Dragonflies and Faux Australian Koroit Opals

One thing about suffering from a chronic illness, I end up spending a lot of time (sadly) laying down, thinking and designing things in my head. One of things I do is work through various creative ideas in my brain, and try to work out all the kinks so that when I feel well enough, then I can actually implement things quickly. Kind of like hitting the ground running.

So, among the many ideas swirling around in my coconut, the idea of making some 'faux' Australian Koroit Opals had been swimming in there for quite some time. I figured it was time to try it out, and see what happens! Yay!!

So this is what I ended up with. I made several oval-shaped faux opals (some smaller, and these slightly larger ones), and picked a pair to use in these dragonfly earrings:

Faux Koroit Boulder Opals Sterling Silver Dragonfly Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

I'm also fond of charm necklaces, but wanted to make some 'charm earrings' since we're all about earrings here. Extremely lightweight (gotta love Polymer clay for reducing the weight on our earlobes!) these cuties are ready to play and explore the world with you! These measure 2.5" tall x 1" wide.

I used some 20g Sterling Silver wire to make the hoops, added a bit of textures while cold-forging, and decided to go with a pair of fun twisted sterling silver jump rings to suspend my faux opals. I kept the rest simple (truth: I made these quickly before running out of light to take pictures and write this post..... haven't been well at all lately)... so fun little Sterling dragonflies, and a few sparkling Czech glass beads became part of this little party.

I'm happy on how these turned out, but I want to try again and go a bit finer on the chunks of host-rock (the brown areas) I think. It's definitely fun, and I'll keep at it. Practice makes perfect!

I have a showcase planned on FB for October 1st. I'll be selling some faux opals and other polymer clay handmade jewelry components (Search for the Handmade Beads and Findings FB group to discover lots of great handmade jewelry components makers!).

In the meantime, these earrings can be found in my Etsy shop HERE, along with other jewelry supplies. I've started to list some of my personal gemstones collection on Etsy too. I'm just too unwell to make much jewelry, and I need to part with some of my stash.

Have a wonderful weekend! I can't believe September is almost done already...

Cheers,
Nathalie
Visit my Etsy shops:
My Garden Of Love
The Crafty Tribe
Nat Lesage Designs

Fun with patina

This week I got my Vintaj patinas out and this is what I made.  I've antiqued and patinated/patinaed everything except the dragonflies. 

I also patinated these but didn't get a chance to turn them in to earrings yet.

The earrings will be available in my FB trunk show shared with my friend Cheryl Zink in The Jewellery Show group from 9pm BST/4pmEST on Saturday the 29th.  Hope to see you there. 

If you comment on this post, feel free to give me suggestions as to what you'd like to see in the future :)

See you soon.

Suhana <3<3<3

Garden Friends

We've had so much rain this Spring, that it seems now, we have much more little creepy crawlies and all sorts of 'friends' popping over in the garden... One of my favorite garden friends are beautiful  dragonflies!

I wanted to make some jewelry components that featured these cuties, and so I've created a handful of handmade dragonflies earring drops, and decided to use a pair to make these fun lightweight earrings:

The great part about making my own polymer clay colors is that I can pretty much 'match' any other component that I plan on using. In this case, I had this gorgeous green hemp cord that I wanted to use in some fun summery designs. It was perfect to use with the design I wanted to create:

A pair of my handmade green/blue dragonfly earring drops, Greek ceramic beads in dark blue, tiny seed beads in blue, and small TierraCast gold-tone rustic spacer beads, on fabulous green hemp cord.

The light flurry of beads/cords at the bottom represents that flutter effect that I feel/see when they fly around in the garden, like a light trail of happiness that they spread around.

Oh happy happy Summer Days....

What are your favorite garden critters?

You can find these earrings and more of my jewelry components HERE in my Etsy shop.

Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy the weekend!
Cheers,
Nathalie Lesage

Visit my Handmade Jewelry & Components shop here: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Digi shop here: The Crafty Tribe

Dragonfly Earrings

I created these dragonfly earrings as a gift for my mom.  She always wears a pair of Humblebeads earrings when she wants to feel close to me since we live on opposite ends of the country. I love that a pair of earrings can make someone feel like they have a little hug from you whenever they need it!

The dragonfly charms are from White Clover Kiln and paired up with a Humblebeads leafy disk beads. I kept the design simple with brass accents that pull in the color from the branches.

I couldn't help but think handmade scarves are another beautiful gift that feel like a hug from the giver. I found two that would go perfectly with the dragonfly fly earrings. This minty knitted creation is from Jamie Sierra Knits.

And for those Southern girls, like my mom in New Orleans, here is a scarf that is a piece of art! I love these hand-painted creations from D*E Silks.

Humblebeads Jewelry