Along Came A Spider

Jill Stoffregen of Foxpaws made these stunning porcelain discs with a lovely silver luster.  They are  rustic, tribal and made the most lovely spider webs!

I constructed my own spiders from bead-caps, rhinestone spacers, and metal accent beads.  I really love these miniature industrial-looking sculptures.

The spider's legs mimic the web pattern in the discs and it all just works so well together.

🕸

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my worktable today! 

There's a pretty good chance I will be continuing with my spooky designs for a while 'cause - 'tis the season!

Until next time!

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

This is Not Goodbye

 
Rather, this is just a little slide to the side. A clearing of the throat. Making room for another voice.

Over the past +3 years that I've blogged here at Earrings Everyday, I've shared some wacky stuff with you beautiful people. I've bared my soul in small, scary ways that have both helped me to process and you to relate to this thing we call life. 

Creating jewelry (and art) is about so much more than "making pretties", amassing goods, or trying to keep up with trends. It's a much more personal, spiritual thing that can enrich both the maker and the wearer.

 




I have met some of the most incredible, kind, serendipitous souls through my business. Some days it's overwhelming. How else would a hermit like me have reached out and touched each of you, if not for this? 

Just when I begin to feel that humanity is too far gone into a self-absorbed downward spiral, you all pick me up. Make me realize that for ever bit of dark, there is just as much light to counter.

And for all of that, I deeply thank you. 
 





I'm stepping away from Earrings Everyday to make room for other artists who have wisdom and beauty to share. Because there are so many of us out there, and we each have something unique to say. I'll still be making jewelry, I just won't be "here"---although you may see me return for a guest post every now and then.

So I won't say goodbye. You know where to find me. And I know where to find you. 

Much love <3  
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Plastered

A very good friend of mine is about to move. And not into any old house, but a >150 year old rehabbed work-of-art house in historic downtown Cincinnati. When they bought the property nearly two years ago it was trashed. Not just trashed, but DECIMATED. A hub for a wide variety of unsavory activities, to put it nicely. Floorboards were rotted out clear through to the basement. Stairs to the second and third floors were missing. No running water, no electricity, no legal occupants for decades. It smelled. I toured the property when they first purchased it and my jaw was on the floor.

My friend's husband is a very talented contractor---some would say he's an artist, although I'm sure he'd balk at that, being the "man's man" that he is. He takes old, dilapidated, historic buildings and materials and gives them new life. Over the past two years, I've been fortunate to witness his work on this house at various stages:



We have a front door!
We can walk to the third floor!
We have working lights! 
We have toilets!

My favorite part of their new home is the plaster walls. These original walls, they're gloriously scratched, coated with layers of layers of paint and wallpaper, stained from years of water and smoke damage. Rather than patch, sand, and paint over all this history, they chose to expose it---strip off the paint in some areas, let a patch of color pop through here, maybe a snippet of brick there. They sealed the walls with quality sealant, not unlike what I use when sealing ceramics, metal, or polymer. And now they are breathtaking. 

The amount of work he put into this place has been dizzying. He has turned it into a glorious, sexy, rustic, urban-industrial piece of art, all while honoring its roots. The time has finally come for them to leave their current home and move into this labor of love, so they've been on my mind this week. 

I tell this story because today's earrings remind me of those plaster walls. The ceramic drops at the bottom are made by the lovely Claire of somethingtodobeads. They have been sawdust fired, giving them that smoky, fumed, earthy look. Some of the outer layers have crackled away, exposing other layers, just like with those walls. I love them and have been saving them for a special pair. I capped them with wee bead caps and hung them from old two-toned striped African glass trade beads and big blobs of blackened silver solder. Delightfully swingy, edgy, and tribal. 

Love you, Susan! 

Happy Wednesday,
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

A Wise Woman Once Said...

...treat yo'self. 

Putting aside the trendiness of the phrase, there really is a lesson to be learned about knowing when to gift yourself a little something special. And I don't mean in a spoiled millennial consumer-happy "I deserve it" spending spree kind of way. You know, just a little something every now and then---maybe once a year, maybe more, maybe less. 

--- A "me-day" where you only do what you want to do, even if that means doing NOTHING. 

--- A nice bar of that fair-trade dark chocolate from Askinosie that you love. 

--- A new shift dress to show off those humble legs you've been working on shaping up.

It can be anything, and it doesn't have to have dollar signs attached to it. Sometimes the smallest, cheapest gifts can be the most meaningful.

For several years now, I've had a little box of stones that I have set aside for "me" pieces. Things that I knew I wanted to make for myself, given the time. Occasionally I'll come across a new cabochon that speaks to me and I'll gently place it in this little box. Promising that I'll get around to making myself something "some day". 

The other week I was noticing that this little box was close to overflowing---both with stones and with the best of intentions. Realizing it had been a while since I deliberately treated myself, I vowed to focus. 

These two sagenite spray agates were destined to be paired together in earrings. Mismatched but complementary, I love the movement of the spray in each. They remind me of tufts of black fox fur---primitive, animalistic, and in the dark neutral color palette that I've been loving lately. I set them both simply in sterling silver and hung them from hand-cast sterling silver studs so they can be worn as post earrings. 

When they were finished I squealed, thanked myself, and all was well in the world <3 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

I'm Late, I'm Late...

 
 ...for a very important date...

 
It's a funny thing. I never used to be the type of person who would flirt with lateness---not having enough time to do what I need to do, or get where I need to get, or meet who I need to meet. I was always so anxious about everything, so I would overprepare and usually have way too much time on my hands. As I've gotten older (and hopefully a little calmer), I find that there are some occasions where I cut it close. Like, for instance, today's post. 



On Monday a post-reminder popped up on my phone and I told myself "I've got a couple days, I'll just bounce around some ideas for a little bit." Last night I went to bed knowing I had to post this morning. "I'll take care of it when I wake up with fresh eyes," I told myself. So I woke up this morning, and, of course, it's time for me to post. And I have made no new earrings in the past couple weeks. And I have no ideas. And what did I think would end up happening?!

 
So here I am, in my pajamas, scrambling to find ear wires for a just-finished pair of earrings. Bleary eyed as I shoot pictures and try to keep Ming from cameo-ing in all of them. Pulling my hair back into a scruffy bun as I adjust my glasses and put on my writer's cap. It's a glamorous life.

Maybe it's a thing? This whole getting later as you get older? I've noticed it in my ever sweet, formerly punctual parents. Maybe the same thing is happening to me? I need your wisdom and insight here, dear readers. 

These earrings are a continuation of a little series from last year that pairs wee agua nueva agate chips with unique wood beads. Blackened silver solder dots the head and tail of each bead. The webby mossiness of the stones just pairs so well with the wood--reminds me of a forest floor. I have six of these ready to post as soon as I get around to making ear wires...

"But I've got time for that, though, right...?"

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

Waterways

It's been a disturbingly warm winter here in southern Ohio. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said we've had MAYBE three inches of snow total. I have daffodils and iris that are blooming all over the place...in February. Last week it was 70F and sunny...we had the doors and windows open, for god's sake. It's nice to not be snowed under, but it's also a little disorienting. 

While we've had very little snow, one thing we have had quite a bit of is rain. Truly, I can't remember a more soggy, rainy winter. Local rivers, including the Little Miami and the Ohio, have been swollen and angry--churning and channeling the muddy water as soon as it falls from the sky. One of my primary bike trails happens to run parallel to both of these rivers. And since it's been warmer, I've had more opportunities to go for rides. 

 









The other week I was flying along the trail on my way to downtown Cincinnati, and I had to pull over just to gawk at the near-flooded Ohio River. If you've ever observed a waterfall, a dam, angry waves, or whitewater rapids, you'll know what I mean when I say that the power of water is absolute. The roaring white noise fills your head--making it hard to think about anything else. Work anxieties, family squabbles, packed schedules--they all seem to fade into the background in these moments. 

I stood next to my bike, allowing myself to feel small, to feel humbled. All these waterways, acting like arteries and veins, transporting the planet's lifeblood. Washing, removing, renewing. It was a cathartic moment. Then I mounted back up and kept pedaling along. 

This week's earrings immediately brought rivers to mind, as they feature natural Royston ribbon turquoise mined in Nevada. Named for the bands of turquoise running through a brown matrix, this stone is incredibly natural and rustic. I picked up quite a few sets last year at the Tucson gem and mineral show and have been waiting for just the right moment to showcase them as a series. 

I fabricated these out of solid sterling silver, framed each bezel with gnarled, twisted roots, and hung them from cratered hand-cast silver granule studs. This style of earring is great if you have lobes that are stretched or can't handle traditional ear hooks--you get to rock the dangly look with the security of posts/backs. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

Dapping Fool

Isn't it wonderful how new tools can gently help guide our evolution as artists? 

For years the only dapping set I've had was cheap, wooden, and next to useless. It would divot whenever I used it, had way too much "give" when I would hammer, and would chip and flake all over the place. I limped by with it on the few projects where I wanted domed metal discs. Oh, and those metal discs? I was cutting those out by hand and praying to the symmetry gods that everything would turn up roses. I'm all for winging-it in the studio and making do with what you have, but come on, this was complete amateur hour. 

A month or so ago I decided enough was enough--I needed a decent set of graduated metal dapping punches, a dapping block, and a disc cutter. In other words, I was putting my artistic big-girl-panties on and growing up a bit. And the difference has been night and day.

So since I've been DAPPING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT lately, the other week I had a notion to experiment with some half-hollow forms. The idea happened to coincide nicely with a new order of deliciously primitive ceramic cone beads from NadiaTerra. The result: half ceramic, half copper, scrappy little oddities. I'm reminded of excavated ancient pottery and weathered bronze age metalwork. 

I cut, textured, and dapped copper discs into domes, strung them on my own fat-bottomed copper headpins along with the ceramic cones, and connected both halves with a ribbon of blackened silver solder. A dot of solder on top, an oxidation bath, and a good seal with wax, and there you have it. 

The only downside to my new tools--I may have to invest in a good pair of noise cancelling headphones for my husband, as I'm sure all this hammering is less than acoustically pleasing... 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

Life is Change

"HEY. That thar's a piece o' wood hangin from yer ear..."

Why yes, yes it is. It's a twig of black walnut, to be exact. Cut into small segments, rounded at the ends, drilled through with a hole, and sealed with wax to help preserve the wood. 

Sometimes I wonder if I've taken my "back to roots" routine a little bit too far. In this example:

1. I love wood beads. 
2. Let's take it back a step to old ratty vintage wood beads. 
3. Oh, but wait, what if we went back even further to part of the tree branch itself and just made that into a mini log-bead? 

Lunacy? Inspiration? The line between the two is far thinner than we like to think.

For this long, swingy pair, I picked out a particularly luscious pair of lampwork glass headpins from dear friend Kim of NuminosityBeads. The swirled moss, sage, delft, and cloudy hues work perfectly to provide a habitat for the natural wood beads. Plump rounded blobs of blackened silver solder cap off the wood, while wee rusty metal bead caps crown each headpin. These are earthy, subtle stunners.

 
I ended up titling this pair "Life is Change". Because I'm sure this black walnut tree could have never dreamt, even in its wildest imagination, that it would one day end up adorning someone's ears.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

RinTinTin

I've had a hankering lately to play with materials that I've taken a break from in the past year, including tin--both vintage and new. I shared this story earlier in the week on my Facebook page, but I do believe it bears elaboration here. 

My husband and I host a family Christmas party every year. Last year someone brought cookies on a red and white tin plate which got left behind at the end of the night. For all of the past 12 months, Matt and I have kept the plate stashed on top of the fridge, loathe to throw it away because it was kind of nice, but not wanting to keep it because it's not really our style. Being slick, flat tin, it would occasionally slide off the fridge and clatter to the ground, eliciting expletives and foul moods. 

the devil platter on the workbench

Last week I decided that enough was enough. I took metal shears and cut it up for use in hollow tinned metal baubles. Annoyance eliminated, jewelry gained. 

Using a technique elaborated by guru Tracy DiPiazza of pipnmolly, I cut out circles in the tin, gradually dapped them into half spheres, soldered them together using my soldering iron, filed, sanded, oxidized, and waxed. In the past I have typically hung each bauble with a lightweight wood bead of some sort. However, since I've been headed in a "less is more" direction the past year, I decided to let these little wonders speak for themselves. I simply torched up some fat-bottomed copper headpins, dotted them on top with some additional silver solder, and hung them from my long copper ear wires.


I did a whole series in different prints and colors. And when they were all done I sat on my couch and let them pour through my hands, making the most delightful muted popping noise. 

Quite the transformation--from annoying clatter to music for the ears. 

Happy New Year!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Feet of Clay

As we close the curtains on one hell of a year, I'm reminded on how very important it is to be humble. When everything is going right in your life and you can do no wrong, well, that's an amazing feeling and a great place to be. But it's also an easy place to be. It's the trying times, the dark times, the times when you're weighed down by a 2-ton pile of boulders---those are the times that shape us and show us who we are. And motivate us to work harder on who we would like to be in the future.
 
Staying humble---remembering that we are all human, finite, imperfect...that we all have feet of clay---is an essential component to emotional and mental health, and ultimately, happiness. 

Today's earrings seem to have resonated with quite a few people, so I'd like to share them with you, dear readers. You know how much I love to discover old, obscure bits of anthropology. One of my latest finds are pumtek beads. Dating back as far as 400BC, the Chin people in Burma created pumtek beads from opalized wood indigenous to the area. They were worn as protective amulets, prized as heirlooms, and are signature for their striped and zig zag "lightening" patterns. Incredible.

I have used two of these precious pumtek beads to create little bud earrings using graduated stacks of rusty bead caps topped with dots of blackened silver solder. Time-worn, humble, and of-the-earth.

Thank you to each and every one of you for reading this year. Your support, uplifting words, and kinship are rays of sunshine to each of us on this blog. May your 2017 be full of light!

Happy Wednesday,
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Controlled Chaos

So much of what we do as artists boils down to this: controlling the chaos. 

Come on now, you know what I mean, I know you can relate. You have all these ideas and inspiration bubbling around in your hot little skull and they just won't give you a moment's peace:

• You caught Blade Runner on TV the other weekend and its gritty cyberpunk cityscape has been haunting you. 
• You were cleaning out the garden last spring and came across a fragile translucent snake skin snagged in some brush. 
• While you were driving to your parents' house in the country you passed this dilapidated barn half-covered with peeling crackled paint, half-covered with moss.
• After you finished reading Suttree, you couldn't stop visualizing that ragpicker passage over and over again. 
• That head of romanesco cauliflower you roasted for dinner yesterday--remember the fractal peaks and whorls that seemed otherworldly?
• That dream you had the other night...wow. 

For those with artistic inclinations, it can sometimes be challenging to organize all these ideas into a coherent vision that translates into our medium of choice. I have days where I flit from one project to another like a hummingbird. It's thrilling to have ideas popping into your head rapid-fire, but it can also be exhausting. Learning to take a deep breath, focus, and hone in on one vision...well, it ain't easy. Sometimes we have to be willing to let some go in order to fully realize others.


This week's pair of earrings is a metaphor for that attempt to control--or better yet, to be at peace with--that chaos. Any metalsmith will tell you that reticulating silver is an exercise in...blind luck. I created each charm by carefully taking a piece of silver through the process of reticulation with repeated heating and quenching to obtain the crumpled topographic texture that you see. I quite literally had (almost) no control over what the melting metal was doing under the torch. Half the time when I reticulate silver I'm just hoping and praying that I get a piece that's interesting and usable. These two charms ended up being completely asymmetrical yet beautifully matched--a little miracle! 

 
I filed off the rough edges, oxidized to bring out the contrast in texture, sealed to protect the finish, and hung them from some of my long sterling silver ear wires. A much needed personal reminder that we must strive to both control and flow with the chaos. Too much of one and not the other, and we get lost down the wormhole.

Happy Wednesday,
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

I Give You Nothing

Those who know me know that I don't get political with people. It's not my thing. It does not feed my soul. I believe what I believe, and that's enough for me. Likewise, I get nothing out of complaining. Especially aimless, complaining-for-the-sake-of-it complaining.

I try to live a purpose-driven life, and getting worked up over these sorts of things does not serve me. It's a trait that I had to develop and nurture quite a few years ago after hellish anxiety took me for a nosedive. I gently keep after it, as one softly blows on an ember to coax it into a steady fire. I remind myself that we have control over how we live our lives. It's a matter of accepting that control.  
So, I'm going to stay true to form and stop myself right here. I am only going to leave you with a quote that a beautifully kind, like-minded soul gifted me recently. It's from Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes". It dawned on me this morning that it applies pretty damn well to..........well, things of late: 

 

He gathered the boy somewhat closer and thought, evil has only the power that we give it. I give you nothing. I take back. Starve. Starve. Starve.

Today's earrings were named for these powerful words. They feature wee, smooth, matte nuggets of veined howlite. I fell in love with these beads at a local show recently--small, soft little pebbles that roll through your hands like tears. I appreciate that they aren't polished to a shiny gleam--I wish more stones were matte finished. I kept it simple, wire wrapping them in links of three and dotting them with blackened silver solder. 

Keep the fire burning and be strong, my friends.

Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

The Most Humble of Finds

Never trust a person who doesn't appreciate a good walk, hike, or meander through the woods.

My day job involves working from home, which is a huge blessing, but it can also mean that I work up a hell of a case of cabin fever every now and then. Not being a hugely social person, at these moments I tend to flee the house in search of parks instead of humans. And what does a girl like me do when she's taking these hikes? Well, she collects bits, of course. Sometimes it's just one or two things, sometimes it's a couple handfuls wrapped in the front of my shirt and weighing it down like a sagging potbelly. I'll come home with any number of natural wonders: hawk feathers, flaming red maple leaves, shards of bone, a squirrel-gnawed walnut, a rusted-out nail, or--if I'm really lucky--a trilobite fossil. 

Here in southwest Ohio we are rife with fossils from the Ordovician period---that's 450-500 millions years old! Whole cliffsides are just stratified with them. Erosion and time ensure that our creeks are always teeming with brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, gastropods, and horn coral. Talk about treasures!

Several weeks ago I was taking a hike at French Park, one of my favorite local parks. Being autumn, the leaves were turning and falling and the tree nuts were doing the same. I came across a grove of massive oak trees and the forest floor was littered with--you guessed it--acorns. I'm sure no one will argue that an acorn cap is quite possibly Mother Nature's perfect bead cap. Now, I've always seen jewelry makers dabble with cast metal or ceramic or polymer clay acorn caps. But what about using actual acorn caps in designs? I picked up a handful, inspected, checked for hardness and durability, and then decided to take some home to play around with. 

Back in the studio, I drilled a hole in each top and gave them a healthy coat of wax to help preserve and waterproof. It seems so elementary and so obvious, but it feels so...right. Here's the first pair I came up with, featuring a pair of deliciously grungy sawdust fired ceramic beads made by our own Claire Lockwood of somethingtodobeads. I strung everything on a couple of my fat pitted copper headpins and topped them off with wee black filigree bead caps and a dot of blackened silver solder. 


Just goes to show, art can be found in and created with just about anything, even the most humble of finds. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

The Best Laid Plans

I had a vision. 

I was lying in bed--drifting, woozy, floating in that liminal netherworld where ideas come to us so fluidly. What I would do, see, is I would take a piece of copper and fold form it and beat it over some rocks, see, and then texture it and punch it and file strategic places and shape it just so and...

I awoke the next morning with vague recollections of my vision and headed straight to the studio to bring it to fruition. Fifteen minutes into the project when the copper buckled and snapped, I realized:

shit, this isn't going to work

See, sometimes our dreamy ideas seem perfectly logical and functional. And then we go to execute and we realize they could use a little more refinement. There is nothing wrong with this. Rome wasn't built in a day. There is beauty to be found in the process.

Today's pair of earrings features the salvaged results of this vision. I took the two snapped pieces of copper, trimmed them up, softened up the edges, oxidized, sanded, and turned them into simple lightweight earring tabs. And you know what? For being "failures", I'm really quite fond of them. Funny how that works. When life gives you lemons...well, you know.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Bound and Twined

A couple posts ago I mentioned how I have been further exploring the use of fibers in my pieces to add textural and tactile variety. I use a lot of "hard" components---stone, metal, ceramic, glass, etc. So in the ever-present quest for balance, I like to add in some "soft" ingredients, as well. 

The problem I have with so many textile-based materials is that they wear too easily. Either that or they discolor or soil, like sari silk, and are almost impossible to wash when incorporated into a larger piece. So I've found myself turning more and more to waxed twines made of durable material, such as hemp, flax, and nylon. 

I'm such a fangirl of the magical and talented Rey at greybirdstudio and have always appreciated the way she wraps, weaves, and melts fibers into her intricate, organic pieces. So when she started offering her hand-waxed, dyed Belgian flax twine for sale to other makers such as myself, I squealed with excitement. The process she goes through to create the soft leathery finish is painstaking yet without a doubt worth it. I had the good fortune of snapping up a bundle of it one day---if you follow her work, you'll know how quickly things fly out the door! 

The twine is very fine and has a nicely tacky quality to it, allowing it to stick nicely to itself when overwrapped, as I did on the "bead caps" in today's pair. Bonus points that the fibers will not discolor with wear and contact with our skins' natural oils. I took a matched set of beautiful blush chohua jasper---one of my favorites---and knotted and wrapped and knotted and wrapped and knotted and wrapped and...well, you get the picture. 

I was at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago last week and was amazed at the ancient jewelry from many of the native tribes of North America. OK, amazed is an understatement. My husband had to restrain me at certain points. But the underlying technique and overall aesthetic of today's earrings remind me of some of those pieces. Art influences art, always!

Happy Wednesday, 
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Blessed with Cracks

Aren't we all, though? 

Conventional wisdom has taught us that cracks, imperfections, and vulnerabilities are bad. A sign of sub-par quality. Something to be avoided. 

Well, turn that thinking on its ear. Cracks are an opportunity to be flexible, to expand, to grow. They can also allow us a way to get rid of baggage that we don't need. If we are strong, inflexible, unwavering, and impermeable, then we miss out on so many opportunities. Cracks are a sign that we've been through hell and are here to tell the tale. 

Leonard Cohen, one of my favorite artists and poets, said it so well in "Anthem":

"The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."

 
Today's earrings feature a deliciously crackled and distressed pair of etched "agate eye" beads from Tibet. I burnished them with wax so they have that warm, soft, well-worn-through-generations-of-hands look. As I've been doing lately, I kept it simple, pairing them with faceted milky white ceramic beads from the ever talented Simona of Happy Fallout. Dots of blackened silver solder complete the crunchy industrial tribal vibe that you know I love. My own hand forged copper ear wires and pitted fat headpins complete the look. 

Proudly showcase your cracks, ladies and gentlemen! They are a sign of strength and openness--not imperfection. 

Happy Wednesday, 
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy