Winter Wolf

Not long to go until Christmas and I have been making quite a few pairs of Christmas/winter themed earrings this year.

Recently I discovered the fabulous enamels made by Annet Riabukhina. She hand paints them and often adds 22ct gold or platinum which creates a luxurious feel. Her pieces are exquisite  as are these enamels with a beautiful wintery scene/wolf design. I always find it difficult to hunt out and combine other beads which will give them the justice they deserve, but I usually get there eventually.

These earrings are no exception, whilst looking through my stash of lampwork, firstly the tray of beads in blues then on to those individual boxes by various artists until I came across these beads by Gabi Sarisin. I thought they would be perfect to combine with the enamels and to enhance both the enamels and lampwork I carefully selected some silver spacer beads, bronze spacers and bead caps and I finally came up with this pair of earrings.

Thank you for taking  a look, these will be available on my group page - Nicola Morse Jewellery & components  in FB later today (Monday)

You're in my Heart

Hello Everyone! Here we are at the end of November, gearing up for Christmas and all that goes with it. No matter what the negatives may be, Christmas is undoubtedly the one time of year that brings a more active sense of Love that isn't as strongly present throughout the rest of the year. People seem to experience and express more Joy, more Kindness. Not the "buy her a diamond" kind of kindness we get from TV commercials, but genuine expressions of kindness, giving, caring. I guess it's up to each of us individually to keep it going the rest of the time. 💖

I was definitely feeling Christmas 🎄 when I put these earrings together. Petra Carpreau's gorgeous Gold Filigree Heart ceramic components were such a great canvas to work with! That's ScorchedEarthOnEtsty. 😊 The "cap" is two separate pieces. The bottom piece is part of the Lotus Cap from FallenAngelBrass. The tops are a pair of caps I've been holding onto for a few years, purchased from a Destash, and this was the design for them. Creamy Pearls and tiny oxidized brass beads, all wrapped in deeply oxidized copper wire finishes the design. 

I hope you have a great time as the next few weeks fly by! 

Happy Days!
norbel
SheFliesAgain

Merry Christmas

This year I have been unusually late with the setting up of christmas decorations. I normally start a lot earlier. I love the christmas athmosphere. But only yesterday I got my tree up. Later today my kids and I will start to decorate it. And to set up all the other decorations in our house.  So the spirit has finally entered our house. :-)

As I write this blog post I am listening to my own Spotify list of all the best christmas music ever. And I am so happy with my christmassy earrings that I made, and I will wear them all the coming days.

Art beads:
Matte blue ceramic bells  - NadiaTerra
Red patinated chain - MissFickleMedia

Other components:
Handmade earring hooks in oxidized brass
Messy wrapped oxidized copper wire
Black seed beads (inside the bells)

BTW, here in Sweden the big day is on the 24th instead of on the 25th. 

Wishing everyone a 

Very Merry Christmas,

Malin

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

www.etsy.com/shop/MalindeKoning

(I am way behind on updating my Etsy shop. Please let me know if you are interested in any of my jewelry that isn't listed there.)

Already?

These earrings give me a feeling of Christmas.
Red ceramic charms by a new artist aquintance of mine. Nadya Latirus from Russia. Lovely lovely work! (She sells both on Facebook and in her Etsy shop.)
The patinated chain is made by my all time favourite since many years, MissFickleMedia.

Below a close up of the lovely drops.



All my best,
Malin
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com
www.etsy.com/shop/MalindeKoning

Roundabout

How is everyone faring up? Done your last craft fairs? Got your shopping sorted? On top of your handmade gifts and commissions? On the craft fair front, I was very lazy this year. I just did the one regular one that takes place in my town. It's actually a monthly market which I do all through the year but the December one is always a big Christmas-ified event. My pitch is about 200 metres from my front door so that cuts out a lot of the stress. Forgotten something? Need to grab a drink? Sorted! And yet, I still manage to get stressed in the run up to it. I try to get myself prepared in advance so that I don't have any prep to do the day before, so I can just relax and stuff. I did that this time but I found myself, the day before, thinking, 'Argh! I need to make x and y and z!'. Because, surely, there will be customers there wanting x and y and z.  One thing that seemed vital was some relatively simple earrings with some particularly winning lampwork beads. I surveyed my stash and came across these beauties that I got some considerable time ago from Magdalena Ruiz.

I think I was hoarding them because really I wanted them for me, if I'm totally honest. Anyway, in my pre-market flap, I decided they needed to be pressed into service.  I'd just received a super little grab bag of assorted bronze lovelies from Lesley Watt, so I decide to team a pair of her charms with the lampwork.  I finished by adding some toning czech glass.

It is a pretty simple design, but I often find that those are the things that sell at craft fairs, especially when it comes to earrings. Simple or not, I really like them, and - would you believe it? - that shopper in desperate need of lampwork earrings never showed up.

So, these are now available here in my Etsy shop.  Mind you, I am quite tempted to keep them for me. Maybe it was meant to be? If they don't go this quarter......

Before I go, a quick reminder: tomorrow is the day of the monthly We're All Ears blog hop. You can read all about the challenge and how to take part here. There's still time to get some earrings made!

Anyway, all best wishes for the holiday season, and see you in 2015!

Claire

www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com