th. 

My my most recent creation: 

Hammered nugget charms created from bits of recycled .999 fine silver, handmade ceramic beads (by Cindy's Art & Soul) with a sand glaze, stormy BLUE Spectrolite gemstones, wrapped in fine silver wire. Ear wires are hand forged sterling silver with hammered ball ends. Available at Art and Soul Jewelry.

What colors are you drawn to? Do you get stuck on a color and wear it all the time? Share it with us. 

Peace~

 

Big Blue Sky Earrings

Today we will be revisiting a pair of earrings I made earlier last year.  I loved using the beaded rings by Kristen Stevens.

I picked up two pairs of Kristen Steven's awesome beaded links when I saw her at Bead Fest in August. 

Beaded Links by Beadwork By KAS

So for these earrings, I dangled some semi-translucent, sapphire colored, Czech glass beads from Kristen's beaded links.

I discovered that my Montana Blue Swarovski crystals were a perfect match with the beaded links, so when I made the ear wires, I added bit of sparkle to them with the matching crystals.

 In my dreams, I'd love to wear these earrings with this outfit-

But realistically, I think these earrings would be stunning with something like this-

-Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry