Shady Sinner

I seem to be in the minority when I say that I really don't prefer jewelry/beads/components that include words. Which is an odd thing for me to say, being a self avowed word nerd, bookaholic, and walking dictionary. There's something about the bluntness (?) of it that doesn't appeal to me. It's hard to describe, other than you will 99.9% of the time never see these in my work. The same goes for beads and charms that feature humans or body parts. But that's another story.


HOWEVER. 

 
When my latest order of ceramic beads from the insanely talented and lovely Claire of somethingtodobeads arrived, she included a generous pair of freebies: grungy twirled smooshed ceramic beads stamped with two simple, devious, wicked words---SHADY and SINNER. 

Now, when I laid eyes on this pair, my first thought was oh, now that's cheeky. And my next thought was wait, those actually kinda go together. Followed quickly by a grin and an oh yes, challenge accepted. 

 
And, thusly, today's pair of earrings was born. I torched my own fat-bottomed copper headpins, strung each ceramic bead on, and then topped them with graduated stacks of rusty, crusty, patina-riddled bead caps---no two the same. I dotted the top loop of each with some silver solder, gave each earring a good oxidation bath, and then hung each from one of my long curvy copper ear wires. Swingy, potbellied little devils.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

En Tiempos Antiguos

Our color palette for today: blush, cream, pearl, coal. 

I'm not the type of girl who gets dolled up often. It's been more than 10 years since I wore makeup. It takes me just a few short minutes to fix my hair out of the shower. Manicures? How about serial nail-biter? Although, I do admit to loving dresses. So what is it about wearing pearls that automatically adds elegance to a look?

I don't design often with pearls because so many of them are too "clean" to suit my preferred aesthetic: grungy, organic, old-looking. So when I came across this strand of wonky etched Tibetan pearls in Tucson this year, I snatched them up. They have the perfect mix of soft pearliness and aged texture---yum! 


When designing around these, I wanted to utilize beads with a matte finish to balance out the smoothness of the pearl. I went with barrels of fossilized stegadon bone (I know!) and two wee ivory colored lampwork glass beads from Karen Elmquist, fashioned to resemble old bone beads. Add in some pitchy black filigree bead caps and cheeky little wire spirals at the bottoms, and I don't think you'd ever miss the fact that the design is so simple. 

They dangle, swing, and sing from your lobes. And they BEG to be worn with your favorite little black dress: you've got class, but you've also got grit. Git em, girl...

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Layered

In keeping with what seems to be my consistent habit of adding flowers to all my earrings lately, here are some layered filigree components that I torch-fire enameled together, and embellished with Czech glass.....um, flowers!  I can see these paired with a fun, flirty maxi sun dress!

I have been having fun layering these components and will have a few of them added to my Melismatic Morsel  arsenal soon!

These eclectic earrings and more can be found at my website...Melismatic Art Jewelry!

Mixed Metal Corsages

Mother's Day, Spring Dances, Proms, Weddings...1 common denominator to these events? Pretty flower corsages!  While working on some larger soldered components this week,  I found that if I layered some of my filigree and brass pieces, they made cute little "corsages".

These are layered onto small copper washers that have been covered with lead free solder that I hammered and patinaed for texture. I then added Czech glass beads with a cool bronze metallic finish, using sterling wire, then dangled everything from hand wrought sterling earwires.

These are so versatile...equally sweet with your  little black dress or your jeans and t-shirt!

Corsage from theflowercupboard.com via Pinterest.com

I did a search on Pinterest for corsage images and there were so many gorgeous ones!  Here is a link!

These and more of my eclectic jewelry can be found at Melismatic Art Jewelry!

Filigree Dreams

 

I love delicate! I love to feel like a girl! I love to feel romantic!

That is how these earrings make me feel!

I really could picture someone wearing these everyday!!

I know I would!

Perfect for every girl with a romantic heart!

Beautiful Vintage feeling filigree, pale blue crystals and leaf drops. The earwires have a closure, so you will not easily lose them. Very romantic!

You can find these earrings and many others in my Etsy shop! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Marie