Glorious Geometrics

Hi, everyone!  The first thing I'd like to say about these earrings is that I really loved making them...even if they were time-consuming.  😉

As a chainmailler, obviously I like working with metal, but as a woman who for years transcribed the (sometimes unintelligible) dictation of doctors, I now find myself with arthritic thumbs that aren't up to heavy-duty metal work anymore.  These days, the idea of making chainmaille in stainless steel--famously hard to work with--is a little scary at best.

But I really enjoy working with wire that's easily manipulable, and with chainmaille rings in softer metals.  So every now and then, rather than pair beads with beautiful components like these (made by Marlene Kazor Quigley of MarKazo Art), I create something out of wire instead.

 

In this case, I made circles out of several wraps of copper wire, antiqued and tumbled them, and wired onto them tiny beads in colors that bring out the vivid hues of Marlene's enameled copper triangles.  I even wrapped some little beads to the ear wires.

I always did like geometry.  💗

Thanks so much for reading!
xoxo
Meridy

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In the Dreamtime

Some designs just seem to turn out dreamy and abstract, and in the case of these earrings, pastel as well.   

A while back I fell in love with these lovely pink coin beads, below (found at Arte Bella Surplus on Etsy), and I wanted to try making earrings with them using my thread-wrapping construction.   

I had a pretty strong feeling it probably wouldn't work, because wrapping beads and components together with thread/cord requires torque upon the components...and there was a natural frailty built in to the stacking of the coin bead, the small Caribbean-green Czech glass rondelle, and the rose-colored glass disc.  What would be stable wired might not be when pulled tight on cord.  

As it turned out, I ended up needing to wire wrap the earrings to give the beads the stability they needed to stay in place.  But in the end I still had fun with some fiber by wrapping pale lavender Irish waxed linen thread around the tops of the beautiful polymer clay components by Jeni Houser Alasad of Auntie Moons.  💗 

As I write this, it's raining gently outside my window, after a day of heavy rains; it's been a busy day, and I'm ready to rest.  When you read this it will be Valentine's Day, and I wish you all love and best wishes!  I'll be back in two weeks with something new.  💕

xoxo
Meridy

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Discs and Circles...

...and DOTS!  Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope your 2019 is going well!  💗

These colorful, happy, and whimsical earrings were so much fun to make!  I've just listed them, and their sunniness is welcome after the rain and windstorms we've had here in Sacramento the last few days!  It's been glooooomy!

I bought the wonderful ombre dotted charms by Nicola Morse quite a while ago, and found their dotty match (the glorious golden hollow beads by Beth Mellor) by chance a number of months ago.  I had commissioned Beth to make me some beads to go with other components I had, and she made those beads as well as many more...including the wonderful dotted beauties that ended up in these earrings.  I love how these earrings came together by serendipity.  💗

To finish the earrings, I added a pair of small orchid glass discs (also by Beth), golden Swarovski rondelles nestling in little gold leafy bead caps, and beautiful 4-mm faceted purple garnet coins.  I wrapped everything together with gold-filled wire and hung them on my Two Trees gold-filled ear wires.

These earrings can be found at Two Trees Studio, here.

Wishing you all sunny days--or at least sunny days of the heart.  💗

Thanks for reading.  I'll be back in two weeks with some new things!

xoxo
Meridy

My shop
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Springtime, at the Edge of Winter...

It's nearly Winter Solstice, but I'm still loving florals, especially 

when they're as pretty as the flowers created by

Beth Mellor and Raida Disbrow, here and below.  

These earrings can be found and purchased here.

Such gentle beauty and color from Beth's glass tulip beads (with their blue petals laid over

 underlying green) and Raida's lovely floral enameled copper charms!  I complemented them

 with small blue Czech glass tulip beads, 4-mm olivine Czech glass discs, tiny rosy bicone 

Swarovski crystals, and small leafy copper bead caps.   

Thank you so much for reading!  I'll be back soon. 💗 The happiest of holidays to you all!

xoxo
Meridy
Two Trees Studio

Color Play

Early on in my life as a jewelry designer, I learned that my favorite part of designing was working with color, with line/shape/proportion coming in as a close second, followed by texture.  It's true to this day.  It's probably not too surprising--who doesn't love color, after all?

But I found that I enjoyed the study of color, of what colors complemented what others and what colors really didn't work well together.  For instance, in the earrings below, the beautiful dagger charms by Inviciti were a gently dissonant pink-and-orange, as were the streaky little glass rondelles by Beth Mellor, and I very specifically chose the tiny aqua-green rondelles to go with them, in direct complement to the rest of the color palette.

In contrast, these cityscape earrings, left, are an example of color matching, using lampwork glass, Czech glass, and Swarovski crystal beads in the same colors found in the vibrant charms by Marlene Kazor Quigley that are used in the earrings.










The earrings below, however, started out with a lot of color.  The first items I had to start my earrings were Kristi Bowman's rainbow-painted copper charms, which are so colorful that they could almost be the earrings' entire focus of color.  But I wanted more color. 😄💗

The wonderful Beth Mellor helped feed my color craving by making these gorgeous encased lampwork beads, with their ripples of color and little dark sine-wave-like scribbles.  She also made the beautiful orange glass rondelles.  💗

So...I got a little more color, and I think it works.  In fact, it feels autumnal, and that was a surprise.  Interesting...  

These earrings are available at Two Trees Studio.

Thanks so much for reading.  💗

See you in two weeks!  

xoxo

Meridy

My Shop

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Amethysts All the Way Down

Recently I've been fortunate to have collected a number of pairs of delicately beautiful enameled earring components by Raida Disbrow of Havana Beads.  My newest earrings, below, are made from one of her gorgeous pairs: luscious florals in purples and deep purply blues, with droplets of pink and baby blue.  

It's been a long time since I've made much rosary chain, but I enjoyed putting together the little chains of small faceted amethysts.  And I'm not dreading this whole briolette-wrapping thing so much anymore either, probably because I'm getting a little better at it despite myself.  That's what happens when you keep working on it, right? I can hear my mother asking me now from the other side.  (Of course, she's right.) 😉🌷

Recipe for Amethysts All the Way Down

(2) Enameled earring components

(12) Small faceted amethyst rounds

(6) Small anodized niobium rings, purple

(2) Faceted 10mm amethyst briolettes

(2) Anodized niobium ear wires, purple

24 ga copper wire, darkened

26 ga copper wire

These pretties can be found
  here at Two Trees Studio.

Thanks so much for reading.  I'll see you next time! 💗
xoxo
Meridy

My shop

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Wired Butterflies

Hi, everyone!

I tried something a little different with these new earrings, which feature a pair of Cathleen Zaring's beautiful butterfly enameled-copper earring components: 

FYI, my usual go-to technique to use with components with top holes like these would be something like these earrings I made three years ago...

...and, believe me, I love these earrings and adore working with fiber and knotting this way.  But lately I've been having fun going back to playing with wire too.  

I'd made antiqued copper wire connector components before for necklaces (below is a detail) but had never tried to use them for earrings, and had never added beads to them. 

I thought it might be fun to see how the round connectors would work with this type of earring component, with just a few small beads in coordinating colors wrapped to them (and with a bead wrapped to each matching ear wire too!).  I didn't know what to expect, but they have a sleekness, a simplicity, and a modernity that I like--and I don't always end up liking my experiments.  😏  

They were also really fun to make.  I hadn't gotten my hands really messy in liver of sulfur in a while!  

These earrings can be purchased at Two Trees Studio.

Recipe for Wired Butterflies 

Enameled "handbag-shaped" copper earring beads by Cathleen Zaring

22 ga. round antique copper wire wrapped connectors

3 mm Czech glass rounds in amethyst and wine

15/0 Miyuki Delica yellow seed beads

Thanks for reading--I'll be back in a couple of weeks!

xoxo

Meridy 

My Shop

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Okay, I Admit It: I'm Really Not Crazy About Wrapping Briolettes ❤

I didn't realize until today that I didn't have any new earrings to present for my blog post this week. I usually make earrings for my blog post several days ahead of time and then write my post the day before it posts, but this time I just didn't have anything ready.   I haven't been making many new things for a while because of a lingering bronchitis and its resultant lack of energy, but this morning I remembered that I had a pair of beautiful daisy connectors by Wild Raven Studio and a pair of lovely carnelian briolettes from Beadshop.com, so I thought I might work up a quick pair of earrings.

With sterling silver wire, I added a pair of pretty Czech glass rondelles in a deep orange-yellow to the daisy connectors and added the briolettes to the bottom of the wire as well. 

I talk about adding these briolettes as if it's no big deal, but, for me, wrapping briolettes never seems to be easy.  I rarely wrap briolettes, so when I do I always seem to fumble my way through it.  Seriously.  It took me three tries to get these done to my (barely passable) satisfaction.  And I did each one differently, so before these earrings are ready to go into my shop they'll have to be redone so the brios are wrapped the same way.  Sigh.  But still, they're kind of pretty, aren't they?  

These earrings feel like summer...lightweight, colorful, and lovely.  I hope your June is feeling lightweight and lovely too!  ❤

Thanks for reading!  I'll be back in a couple of weeks!  ❤

xoxo
Meridy

My Shop

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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

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These Earrings Had to Have Chain

Lately in some of my earring designs I've been searching out different elements and colors than I usually favor, mostly as a way to push myself out of my comfort zone a little, which in turn seems to help to keep my creativity sparking.  

This week's earrings feature a pair of Nicola Morse's brass paint effect-and-resin charms:

The charms themselves are Different Element One:  I rarely use gold or gold-tone metal.  Even so, they're so beautiful that I couldn't resist them!  I decided to pair them with lampwork glass--glossy blue discs by Helen Chalmers and small streaky mango-colored rondelles by Beth Mellor. 

Different Element Two was kind of randomly imposed: I'd decided that these earrings had to have chain, something I've almost never used in my earrings.  Somehow the delicate gold-filled chain I found finishes these earrings perfectly.  I used gold-filled head pins to wire-wrap 2-mm round turquoise beads and 11/0 gold-plated seed beads to each segment of the chain and hung them all from gold-filled jump rings. Hey, once I decided to go gold, I went all out!   😉

They're long, lightweight, and swingy.  They'll be in my shop soon.  

Thanks so much for reading about my adventures in golden charms and chains.  I'll be back in a few weeks!  💗

xoxo

Meridy

My Etsy shop

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Vintage Blackberry

I've always liked the jewelry of earlier centuries, which I guess shouldn't be too much of a surprise given that my formal education focused on the Medieval period.  Oddly, though, I'd never really been interested in making vintage-inspired jewelry until now.

You see, a while back I was in need of beads, and I found some beauties in Serena Thomas's Etsy shop, Taneres. Though I usually don't use this type of bead, these lovely, vintage-looking violet-pink-and-yellow beads...

...really appealed to me, so I bought them (well, of course I did!).  Then a week or so later I found these porcelain earring components by Mari Carmen Rodriguez Martinez:  

It was the proverbial match made in heaven!  The colors of Mari Carmen's beautiful charms worked perfectly with Serena's beads, and their shape provided a lovely frame for some very pretty Swarovski "Blackberry" pearls.

Also featured in the earrings are TierraCast antiqued copper bead caps and Swarovski Crystal Lilac Shadow bicone beads. 

I'm really enjoying exploring new things these days.  I hope you're having a wonderful time with whatever creative path you're on.

I'm heading out of town tomorrow, but I'll be back in a few days.

Love to all...and I'll see you in two weeks. 

xoxo

Meridy

My Etsy shop

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Bon Apatite!

Over the past six months or so I've been feeling creatively restless--not necessarily dissatisfaction with what I'm doing, but more the feeling that there are new things coming to add to it.   Lately I've been attracted to jewelry techniques and styles that have never really "called to me" before, and I've been learning new techniques and trying new ideas.    

Anyway, that kind of brings me to these earrings...  :)

I don't often use gemstones in my work, even though I love them, and I don't do a lot of wire-wrapping these days either, though I also enjoy doing that as well.  So these earrings use techniques I haven't made use of in a while.

My starting point was Cathleen Zaring's beautiful white-and-blue enameled copper crescents, a shape I love.  To suspend components like these, I often knot tiny beads into thread instead of wrapping beads on metal.  But a week or so ago I'd been digging around in my little trove of gemstones looking for some garnets and found a small bag of tiny, GORGEOUS blue neon apatite beads--and they looked great with the crescents.  I also had a feeling that these rustic-cut little beads would look best wire-wrapped onto metal.

So I made four copper connectors, darkened them with liver of sulfur, and then tumbled them for hours to give them a gorgeous gleaming chestnut brown color.  Before I put all the parts together, I wrapped the apatite beads to the connectors with raw 26-gauge copper, and then attached the crescents to the connectors and to copper jump rings (which had also received the liver of sulfur and tumbling treatment).  The teal blue niobium ear wires were the perfect final touch.

"Bon Apatite" can be found in my shop, Two Trees Studio.

I really enjoyed making these blue beauties and sharing them with you.  I also wonder how many of us might be feeling that pull of restlessness that I identify as the urge to grow and expand on a creative path.  My love and best wishes go out to you all as we share our paths together!

xoxo
Meridy

My Etsy shop

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Earth Rebirth

In my last post here at Earrings Everyday, I wrote about how much I was yearning for spring to arrive.  Well, it's finally here, officially at least, and for some of us the weather is even getting warmer and sunnier!  So I thought I'd make earrings that would reflect the beginning of spring, that period of rebirth and renewal, when the birds are building nests for their families-to-be, the flowers are starting to bloom, and the trees are leafing out.

I looked through my cache of earring components and opened my box of treasures by Helena Benkoczka of ARETObeadsjewellry, who (as I'm sure you know) makes uniquely beautiful earring charms.  I found just what I wanted:  a lovely pair of tribal teardrop charms in soft turquoise and purple that reminded me of the Easter celebrations of my childhood.

To go with the charms, I picked lovely streaky transparent purple lampwork rondelles by Beth Mellor of Beeboo and pretty turquoise discs made for me by my friend Barbara Steffen of Fire Spirit Beads.

I added tiny purple seed beads and turquoise jump rings, and wrapped and knotted everything together with turquoise waxed linen cording.  These pretty, softly colored earrings are the result.

Thanks so much for reading--I'll see you in two weeks!

xoxo
Meridy

My Etsy shop

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