Knotty Or Nice?

OK, forgive me for the title. I love puns and with the holidays approaching, I couldn't resist this one. So I learned a new thing last week. Using YouTube I learned how to make these knotted leather infinity links. I actually found two YouTube tutorials and each taught the infinity knot in totally different ways - even though the end result is identical. I found it intriguing that such different approaches ended with the same result. The earrings below were the first ones I made. The leather is quite thick. I think it is 1.5 mm. It's also a somewhat rough or rustic leather cord. It was a bit difficult to knot tightly, especially since this was my first try. I had to unknot it and start over a couple of times till I got the hang of it.

 I used the second knotting tutorial for the earrings below and found it much easier to follow. I also used a lighter weight cord (.5 mm), which means that in order for the leather to hold its teardrop shape, I had to use lighter weight dangles. This cord was very smooth and I think that helped me make better knots.

I had fun making these and I know I'll be making more. These knots can also be used as clasps and connectors. Guess I'll be needing more leather soon.

What is something new that you have learned recently? Doesn't need to be jewelry related. Let us know about it in the comments below! Thanks for visiting Earrings Everyday. See you in two weeks!

Linda Landig Jewelry

Shinies!!

Hi again, everyone!  Yes, it's me, once again being distracted from other projects by shiny new things from Nunn Design.  And why not, I say!  (My husband has been known to call me "Maggie" because of my magpie habit of moving from one shiny object to the next.  He is a very intelligent man in most other ways.)

I bought the Nunn Design copper- and gold-tone rings last week (along with some small round silver-tone rings), and yesterday I got out the gold and copper rings, along with some fine brown leather cord (cut into two 18-inch lengths).  Then I just started experimenting with the rings and the leather. If I wanted to connect the oval ring to the round one, a lark's head knot was fairly obvious, right?  So that's what I did, bringing the two ends of the leather cord straight up through the middle of the oval ring.  Then I tied the leather ends in a maddening (but kind of nice) braided knot at the top of the gold oval.

So at that point, I had the two rings connected with the leather cord, and the ends of the cord were at the top of the rings.  The earrings at that stage looked rustic and tribal, and my first thought was finding African or another type of rustic beads, with a large enough hole to accommodate the doubled cord.  I have a lot of beads that fit the description, but I happened upon these green/silver glass beauties by hot glass artist Wayne Robbins.  I added 2/0 matubo 3-cut glass beads, tied loops in the leather, and hung my Shiny Objects on Two Trees sterling silver ear wires.  😊

      

These earrings are a kind of prototype, because I was feeling my way around all the way, but it was really fun to play around with the different shapes and textures and mediums. 

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back in two weeks.  💗

xoxo
Meridy
Two Trees Studio

 

Rainbow Tassel Earrings

I've been wanting to experiment with leather a bit. I had some ideas for today, several of which did not work out.  You know how it goes sometimes.😉 But I did come up with this simple idea.

I had some silver, metallic leather that my friend Lindsay Starr had given me awhile ago. I cut around a teardrop shaped template that I usually use for making my ceramic earrings. Then I cut out an oval, inside of the teardrop.

I dangled some rainbow colored tassels in the center of the ovals and they're good to go!  Lightweight and breezy.  Perfect for a summer day.  Speaking of which - I hope you're having a fantastic summer!  See you next month,

Linda Landig Jewelry

Belt It Out!

I am participating in a upcycled art show in February.  A friend gave me an old belt of her husband's, that I might use as a base for a bracelet, for the show.  But in the meantime, I decided to do a little warm-up practice and make a pair of earrings with a section of the belt.

On the left, you can see that the belt was in really bad shape.  The woven pieces were so worn out, that they were useless.  So I decided to see what would happen if I removed them.  To my surprise, there was the underlying structure you see on the right, above.  All those holes!  Oooo!  I knew I could use those.  Each of my earrings today, consist of a strip of belt, containing two small holes and one larger hole.

I attached my ceramic ovals to the upper small hole.  The glaze I used on the ovals turns green and blue in random places during firing, so each piece is always unique. Then, I created dark green tassels to dangle from the lower hole. I finished them off with handmade brass ear wires.

On a different note - Washington and Oregon were blessed with rain today after several dry months and terrible wildfires.  The fires are not only devastatingly destructive, but the smoke has caused lung and eye problems as well.  My heart goes out to everyone who has experienced the opposite problem, with torrential rains and tornadoes.  Stay safe friends.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Rustic Leather

hello everyone! i almost always love sitting down to write this post. sometimes having very little to say. 😊 other times having way too much i want to say. today is somewhere in between.

i have a hurt arm right now, wrist and the underside of the forearm. it's not an injury, just overuse, i believe, and that has me a bit concerned but i refuse to think about it too much. i have not been working. i'm on day 12 (starting to really twitch now), trying to rest it as much as possible but everything we do uses the arms so it's challenging, and it's only gotten a bit better, so i'll have to think about what to do next. please excuse the lack of capitalization. it's easier for me to type without using the shift key right now. i apologize. 

the point though is that i have not created anything. i decided i would make something for my post, and i would do so without using wire, as it's the pliers that hurt the most. i love wire. love it. i am not afraid of the discomfort, i can deal with that; it's what the discomfort is telling me that concerns me, so pliers are out for a bit. well, maybe next week i'll give them a try. ;) i only have so much will power to stay away!

I have made designs without wire before, but i wanted to do something more than that. 

i have been very inspired by our own kristi bowman-gruel and lynn ferro in their use of paints and other coloring agents and have wanted to try my hand at it for awhile. i've had these leather pieces for almost two years! so yes, it's been a while. the pieces were made by melinda orr of ORRTEC. melinda is a very creative woman, and my hat is off to her after i worked painting leather, something she does all the time. i originally had purchased a pair of these leather wedges already painted. so beyond being inspired by melinda, kristi and lynn, they are likely similar to the pair melinda painted. she gave me instructions on how best to go about this, and the steps she takes. i did modify the leather pieces a bit. i won't go into the long story. There's nothing to learn from it, otherwise i would. ;)

so i did the painting over a few days. i painted the solid black background, front and back, and let that dry, really dry, and then did the painting in steps, basically by color as i decided what i wanted where. it wasn't the best thing for the arm, but i was not using pliers and that was my goal. i had what i thought were the thinnest brushes but i cut one of them to an even thinner point at the tip. the areas to paint in are very small. some of the areas required repainting with black when i "painted outside the lines." :) 

after all the painting was completed, again i let them thoroughly dry. using melinda's method, i took a piece of sandpaper to them to roughen them up and age them, and bring out some of the tan-colored leather underneath. 

I strung tiny copper-plated link chain between the 3 holes. then using waxed irish linen i hung just about the last of my stash of antique venetian glass beads, more than 100 years old. i have set aside two beads for myself but other than that, this is it of the good ones.  

The tops contain copper spacers and blue green picasso finish czech glass beads on linen also, then attached to a copper-plated flat spacer ring which accommodated both the linen and the black niobium ear wires. 

i did end up having to use pliers for the six copper links which the chain is attached to; it was not pleasant, and that was a sad moment for me. 

all in all it was a challenge, really. the painting was a painstaking process but very fun to see them become. i would will definitely paint again, hopefully sooner rather than later! 

as always, i am so grateful you stopped in to check us out. i thank you for letting me share my passion with you. i do hope this finds you all healthy and well.

thank you!

norbel

shefliesagain

you can also visit me on facebook and instagram

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send you a discount code for a first-time purchase! 😊

Two is Better Than One

Just a quick little post today folks ☺ but I think its a good one. Once again, I wanted to share with you a design that I happen to stumble upon this past week that I'm pretty excited about.

Double drilled beads can be quite a challenge to work with, they are great for bracelets, but singly....hummmm?  I just happen to thread some thin leather cord through the holes and realized I had a ready made hoop to hang what ever my little heart desired.  From there I discovered I could also utilize tiny silver bails that hug the stone when pulled tight with the leather.  It adds nice character and loop for hanging glass or charms too.  If your eco-friendly and leather is not your thing, hemp, wax cord or even wire could be substituted as well.

Hope this brings some new ideas into your creative time if you have any double drilled beads laying around.  I was almost ready to ditch them, so glad I didn't, now I'm on the search for more, ☺

Enjoy your day, thanks for stopping by and we will see you again in two weeks!!

Lynn
My Etsy Shop- Yucca Bloom

Light As A Leather

I first started using leather in my earrings when I found some really cool salmon skin leather in Chile a few years back.

My local bead mall in Tucson recently had tables full of scraps for $5 a pound so I nabbed some especially decorative pieces in metallics and cowboy boot style to combine with my torch fired enamels

They are so lightweight and a breeze to design with by simply cutting the leather to your desired shapes with scissors.

Just a few added embellishments and there you have it!

Thanks for looking and hope you are sailing into summer like a feather in the breeze!

Kimberly Rogers of NuminosityBeads

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

www.instagram.com/numinosity/

www.pinterest.com/numinosity/designers-using-numinositybeads/

Yee Haw ☼

Calling your inner Cowgirl, ☺

This is a nice twist to utilizing a looped bail, turn it upside down I say!

I've found this design to be very versatile and fun to work with. I chose leather in these postings, but I can also see looping wire & fabric, perhaps different colored leather with some African beads...Uh-Oh, the mind is spinning, may have to go back to this one soon.

  

These other 2 designs show the bail at the bottom with numerous potential to what your drops can be.

So if your looking for some inspiration, I hope you found it in my post.  Have a wonderful creative day and we'll see you in two weeks, ☺

Yucca Bloom Etsy Shop

Yucca Bloom FB

Thong Earrings? Oh My!

A good friend arranged to come out  for a "crafternoon"

out in the boonies where we live over 100 miles down the Alaska Highway from where she lives. She's a hat maker, Heather of Mountain Heather Hats but is quite talented with her designing  and also works in her husband's commercial cabinetry shop utilizing her designing skills

She brought down some shiny bits of metallic leather that  Etsy seller FlorenceOliver had given her and she was generous to share some bits with me.

Heather has bought some components from me over the past few years and never seems to have the time to sit down and make some since that isn't her line of business although she did used to design an sell jewelry at one point in her crafting days.

I simply cut a little leather to run through the poly pieces and glued them together at the top where I punched the hole. The leather is so easy to cut and took me outside of the metal wire realm!

Thanks for looking at my NuminosityBeads Creations!

Kimberly Rogers

e t s y   www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

f a c e b o o k  www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

i n s t a g r a m  www.instagram.com/numinosity/

p i n t e r e s t  www.pinterest.com/numinosity/

and my f a c e b o o k auction and sale group 

/www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

Earth Maiden

Woodstock Earrings

A bit of a flashback to the late 60s, these fringe earrings would have fit right in at Woodstock or Monterrey. Earth Maiden is just my idea of a potential Earth Mother figure, who is still being groomed for the position, sort of an apprentice type situation. You can almost smell the green meadow where dancers twirl about in a carefree frenzy, until the next morning when they wake up dehydrated, sunburned and covered with insect bites. Earth Mother and Earth Maiden will be there to nurture the wayward souls.

These earrings started out with the turquoise deerskin lace and the darkened copper ring and grew from there. I added nylon cord in blue and green, and the seed beads in chartreuse and turquoise with accents of African red orange seed beads, resulting in a tribal Bohemian fringe design. I make the ear wires from 19 gauge copper wire and oxidize them for that primitive look that is characteristic of my work.



Gloria Ewing
Chrysalis Jewelry on Artfire
Chrysalis Too on Etsy