Creative Weekend

This past weekend was long-awaited and extra special for me!  Once a year I steal away with one of my best friends to South Haven, Michigan to attend the "Inspired By Nature" jewelry retreat. The event is hosted by Heather Powers of Humblebeads.

One of the many projects we worked on were these lovely faux tin components.  I actually made this pair using our "practice sheet" of tin, before using our fancy copper sheeting.  The practice run was supposed to let us get a feel for applying the transfers and baking which can be tricky.  However, I thought they turned out so well I decided to make a pair of earrings with it!

I oxidized all the copper accent beads and jump-rings to coordinate with the dark navy blue floral pattern and cut tiny squares of tin for fringe (nothing wasted!).

This gauge of tin was extremely lightweight and so nice for earrings.  The charms I made on copper sheeting will have a little more weight and be sturdier however, both materials are great in their own way.

Here are a couple of pendants I've made with copper backing.  Definitely more substantial.  I'm still working on them but wanted to show you.

Here we are working away like little elves in one of our cozy cabins.

All the lovely elves!  ♡

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I'll be back in a couple of weeks with some new things!

♡

Loralee XO

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

Asymmetrical Electroplated Devil's Head Pods - Say That 10X Fast!

One of the most exciting things I discovered (and scored) at Bead & Button a couple of weeks ago, are these electroformed pods made by Hank Russ.  Can I get an oooh- ahhhh, beady peeps!?! 😼

Hank always wanted to work creatively with his wife, Lisa Peters of Lisa Peters ART, but was uninspired until he started electroforming. Hank loves to work with metal and this is a wonderful new facet to the business! Lisa makes some of the most beautiful ceramic beads, cabs, and buttons I've ever come across.  I've been working with and collecting her beads for a long time now and I am so excited about this new collaboration!

The pods, also known as “Devil’s Heads” are the fruit of Trapa natans, a plant commonly known as a Water Chestnuts. 

Although substantial in appearance, they are incredibly lightweight and perfect for earrings!  I was shocked when they were placed in my hand!  Jewelry must feel comfortable, especially on the ear and these are! 

Keeping with the rich, dark mood they possess, I paired them with some beautifully textured vintage glass pearls, twisted glass with added copper sparkle and some glittery accent beads from my stash that were gifted to me.  I felt these really enhanced the copper.

Hank sold out at Bead & Button but I was told he can take custom orders with a 2 week lead time. I've attached a link below:

 lisapetersART.dotcom


Hank and Lisa collecting seed pods on their hikes along the Palisades.  

                                                 Oh, and  Pussy Willows, too!! Yasss!

I had a blast at Bead & Button and already looking forward to next year!  There is nothing like meeting the bead makers personally and hearing the backstories - it makes the beads all the more special!

Thank you, as always, for stopping in and having a peek at what's going on on my worktable!

Until next time!

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com  

Chain, Chain, Chain...

My newest earrings started with these tiny (under 2 cm long) rustic black clay hearts with their pretty metallic bronze glaze... 

Made by Sarah Kandell-Gritzmaker of Slate Studios Supply, these little hearts are one-of-a-kind pieces that beautifully carry off both rustic and delicate.  I wanted that balance to be the focus of what I brought to the rest of the elements of the earrings I would create with the them. 

Since the ceramic hearts are so small, everything else needed to be equally petite, including these little bits of sparkle, 7 x 5 mm Czech glass rondelles, opal with mercury style and AB finish...

Maybe the most interesting thing, though, are the bits of chain that became crucial parts of the earrings.  I cut two "crescents" from a strand of antiqued copper crescent moon chain (below) from Beadshop.com.  (They also carry this chain in bright silver tone, antiqued silver, antiqued brass, and gold.) 

In the finished earrings, the copper crescents from the chain remind me of armor, a contrast to the pearly Czech rondelles and the delicate open-wire petals of the copper bead caps.  

When I finished the earrings, I wrapped some 15/0 silver-lined pearl seed beads to each copper ear wire to continue the quiet sparkle.   

These little earrings (less than 2 inches long) remind me of the famous quotation from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" about the petite yet very strong-minded Hermia:  "Though she be but little, she is fierce." 💗

 

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back again on June 13.

xo
Meridy

My Shop

Rustic Charm

I decided to make a set of earrings featuring enamel components by Brumedeterre. I just love their rustic charm and fabulous colours. For the first pair I have matched the enamel charms with rustic lava free form lampwork beads by Natalya Darlin that perfectly highlight the orange and blue colours. Then, I couldn’t resist using Kerstin’s hand-beaded caps as a kind of crown, again the deep orange colour is perfect and I feel that it adds a tribal feel. To finish off I added some Czech glass beads.

For the second pair I have used these enamels, again by Brumedeterre with a fabulous daisy petal design in strikingly contrasting colours. I found the perfect lampwork beads to match, these bubble beads by Joanne Joyce and finished off by using copper beads and bead caps as a balance with the other colours.

For my final pair I chose to use these very striking enamels, again with a daisy petal design. The exposed copper on half with the use of a flower stamp is a lovely touch I think. After having a good search through my lampwork stash I found these gorgeous beads by Australian artisan Susan Clarkson which I combined with copper bead caps and spacers.

Thank you for reading, you can find my designs at Nicola Morse - Jewellery & components.

Snakeskin

Incredibly beautiful Lampwork Headpins by Janell Nelson with Copper "Snakeskin" Bails.

Lampwork headpins are one of my favorite things to use and I'm always looking for ways to use Snakeskin in my copper work.

Super cool and unusual!

These earrings are available here in my etsy shop.

*Snakeskin Earrings*

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook

A sense of direction

At this particular time in my life I feel I could use a stronger sense of direction. And a stronger aim. A kind of "just go for it". I suspect my subconciousness has had an effect on my design. As if it wants to push me a little harder.

In these earrings I've used beads and components that have been waiting for many years to come to use. Things I love but haven't been able to combine well with other things. I hope I managed with these earrings.

I think they would be suitable for for instance an opening night for a furniture designer, or perhaps a fancier dinner party with close friends.

Ingredients (from bottom to top):
Bronze drop bead
Green magnesite triangles (possibly partially man made)
Lovely white magnesite squares
Matte golden colour covered lucite squares (super light weight)

Strung on doubled 26G oxidized copper wire
Handmade earring hooks in oxidized copper

All copper is free from traces of allergenic metals such as nickel for instance.

All my best,
Malin

Hoop, there it is

Copper Hoops made with my own texture, paired with amazing Lampwork

 by Regis Teixera of MagmaBeads.

I also added a little bit of Sari Silk to these wonderful components, along with cool ceramic flower caps, a beautiful Red Glass bead on top and lots of messy copper wrapping.

Colorfully fun and Rustic at the same time!!

These earrings are available

⇛ HERE ⇚

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook

Goldenrod

Our son Jesse, who lives in Kansas City, has been visiting for the last few days.  As I'm writing this, we've just dropped him off at the airport, and I'm feeling tenderhearted toward the world at the moment. 💗

That, and that feeling you often have when your grown kids leave after a visit...that bittersweet wish that they could stay longer.  But the sweet thing is that these earrings are a gift for Jesse's sister, Rhia, and working on them has added to that tenderhearted feeling too.

And about the earrings...  They owe a lot of their sleekness to these gorgeous asymmetrical lampwork headpins by Kimberly Rogers.  Their beautiful colors of mustard yellow swirled with gleaming gray and their crusty/shiny glaze make them irresistible.

I emphasized the slim, elongated lines of the headpins by topping them with slender copper tube beads wrapped with what look like little vines, and then adding small bead caps, rustic yellow Czech glass beads, and finally beautifully faceted topaz-colored helix-shaped glass crystal beads.

They're lightweight, sleek, and elegant.  (And I hope Rhia loves them!)  😊

Goldenrod

Headpins:  Kimberly Rogers
Copper tube beads:  by JBB Findings (at Rings and Things)
Bead caps:  Copper plated pewter bead caps by TierraCast (Fusionbeads.com or your favorite place to buy TierraCast)
Helix crystal beads:  Available at Danette Darbonne on Etsy.


Thank you so much for reading--I'll be back in two weeks!

xoxo
Meridy

My shop
My FB page

Fall Beauties

Hey everybody! I hope you're all doing great and that the weather is behaving in your neck of the woods. I'm sorry I went MIA a couple of weeks ago. I injured my knee the day I was supposed to make earrings, take pictures and write a post, and my coconut just totally zonked out with the pain killers and the ice.

My knee is fine, thankfully... my coconut, well...... it's getting older. I'll leave it at that LOL ;)

I've got a showcase coming up on FB on Nov. 2-3rd in the Handmade Beads and Findings group (I hope to see you there!), and I've been making various things, including these:

But, my heart wanted to make something with one of the pairs I had made, so I grabbed them and here's the pair of earrings I designed for you today:

Handmade polymer clay round earring connectors featuring modern leaves, with shades of orange, russet, and aqua blue, with a touch of brass. I love how the colors play against each other.

I added copper tone chains for a feminine wispy look, on which I suspended a pair of pretty TierraCast hearts. I've also included some cool funky shaped 'tube' Blue Apatite gemstone beads that i bought many many years ago (yes, I'm a hoarder!!), sandwiched between some rustic TierraCast rondelles, topped with sparkling yellow glass seed beads.

These will be available for sale in my Etsy shop HERE over the next couple of days, as well as new handmade polymer clay jewelry making components!

I wish you all a Beautiful Fall season (and my heart goes out to all those still dealing with all the fires, and other storms going on at this time)

Cheers,
Nathalie

Visit my shops:
My Garden Of Love Jewelry Supplies
The Craft Tribe Instant Download Printables

Turning Japanese

Art Beads:
Handmade Paper Beads Japanese Style - PassionForPaperBeads

Other Components:
Copper head pins
Copper heishi beads
Copper jump rings
Matte black seed beads
Handmade oxidized copper earrings hooks


All my best,
Malin de Koning
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Half Cracked

I've never been one for smooth, shiny, flawless surfaces in my metalwork. There are plenty of artists out there who do it and do it beautifully. I prefer a little more texture, distress, and time-wear. Maybe it's because I'm an old soul with lifetimes behind me, who knows?

So I surprised myself last week when I was tinkering in the studio with some fold formed copper charms. Rarely one to plan out an exact design beforehand, I started out this pair by simply annealing matched squares of copper, folding them, hammering flat, annealing again, and unfolding---revealing beautiful rustic creases in the metal. Now normally I would next turn to my favorite texturing rock (plucked from our garden) and start banging away as if my life depended on it. For some reason, I stopped short halfway through this time. 

How about we just leave half shiny, smooth, and serene---as a stark contrast to the chaos of the textured side?

And this is how designs are born. 

I'm quite fond of making coin-like discs out of copper, so that's the final shape I decided to go with here. Reminiscent of an ancient coin plucked from the soil, perhaps. I filed a bit along the folds of each, sanded, sanded, sanded, oxidized, buffed, and sealed with wax. Simple, perfect for everyday wear, yet noteworthy enough to make you feel like a pagan goddess. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Colours in Stack

Hi there,
hope you are all well. Here's todays earrings. Something colourful and hopefully spring-like for this wonderful season. 


Ingredients (from bottom to top):
Handmade enameled copper headpins - Barbara Lewis of PaintingWithFire
6/0 Orange duracoat metallic seed beads
Purple opal czech glass flowers
6/0 Lilac gold luster seed beads
Aqua green greek ceramic beads
Lime green opal spacer glass beads
Bronze czech glass spacer rondelles
Purple opal czech glass druks
Handmade copper earring hooks

All my best,

Malin
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com