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

 

Looking Back

Christmas is over, it's the last day of 2018 and I'm looking forward to the year to come. New colours to try out (and Erin will be telling you all about them shortly); new designs and maybe getting around to seeing some of the plans I've had for a while come to fruition. All I need is 48 hours in every day!

Looking back over the last year and wondering what to make for today's post, I couldn't help but return to a pair I liked so much I used them for my Etsy shop banner and for my business cards. I wasn't able to replicate them as the headpins and lampwork beads were unique, and nor would I want to.  So here's a variation on a theme.

The crusty bubbly drippy lampwork headpins in luscious lilacs and pinks are of course by Kimberly Rogers. Those 'lit from within' beads are the world famous Basha Beads and the central black arte metal lily structure that I've split with rhinestone rondelles is from Fallen Angel Brass.

         Not unlike the icicles that are supposed to be heading our way with a cold snap next week!

 

 

It just remains for me to thank you all for following our blog this year, for your support and your encouraging comments. We all hope to see you again in 2019, to join us in new earring adventures.

 

Happy New 2019!

 

Lindsay x

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook page

 

 

 

Wings 'N' Roses

Hello everyone,  Today I'm sharing 3 variations of one of my favourite designs.  I've been meaning to revisit this design for a while but never got round to it.  It's very very very very fiddly work and requires a loooot of patience.  I managed to make 3 pairs!!  Hope you like them :)

In this pair I've used up my last Claire Lockwood moth wings *eek* which hang from my wire wrapped hoops. Sitting above are polymer roses by Neli Da. The fringe/tassel is made up of black plated brass chain, antiqued cup chain and waxed Irish linen cord

Kim Snider wings hang from wrapped hoops with roses on top.  In this pair I've used raw brass chain and antiqued cup chain with sari silk underneath. 

Lastly, enamelled wings by Felicitas Wilhelm with roses and hoops.  The tassel is made of antiqued cup chain and waxed Irish linen cord.  

These will be available in my shared show with the lovely Nicola Morse next Thursday (28thh) in The Jewellery Show FB group.  Hope you can join us.  see you again soon <3

Suhana Hart

Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

The Metals

Hi everyone, it's busy busy in the Hart household so another sweet little post from me featuring some of my newest painted metal components. I hope you like them.

First pair with some unusual shaped connectors.  These were very fiddly to paint (only 6mm wide), I don't think I'll be in a hurry to paint more of these.  I added brass caps and tubes on top and Czech glass flowers.  I also added some chain and stars.

For these I used slightly curved brass tubes and added various brass findings including some silver plated brass crowns hiding inside the raw brass caps.

Final pair similar to the first but I've turned the top section upside down to give them a slightly different look.

These are available in my Etsy shop now.  I'll be back in a couple of weeks time, hopefully with newer designs.  Until then, have a lovely weekend <3

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Buttoned Up Beads

London Calling

A hint of sadness this week ....one of my all time favourite ceramic artists, Robyn Cove, announced some time ago that she isn't going to make beads or jewellery components any longer; she's concentrating on her beautiful and very original pottery.  Everything in her shop is reduced, so as soon as I saw this I hoofed it over to her Etsy shop RaggedRobyn pronto, to stock up as much as I could!
Robyn's work has inspired some of my best and most innovative pieces of work. I particularly like her spikes - the ones I used below remind me of an industrial skyline, rows of windows in a skyscraper.  Her work is just so different to anything else.

In my minds eye I see London - the tall buildings, the one they call 'The Gherkin' (30 St. Mary Axe - what a fabulous address!) represented by the faceted amethyst, the lovely eucalpytus pod connectors from Helen Backhouse representing the parks and public open spaces filled with flowers. The dark metal lever back earwires - the underground rail lines with their sidings and spurs. A whole city in a pair of earrings!

Hope you like them - they're available in my Etsy shop Precious Violet

 

See you next week  as I'm covering one of the extra days at the month end. February soon..........shall we do Valentine's Day?

 

Lindsay x

 

My Facebook page

Blue For You

Hello dear friends,

Todays earrings are made from a pair of lovely ceramic disks I have had in my stash for a very long time. I believe they were among the first batch of art beads I bought from Round Rabbit, aka Nancy Adams, back in 2010 or 2011. They are rather big, 3 cm diameter, but very thin, so they are super light weight.

I've assembled them with the earring hooks via some pewter square profiled rings and one of my favourite materials, waxed linen cord. I have a small box of scrap bits of cord that I just roamed around in and soon found the bits of these three perfectly matching colours.

The whole equipage comes to about 15 cm and will just barely touch the shoulders when being worn. These are a kind of everyday yet statement-kind-of earrings. A style that I myself am very fond of. I am looking forward to taking them out on their first excursion in the city any day soon.



Art Beads:
Blue rustic thin ceramic disks - Round Rabbit

 Other ingredients:
Waxed linen cord
Pewter square profiled rings
Handmade heavily oxidized sterling silver earring hooks

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All my best,
Malin

"Those earrings..."

"...will be good for the holidays, huh?" my husband said.

I looked up at him, put down my pliers, took off my magnifying glasses, and blinked a few times.  He could tell I wasn't really in the room with him but was lost in Beadland--or more accurately, Ringland.

He tried again:  "You usually make a few chainmaille bracelets and earrings to sell at Christmastime, right?" 

I nodded.  "That's why I'm working on these--well mostly.  They're also just kind of cute."

He smiled.  He's a great guy.  "I'm also planning to make a Hodo bracelet or two and one in Garter Belt weave," I added.  "They work up pretty."  I know he's seen the bracelets and heard of both of those weaves (and he remembers the names), though I'm not sure he remembers what they look like.  But he's always so nice about what I make that I didn't really need to say any more, so I got back to work.

These earrings ARE cute, and they're distinctive to boot because of the oval rings.  I wish could say I created the design, but I didn't.  I learned the design from my friends at Chainweavers, one of my favorite online vendors of chainmaille rings and things (where I also got the cool sterling silver oval rings).  The earrings are a simple design to make if you know the Byzantine weave (or as we maillers lovingly call it, "Byz"), the most popular of all chainmaille weaves.  Each earring consists of three units of Byz and three oval rings (small, medium, and large), plus a Swarovski oval crystal.  The lightness and openness of the oval rings adds to the earrings' airiness.

For comparison, here is a photo of a classic sterling silver Byzantine weave bracelet:  

You can see how dense the weave is, with one "Byzantine unit" (can you see where they begin and end?) disappearing into the next, making one long sinuous round ropy bracelet.  This weave feels so good on the wrist (and around the neck when woven into a necklace)!  

And here is an oxidized sterling silver bracelet that I made in a weave called "Byzantine Rose," composed of alternating units of Byz and "rosettes" or "Moebius" elements:  

The Byzantine Rose bracelet is a little less dense than Byzantine alone, but not as airy as the earrings.  The crystals add a nice sparkle too.  

These crystal Byz beauties are 3-1/4 inches long and very lightweight and swingy. 💗

If any of you are interested in chainmaille in general or in learning the Byzantine weave or how to make these earrings, just let me know, and I can steer you to the right references to get started.  I basically taught myself with tutorials (as we all tend to do), but it's always nice to have a guide too.  :)

Thanks so much for reading--I'll be back again soon!

xoxo

Meridy

My shop

My FB page

✨ Bringing the Bling ✨

Hi, everyone!  This week, I made earrings that pushed me right out of my comfort zone.   Yes, I did--and on purpose too!     

Helen Backhouse's hand-painted polyclay leaves always take my breath away, and these particular leaves are so long and stunning that they seemed to call for something dramatic.

So I went for it!  These earrings are looong (a little over 4 inches).  They feature AB rhinestone rondelles, sparkly 12-mm aqua blue crystals topped by small leafy bead caps and little blue zircon crystals, fabulous spiky double bead caps, and clusters of blue zircon and bright yellow Swarovski crystals, dangling from teal anodized niobium jump rings.

One wonderful thing is that, being made mostly of thin leaves of polymer clay, the earrings are very lightweight and kind to tender earlobes.  Another wonderful thing?  I absolutely loved making these!  Who knew bringing the bling could be so much fun?  💗

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back with more to share in two weeks.

xoxo
Meridy
My Etsy shop
My Facebook page

Super Long

Oh, I am so much in the mood for really long earrings lately. As you might have noticed in my last few posts here. These ones however break my own record so far. They just barely touch my shoulders when they sit in my ears. It doesn't cause any discomfort at all, since the chain is very supple. I really like the combination and contrast of the classy rich glitter of the Swarovski crystals and the rusticity of the chain and the other heavily oxidized metal parts. I already love to wear them. These earrings are keepers.

Ingredients:

Swarovski bicones in different colors and sizes

Large champagne coloured Swarowski rondelles

Rustic chain

Heavily oxidized copper wire gauge 20

Heavily oxidized sterling silver handmade earring hooks

-------------------------------------------------------

My etsy shop is on vacation again. I'll let you know when it's back on.

All my best,

Malin de Koning

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Turning Japanese

Art Beads:
Handmade Paper Beads Japanese Style - PassionForPaperBeads

Other Components:
Copper head pins
Copper heishi beads
Copper jump rings
Matte black seed beads
Handmade oxidized copper earrings hooks


All my best,
Malin de Koning
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Easter, Twigs and Fringes

Easter time. School holiday. We've had a busy and nice week with excursions and meetings with friends and family. I made these earrings just last night. Twigs and Fringes.

Art beads:
Ceramic twigs - Donna Perlinplim

Other components:
Different coloured waxed linen cord
Messy wrapped oxidized copper wire
6/0 seed beads
Handmade oxidized copper earrings hooks



Now, as I sit here and write this blog post and watch the images I took earlier this morning, I realize I must have been subliminally inspired by the season of the year and the typically traditional Swedish Easter decorations of coloured feathers on twigs or tree branches. It wasn't at all what I thought about as I made them last night. Isn't that just fascinating how the mind works in lovely mysterious ways :-).

All my best,

Malin de Koning

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Center Of Attention

Have you heard about the Muffin Tin Challenge on Heather Powers' Humble Beads blog?  It's a way of kick-starting your creative juices at the start of the new year. I decided to participate, for the 2nd time, this year.  You gather up all you need to complete 6-12 projects and place all the project components in each cup of the muffin tin.  Then whenever you have a moment, all you have to do is start creating, because you've already gathered up all the "ingredients" needed for your design.

My muffin tin.

Unfortunately a bout of bronchitis got in the way of completing the challenge in time.  However I did get 3 projects completed before the bronchial bug bit.  The earrings I ended up making kind of hopped from one muffin cup to another.  See the turquoise spikes (Suburban Girl Studio) on the top left?  They ended up getting paired with the beaded beads (Sue Beads) in the next muffin cup.

At 3 inches long, these guys are kind of drama queens!  This pair of earrings will be perfect for someone who has the confidence and poise to be the center of attention.  They're not gaudy and the narrow profile gives them a flattering line. But they definitely command attention - which I totally love about them.

What about you?  Do you prefer long or short earrings - or some of each?

 The Center Of Attention Earrings are now available in my shop.

 

 

 

 

Linda Landig Jewelry

How long?

This week I set myself a challenge to make my longest pair of earrings yet .  These enamelled seahorse charms I'd received from Kaz Baildon a few days ago were small and thin enough for me to start building upon. 

I wire wrapped some hoops matching the seed colours to those on the charms w/o making them 'too matchy matchy' and attached the seahorse charms.

Next I added the oval brass blanks on top of the wrapped hoops followed by the filigree tubes on top.  But it didn't look right so I added the big brass rings behind the wrapped hoops and oval blanks.  The length at this point was just over 4 1/2" which is not long enough in my opinion as I've made longer earrings in the past.  Maybe I should have taken photos of each step?  Something for the next post perhaps.
I spent a long time trying to figure out ways in which I could make these longer - to no avail 😓.  I gave up however they still didn't look right.  I showed them to my husband and he also said there was something missing - there was too much brass between the wrapped hoops and filigree tubes.  I added the little red flower drops which did the trick.

So here they are, long earrings for most people I think but I failed in creating my longest pair - again something I can work on for a future post so all is not lost 😄.















These earrings are now listed on Etsy.  See you again in a couple of weeks time. 

Suhana 💜💜💖

My etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Autumn Moon

Hello and check me out!!! This is the first time I've actually named my jewellery :D. 

I don't tend to follow seasons, I just make whatever catches my eye on the beading desk.  For this post however I was determined to make something autumnal.  

I picked up these Muscha discs by Petra Carpreau as they had orange in them.  I wrapped some teeny leaves, orange seeds and of course rhinestone chain around big hoops and positioned the Muscha discs inside the hoops.  This was going to be it.  I was going to keep these short and simple.  But my Cathleen Zaring order arrived yesterday with these gorgeous moon connectors.  They matched the original earring colours so well that I just had to add them somehow. 




Muscha discs by Petra Carpreau

Luckily in the original design I hadn't cut off the excess rhinestone chain from the bottom of the hoops yet.

I added a moon connector to one of the earrings with the rhinestone chain hanging from the bottom.  I used some teeny leaves to fill up the gaps.  For the second earrings I decided to leave the rhinestone chain as it is and attach the moon connector next to it.  I think the asymmetry adds a lot more interest to the design.  I like the way they've turned out and hope you like them too.

Enamel moon connectors by Cathleen Zaring

Coming back to naming the earrings.  There wasn't much rocket science involved.  There were moon connectors and the colours were autumnal, hence Autumn Moon hehe.  There you have it.  My Autumnal earrings.  Take care and see you soon.

Suhana <3<3<3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Wire Wrapping

Hello!!! It's my first post as a regular contributor to the Earrings Everyday blog.  I'm super excited to be here :).  So I'll just get on with showing you what I've made.

I chose to work with these enamel charms by Darlene Fortier-House.  I have been wire wrapping a LOT these last few months and naturally these would feature a lot of wrapping.

I decided to wrap 6 brass rings matching the colours of those dots above - as closely as possible and arranged them as per the next picture. 

I've also added teeny brass seeds on to the jump rings. 

These earrings are pretty long at nearly 4 3/4" from top of the ear wire to the bottom of the charms so I decided to leave them as they are.  I was tempted to add more......

Thank you for reading. See you again soon.

Suhana :) <3

These earrings are now listed in my etsy shop Buttoned Up Beads

Going to the Art Gallery

I was looking for a statement quality in these earrings. Large and bold, not to be missed when being worn. Kind of the opposite of discrete. They are long, with a cluster of beads and components in different materials. Still surprisingly lightweight (due to the materials used). I personally would wear them when going to an opening night at an art exhibition :-).

Art beads:

Orange-red flower patterned porcelain charms - RoundRabbit

 Leaf shaped hammered and soldered copper dangles - MissFickleMedia

Other ingredients:

African brass beads with swirl pattern

Yellow facetted cat eye beads

Green seed beads

Green vinyl beads

Dark transparent blue with golden coating long facetted drops 

Oxidized brass findings

Handmade brass earring hooks

All my best,

Malin de Koning

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com