Ancient Faces

Hello!
So I made these earrings a few days ago. I was hoping to create something brand new today, but completely ran out of time, but I'm happy to make these the star of the show!
There are lots of jewellery components featuring faces at the moment. None more beautiful (in my opinion!) than Natalie of Peruzi's. These exquisite faces are made from polymer clay and have a beautifully bleached, ancient look. There is some pretty orange mosaic detailing at the top of the faces, which I matched with beautifully rich amber rondelles

I've framed the faces with two different kinds of brass hoops, and added some pretty, rustic indonesian beads

So that's it from me for a couple of weeks! These pretties will be available at the end of the month over on The Earrings Show in Facebook Land :-)

Sue x
Utterly Lovely Stuff

Incan Inspiration

So it's been a while since I made anything. My beads and tools have remained untouched for weeks, mainly due to a hugely busy time in my day job. I've missed being creative. It's been a bit daunting sitting down to try to make something again. My mojo has been much neglected and so.... disappeared!

When I'm short on inspiration and confidence, I turn to past designs to help get things moving again. I have a stash of Suhana Hart's beautiful painted brass charms which are sealed with resin. They are beautifully intricate and colourful, and I've used these daggers in similar designs for a previous blogpost. These particular daggers are stunning. They were painted by Suhana's husband Martin (what a creative family!) and they remind me of Incan designs. I thought I'd build on this and used brass hoops as a frame for wrapping seed beads in co-ordinating indigo and turquoise colours. I have some vintage beads in my stash, and these seemed to finish off the Incan vibe well, and added some interesting shape and texture.

And here's a shot of them hanging in all their Incan glory

That's it from me. Hugely grateful to this blog for making me sit down with my beads again! See you in a few weeks

Sue x

Utterly Lovely Stuff

Hoops and hoops

This will be short and sweet from me. I'm still playing with wrapping lots of wire. More fabulous Petra Carpreau ceramic connectors. These have multiple hoops, and the glazes she uses are just beautiful. I think this first pair have a glaze called herb garden. How cool is that! I added some oval and textured brass hoops, and bound the multiple hoops with lots of copper wire and silver seed beads

This next pair have a gorgeous golden glaze, and I added multiple brass hoops to these -in varying states of oxidation -matt gold to dark black, and those hoops at the bottom are bound with copper wire and gold seed beads.

Really hope you like them. See you next time 

Sue x

utterly lovely stuff

A bit of a challenge

So, I have had these incredibly pretty wire wrapped connectors by Suhana Hart for ages! And I have repeatedly taken them out of my stash and gazed at them, sighed, even given them a little stroke. And then put them back in my beady stash. Sometimes, components are so lovely, that it can be really hard to know what to do with them! How to design around them, when they are just fabulous enough to stand alone. I resisted the urge to just pop them on some earwires, and set myself the challenge of doing something with them for this blog post!

I've framed Suhana's wire wrapped connectors with brass hoops. A bit of a cheat, as these are my favourite components; I'm a bit hoop-obsessed!

I added some freshwater pearls, wrapped in wire and silver seed beads and some silver plated spacer beads and twisted jump rings. The second pair even have a few silver leaves peeking through.

A little bit decadent - definitely special occasion earrings. And although the pretty connectors are the stars of the show, I'm pleased didn't just pop them on earwires!

They'll be in my shop soon. See you in a couple of weeks

A little bit of art in your ears

Hello! I have a showcase at the end of this month over on The Earrings Show on Facebook, so have been busy creating some new things for this. I thought I'd share a design I'm enjoying making at the moment, using Petra Carpreau's (of Scorched earth) beautiful art decals. I love these Klimt decal droppers (someone correct me if I'm wrong! I think they are Klimt). They are teamed with beautiful gold nugget beads by Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens and brass hoops to give a layered look. I've added some gold and silvery seed beads to pick up some of the tones in the decal prints. These seed beads are part of a new range at Smitten Beads, and oh they are lovely! They match this design pretty well

Next up, some more of Petra's decals, except this time a bit of Frida Kahlo. I doubled up the brass hoops this time, and kept things simple with freshwater pearls and pretty little blue czech beads to pick up the colours in the decal drops.

So there we are. Little works of art in your earlobes! These will be available at my showcase at the end of the month (details on my Facebook page). In the meantime, get yourself over to Petra's shop. There's a whole range of decals with different artists -bliss!

See you next time

Sue :-)

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Lively Up Yourself

vintage industrial hoops, red river jasper

Isn't it funny (for those of us here in the Midwest, at least), how we were concerned and complaining about how warm it was on Christmas (+60F degrees!)? And now that the holidays are all over, a cold snap has set in and it's 20F degrees and we all feel like we're dying? I guess you could call that funny. Or perhaps nature's form of karma. 

I actually prefer a cold winter, myself. It just feels more natural that way. If we didn't have the biting cold in the dark months, we would not as deeply appreciate the pleasure of a sunny 80F degree day. 

I tell myself that, at least.

lampwork glass by Kimberly Rogers, brass hoops

So as I sit here typing, I'm bundled in an insanely poofy knit sweater with a bunchy turtleneck that is a mile high. I'm surrounded by at least two of our three cats. I have on my embarrassing hot pink fleecy socks that I loathe but, dammit, they get the job done. I'm doing my best to keep warm. 

I suppose that desire also crept into my jewelry last week as I created several sets of earrings using red, a color that I have grown to appreciate more in recent years. Hot-blooded, tempestuous, uncontrollable red...

ceramic red lilies by Claire Armstrong, wood beads

Hope your holidays ended up on a high note and hope your new year is a deliciously creative one!

Happy Wednesday,
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Holiday Hoops ♪♫♪♫♪♫

I would have to say hoops are my favorite earrings, perhaps it shows my age, I don't know, it's what I wore wore back in the 70's and 80's, and the bigger the better.  

These colorful lovelies are no exception.  

I purchase the brass blanks and do all of the painting myself.  It's not really that hard since the pattern is already there for you, a little time consuming, but I've done enough pairs to have the process pretty much nailed down. After paint and seal, I bend them to shape, punch holes and apply the ear wires.

I think these could pass as holiday Poinsettia's don"t you?

I've painted many summer bouquet's as well, the fun part is, I never know where the process is going end up, I just keep adding color on top of color ♥


So go buy some brass blanks you admire,  acrylic paints and a fine paint brush and let that inner artist glow!!!

♪♫♪♫ Thanks for looking friends ♪♫♪♫
See you again in two weeks ☺

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Inspired by Pink Accessories

The earrings were inspired by my co-author (Bohemian Inspired Jewelry) and friend Erin Siegel who has mastered the technique of knotted beads onto metal components using beads and linen cording. I used some plain brass hoop earrings, and embellished them with pale pink cording and metallic peanut seed beads, and some Bali silver charms.  The pink was inspired by the popular color in accessories this winter, and here are a few great examples. Tell me these pink slouchy cowboy boots don't make you weak in the knees!

accessories from Sundance Catalog

You can find these and other pretty things in my etsy store, Lorelei Eurto Jewelry.