Treasures, Old and New

Recently when I was cleaning in my office, I was putting things back on shelves, taking things off shelves that didn't belong there, and straightening things on the shelves.  At some point, I stopped tidying and started looking through the drawers and boxes of artisan-made ceramic beads I've collected over the years.

There were so many beautiful pieces, from delicate porcelain charms to large carved and vividly colored tribal style beads.  I really did have all the best intentions of finishing up the cleaning I'd started, but I found myself picking up beads I hadn't seen in a while, turning them over in my hands, reacquainting myself with them.

When I got to my stash of beads by Karen Totten (one of my favorite artisans), I saw a pair of beautiful green spiral connector beads I'd had for quite a few years.  I turned them over and looked closely at them and wondered what if I paired them with rustic, whimsical ceramic faces I'd bought from artisan Judie Mountain in Tucson this past winter? 💗 

From that point, it was on.  Once I'd finally determined what all the components were going to be (Karen Totten's green spiral ceramic beads, Judie Mountain's ceramic faces, an oval copper connector, a scalloped ceramic ring also by Karen) all that was left was putting them together.  I really had fun making these rustic and whimsical and asymmetrical pretties.

Thanks so much for reading!  I won't be here for my next scheduled time (October 24) because my husband and I will be in Hawaii to celebrate our son's wedding. 💗 But I'll be back.

I hope you and yours are all well.  Have a Happy Hallowe'en!

xo
Meridy
My shop

The Same Yet Different

I managed to forget to post last month, in my scatty way, so it seems right to share two pairs of earrings today. Not so long ago I got some beautiful porcelain discs from Emma Louise Wilson. They varied in size but I was set on using at least some of them in earrings. Then I remembered this long, long hoarded set of similarly proportioned discs that I got from Grey Bird Studio, so I set about matching discs from the two sets. Here's what I made....

As the discs were slightly mismatched, I carried this through to the other elements. The colours from the discs are picked up in the accenting beads, and the shapes - or outlines - are also matched, but the parts used to create the matched shapes are themselves mismatched.  The first pair has sold; the second is available on Etsy.

Bye for now, Claire

Collective

It's been a little while since I posted here, with one thing and another, but I'm back today with another asymmetrical pair of earrings.

I love these washed out blues. I've teamed a deep blue Scorched Earth drop with a ceramic feather that I made. Then I added a beautiful streaked czech glass rectangle and a sodalite hoop. I also mixed in some more czech glass and some teeny moonstone wheels. 

They're available here in my Etsy shop.

Bye for now, Claire 

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