A Real HUM-DINGER!

For today’s earrings, I decided to keep my promise to myself and continue to design at least a few earring pairs with my own enamels. Just like the last pair of earrings I shared, these enamels were designed for a recent bird-themed show. Although I typically go for matchy-matchy designs, I do like to mix things up every so often, and these similar-but-different hummingbirds were just begging to be paired together. I was instantly attracted to the soft print and pastel colors, and the copper blanks somehow reminded me of the gilded bird cages I saw hanging all over the souks in the Marrakech medina a few years back on a family vacation.

Knowing I wanted to give the finished earrings a romantic but subtle vibe, I embossed the copper before adding the powdered glass enamel base coats and kept the oxidation intact after applying the iron oxides. Now that the charms were done, the design of the earrings remained.

I remembered coming across some fancy copper connectors from Joan Langmo recently while rummaging through my boxes of treasured components and hoped I could remember where I saw them (if you only saw my “organization”, you would understand why I said I hoped)! I hit the jackpot when I found not only the connectors I was looking for, but also some lovely flat copper flower stampings that I had completely forgotten about. It took just a bit of finagling to get all the pieces to play nicely together (do you ever feel that engineering is the most challenging part of designing? I know I do quite often!) by adding dainty Czech glass flowers on top of the copper stampings. Next, I added the hollow lampwork from Alisha White, sandwiched between pretty copper caps, at the top – just the thing to add a bit of color without distracting from the hummingbird enamels. The last step was to add the dangling Czech flowers on each side of the connectors to balance the earrings and tie everything together.

I just LOVE this subtle mix of colors:

Below you can see how the pair looks when hanging:

I’m still debating whether I “love” these or not – perhaps I’ll feel the urge to change them up a bit. But for now, they will appear this way later today in my etsy shop, TwinklingOfAnEye.

You can find other earrings in my fb group.

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

Moongazing.

A couple of weeks ago I was meeting my sister in town and had an hour or so to spare, so I dropped into our city museum for a coffee. They had an exhibition on entitled Museum of the Moon. There was a replica of the moon hanging from the high, domed ceiling which could be viewed from three levels - this was the central one. The exhibits included a scaled down Apollo rocket, a spacesuit circa 1968 and lots of artefacts detailing the significance of the moon to ancient civilisations. I was so fired up by all this I have been instagramming it like mad. I felt a tribute in jewellery was warranted!

 

I had several copper pieces by Helen Backhouse at home with the same sort of surface pattern - some from a wormcast rock I brought her from Greece last year, and some  from a piece of rose quartz she used as a mould.  In the end, I made a necklace, bracelet and earrings - and here are the earrings. 

 

 

With the textured copper pieces I have used glorious, galaxy-like lampwork bicones by Angelika Schott and wrapped them with copper wire and little satellite swarowski crystals.

Here's the view from below - while I was having a latte and a toasted teacake for breakfast! Life doesn't get much better. If you are in the UK, this exhibition is touring the country so do try and catch it if you can. You won't be sorry.  

 

 

 

Hope the weather is being kind to you - its unseasonably warm here and the plants are shooting up fast. See you in two weeks.

 

Lindsay x 

 

My Etsy shop

 

My facebook page

 

New year, new stuff

Happy new year lovely earring people!

I always find this time of year a bit sad. The festivities of Christmas are done, the decorations taken down and the long month of January ahead. So I have been glad to throw myself into making lots of new things for my first showcase in ages at the end of the month. Creativity is a funny thing, isn't it? The more I've made,  the more ideas have come easily and  the more I've felt like making.

Some beautiful ceramic drops by Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth were the inspiration for this pair. Look at the glaze on these! The most beautiful greys and mottled purples and mauves. Gorgeous.

I kept it simple with some copper washers which I textured and oxidised, and added a simple ring of co-ordinating seed beads to reflect those lovely mauves and purples. All that was needed, I think.

Short and sweet from me. These pretties will be available in my next showcase at the end of the month in  the Jewellery Show in Facebook Land. 

See you soon 

Sue

Utterly Lovely Stuff

Really Old :)

Hello! Our Dear Ms. Meridy is unable to be here this morning. She'll be back on her regular schedule two weeks from now.

These earrings are made with authentic Ancient Glass beads, and Antique Ostrich Egg Shell Beads. The glass these beads were made with, if not the beads themselves, was made along the River Niger and excavated in Mali. They’re referred to as Nila beads, or Dardig beads, and are 600 to 1000 years old, if not older. I have and had a good amount of Ancient Roman Glass. These beads are different. Their age is clearly seen in every bead I see and hold. I didn’t think I’d use them, wanting to keep them in my collection. But once I started, I knew it was not going to happen. They are incredible to work with.  I am always attracted to the old, things with history, and love combining them in my own way with my version of "today's" jewelry. Both sets of beads were purchased from the Rita Okrent Collection. The owner of the Collection, Jocelyne, the daughter of collector and artisan Rita Okrent, may be out of town but the shop is open. It may just take some time for her to respond should you message her. She has unique items.

There are three different pairs here. The remainder I made from 16 gauge wire, wrapped the tops in a thinner wire. They've been hammered a bit, etc.

I wish you all a super day, today and every day!

norbel
SheFliesAgain😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄

The need for colour!

So January is done (hooray!) and I am feeling the need for colour!

For this blog, I revisited an old design which is a bit of a favourite. I got hold of some of Helena Benkoczka's folded copper bails. Helena is perhaps best known for her beautifully colourful polymer clay components, but is a very talented jewellery designer herself AND also makes some gorgeous copper components on occasion too. These beauties have a teeny tiny Buddha stamp.

I paired these up with some of my favourite recycled glass chunks in a vivid purple and wrapped some colourful seed beads onto some oxidised copper wire and looped them through the bails.

Bright, colourful and a bit boho. However, I was in a rush to photograph them before I lost the light today and spotted a tiny bit of wire that needed to be trimmed/tucked in! It has been sorted, but I couldn't take another photo, so it sits above, annoying me! Can you spot it? 

These will be available in my next showcase over on The Earrings Show on Friday 23rd Feb. See you in a couple of weeks!

Sue x 

www.etsy.com/shop/utterlylovelystuff

Metal Guru.

Hello folks! Hope I find you all well. It's been a  busy week so far with three out of my four grandchildren succumbing to a sicky bug that's had me running around with not much time to make. So if you think your eyesight is a little blurry - no - I left it  a bit too late to take my pictures today and the light was disappearing fast, so it's the pictures, not you!

This week I thought I'd introduce you to a new venture for my friend Helen Backhouse. She's begun to work with metal clay - silver, bronze and copper - and the results are beautiful. She's using the same moulds as she does for her polymer clay work - all individually hand made from natural found objects, not proprietary. The first pair today is copper, in a bark effect. I've given them the special treatment, with my new delivery of Basha Beads - magical colours that look like the beads have tiny flames inside.

The shells are some of my favourite shapes and they cry out for sea treasures - coral sticks and keishi pearls, all copper wrapped.

And finally- the silver. Oxidised heavily and polished back so the relief in these teasel heads really stands out. I've kept these simple with black pearls and Lucy Haslam's oxidised silver twisted sisters connectors. Gothic glamour.

 

 

So those are this week's earrings; all available in my Etsy shop. I'll see you in two weeks, hopefully bug-free! And by then, there will be only two weeks to Christmas - can you believe it?

 

Lindsay x 

 

My Etsy shop

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Land of the rising Sun

I was scrambling at the last minute for ideas to make some earrings. I always have a hard time deciding which colors to go with. I think I need to start writing colors onto pieces of paper and just draw a main color at random and go from there lol

So instead, I went on my FB page and asked my friends what colors I should go with. Orange and Fall colors were some of the suggestions (among many other fun ideas), and since I had a pair of handmade polymer clay components that had some nice orangey shades to it, I pulled out some Carnelians and went to town:

I'm a sucker for Copper, especially when it comes to coupling them with rich Fall jewel tones. I wanted to use some kind of bead cap for the chunky faceted carnelian briolettes, but I didn't have anything suitable on hand. I pulled out some of my handmade slightly domed copper beadcaps and bent them to make a bit of an Asian style cover for the top, as I wanted to add a bit of width to the bottom part.

A few more copper accents and carnelian beads, and voila!

I wish the "rising sun" would make its appearance here. We've been drowning in rain for the past couple of weeks now. I had just a wee bit of a break to go plant my seed garlic in the garden (after the blizzard we had, I thought I had missed the window to plant garlic). It's been very wet and dreary here... these sunny Carnelians were a very welcome sunny sight on my bench!

I need to take better pictures before I list them, although it looks like they might be spoken for already :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends in the US!

Cheers,
Nathalie
Visit my shops:
My Garden of Love on Etsy
The Crafty Tribe on Etsy

Fall Sunshine

Since I last wrote on this blog, my dear tiny yorkie fur baby girl passed away. It's been really difficult for me, as both her and her brother were my partners in crime in my studio and my babies for almost a 1/3 of my entire life. I've lost them both now, 7 months apart :(

My little fur-baby girl. I'll see you at the Rainbow Bridge xxx

Trix was 14 years old, and had lived a good and full life full of adventures with her brother Diesel (he passed away in January at the age of 13)... One of the things they loved most was jumping in the van and go out for a ride and a walk in the forest.

Fall was the best time as it wasn't too hot, or too cold. It was just perfect. Gorgeous colors in the trees, and the sunshine adding to the joy of being out in the fresh cool Fall air... so in their homage, I've designed these Fall Sunshine earrings:

Warm Fall colors in Polymer Clay, Glass and Copper

Using fold-formed textured copper components that I made a long time ago (I keep all sorts of parts, I'm a hoarder!), and some copper wire and tiny seed beads in rich Fall colors, I wire wrapped my handmade polymer clay drops together with the copper elements - If you've never tried Fold-Forming metal before, I highly recommend it - it's fun, although it takes a long time to go through the process of heating/forming/cooling and repeating until you're done, the resulting raised edges and textures are worth it in my opinion:

Fall Sunshine Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

When I designed my polymer clay drops, I embedded some small super sparkling orange artisan glass cabochons. It's like a ray of sunshine when you look at these. I only had this one pair of orange glass cabs (I don't even remember where I grabbed these, it was a long time ago), and I wanted to use them for something special.

These earrings, along with a few other pairs are listed in my Etsy shop HERE.

I've also uploaded a series of one of a kind new clay components to my shop, check it out when you have time, it may trigger some design ideas for your creations!

It's been a rough 10 days since Trixie passed. I was expecting it given her age, of course. Her ashes should be ready for pick up by Friday. I have a special urn in my studio where her brother is waiting to be with her again... I know they're both waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge, but I just wish they could have stayed with me here on Earth.

I'm too ill to look after another pet or a new pet, but now we have a grandson who's growing fast, and we're going to focus on him. He's very snuggly and fun, and he's helping to heal my saddened heart.

I want to give a big HUG to everyone who has a pet waiting for them at the Rainbow Bridge too....

For those who still have their pets...Please hug and kiss your fur-baby for me today xoxo

Nathalie
Visit my shops: My Garden Of Love on Etsy & The Craft Tribe on Etsy

Scraps

Last week I mentioned that I had been going through my photos of years of jewelry designs I had created. And, I came across a few that touch on the subject above: These earrings are all made with scraps that were on my bench. Since I wasn't well this week, I didn't make anything new, but I wanted to talk about scraps and leftovers.

Do you aim to re-use everything leftover when you make jewelry? What do you do with all the scraps and odds and ends? Whether I work with metal, or polymer clay, precious metal clay, etc...  I re-purpose/re-use/transform scraps into new components and pieces. There's basically zero waste in terms of materials in my studio and I'm quite proud of that :)

Here's some earrings I made using scraps:

Tribal shields: Scraps of Sterling silver wire balled up, flattened, soldered to leftover pieces copper from another project, and everything is soldered to the sterling silver wire frame, and decorated with  two small Turquoise stones:

Tribal Sheilds by Nathalie Lesage

These Moonstone Moon Earrings are not made with scraps, but there's a part of these that ends up in other designs - I use a sterling silver round disc blank, and I offset it in my disc cutter to quickly cut out a crescent moon shape to make these earrings:

Moonstone Moon Earrings by Nathalie (Girard) Lesage

So when I make these, I'm left with 'eye shaped' or 'marquise shaped' pieces of sterling silver. Some of those scrap pieces ended up in these designs:


Mother Earth Earrings: The textured sterling silver piece (shaped like a marquise a bit - vertical) is soldered on top of the 'dome' in this pair. I textured the pieces and soldered them to the base round disc shape.

Mother Earth Lampwork & Sterling Silver Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

And in this pair of Kyanite Chandelier Earrings, I used that same leftover cut-out shape from the Moon earrings, but this time, I used them horizontally to make the foundation of this unusual pair of chandelier earrings:

Kyanite Sterling Silver Chandelier Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

So how do you like 'scrap' earrings? Are you happy with how much you can re-use and re-purpose in your own studio? Can you share some of your re-using tips with us? We'd love to hear what you do!

I will be back later on this month with new earrings to show!

Cheers,
Nathalie
My Garden Of Love Etsy Shop
The Crafty Tribe Etsy Shop

Welcome Sue - Utterly Lovely Stuff!

Hello! I’m Sue Robinson from Utterly Lovely Stuff and I’m utterly (sorry!) delighted to have been invited to do a little guest spot on Earrings Everyday! What a thrill! Especially as some of my very favourite jewellery artists contribute here.

So…I was told to create a pair of earrings especially for the blog, and tell you a little about them. This was no hardship, let me tell you as making earrings is one of my favourite things to do. 

This pair features components from one of my absolute favourite artists (whose beautiful pieces feature regularly here on EE) Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth. I love her rustic, natural style, and think the coppery glaze on these ceramic drops is just beautiful. 

I popped these drops on some copper hoops, loosely wrapped with some pretty, coppery seed beads to pick up the orange hue in the glaze and added another favourite component - recycled glass chunks. I have a friend who goes to South Africa and picks up these recycled glass chunky beads for me from a local bead shop, so I have a plentiful supply of them! A good job as I seem to use them in lots of designs at the moment. I finished these off with some pretty enamelled headpins, made by a clever jewellery friend, Charlotte Rosser of Wild Strawberry Designs. (Link not available.)

Hope you like them! There’ll be over in my Etsy shop Utterly Lovely Stuff.

Thanks for having me!

Sue Robinson

Utterly Lovely Stuff

You can visit me on Facebook as well

Mamounia.

Hello, and welcome!

Today I thought I'd introduce you to my favourite fibre bead artist, Carolyn Saxby.

Last weekend we went to stay in Foel,Wales, with our good friends Lucy (of Faerystone fame) and Harry Haslam. A year ago they bought a dilapidated but beautiful, very old (at least 1680's) house in a  tiny Welsh village and have proceeded to rebuild it as their dream home. It's already looking pretty amazing and I can't wait to see it finished.

Lucy and I were rooting in her bead stash on Saturday planning our next show and I was bemoaning the fact that I had run out of Carolyn Saxby's Tyvek beads........lo and behold, out came a bag full and I could choose the ones I wanted! What it is to have beading friends....

Carolyn is a textile artist and photographer based in  the beautiful coastal town of St. Ives in Cornwall. Whilst beads are a side line to her main art work, when she does make some they go like wildfire.  And you can see why....fantastic jewel tones and wonderful textures, all in one light as a feather bead.

Those jewel tones of sapphire, red ochre and mustard reminded me of the souks of Marrakech so I named these Mamounia. It's one of the world's greatest old hotels (1923) and patronised by the rich and famous - so needless to say, we didn't stay there, but the Riads in the old town are just as atmospheric. Do go if you get a chance. The rusty Moroccan lantern in the pic below - another of my favourite photo props - was picked up at the market along with a traditional clay tagine that I often cook with (well, ok, occasionally cook - not a great one for wasting time in the kitchen).

 

 

Nothing picks up jewel tones quite like swarowski crystals and bright copper (Lucy made those fab earwires for me).

                                                              And that's all they need.

                                                               See you in two weeks

                                                                      Lindsay x

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Treasures of the Sea

Treasures are in the eye of the beholder... What may seem insignificant to a person, may be an incredibly precious treasure to another. Where does your mind go when you think about "Treasures of the Sea"?

When I was younger, whenever I would think about the Treasures of the Sea, I would automatically think about Seashells, Pearls, Sea glass, Sand Dollars, etc.

As I'll soon be entering my (hopefully) wiser years by becoming a grandma next month... Now, when I think of Treasures of the Sea, my mind now goes to artful pieces of soft driftwood adorning our beaches nearby, stones of various colors polished to a super soft finish by the sea, the gentle waves rolling on my feet as I walk along the water line, holding my loving husband's hand. I feel so happy in my heart and soul, and that feeling is my most precious Treasure of the Sea.

Kin Beach, Comox, BC - Photo: Nathalie Lesage

The blue sky, the sun, or cooling clouds, the birds singing, the whales and seals floating by...
every single thing is magical in an even deeper way than when I was a child.

This story is my inspiration for these earrings... precious little tumbled nuggets of color with shades of the water, sand and sky (in my handmade polymer clay beads), the driftwood (the rustic wood beads), the gentle waves of the ocean (in the copper wavy bead caps), held together on a pair of non-allergenic niobium ear wires:

The perfect way to carry the good vibes of the beach everywhere you go ... at 1 7/8" tall.

I prefer to wear shorter earrings, but I find it challenging sometimes to incorporate everything I want in a design, while keeping the overall size under 2 inches :)

I've made a couple of extra sets of these cute little beach inspired rustic shaped Polymer Clay Nugget Beads. You can find these earrings and my handmade beads in My Garden Of Love Etsy Shop HERE.

Thank you for stopping by! Have a fabulous day!
Cheers,
Nathalie
My Garden Of Love on Etsy
The Crafty Tribe on Etsy

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

Ancient

Women in Ancient Times loved Awesome Earrings like we do! And very beautiful ones. Although I would imagine that those who were lucky enough to wear them must have been the elite of their time. 

Hello, and Happy October to you. Fall is my favorite time of year. I find it energizing. It's fleeting here in Michigan; we're lucky to have a small handful of sunny, cool days, but they are the best of the best when they come around. :) 

I've always enjoyed browsing images of ancient jewelry. History intrigues me. I am amazed by the beauty some were able to wear. Gemstones and gold! 

This particular image is of a pair of earrings that were made/worn in about 500 AD, during the Byzantine era, "earrings with pendant chains". It's said they were very popular during that time, but only five (5) earrings are known to have survived. There is one earring "in Baltimore," and a pair in the "Farrell Collection," each with pendant crosses, pearls and semi-precious stones. This image and the info came from the "Christie's" website, and these little lovelies fetched $15,000. 

FYI "The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople." 

What an amazing find, in such beautiful condition. 500 AD! I kept the image in a folder I have titled "Design Inspiration," where I have hundreds of images of stunning jewelry, from all over, including all of our EE talents. This one I have been enamored with for quite some time. 

Rather than use them for inspiration only, I decided to re-create the design in my own way, in our timeline, :), with the materials I love to work with. And there's also the fact that gold is a bit out of my price range. :) Perhaps someday, hundreds of years from now, someone will stumble upon my earrings, and think they're a fun find. 

So here is my interpretation. 



 I chose to use a plain hoop rather than a hoop with ear wire attached. As the AEs (ancient earrings) have a pearl wrapped to the hoop, I did the same. These sweet rondelle-shaped Pearls came from TheFickleBead and I am in love with them. They're a soft peachy ivory and have decent-sized holes. These are wrapped in 22 gauge copper wire.

The beautiful, faceted blue/green stones are Apatite. The way the AEs have the emerald wrapped made me chuckle. If you look at the wire above the emerald, there appears to be a headpin wrapped around the wire holding the emerald, right? Yet at the bottom of the emerald the wire is rather wound and bunched to keep the bead on. Christie's refers to it as a "large granule above the spiral." To me it's a headpin! lol So I used headpins to hold the Apatite, and then used another to create the "spiral" and the "granule." I also chose to put it on the opposite side of the hoop as the pearl, rather than on the same side.

Rather than use a chain, I braided copper wire. I started out with a heavier gauge wire, but  it was too much. Everything I used was scaled down compared to the AEs, as far as the diameter of the wire, the hoop, the length and dimensions of the emeralds and their findings. It just looked better, and I love it. I have never braided wire before. I do know that it is something I will do more often. What a great way to change things up a bit. Hanging from the "chain" are pewter arrow charms, made by Vincent 'n Nooma of Inviciti.

So that's that! This was really one of the most fun projects I've done. Thanks so much for stopping by. We all appreciate it, as well as your comments and feedback. Have a great couple of weeks. I'll be back Oct. 18. Thank you!

Norbel
She Flies Again - my Etsy shop

Wire is my Friend. . . .

. . . .except when it's not! 

Hello, and Happy Day to you!

I love playing with wire. And every once in a while something fun that I can use comes of it. I don't mean the soldering kind of playing; just taking various gauges of wire and trying to make things. In recent months I've been playing around with what what I call "bead frames." I haven't yet made one that actually looked like something I'd like to use, but I keep playing.  

So speaking of wire, which is my friend so much of the time, I have two earrings for you today. Two earrings, but they don't match. And no, they're not asymmetrical in design. They are two earrings, one each of both pairs I planned to share with you today. 

So yes, I love playing with wire. It's fun, it's therapeutic, and I love putting in something a bit quirky in designs. The problem comes in when I have to repeat what I did the first time! There is nothing so complex to warrant such difficulty in either of these designs, but I spent way too much time attempting to make the second earring for both of these. 
These earrings are not at all complete either. I'll say they're "half baked." Consider it a prototype. :) They will be oxidized and look more pulled together when finally completed. The Peace Sign with charms by Vincent & Nooma of Inviciti, and the Lampwork Glass by Leese Mahoney of GlassByLeese, will be oxidized to black. That will highlight the tiny silver beads around the frame. The same tiny beads run up and down the wire connected to the charm, on both sides.

The "Scream" earrings, copper by our very own Kristi Bowman-Gruel of KristiBowmanDesign, will be oxidized and buffed back to highlight the copper loops in the center. These pieces felt so not me at all but yet I wanted them, and in the end I loved them. I had a couple of more "Halloween-like" ideas I thought I'd try, but in the end I kept it more everyday wear, the ivory and black looked much better than the white and black I initially tried. And anything colorful didn't work for me. The lava stones add a bit of rustic, which you are not getting at all from my photos. The ivory Lampwork is shiny; I tried the matte version; didn't like it. The top bead you aren't seeing well either, really. It's shiny, but it has a very full Picasso finish underneath the shine. It's an interesting bead. :) This is probably a good time to apologize for the poor photos. I have lost the best place to take my pictures in natural light. So forgive me as I struggle to figure it out, or decide to depend on a light box. 

I have no intention of dropping these designs all together; I like them and will keep going. If I decide to make a change along the way, well, that's a designer's prerogative, isn't it? And I do that a lot! ;) Truthfully, I simply ran out of time to finish for today. Never did I expect to have such a problem with these. One, maybe, even though it didn't cross my mind, but both? Well, it is what it is. 

In the "Scream" earrings, it's a wonky piece of wire work to begin with, so it wasn't at all that I was trying to make them perfect one to the other as far as the wire. But it is the kind of design that for me requires the length to be the same. With many handcrafted components it's a challenge, but these two sets were perfectly matched. But length was the main problem I was having, and similarity of the loops in a secondary way. All I did was roll three rounds of wire on the step pliers with a wire pointing in either direction at the end. The wire facing down was bent inward to become the wire that the lava stone was put on, and then into the Scream face. The wire facing up was bent down and inward to wrap around the first wire. I then took a second wire and strung it through the middle of the three loops and wrapped it up from there.

The Inviciti Peace Sign earrings were a different story. I broke several pieces of wire from overworking while attempting to get this done. I could NOT get the wire centered in the kite-shaped frame, nor could I get it to come out the same size. Measurements did no good. Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I was so frustrated. Wire DOES, in fact, have a mind of its own, and you will never be able to convince me otherwise. 

So these earrings are not yet available; they will be but I don't know when. :) I've also attached a collage of a few of the things I've done with simple wire stuff; nothin' fancy; just fun little things that add a quirky something. These earrings have all sold; some of them recent, a few of them two or three years old. Like I said, I love wire; she simply doesn't always want to do what I ask her to. It's okay though; I'll keep her around anyway. :)

So thank you for taking time out of your busy day to have a look at what we've got going on here. We all appreciate it. We also appreciate comments or questions. We very much appreciate that! I'll be back in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, please let me know if you have some fun playing with wire! 

Thank you!

Happy Days to You!

Norbel Marolla

She Flies Again on Etsy

She Flies Again on Facebook

p.s. I wanted to mention that we are attempting to organize a request for a challenge made by an EE follower. Not all of us will be able to participate, but those of us who are able will be working on it. She has requested that we each start with the same elements, a pair of "something," to see how differently we all use the same pieces. Fun idea! So we're working on it and will keep you posted. We hope you'll enjoy it. 

What's your Favorite _________?

Hello, and Happy September to all of you. I do hope this finds you and yours healthy and well. 

Someone really asked me this recently: "What is your favorite element to work with, just one?" Really? Really. That's like asking me what's your favorite Beatles song? Impossible! What is your favorite element? I can't answer that. Is it just me?

Ceramics were my first love, and the collection I continue to build is filled with little pieces of art. I love taking them out and holding them, staring at them, simply enjoying them, as you would any piece of art. But ceramics don't stand alone. I need copper and maybe glass, and whatever else I might choose to use. So I could never simply answer "ceramics." 

And lately I am being drawn more often to Lampwork glass. I've always used it and enjoyed it, but I am developing a much bigger appreciation for it and the many amazing ways the very talented Lampwork artists create with it. 

These earrings started with the Lampwork glass disks in a soft, weathered light olive green by Leese Mahoney of GlassByLeese, with an orange-like amber edge. I had my eye on the tan and orange stone-like Lampwork beads by Terry Turner of SilverFishDesigns to work into the design. Before actually working out a design, I thought I might want a pair of beadcaps. I couldn't find anything in my stash that looked quite right so I pounded out two small, rustic, flat pieces of copper sheet metal, distressed them, curled them under here and there. They're rough and rustic, and I liked them. 

"Vintage Ferris Wheel"

Here's the rest of the design process. I strung 20-gauge copper wire through the disk, brought the wire together at the top and put several glass beads and a blackened brass rice bead on the wire on both sides of the disks. I joined the wires together at the top of the disk, leaving just a bit of room above the disk, and used a Nephrite Jade stone with a large enough hole to fit both wires. I separated the wires a bit and put blackened brass rice beads side by side. Brought the wires together again and put on the Lampwork glass bead, topped it with a bead cap, and wrapped the remainder of the wire in a double loop. 

"Vintage Ferris Wheel"

That's that! i re-made these earrings a couple of times each. They didn't come together easily. Eventually I worked it out, and I liked them! 

As always, I thank you all for stopping by and visiting with us today. Comments and questions are greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Norbel 
She Flies Again - Etsy Shop
You can find me on Facebook
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No Bones About It

Hello Everyone. And welcome to the second half of August 2016!

I found a new shop. . . . and No Bones About It, it is filling THE missing link in my stash. Bone beads. Many, many bone beads. All hand dyed!! Rustic but not too rustic. Many different colors in a variety of sizes. The shop is new; just opened a couple of months ago, and already her sales are taking off. I'll give you just a bit more in a minute. No, the shop name is not No Bones About It, although that would've been a good one. I just like the phrase, and it is apropos.  :) 

My earrings today are my own rustic copper pieces. They started off as a square piece of 24-gauge copper sheet metal. After cutting it in half and giving it a very basic, rough shape, the rest of the work was done with a dremel, until the shape was what I wanted and all the edges were smooth. They actually had a different incarnation before I settled on this one. Originally they were meant to be vertical; it just wasn't working. So then when I turned it horizontally, the holes I had made for the first idea were not in very good places for the new look. But I worked that out by adding more and creating a design that would look great even if the holes were a little wonky. Five strands of 4mm and 10mm hand-dyed bone beads were strung on waxed Irish linen. The "handles" were a bit of a challenge, and I wasted a bit of leather, but in the end I was happy with it. It is 1.5mm natural-dye grey leather. 

The texturing was done with a simple texture hammer. The one used has two different designs, lines at an angle, and the other side is circles. Liver of sulfur was the oxidizing agent, and they are sealed with matte finish Clear Guard.  

I could have selected any number of color combinations. I considered turquoise, red and sort of a lavender/grey, but I use that palette a lot, the turquoise and red. It works great with copper. But I wanted something different, different for me. And I often use "bright" in general with copper for the contrast. So I went in a different direction this time. I decided on the peachy/lavender beads, lemon/lime, and aqua/green/turquoise :) , and the pale green 10mm beads. 

One of the awesome things about these beads is many of them have a variety in the package, or the strand. For example, the larger green beads, which have great speckles and stripes in most of this rustic strand, run all the way from this lighter green to a deep olive. 

When I find something this good, of course there is that initial thought. . . . I'm not telling anyone about this. lol That lasts about five seconds. I can't do that, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I want her shop to be successful. I think there will be many who will love her beads, and they'd eventually find it anyway; I just want to give it a jump-start. And I can "see" the wonderful work so many people will be doing with them. I meant it when I said these have filled a hole in my stash. 

Here is the basic information for the shop I've referred to. The name is "DyedBoneBead". The young woman who is the owner and the bead maker is a college student in Nashville, TN; her name is Ashley Krause. I know many of you will love it. The red type above is a link to her shop.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today. 

I am really enjoying being a part of this great group of designers and creators. We hope that all of YOU also enjoy what we're doing here at EE. We are always happy to receive your comments, and happy to answer questions. 

Thank you! And Happy Tuesday.

Norbel - She Flies Again 
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