William Morris Faux Tin

Hello, Beady Peeps!  

I've been working a lot with William Morris prints lately.  The Art Bead Scene Studio Blog has been exploring different Art Journey Challenges this year and this time around it's all about William Morris.  As some of you may know, I do earring designs for them as well as "The Earring Whisperer".  Well, after finishing up my post this month I discovered these gorgeous faux tin crescents made by Heather Powers.  I loved the pattern so much that I decided to do a new pair for Earrings Everyday, too! 

*"William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a revolutionary force in Victorian Britain: his work as an artist, designer, craftsman, writer and socialist dramatically changed the fashions and ideologies of the era."

Arched shaped copper charms, faux tin finish with a William Morris Tulip pattern by Heather Powers.  These hang so beautifully and have wonderful movement.

The carved black horn squares made a beautiful contrast against the print and pops of brassy gold accents.  The Arts and Crafts Movement used a lot of dark rich wood and I thought this deep color horn brought out that feature.

I tried the arcs on the bottom first but loved it more as a prominent "crown-like" top. 

Thank you as always for taking the time to see what's happening on my worktable.  I will see you back in a couple of weeks with some new autumn designs :)

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

Jeepers Peepers!

"Oh, jeepers creepers, where'd ya get those peepers?Jeepers creepers, where'd ya get those eyes?

Oh, gosh all, git up, how'd they get so lit up?Gosh all, git up, how'd they get that size?"

Song by Louis Daniel Armstrong

Sweet little ceramic retro doll faces by Donna Perlinplim.  I especially love these pieces because they are made thin and very lightweight. 

I added stunning faceted, vintage blue glass beads. They really bring out her eyes!

I also added some highly oxidized spacers that look like the spikes on some Jacks! 

I ran across a photo of my kitty Pepper and I from a long while ago goofing around in the studio with a big eye app.  Pepper's eyes were big enough naturally that he really didn't even need it! lol  

Thank you for joining me today and checking out my worktable!  Hope you enjoyed it!  See you in a couple of weeks :)

Loralee and Pepper, with the Peepers! xo

loraleekolton.etsy.com

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Textures of porcelain

I have a love of wildlife and quite often I like to use birds in my designs. These two pairs of earrings feature porcelain components by Emma Wilson and both have a bird theme. I just love the detail and texture as well as subtle colours in Emma’s organic designs. Her pieces are small and dainty so I feel require a delicate and sympathetic touch when designing with them.

For this first pair of earrings I have used Emma’s components with a bird design and chose to highlight the pink/red colours with lampwork spacers and headpins by Linsey Peck as well as using a hint of gold with the seed beads and bead caps. The bronze ear wires are by Louise Goodchild.

For the next pair I have used Emma’s fan shaped components that have an Art Deco feel about them and thought that these adorable lampwork birds by Juliette Mullett would fit perfectly. Again, I have matched the pink and blue colours with lampwork spacer beads and some shimmery textured Czech glass daggers that reflect both colours. Then I've finished off with brass/gold colour bead caps. The ear wires are gold filled.

Thank you for reading. Both pairs are available in my FB group as from today - Nicola Morse - Jewellery & components

Amethysts All the Way Down

Recently I've been fortunate to have collected a number of pairs of delicately beautiful enameled earring components by Raida Disbrow of Havana Beads.  My newest earrings, below, are made from one of her gorgeous pairs: luscious florals in purples and deep purply blues, with droplets of pink and baby blue.  

It's been a long time since I've made much rosary chain, but I enjoyed putting together the little chains of small faceted amethysts.  And I'm not dreading this whole briolette-wrapping thing so much anymore either, probably because I'm getting a little better at it despite myself.  That's what happens when you keep working on it, right? I can hear my mother asking me now from the other side.  (Of course, she's right.) 😉🌷

Recipe for Amethysts All the Way Down

(2) Enameled earring components

(12) Small faceted amethyst rounds

(6) Small anodized niobium rings, purple

(2) Faceted 10mm amethyst briolettes

(2) Anodized niobium ear wires, purple

24 ga copper wire, darkened

26 ga copper wire

These pretties can be found
  here at Two Trees Studio.

Thanks so much for reading.  I'll see you next time! 💗
xoxo
Meridy

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Mermaids

Happy Thursday, everyone! 💗 

For this post, I wanted to make simple earrings that would incorporate elements I already had with some new items. 

I was inspired by a visit to Shannon German's great store, Miss Fickle Media, one of my long-time fave places to shop.  I found these wonderfully textured brass leaves with a beautiful verdigris patina...and a string of gorgeous tiny (2mm) Paradise Blue quartz heishi beads:

                

The brass leaves are small and delicate, about 1-1/8 inches long, and very lightweight, so I got the idea of decorating them with möbius rings (also called rosettes) at the tops.  I had some beautiful chainmaille rings in teal blue/green niobium "Mermaid" mix that worked perfectly for the rosettes, and also some sturdy sterling rings to attach them to the leaves.

I made a tiny wrapped loop on one end of some 26-gauge sterling silver wire and then strung on it the little blue quartz and some sterling silver heishi beads.  I guided the other end of the silver wire into the bottom hole of the leaf, pulled it snug, and bent it upward at the back, then trimmed it to about 1 cm. Then I slid a sterling ring through the loop in the wire and then through the top hole in the leaf.  Before I closed the sterling ring, I also looped it through the rosette of niobium rings.  

When I finished that step for both earrings, I glued blue paper to the earring backs to cover and secure the wire (see above).  The last step:  sterling silver ear wires, an extra from Miss Fickle Media (thank you, Shannon, my dear!).  💗

Thanks for reading--I'll see you all in October!  💗
xoxo
Meridy

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Blue For You

Hello dear friends,

Todays earrings are made from a pair of lovely ceramic disks I have had in my stash for a very long time. I believe they were among the first batch of art beads I bought from Round Rabbit, aka Nancy Adams, back in 2010 or 2011. They are rather big, 3 cm diameter, but very thin, so they are super light weight.

I've assembled them with the earring hooks via some pewter square profiled rings and one of my favourite materials, waxed linen cord. I have a small box of scrap bits of cord that I just roamed around in and soon found the bits of these three perfectly matching colours.

The whole equipage comes to about 15 cm and will just barely touch the shoulders when being worn. These are a kind of everyday yet statement-kind-of earrings. A style that I myself am very fond of. I am looking forward to taking them out on their first excursion in the city any day soon.



Art Beads:
Blue rustic thin ceramic disks - Round Rabbit

 Other ingredients:
Waxed linen cord
Pewter square profiled rings
Handmade heavily oxidized sterling silver earring hooks

-------

All my best,
Malin

"Those earrings..."

"...will be good for the holidays, huh?" my husband said.

I looked up at him, put down my pliers, took off my magnifying glasses, and blinked a few times.  He could tell I wasn't really in the room with him but was lost in Beadland--or more accurately, Ringland.

He tried again:  "You usually make a few chainmaille bracelets and earrings to sell at Christmastime, right?" 

I nodded.  "That's why I'm working on these--well mostly.  They're also just kind of cute."

He smiled.  He's a great guy.  "I'm also planning to make a Hodo bracelet or two and one in Garter Belt weave," I added.  "They work up pretty."  I know he's seen the bracelets and heard of both of those weaves (and he remembers the names), though I'm not sure he remembers what they look like.  But he's always so nice about what I make that I didn't really need to say any more, so I got back to work.

These earrings ARE cute, and they're distinctive to boot because of the oval rings.  I wish could say I created the design, but I didn't.  I learned the design from my friends at Chainweavers, one of my favorite online vendors of chainmaille rings and things (where I also got the cool sterling silver oval rings).  The earrings are a simple design to make if you know the Byzantine weave (or as we maillers lovingly call it, "Byz"), the most popular of all chainmaille weaves.  Each earring consists of three units of Byz and three oval rings (small, medium, and large), plus a Swarovski oval crystal.  The lightness and openness of the oval rings adds to the earrings' airiness.

For comparison, here is a photo of a classic sterling silver Byzantine weave bracelet:  

You can see how dense the weave is, with one "Byzantine unit" (can you see where they begin and end?) disappearing into the next, making one long sinuous round ropy bracelet.  This weave feels so good on the wrist (and around the neck when woven into a necklace)!  

And here is an oxidized sterling silver bracelet that I made in a weave called "Byzantine Rose," composed of alternating units of Byz and "rosettes" or "Moebius" elements:  

The Byzantine Rose bracelet is a little less dense than Byzantine alone, but not as airy as the earrings.  The crystals add a nice sparkle too.  

These crystal Byz beauties are 3-1/4 inches long and very lightweight and swingy. 💗

If any of you are interested in chainmaille in general or in learning the Byzantine weave or how to make these earrings, just let me know, and I can steer you to the right references to get started.  I basically taught myself with tutorials (as we all tend to do), but it's always nice to have a guide too.  :)

Thanks so much for reading--I'll be back again soon!

xoxo

Meridy

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Gift of the Mermaid

I recently came upon these gorgeous enameled components in Raida Disbrow's Etsy shop, Havana Beads...

...and a dialogue started between my head and my heart.

Heart:  Oh, my gosh, those are GORGEOUS.  Look at those colors!
Head:  Ohhh, but those can be such a pain to work with. They're handmade--those things are never even, you have to fight to get them to hang straight--
Heart:  But I've got beads the same color as those little violet-pink dots!!  And lots of pink rondelles--
Head:  --hey, come to think of it, there's that stash of rhodolite garnets that haven't been used in about seven years!




That argument didn't last long.


Since I did have a goodly stash of little Czech glass rondelles in various shades of pink, the garnets, and sterling silver beads, jump rings, and headpins, I gave in to the lure of the Boho chandelier earring--and I loved it. Now that my heart has helped my head get over its jitters, I aim to make more. 💗

And, funny thing--they do hang straight after all.  😉

Gift of the Mermaid

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back in two weeks.
 
xoxo
Meridy
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Juicy Grapes

These pretty chainmaille earrings do look a bit like clusters of shiny purple grapes.  Made of blue, purple, teal, and fuchsia anodized niobium rings, their back-and-forth European 4-in-1 weave drapes from a 10-mm ring and finishes with a 4-mm ring at the bottom.  They hang from ear wires of matching niobium and are great fun to wear, lightweight and swingy in your ears.   They're also fun to make, easy and quick to come together.

 

I'll be back again in two weeks with a bit more to say.   (It's just been one of those weeks.)   Thanks for looking!

Meridy
xoxo

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Waiting...and Waiting...and Waiting for Spring

Why, oh why, does it seem to take forever for spring to arrive?  Is it the old "a watched pot never boils" syndrome?  Maybe it's just me.

I can't complain about the cold and snow, because I live in Sacramento, California, which has pretty nice weather, actually.  It has a Mediterranean climate, rainy in the winter (no snow), hot and dry in the summer, and spectacular in the spring.  Seriously, in the spring, virtually everything blooms here.  Having moved to Sac (as we say) from Colorado, I wasn't used to that.  Colorado has its own stunning beauty, but here everything grows fast, gets large, and blooms--all sorts of flowers, bushes, and even trees, from huge magnolia trees to ornamental trees that fill the skies with beautiful blooms of red, fuchsia, baby pink, or purple.

And spring comes early here.  Our first flowers usually start peeking out of their beds in mid-February, maybe a crocus or a dwarf iris.  The warm weather usually follows along gradually, getting a little warmer each week.  This year, however, California had heavy rains caused by "atmospheric rivers" that parked themselves over the state, causing floods and mudslides.  We were happy to have the rain because California was in a five-year drought, but these heavy rains caused real problems.  The cold, heavy rain lasted for almost two months, with only a few short breaks of blue skies and sunshine here and there.  We were starting to really feel the lack of sun!

Anyway, since it's been such a cold, wet winter, I decided to make these golden-sun, grass-green, and blue-sky earrings using Cathleen Zaring's beautiful enameled copper earring charms and a pair of lovely green

These "Bringer of Spring" earrings are available here.

lampwork discs by Terry Turner.  It's only recently started to warm up here, and I'm really feeling the quiet arrival of spring, with its fresh energy.

Who knows--maybe my earrings will help move things along a bit.  After all, the Spring Equinox is only about ten days away!  ;)

As always, thanks so much for reading!  I'll see you in two weeks. 💙

xoxo
Meridy

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Waterways

It's been a disturbingly warm winter here in southern Ohio. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said we've had MAYBE three inches of snow total. I have daffodils and iris that are blooming all over the place...in February. Last week it was 70F and sunny...we had the doors and windows open, for god's sake. It's nice to not be snowed under, but it's also a little disorienting. 

While we've had very little snow, one thing we have had quite a bit of is rain. Truly, I can't remember a more soggy, rainy winter. Local rivers, including the Little Miami and the Ohio, have been swollen and angry--churning and channeling the muddy water as soon as it falls from the sky. One of my primary bike trails happens to run parallel to both of these rivers. And since it's been warmer, I've had more opportunities to go for rides. 

 









The other week I was flying along the trail on my way to downtown Cincinnati, and I had to pull over just to gawk at the near-flooded Ohio River. If you've ever observed a waterfall, a dam, angry waves, or whitewater rapids, you'll know what I mean when I say that the power of water is absolute. The roaring white noise fills your head--making it hard to think about anything else. Work anxieties, family squabbles, packed schedules--they all seem to fade into the background in these moments. 

I stood next to my bike, allowing myself to feel small, to feel humbled. All these waterways, acting like arteries and veins, transporting the planet's lifeblood. Washing, removing, renewing. It was a cathartic moment. Then I mounted back up and kept pedaling along. 

This week's earrings immediately brought rivers to mind, as they feature natural Royston ribbon turquoise mined in Nevada. Named for the bands of turquoise running through a brown matrix, this stone is incredibly natural and rustic. I picked up quite a few sets last year at the Tucson gem and mineral show and have been waiting for just the right moment to showcase them as a series. 

I fabricated these out of solid sterling silver, framed each bezel with gnarled, twisted roots, and hung them from cratered hand-cast silver granule studs. This style of earring is great if you have lobes that are stretched or can't handle traditional ear hooks--you get to rock the dangly look with the security of posts/backs. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

Life is Change

"HEY. That thar's a piece o' wood hangin from yer ear..."

Why yes, yes it is. It's a twig of black walnut, to be exact. Cut into small segments, rounded at the ends, drilled through with a hole, and sealed with wax to help preserve the wood. 

Sometimes I wonder if I've taken my "back to roots" routine a little bit too far. In this example:

1. I love wood beads. 
2. Let's take it back a step to old ratty vintage wood beads. 
3. Oh, but wait, what if we went back even further to part of the tree branch itself and just made that into a mini log-bead? 

Lunacy? Inspiration? The line between the two is far thinner than we like to think.

For this long, swingy pair, I picked out a particularly luscious pair of lampwork glass headpins from dear friend Kim of NuminosityBeads. The swirled moss, sage, delft, and cloudy hues work perfectly to provide a habitat for the natural wood beads. Plump rounded blobs of blackened silver solder cap off the wood, while wee rusty metal bead caps crown each headpin. These are earthy, subtle stunners.

 
I ended up titling this pair "Life is Change". Because I'm sure this black walnut tree could have never dreamt, even in its wildest imagination, that it would one day end up adorning someone's ears.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Tonal-Color Blingy Fun!

Hi! I have had the privilege of introducing Meridy Migchelbrink, designer/creator and owner of TwoTreesStudio, to you previously as a guest contributor. I am so very happy to be introducing her now as one of our new regular contributors to Earrings Everyday! You likely already know that Meridy's style is beautifully unique. I am very happy she has joined us.

norbel

Hi, everyone, Meridy Migchelbrink of Two Trees Studio here--Happy New Year to you all!  This is my first time here as a regular poster on Earrings Everyday, and I'm happy and honored (if a little nervous!) to be a part of the talented designers and lovely people here and to share my newest 2017 earrings.

"Mermaids"

Because this is my maiden voyage, I thought with these earrings I'd try something I never do. I set myself a specific challenge, rather than what I usually do: fall in love with a component or bead (or what I like to call the "lightning bolt" school of inspiration, ha!). I decided my criteria would be:

1. Tonal-color elements, that is, all elements in tones of the same color (copper accents excepted).
2. Bling!
3. Grace.
4. A touch of whimsy.

These 25 x 10mm blue hammered brass oval links from the fabulous Shannon German of MissFickleMedia were my starting point:

Their lines are graceful, clean, and simple…perfect to build upon. 

So I gathered up the rest of my turquoisey/teal elements. 

I found these 2-mm Celsian Czech glass beads at www.FusionBeads.com (and also added a few non-Celsian beads from my stash in different shades of blue for contrast):

Then I gathered up from my own bead hoard blue Czech glass bell flowers, tiny teal glass tulip flowers, blue rhinestone rondelles, scalloped copper bead caps, and teal-blue Irish waxed linen:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my work, I make a lot of my earrings with fiber rather than wire, and generally the technique doesn’t take a whole lot longer than wirework construction does.  As you can see in the photos of the earrings, the beads are strung on the thread/cord, and in these earrings the wrapped section ends just at the top of the first 2-mm bead.  These earrings took longer to make only because it was unusually tricky to get the cord wrapped and secured exactly the way I wanted it to.  I was literally sweating it, but it came together in the end--whew!  Wipes brow.  ;)

I was especially pleased with the wave-pattern repetition of scallops in the sets of flower beads, the rhinestone rondelles, and the copper bead caps.  I hadn’t consciously chosen those beads for that reason, but something must have been at work subconsciously!  Consciously, I just liked how they looked together, and that's good enough for me too.  :)  

Thanks so much for looking! My wish for you all is a peaceful, happy, and creative 2017. I'd love to hear what you think about my whimsical Mermaids or about anything Earrings-ish. I'm grateful to be a member of this group...and I'll be back in a couple of weeks with something new! xo Meridy

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