"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." ~ A.A. Milne

I love playing around with strong contrast, and this pair of earrings has quite a nice mixture of texture and different types of material.

The beautiful porcelain earring charms are by Terri DelSignore of Artisticaos.  They have all the qualities I love - beautiful color, nice lines, and endless possibilities for designing with.

 I decided to build an abstract sort of flowering weed.  I didn't want to add a lot of color to the top of this pair, keeping the focus on the colorful stems. I used dyed lucite berries and added some sweet vintage glass pearls for a little softness and light.  It's a nice sophisticated and versatile color palette this way.

It popped into my head to use some bold rustic metal bead caps to represent the withering sepal. Also, they complement the outline of the leaves. I think the rustic look of the metal lends a nice little element of surprise, too, and really brings the whole design together.

Thank you, thank you, for stopping by to see what's happening on my worktable today!

See you back here in a couple of weeks!  

Loralee xo

https://www.facebook.com/loraleekolton.jewelry/

We're All Ears :: May Reveal :: May Day Flowers

Hello everyone!
Happy spring!
The birds are chirping, the sun is shining and today it is a lovely 68 degrees here in the heart of Wisconsin. A perfect spring day!

Our challenge for this month was to do something that was inspired by the tradition of May Day (May 1st) with flowers, and baskets and ribbons on maypoles. I hope that you found something to be inspired by in this challenge!

I decided to keep things simple. I came across a bunch of these dyed howlite flower shaped beads and wanted to do something that would combine that with the ribbons of the maypole. I didn't find any ribbon or cord that would work, but I did find a small stash of colored flexible beading wire from Softflex that worked perfectly with the colors. I simply passed the wire through the little flower beads and shimmied them around so that the flat flower part would show rather than stack and crimped them off. Easy peasy! I think that this would work with other beads, like Czech glass flowers or even little round beads or crystals, as long as you can string four strands of wire through the hole.

I tried to do a little video showing how I made them, but I can't seem to get it to download off my phone and it also shot it in two parts with half of it upside down! Grrr! I guess technology is not my friend at the moment!

So in order not to delay this further, I will just show the pictures (although they are so simple I am sure you can figure it out!). If I can get the video to load, I will try to add that later.

Your turn! Brighten up the world with your happy spring inspired earrings!

We're All Ears :: May Inspiration :: May Day

Sorry for the delay in posting. Typically I don't work on Fridays. But we have been going crazy at work. That is a good thing. But that meant that I ended up working [from home] ALL DAY LONG. So now that it is almost 3pm I am finally able to shut off and tackle tasks that I was supposed to be doing all along. Not complaining, because I do have a job and we are doing well, but it is tough that my computer and the phone line that rings is in the same room as my bead cave, so I sit inches from all my beads all day long. And today was supposed to be my day to play with beads and make art. Oh well.

{Sigh.}

So taking a few moments to breathe deep {in. out. repeat}, stretch, and know that I needed to find something uplifting to focus on. Then I realize that today is May 1st, May Day.

I remember as a kid making paper flowers and weaving a paper basket in a heart shape and then dropping that off on some neighbor's front porch, ringing the doorbell and running away to peer from the bushes to see their face light up. I think that is a sweet idea. But I don't know much about why we did this. So I found out from the Farmer's Almanac that there is a lot of tradition and folklore with this celebration.

What I didn't know was that May Day is rooted in astronomy. On this day, we are about halfway between the spring equinox [March 19, 2020] and the summer solstice [June 20, 2020]. Apparently there are Celtic cross-quarter days that measure the time between the solstices and equinoxes each year. Among the other cross-quarter days are February 2 [Candlemas or Groundhog Day], May 1 [May Day], August 1[Lammas Day], October 31 [Samhain "summer's end"]. Read more here.

May Day is part of larger festivals and celebrations that are about dancing and songs all focused on the fields beginning to sprout. Dancing around a Maypole holding colorful ribbons woven in and out is a joyful celebration of fertility of crops and also signals the flirtatious courtship of young people (which explains why there are a lot of June weddings!). Crowning a May Queen, or in the Catholic tradition crowing Mary statues, are also part of these festivities.

So our inspiration for the We're All Ears challenge is the tradition of May Day: flowers in cones or baskets, dancing around a Maypole with ribbons.... or other signs of spring!

Make your spring May Day earrings [bonus: they will be perfect for Mother's Day gifting as well!] and come back here on Friday, May 15th to share!

We're All Ears :: April Reveal :: Safer At Home

Hello bead peeps!

I am sorry to be a little late to my own party. And I am not prepared (!). I clearly have not been very good at mastering time management of late. I am ashamed that I have no earrings to show for this post, but I do have something creative to share. And as they say on Broadway...the Show Must Go On!

I didn't make any earrings, but I am very proud to say that my creative constipation has finally busted through! LOL! I did manage to make the first in what will become a series of mixed media mosaic assemblages, so that is what I am sharing with you today. And there is a little bit of earring tucked into it....

I have had these little house shapes for some time and more that are larger and smaller, as I really resonate with a house shape. I have wanted to make these into something for a long time but just couldn't figure out what.

Then I stumbled on the "leaning tower of discarded jewelry" which is really leaning and it is so large it is a tower in my studio that I literally stumbled into! I found a necklace that I had made back in 2014 as a sample for a video series that I did with Interweave called "Shimmering Garden" (that I see is still offered for download!). It was in the discard pile because it had been strung incorrectly and the flowers didn't hang right. But all good pieces, and nothing ever gets thrown away in my world! So I just took a scissors to it and started cutting. Those three large flowers were what I made in the video and were the perfect focals for this new project. From there it was just fun to find all the bits I had lying around to make this mosaic assemblage. Included in here are actual earrings that were in my mother's jewelry box. There was a whole bag of these unfortunate costume jewelry pieces from decades past (nothing valuable or sentimental), things I can't even fathom my mother would have worn, still I couldn't get rid of them. So even though I didn't make earrings, there are still earrings represented here!

These will become a series that I will debut at the Gallery Q when we do actually reopen. And now that I have made one, the flood gates of creativity are opening. Huzzah!

A picture of my home before when we bought it in late 2009.

When this home isolation mandate came down I embraced the change, even though it was hard. I thought that maybe I would tackle some creative projects I had been putting off. But no, that sadly hasn't happened. Yes, it has been a shock to the system, but it is clearly NOT the worst thing. Despite the negative connotations, the actual hardships that people are facing, and let's face it, the inconveniences that are seemingly the main thing that I see people griping about, this time on pause has made me appreciate more than ever all the blessings that I have in my life: my family, my friends, having a job, the food on my table, the health that we have, the beauty of nature all around us, the rising of community spirit, the undeniable worth of a positive outlook, scientific facts and discoveries that will carry us though, the value of seeking to learn something new every day.

My friend Shannon has been doing a Facebook live "Stories with Shannon" each week for little ones, complete with a story she reads, plus coloring and even yoga bits. It is simply delightful. She read a book about mindfulness called A World of Pausabilities this week and it really resonated with me. Pushing pause on our lives as we knew them is not the same as pushing stop. There are many opportunities to be had if we only take the time to look up and out and see how we are all tightly woven in our communities, local, state, country and world - dependent on each other for health and happiness. This mindfulness is what I hope to carry through to the other side, wherever and whenever that may be. So I ask you...

What do you hope to carry with you to the other side of this pause? 

If you were able to play along in this challenge, now is the time to share!


P.S. Today, April 17th at 2:00pm I will be doing my very first Facebook live with a little art project that anyone, anywhere can join in on. We will be doing Greeting Card Mosaics with paper. Would love to have you join me! It will be hosted on the CREATE Portage County Facebook page.

Sweet Bun-Buns

Joan Miller of Joan Miller Porcelain is the amazing talent behind these sweet little bunnies.  For me, the biggest design challenge working with Joan's pieces is enhancing without overpowering; adding just enough to the ongoing story. 

Atop are bunches of tiny hand-painted flowers. I love the contrast of the matte mottled metal against the glossy clean lines of the porcelain charms.  The copper accents are warm and mingle nicely with the color palette. The heavily oxidized ear-wires give balance to the dark outlined characters.

Below are hand-painted pewter bunny silhouette charms by Kelly Luttrell of Soul Relica.  I love the softened squared off clover shape, it's just perfect for a tiny rabbit portrait.

I've hoarded these matte floral cubes for years, again by Joan. They look great not only colorwise but in proportion and shape as well. 

My adorable plate was made by The Storybook Rabbit. If you've never checked her out you should!  

I've provided links to all :) 

💜

Thank you so much for stopping my worktable today!!  Hoppy April, Y'all!

Loralee xo

https://www.facebook.com/loraleekolton.jewelry/

"Pins and needles, needles and pins, it's a happy man that grins."

Joan Miller, my Queen Of Halloween bead maker, just had her first show of the season and I was lucky enough to purchase these wonderful little autumn-inspired flowers. Fresh green and butter yellow are one of my all-time favorite color combinations. 

I always see little fancy black spiders in the center, do you?? Anyway...

I wanted to play up the beautiful green so I added some lovely vintage glass beads with small black slashes.  They have a wonderful matte finish and look very much like pods.

I could have left them alone at that point, but oh heck, it IS almost Halloween and I had the most perfectly adorable, teeny-tiny skulls, sooo... look who is now popping out of the pods...lol

My favorite thing to do in a design is add a little element of surprise.  From a distance, they are just pretty little flowers, but up close, someone is looking back!  My friend, whom I bead with every Saturday night, saw the earrings from across the table and said "Oh, how pretty!"  Then looked closer and went "Whoa!"  We've been friends forever and REALLY, she should have known better!  lol

Thank you so much for joining me and having a look at what I've been up to!  I'll be back in two weeks' time!

Loralee XO 

loraleekolton.etsy.com

Bold

and beautiful?!

I went for big for today's post.  I rescued these lampwork flowers (Yuliana Goldin-Dunn)

from a previous pair and attached them to brass flower blanks. I'd already punched some holes on the blanks as I wanted to hang stuff from them....but I had no idea what.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that designs half of an earring with absolutely no clue about what to do with the other half!

So top half done including the 2 teeny butterfly charms hanging on either side.  My mind went completely blank after that.  I tried hanging so many different charms to no avail.  The truth is I was feeling lazy...I wanted to just find the perfect charms to attach with jump rings, easy peasy - but it wasn't happening.  I knew I needed to make something.  I gave up in the end and went for these brass oval frames which I wire wrapped (the number of times I nodded off during wrapping......just coz I didn't want to do it) with blue and orange cup chain to match the lampwork.  

All matched up now and I think they look good.  If you like them, they will be available for purchase in my next FB show - on Monday in The Earrings Show group.  Hope you can stop by. 

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Ending

the year on a flowery note.  I hope you like them. 

Here's a closer look.  In this first pair I've combined brown, blue, gold and grey/blue with gold hearts and butterflies.  

Reds, cream, fuchsia, pink  

Rustic bronze/dark red with bronze cream/white and gold hearts

Cream, blue, greens, pinks with gold butterflies

and the classic black and white softened slightly with grey.

Some of the bigger clusters felt a tad heavy so I decided to go with posts instead of ear wires.  Posts are great for making heavier earrings feel much lighter.  

A short and sweet post to end the year, I hope you all have a fantastic 2019. See you next year <3

(These earrings will be available in my first show of 2019 in The Earrings Show on 02/01/19)

Suhana 

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Bloom And Sparkle

I adore this time of year.  The rhododendrons are in their full glory.

Lilacs are filling the air with their intoxicating perfume.  I have a big bouquet of bright yellow day lilies on the fireplace mantle.  And pink tinged dogwoods fill me with joy. Everywhere you look right now is glorious.

With this bounty of blooms, I can't help but make flower themed jewelry. Today's earrings are brought to you by the colors magenta and green, with inspiration from the large camellia bushes in our back yard.

The shiny dark green leaves with the raspberry pink of the bloom got translated into these earrings.

Unfortunately I no longer remember the name of the artist who make the magenta and green lampwork flowers, but they were the launching point for these earrings.

I had some magenta beads that were a perfect match to the flowers.  I added some rhinestone discs and Czech glass bell flower accents to complete the design.

The Bloom and Sparkle earrings are available in my shop.

Linda Landig Jewelry

A Lick and a Promise

"A lick and a promise" is a phrase that my mom used to use to describe making our house presentable now and doing a full housecleaning later.  I'm afraid that my post today is going to be a little bit like that--short and hopefully presentable!--since I've caught my grandson's cold/bronchitis.  I'm not feeling so great, and on top of that, the cough/cold medicine has zombie-fied me to the point where all I really want to do is stare into space 😵 or curl up with a blankie and pillow. 💗

But I still wanted to share these new earrings with you since they just feel so much like

summer to me, with all the flowers and aqua and lavender!  The lovely blue-and-purple

striated-and-dotted lampie beads are by Terry Turner of Silverfish Designs, and

Raida Disbrow of Havana Beads made the exquisite enameled charms.  I added Czech

rondelles and discs, in purple and aqua; leafy copper bead caps; tiny aqua Swarovski

bicones; and even smaller seed beads, also in aqua.  Thank you, Raida and Terry, for

making these gorgeous beads and components that allow me to make beauty in turn.  💗

Thank you all for being understanding.  I promise to be back next time

(May 24, I do believe) with an entire "housecleaning."  😊💗

xoxo

Meridy

My shop

My FB Page 

Pinky Love Knots

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I get giddy just thinking of certain color combos, well this one is another one of my favorites: Pink and gold. It's sunny, happy, and makes my girlie heart sing :)

Being that my health hasn't been the best for quite some time, being able to work with polymer clay and create with happy fun colors and components is such a joy, and such a healing process. I highly recommend it. Just do it for yourself, if nothing else.

So today, I wanted to share these happy earrings with you:

Small polymer clay oval earring drops, handmade by me - these are water-colored in and I added some glitter (because life is happier with glitter, and because I can LOL), sealed with a glaze. I used some pretty Gold-tone Tierra Cast rings to create the two Love Knots.

Throw in a little natural hemp cord and Swarovskis for some lighthearted sparkling fun, and my gosh, we're ready for a fun Summer party! Wanna join me? We'll get the BBQ going :)

Have you added some fun accessories to your Summer wardrobe this year? What kind of accessories do you gravitate towards the most?

If you're looking for one of a kind handmade jewelry components and finished jewelry, hop on over to my Etsy shop HERE.

Cheers,
Nathalie

Visit my Etsy Jewelry/Components shop here: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Etsy Digi shop here: The Crafty Tribe

Weathered Wild Flowers

My hubby and I can't resist snapping pictures everywhere we go. Thankfully, in this digital age, it's easy to take and store a ton of images almost effortlessly. I love having this huge pool of images to inspire me, and remind me of the places we've visited together throughout the years.

My inspiration this week is a picture taken by my love, as we strolled through a field of wildflowers at sunset in the Peace River region, Northern British-Columbia, Canada:

Northern Wildflowers at Sunset by "Mr. Nathalie" :)

I just love the colors, and that sense of freedom and peace I feel when I look at that photograph.

These flowers have been there for a long time, wild and free, sun-kissed and happy.

I used both copper and sterling silver in making these wild flowers earrings.

Softly weathered, definitely wild and rustic.

 Topped with small handmade multicolored artisan glass beads from Little Crow,

which capture a variety of colors that we found during our sunset walk in the forest.

The antique patina creating shadows, and the satin texture on the petals softly catching the sunlight.

Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!

... and believe in your dreams... 

Nathalie Lesage

www.MyGardenOfLove.com

Mele Kalikimaka

I have to admit, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation has become somewhat of a tradition for me and my hubby to watch every holiday season.  I mean come on! its a classic, right?  It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it, I laugh hysterically every time.

squirrel ?

I made these earrings this past weekend not really expecting this design, but turns out, I really love them. They were popping with color that did in fact bring out some holiday cheer, ☺

I posted them on my Facebook page and received a wonderful comment to how they resemble a Hawaiian Christmas, so there ya go...they are now titled my Mele Kalikimaka earrings, ☺

So dream big friends!!
Say so long to 2015 and we'll be ROCKIN in the New Year!!!

 ♪♫♪♪♫ Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say, 

on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day, 

That's the island greeting that we send to you, 

From the land where palm trees sway, 

Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright, 

The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night, 

Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way

To say "Merry Christmas to you."♪♫♪♫

Y.u.c.c.a. B.l.o.o.m. on ETSY

Y.u.c.c.a. B.l.o.o.m. on Facebook

Y.u.c.c.a. B.l.o.o.m. on Pinterest

Holiday Hoops ♪♫♪♫♪♫

I would have to say hoops are my favorite earrings, perhaps it shows my age, I don't know, it's what I wore wore back in the 70's and 80's, and the bigger the better.  

These colorful lovelies are no exception.  

I purchase the brass blanks and do all of the painting myself.  It's not really that hard since the pattern is already there for you, a little time consuming, but I've done enough pairs to have the process pretty much nailed down. After paint and seal, I bend them to shape, punch holes and apply the ear wires.

I think these could pass as holiday Poinsettia's don"t you?

I've painted many summer bouquet's as well, the fun part is, I never know where the process is going end up, I just keep adding color on top of color ♥


So go buy some brass blanks you admire,  acrylic paints and a fine paint brush and let that inner artist glow!!!

♪♫♪♫ Thanks for looking friends ♪♫♪♫
See you again in two weeks ☺

Yucca Bloom- My Etsy Shop
Yucca Bloom Facebook Page
Yucca Bloom on Pinterest

Black Inspiration

I was recently asked to make some black earrings for a client. Ideas and inspiration exploded in my head. I believe with jewelry designers, artisans, this is how it happens sometimes. 

It's either feast or famine, right? 

Dry times of "making" can be so discouraging. I get through the "dry spell" by looking through my past work, cleaning my work space, and then just randomly digging through my supplies. Generally that's all it takes. Beads and components start coming together like magnets. 

However, this was not one of those dry times. This time, the inspiration was flowing like a river in the winter. It's like being filled with a spirit and your hands are not your own. For a few hours you are in another dimension being guided by a muse and when it's all over... you can sit back and bask in the glow of your creation. (hopefully) or be applaud by it- that's happened a time or two as well. 

Back to the black inspiration. 

 I am thrilled with how this came out. 

These earrings feature micro faceted Black Spinel gemstones, flower charms created from bits of recycled pure silver, and small fine silver hoops, hand forged. Available at Art & Soul Jewelry. I see a matching bracelet in the future!

See the rest of my Black Inspiration here!

peace, blessings, and INSPIRATION~