Just Because

I decided to go all glamorous for today's post.  Perfect for winter (my favourite season).

First up are my wire wrapped hoops but on a much bigger scale, topped by cute little ceramic birds by Caroline Dewison.

Another view.

Then there are these.  I had to find a way to include a rainbow :D Here I have wire wrapped brass triangle frames with cup chain, stacked with silver plated brass, raw brass caps and Czech glass flowers. I'm making more of these btw ;)  

Another view.

These will be listed on Etsy shortly.  Have a lovely weekend everyone.,  See you soon with my last post of the year.

Suhana <3

My Etsy Shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Colour Me Happy

I was lucky enough to snag some Regis Teixera beads recently and here is how I interpreted them.  In the last year or so I moved away from my usual bold colours to more subtle tones. I missed my colours and Regis' beads were a perfect excuse to start playing around with colours again.  I think I still held back but I like what I've come up with and hope you do too.

First up are these.  I had the opportunity to play with so many colours but I held back a little to make the beads be the focus.  I wire wrapped hoops in teal with a hint of black and purple, hanging from these are brass flower blanks which I wire wrapped using single rhinestones (in brass settings) in dark teal(ish) and purple seeds.  

For this pair I simply wire wrapped some hoops in turquoise and amber (gold).  Originally I had layered the hoops with resin charms.  They looked ok but I felt that the hoops needed to be smaller to make them look perfect.  Sorry I didn't take a photo of the original pair.  As I didn't have time to wrap a smaller pair of hoops, I decided to improvise.  I got rid of the resin charms and what I was left with is pictured below.  Short, simple yet statementastic (I think)

And lastly these.  I painted these brass wings last year in rainbow colours but never got round to using them.  I painted filigree brass bits in black, gold and Verdigris, wire wrapped hoops in purple and turquoise and assembled everything.  

These earrings will be available in my next online show in the FB group The Jewellery Show on Monday.  Hope you can join me.  See you in a couple of weeks time.

Suhana <3

My Etsy Shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

A bit of a challenge

So, I have had these incredibly pretty wire wrapped connectors by Suhana Hart for ages! And I have repeatedly taken them out of my stash and gazed at them, sighed, even given them a little stroke. And then put them back in my beady stash. Sometimes, components are so lovely, that it can be really hard to know what to do with them! How to design around them, when they are just fabulous enough to stand alone. I resisted the urge to just pop them on some earwires, and set myself the challenge of doing something with them for this blog post!

I've framed Suhana's wire wrapped connectors with brass hoops. A bit of a cheat, as these are my favourite components; I'm a bit hoop-obsessed!

I added some freshwater pearls, wrapped in wire and silver seed beads and some silver plated spacer beads and twisted jump rings. The second pair even have a few silver leaves peeking through.

A little bit decadent - definitely special occasion earrings. And although the pretty connectors are the stars of the show, I'm pleased didn't just pop them on earwires!

They'll be in my shop soon. See you in a couple of weeks

A little bit of art in your ears

Hello! I have a showcase at the end of this month over on The Earrings Show on Facebook, so have been busy creating some new things for this. I thought I'd share a design I'm enjoying making at the moment, using Petra Carpreau's (of Scorched earth) beautiful art decals. I love these Klimt decal droppers (someone correct me if I'm wrong! I think they are Klimt). They are teamed with beautiful gold nugget beads by Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens and brass hoops to give a layered look. I've added some gold and silvery seed beads to pick up some of the tones in the decal prints. These seed beads are part of a new range at Smitten Beads, and oh they are lovely! They match this design pretty well

Next up, some more of Petra's decals, except this time a bit of Frida Kahlo. I doubled up the brass hoops this time, and kept things simple with freshwater pearls and pretty little blue czech beads to pick up the colours in the decal drops.

So there we are. Little works of art in your earlobes! These will be available at my showcase at the end of the month (details on my Facebook page). In the meantime, get yourself over to Petra's shop. There's a whole range of decals with different artists -bliss!

See you next time

Sue :-)

Facebook page

etsy shop

Unusual, Irregular and kinda Sexy

I have absolutely no idea how this design came to fruition.  The hoops were actually irregular squares to start.  Taking my pliers to them, I worked them to long ovals. I don't remember where I was going with that thought, but looking across my work bench, I saw this enameled blue chain link that I purchased at Hobby Lobby a long time ago. The two looked pretty sweet together, however I had to get creative on how to attach the links to the hoops vertically and tight so they wouldn't slide all over the place.

Unfortunately the links did not match up to the size of my hoops, (keep in mind this was a design in progress and I would have made the hoops fit to size), nevertheless, I took 28 gauge thin wire and threaded it through the links winding it over the hoop ends reinforcing with a dab of super glue.  I know....super glue?? I don't have the means to solder in my current work space, but I'll tell ya, those babies aren't going anywhere.  I added the stones of Citrine at the bottom to bring out the tones of the brass around the blue links.  I was quite thrilled with the end result.

So that's my lesson learned for the day, as it turned out on a positive note.  I plan on making more of these with different chain links and drops, the possibilities are quite endless.

Thanks for visiting and we'll see you again in two weeks,  

Lynn♥

Yucca Bloom on Etsy

Winter Moon

On Saturday, I had the chance to participate in a local Arts & Crafts Sale. It was wonderful to meet local women and their families, and get their feedback on my work.

I haven't had the chance to participate in such events too often in the past, but I do my best to join in the fun as often as I can. There's absolutely NOTHING more precious than receiving real-time, face-to-face feedback from potential buyers.

And inspired by their feedback, and by the beautiful Winter Moon that greeted me on Sunday morning, I have designed these pretty Tanzanite Earrings:

Tanzanite Earrings inspired by the Winter Moon

The women that I spoke with mentioned that they loved gemstone earrings, but that they preferred shorter, more delicate designs (shorter than 2" in total), and it dawned on me that a lot of the earrings I've been making lately were longer than 2". 

It really doesn't take much to get over 2" in length, counting the ear wires.... So I listened to them, and came up with these lightweight little hoops :)

Soft Lavender Tanzanite Gemstones are a beautiful go-with-anything neutral shade

Yesterday morning, when I woke up, I opened the bedroom window's blinds, and found this bright  (almost) full moon, greeting me, and the sky had beautiful painted wisps of lavender, light blue and pink. It was such a beautiful sight. 

I knew right there and then that I had to make earrings inspired by that gift from nature.

I really had a great time meeting everyone at the show on the weekend. If you don't normally do Arts & Craft Sales, I encourage you to go out and meet women and ask for feedback on your designs. Sometimes, they see something that we don't...

You can find these Tanzanite Earrings here on my website...

Thank you for your time! Have a wonderful day :)

Nathalie

http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Confetti Hoops

Confetti Hoops

I was captivated by these strands of tiny multicolor lampwork glass rondelles from Indonesia --I grabbed up a pile of them! I wanted to use them all together in a riot of color. I constructed copper hoops for them, with hammered paddles on the end, and strung them on. Because of the paddles, I needed beads with bigger holes to slip over them, and this was the color assortment that sported the biggest holes--I like it! Then I connected the hoops to earwires via recycled glass discs in sea green, and wired little seed beads in robin's egg blue onto the earwires.

I've been in kind of a confetti mood--THIS really appeals to me too, from BabaYagaFashion, a UK shop--oh for the youth and guts to wear it!

Upcycled Skirt at Baba Yaga on Etsy

(I've marked this shop as a favorite, just in case I hit my head really hard whilst falling into the Fountain of Youth, and I emerge dewy and lithe, with the lack of inhibition common to traumatic brain injuries.)

I'm planning to make additional pairs of these earrings sporting different colors, and probably without the glass disc. This was kind of a prototype, to see if it would work. They are fun to make!

(All of the beads in these earrings are from Happy Mango Beads.)

You can see (a very tiny bit) more of my work at my Etsy shop.

Chains and Leather

We're into the swing of the Holidays, and this means lots of parties coming up!

Are you ready for it?

In my humble opinion, just like a woman's wardrobe is not complete unless she owns "That little black dress", the same goes for her jewelry box... You've got to own that perfect pair of earrings for your nights out on the town:

A little bit mysterious with the Black Spinel gemstones and Hematite Beads...

A little bit edgy with the Sterling Silver chains...

Textures that catch the light and dazzle the room...

A touch of Fire Engine Red lipstick and nail polish... your favorite black dress and it is time. to. party.

Black Leather Holiday Style by nathalie-lesage featuring black tights

I looooooove leather, and I couldn't resist creating a couple of Polyvore boards

featuring black leather :)

Of course, the board above features a more 'upscale' style, but these Black Spinel/Hematite Hoop Earrings would work equally well with this more casual leather outfit:

Black Leather Holiday Style 2 by nathalie-lesage featuring lace up ankle boots

Now that is versatility!

You can find my Belinda Black Stones and Chains Hoop Earrings HERE on my website.

Enjoy the Holiday Season!

Nathalie

http://www.NatLJ.com

Go big or go home

Hoops are so versatile and are always in fashion.

From teeny-tiny to gigantic sizes, there's something in there for everyone's taste.

I hadn't made big gigangic hoops in awhile, and I decided that today was THE day :)

So this is what I made... for the big hoops earrings lovers of this world,

inspired by fun Summer nights with family and friends:

These 14kt Gold-Filled hoop earrings are oval shaped, over 3 inches tall (from the top of my cold-forged handcrafted ear wires) by over 2 inches wide.

I have wire wrapped them with rustic chunks of Chinese Turquoise.

I also incorporated some fun flirty chains in the mix.

A little bit of Rustic Chic, as I like to call it. 

You can dress them up or down, these extra large gold hoops are READY for a Summer Party!

You can find these HERE on my website.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you're enjoying your long weekend!

Nathalie Lesage, Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

NathalieLesageJewelry

Blue Waters

Believe it or not, we are *still* dealing with snow, and you know it... I miss Summer so badly!!

Today, I've decided to venture for the first time on Polyvore, and oh my! 

I found so many beautiful things to inspire me,

and these are the earrings I made for my Carefree Beach Chic outfit:

Blue Waters Brazilian Blue Apatite Sterling Silver Hoops by Nathalie Lesage

I think these would go really well with the outfit I just created:

Wire wrapping is something I've been doing for a number of years (on and off), and which I really enjoy. It speaks to the bohemian woman living in my soul :)

These flirty 1" hoops are made with beautiful natural (untreated) Brazilian Apatite gemstones

and loads of hair fine .925 Sterling Silver wire wrapped on a pair

of my cold-forged Sterling Silver hoops.

I was lucky enough to have the super talented Eni Oken as my mentor a few years ago,

and I've learned a lot from her over time. It takes a lot of patience and time to do fine wrapping.

Since we're on the road and currently living in a place where "good" water is at a premium (we're on a campground with bad pipe water at this time), doing soldered jewelry - which requires a good amount of water for quenching, pickling, rinsing, tumbling, etc - is just not something I can do much of because we have to buy all the water we use for daily living. I have to be very frugal with it.

Therefore, I'm back to doing more wire wrapped jewelry designs instead :)

You can purchase these earrings HERE on my new website.

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!

Nathalie Lesage

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Woodland Folk

Handcrafted sterling silver hoops are paired with artisan pewter oak leaf charms and wee acorns of copper and pearl beads.  Sweet and lovely earrings to go with a folk-inspired outfit. 

Oak Leaf and Acorn Hoop Earrings

Woodland Folk Outfit by humblebeads