Beach Walk

Me, about 1966, on the Washington coast

Do you walk the beach with one eye on the waves and the other eye scanning the sand for sea treasures? These earrings look like I had emptied my pockets after a day at the ocean and had gathered together my best finds.

Spiral sea shells, tiny stars reminiscent of starfish and vintage coral (I never buy new coral, because coral reefs are dying in much of the world).

It's almost as if you could hear the roar of the surf while wearing these earrings - the next best thing to being there.

Me, backpacking on the Washington coast, about 1974.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Ocean Turtles

A couple of weeks ago, I made some new cute polymer clay Turtle Charms using some of my favorite ocean and beach inspired colors. I made some extras so that I could design a pair of earrings for today's blog post :)

I had this design in mind for several days. I just had to put the components together.

And.... here's the result:

I have a few of these cool stick pearls that I've been wanting to use for some time. I thought they would go really nicely with my little turtles... what do you think? I added some cute little summery chunks of real Turquoise, and sparkling sunny glass seed beads, all strung on sterling silver wire.

My new handmade Turtle Charms are available in my Etsy shop HERE in a few different colors. 

I also have some nice Handmade Polymer Clay items in my clearance section at 50% OFF (yep!). Sweet deals, if you're interested :)

These earrings have sold within a few minutes of me showing them off on Facebook as I was writing this blog post, but I do have other one of a kind pairs of earrings listed in my Etsy shop.

Have a great Sunny weekend!
Cheers,
Nathalie

Visit my Etsy Shop for Handmade Polymer Clay Jewelry supplies: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Etsy Shop for my Digital Downloads Designs: The Craft Tribe

Mermaid jewels

Some of my favorite color combos for the Summer are ocean greens and ocean blues. Add in some sparklies in the mix and I just become totally giddy lol

I like to mix things up when I create new polymer clay jewelry components, and this time around, I created some cool earring drops with fabulous glass cabochon that I have encased in polymer clay. I had those cabs saved aside to use at some point, and I figured, why not use them with Polymer Clay? I'm very happy on how each design turned out!

Here's the earrings I made with a pair of my latest handmade components:

Handmade polymer clay & glass chandelier style earring drops made by me, with little oxygen bubbles springing up all around; A mixture of Swarovski crystals and Czech glass beads, there's a little flower detail on each, with a tiny silver color glass bead in the center, like the flower in the hair of a mermaid :) and I used anodized aluminum jump rings in coordinating colors. These earrings are suspended on a pair of hypo-allergenic Niobium ear wires.

I love how the colors in the glass sparkle like the sun hitting the ocean. I love the movement in the colors and the feeling that you're holding a precious treasure. These are one of a kind.... a precious treasure indeed :) The glass set up feels like you're looking into the ocean through a porthole on submarine (I used to work on one of the Atlantis submarines in the Carribean, btw! It's magical!)

If you're interested, I have a few other pairs of one of a kind glass/polymer clay components that I will be listing in my shop HERE, along with these earrings.

Which colors make your heart giddy? Do tell!! I want to know what makes your heart sing :)

Cheers,
Nathalie

Visit my Etsy Jewelry/Components shop here: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Etsy Digi shop here: The Crafty Tribe

Sailing Under The Stars

My husband and I celebrated our 42nd anniversary, last weekend, with a visit to Port Townsend, WA.  Port Townsend has been one of our favorite getaways for about 30 years now.  We love the ocean, the Victorian seaport homes, the many art galleries and the delicious restaurants.

And if all that weren't enough, PT (as the locals call it), is also home to Wynwoods Gallery and Bead Studio, one of my favorite bead shops!  The shop owner, Lois Venarchick, designs and casts her own line of metal charms.  I added these delights to my stash last weekend.

Today's earrings feature the Lois' bronze sailboat charms, which I paired with gorgeous matte lampwork beads by Out West.

I knew immediately that the charms and the beads belonged together.  Together they seem to tell a little story.  The bronze sailboats are sailing under a golden star and the blue, turquoise and black beads above the star represent the night sky. Everything feels peaceful and tranquil. It is all smooth sailing.

Lois Venarchick

Lois Venarchick

The Sailing Under The Stars earrings are available in my shop.

-Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Lois Venarchick

We're All Ears :: June Reveal

 “The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.”
~ Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson was a world-renowned marine biologist and author of some of the most famous books ever written about the natural world. She wrote with passion and expertise, and her writing was accessible and poetic and lovely. Her message of conservation, preservation and love of the earth that we call home is as fresh and compelling today as when she penned them over six decades ago. The following quotes about the sea are from her writings, urging us to never take for granted this world we live in, filled with glory and wonder.
  
I created a new bead set in my Symbol Bead Series that I call Tide Pool Treasures. The smaller size (about 3/4" round) is a new shape for me and perfect for earrings. The earrings that follow show the front and back of the same pair. At the bottom you will see an example of two focal beads, all sides. They are each made individually with molds and special stamps, painstakingly place. For me, these beads evoke the wonder of those tiny puddles of sea salt brine where the magical worlds of ocean wonders collide and coexist. I will start taking custom orders for these beads through my website, www.tesoritrovati.com.

"Tide pools contain mysterious worlds, where all the beauty of the sea is subtly suggested
and portrayed in miniature." 

“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.” 

“The winds, the sea, and the moving tides are what they are. If there is wonder and beauty and majesty in them, science will discover these qualities... If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself,
"What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?”  

I have never seen a tide pool or rock pool in person. One day I would love to have that chance. It gives me pause to consider that final quote from Carson... what if when I do get there, they don't exist anymore? A sobering thought, that makes me even more passionate about conservation and preservation of this amazing world we live in.

 

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We're All Ears :: June Inspiration

When I was a young teen, I took my hard earned allowance money and bought myself a subscription to National Geographic. It is what made me want to be a photojournalist when I grew up. I loved reading about lives and cultures on the other side of the world from me. The pictures they captured always told amazing stories even without the in-depth reporting.

Sometimes I go and peruse their website. So much fascinating stuff on there. I was poking around when I discovered that they have an app where you can view past issues. I stumbled on an issue from February 1986, the year I graduated from high school. There is an article with accompanying photographs from Robert Sisson (and an equally enchanting painting by Karel Havlicek that I couldn't find elsewhere) entitled "Tide Pools: Windows Between Land and Sea." It is a great article. You have to log in to read it, but it is worth it. And that is what inspired me for June.

illustration by Hashime Murayama

Hashime Murayama was a Japanese illustrator, born in 1879. He used to work for National Geographic until 1941.

Seeing as summer is about to kick off, and that means thoughts turn to vacations and getaways that include a lot of water, I thought that this month we could focus on tide pools or rock pools.


Now, I have never witnessed a tide pool in person, but I know I would be completely fascinated by them. All manner of marine life brimming over in the tiny microcosm of that space. I imagine it would get pretty crowded in there! But yet all those species live together in a sort of harmony in diversity. Maybe we can all take a cue from this natural order.

illustration by Theo Carreras

Theo Carreras was an illustrator of some well known books about insects, like "Marvels of Insect Life," and was known for his detailed still-life illustrations

So many textures, colors, shapes. So many unique life forms, both above and below the surface, each dependent on the rising and ebbing tides in their craggy homes. Barnacles, seastars, octopi, crabs, mussels, anemones, kelp and even all manner of birds make their homes in these shallow pools teeming with life.

illustration by Theo Carreras

So that is our inspiration for June! Tide pools or rock pools. I look forward to seeing the marvelous earrings you will create with this beach-y theme. Dive on in!

What inspires you about tide pools?

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Friday, June 19th.

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Colors of the Ocean

Colors of the Ocean, lampwork by Lori Robbins, ceramic charms by Jenny Davies Reazor.

I have had these sweet charms by Jenny Davies-Reazor since last August!  I love how she leaves the rough edges on the clay and the organic designs she embosses them with!  I remember choosing these 2 specific pair because of the intense hues each possessed...they reminded me of the colors you see at the ocean...from the darker blue to the more teal, almost green hues.

A closer look...look at the colors in those borosilicate beads!

These were on my work table and I decided to use some lampwork beads that I had in my stash...I believe both pairs are by Lori Robbins.  She makes incredible borosilicate beads.  Her pairs are almost always perfectly matched.  Unfortunately, she hasn't had anything in her shop for a while and I don't know if she has a website!

These are wrapped with sterling wire and include hand wrought sterling earwires, that I may or may not change out...these are a bit big for my taste :)

Now, if I could only get to the ocean to enjoy the colors in person...until then, these will have to do!

Color Escape - A gorgeous ocean palette from Design Seeds!

Melissa

Feeling down? Say this one word...

...limpet.

No, I'm serious, go ahead and give it a try. Just one little time. Go on...while no one is listening.

See? You feel a little better, don't you? Maybe a teensy smile just crept across your face? A little levity to your soggy gray winter Wednesday? Perhaps even a smidge of impish delight when you imagine the cute cup-shaped domed shell of a LIMPET? 

You think I'm mad, but if you haven't picked it up already from reading my blog posts and jewelry listings, words really do hold that much power in my life. There are some really fun words, like limpet, bauble, and mallard. And then there are some really horrible nasty evil words, like moist. *shudder*

 
All this to say, I found some limpets last week! My day job shipped me off to the Pacific coast of California for a week and our hotel was right on the beach. As in, I could hear the waves crashing from my room. It was like every insanely picturesque post-card you've ever seen, and it was ALL RIGHT THERE. I couldn't help myself but to kick off my heels, sneak away, and do some beachcombing and toe-wiggling in the sand. 

I haven't been to a beach in probably 15 years. As a child, the few times we went I almost lost my head over all the cool little shells, pebbles, and scraps of sea life that would wash onto shore and get trapped in tide pools. I've always been fascinated by it, and nothing has changed as an adult. Every day last week I would sneak furtively back up to my hotel room with handfuls of sandy briny shells.

Now that I'm back home in landlocked Ohio, I've been sifting through my finds and picking out a few shells to incorporate into jewelry, since you know how much I like weaving organic found objects into my pieces.  

These earrings are quite special, as they feature some really sweet little purple banded limpets that I collected. They swing lightly under stacks of ancient Roman glass, wood bodhi beads, pyrite nuggets, and some antique opalescent Venetian glass "moon" trade beads (100-200 years old). Purples and teals and indigoes, all wire wrapped up together and ready to whisper songs of the sea into your ears.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Poseidon's Garden

Poseidon's Garden

These colors remind me of Caribbean waters.

View of Caribbean Ocean from Bodden Town, Grand Cayman Island,
Courtesy Wikipedia Creative Commons

For these earrings, I started with a pair of my copper tulip caps, and gave them an aged blue-green patina. They made me think of blooms from a deep-sea garden! I chose gemstones in the same hues--I just love the way this aqua chalcedony glows, and the sea green aventurine nuggets match the patina on my tulip caps so perfectly. I dotted the earwires with Czech glass in a matching aquamarine blue.

I would pair them with a gown worthy of Amphitrite (especially if she was guest-starring on Downton Abbey--this dress is so Lady Sybil):

Amphitrite by lunebijoux featuring a chiffon dress

You can see more at my Etsy shop HERE.

Polynesian Princess

Daydreaming lately of white sandy beaches, bright blue waters, scuba diving etc etc. How I would LOVE to just run away to the Polynesian islands and be spoiled by sunshine and waves. Fun earrings that feature some pretty amazing polymer clay coins by Pam Wynn beads.  I hand-formed some thick wide brass wire and riveted them with screw rivets, dangling the beaded headpins inside.

Here's some inspiration for you on this pretty Spring day...

You can find these earrings in Lorelei Eurto Jewelry on Etsy