Is it Spring yet?

I know I know, we're barely in to fall/winter but I think these will definitely get you in the mood for Spring!!

Monarch Butterfly Wing Earrings

I've paired my Handpainted Monarch wings with wonderful dotted Kazuri beads, a match made in heaven!

Rainbow Butterfly Earrings

These Rainbow wings have been paired with some of my favorite Rainbow Lampwork Beads!

Amber Butterfly Earrings

Three rough and rugged Amber Nuggets are sheer perfection!!!

All of these and more available on my website!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook

A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

A collective name for a group of butterflies is called a 'Kaleidoscope'.

However others have called it a 'Swarm' or 'Rabble'.

I think a Kaleidoscope suits these beautiful creatures don't you?

Sold

Lampwork by Marise Den Hartog

Rainbow Wings

Rainbow Lampwork Beads by Patti Cahill.

Beautiful Wings

Lampwork Beads by Janell Nelson.

I thought it would be fun to share creations from other lovely artists with you too!!

Lara Levy Linkmeyer of 

Garden Gal Jewelry

Monice Pryor of

 Feminine Genius

Michelle Mikalski-Thompson of

Be You Beautiful

My wings are painted Copper (PMC) coated with Ice Resin.

 They have the look of enamel but they are Ice Resin.

I have a show coming up June 2-3 on the

LBA Galleria Showcase

I will have lots of Butterfly Wings and more to share!

Thanks so much for spending some time here on Earrings Everyday!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook

Dotty Peacock

Sometimes a particular component, in this case Lampwork Beads are so beautiful they need very little added to them to make gorgeous Finished Jewelry.

I think these amazing beads easily fit in to that category.

I simply added some AB coated Faceted Hematite beads, vivid Turquoise Glass Beads and pretty Faceted Purple Czech beads on top.

Done!!!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook

Rainbow

I've been using rainbow colors in many of my painted copper components lately.
The earrings I'm sharing with you today are a variation on a pair I made awhile back with my
Rainbow Lotus Components.
None of my components in these but Glass Beads from 2 different artists play very nicely together!

Rainbow Earrings available HERE

Headpins by Janell Nelson and I haven't been able to find who made the other little beads yet.
I topped them off with beautiful little bright Turquoise Beads, I use these little blue beads so much I'll be sad when my strand is gone. Especially since I don't remember where I got them!!

Since I mentioned the first pair of Rainbow Earrings I made I guess I'd better share them too!

Thanks so much for joining me here at Earrings Everyday.

It's almost FRIDAY!!!!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook

We're All Ears :: May Reveal

"Sure he was great, but don't forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards
...and in high heels!" ~ Bob Thaves, creator of the Frank & Ernest cartoon

With a challenge like this, that is at once visual and auditory, I spend a lot of time looping the music and the video to really immerse myself in the inspiration. Luckily, this song is quite nuanced and intriguing and the video is equally as fun to watch. Each time I watched it, over and over, I found something new to focus on. One time it was her dress...another time her shoes...then his perfectly hued wardrobe...and yet another was on the walls that served as their colorful backdrop.

As I watched, I had a pad of paper with me. I sketched shapes that seemed to recur to me, wrote notes on the colors that jumped out at me most (and the ones where I liked her outfits ;-) and made a whole word cloud of the words and phrases that came to mind.

I was struck by the give and take of the dance. The measured steps. The total control. And the giving into the seduction. These dancers are different, unique, distinct when separate, but they move as one. That is what I set out to capture with my earrings.

I wanted to bring lightness, an ease, effortlessness to these earrings, but yet I also wanted them to be strong and substantial. They also needed to have an element of male/female, yin/yang, give/take. And they had to have COLOR!

Now I have to admit that I don't leave myself much time to do any of these challenges. I sat down on Wednesday evening and thought that I could pull off a rather complex technical feat, but that didn't quite happen.

I have been researching the mysterious art of plique-a-jour which literally means "glimpse of daylight." I intended to make organic, flowing wire forms that held translucent color in the cells. Plique-a-jour is much like cloisonne, but there is no backing, so the light travels through the cells (or cloison) much like stained glass. I wasn't able to do exactly what I have in mind...but my mind is still racing with ideas to make this happen for real that will continue to feed my creative hunger. I WILL master what I have in my head. These are only the beginning.

So tonight, after I got home around 8:30 after a baseball double-header an hour away (we won both games - yea!), I set to work making a total of 4 different pair (I was shooting for 6...not bad!).

 

 I formed the shapes in my favorite dark annealed steel wire and then colored some of the cells. I think the naked wire forms look pretty darn great, but the color just makes them pop, and when I figure out how to make them more translucent, I know they will be even better!

They still need to be sealed, and perhaps some resin over the colors to make them last at bit longer. They are just experiments at this point, prototypes, if you will. But I am encouraged by the way this is turning out.

 
You will notice that I don't have any ear wires.... I want to make them myself but right now it is nearly 2:00 am and I have to get some sleep! I didn't think they looked good with any of the mass-produced ones that I have, so that will wait. Plus, they were technically still drying! ;-)

I can't wait to see what marvels you created from this color-filled and musical inspiration!

 

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Leave kind, encouraging comments.
Visit their shops. Make new friends!   
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We're All Ears :: May Inspiration

One of the perks of having a daughter in a dance school is the chance to witness to some amazing performances. Last weekend was our own dance recital/spotlight showcase (which is truly the best amateur dance performance in Central Wisconsin), but on Tuesday evening about 25 of us traveled about an hour away to the Appleton Performing Arts Center to view an evening of dance from world renowned troupe Pilobolus.

It was thrilling to watch this troupe of about 8 dancers transform on stage. They did a total of five different dances that ranged from raw and gritty to a celebration of the beauty and power of the human form. There was heaven and hell represented along with a great dose of humor in an illusion of escapes through a collaboration with magicians Penn & Teller.

The most traditional piece that we saw was a tango with six of the dancers set against a backdrop of shifting video of colorful buildings in Los Angeles. The dancers were on stage for a total of about 8 counts and cycled on and off at quite amazing regularity, each time wearing something completely different. And I mean, completely different, right down to the shirts, pants, dresses, and jackets that would match the rainbow colors on the screen.

After doing a little research on this, I came to find out that the live version that we saw was inspired by a music video of the same name for a song called 'Skyscrapers' by the band OK Go (if you haven't seen their video for the song 'I Won't Let You Down' shot completely in one take with hundreds of extras, you really should watch it!).  Trish Sie, the choeographer (who is the sister of the lead singer) and dancer Moti Buchboot are shown in the official video against these ever-changing urban landscapes. This was translated to the sextet of dancers in the Pilobolus troupe with split-second timing - and a staff of three dressers just off stage and behind the screen making sure they don't sashay across the stage half-dressed. Considering that we just came off a weekend of dance and quick changes, this was most fascinating to us.

In the live performance there are six dancers... one 4 1/2 minute song... 32 costume changes... 43 pieces of clothing. It could be a train-wreck but it was completely mesmerizing, ground-breaking and electrifying.

I couldn't find a video of the entire live performance, so I will leave you with the official music video, plus a video that shows just a portion of the live dance that I saw, and the set of still shots you see throughout.

And a snippet of the live performace.....

I am intrigued by the color, the music, the give-and-take of the tango, the fluid movement and intense tension of their bodies. And those quick costume changes. 

What inspires you about this dance?

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To participate in the We're All Ears creative challenge:

Make earrings inspired by this inspiration.

Write a post on your blog.

Add your exact blog post URL link to the
InLinkz code right here on 

Friday, May 15th.

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We're All Ears :: August Reveal

These stunning sculptures by artist Gabriel Dawe seem so dreamlike to me. I love the linear quality of both the kaleidoscopic threads and the railings of the stairs. The overlapping colors look like they are floating in the air, like when you see those dust motes drifting in the air currents of a sunbeam.

For my earrings I found a stash of some Swarovski crystal briolettes in a rainbow of colors that were left over from a wedding I did in February. I love briolettes but finding a way to connect them always irks me. I usually resort to a thin gauge double wire wrap at the top, but that would feel too heavy for this inspiration. So I devised a new way to hang briolettes using beading wire and crimps. I like that you can see the entire top of the bead and they almost seem to float.

Here is a bonus step-by-step showing how I created the briolette connectors:

Since I wasn't making one pair of earrings in all the colors, I decided that I would make a series of them in a variety of colors. I even tried them in silver with a clear crystal. I see the beginnings of a collection happening here!

I like my earrings long with movement and texture. These certainly fit the bill and are something I would wear with every outfit every single day!

I couldn't come up with a name for them. Plum out of ideas. Any thoughts?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's see what you created!
Please take the time to hop around to the participants.
Leave kind, encouraging comments.
Visit their shops.
Make new friends!

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We're All Ears :: August Inspiration

One of my favorite blogs to follow is called The Jealous Curator. I find the most fascinating contemporary artists and their uncommon art and exhibitions through this site. While looking for inspiration for August, I thought that it should be something color-filled like the halcyon days of summer, yet light and airy to beat the heat. I found all that and more in the stunning installation art of Gabriel Dawe.

:: Source ::

Per the bio on his website:

Originally from Mexico City, Gabriel Dawe creates site-specific installations that explore the connection between fashion and architecture, and how they relate to the human need for shelter in all its shapes and forms. His work is centered in the exploration of textiles, aiming to examine the complicated construction of gender and identity in his native Mexico and attempting to subvert the notions of masculinity and machismo prevalent in the present day. His work has been exhibited in the US, Canada, Belgium, and the UK. After living in Montreal, Canada for 7 years, he moved to Dallas, Texas, where he obtained his MFA at the University of Texas at Dallas. For the final two years of his degree, he was an artist in residence at CentralTrak, the Artist in Residency program at UTD. His work has been featured in numerous publications around the world, including Sculpture magazine, the cover of the 12th edition of Art Fundamentals published by McGraw-Hill, and in author Tristan Manco’s book Raw + Material = Art . He is represented by Conduit Gallery in Dallas, and by Lot 10 Gallery in Brussels. 

Do you remember doing those string art projects at summer camp? This installation work takes that idea to the ultimate. Created with miles (and I do mean miles!) of sewing thread wound around hooks or nails on wood, these airy textile sculptures transform a dull place into a living rainbow. Hard to choose just one picture, so I settled on a collage of just one of his impressive installations. All angles have to be viewed to appreciate this magnificence of form and explosion of color. Pick the inspiration photo that inspires you or head over to his website to see more!

What inspires you about this amazing art installation?

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To participate in the We're All Ears creative challenge:

Make earrings inspired by this picture.

Write a post on your blog.

Add your exact blog post URL link to the InLinkz code right here
on Friday, August 15th.

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Ode to Raku

 

Raku. Who doesn't love raku? Who doesn't drool over its unpredictable rainbow sheen, charred edges, and matte textures? And how cool is it that of all the raku artists out there, each one has his/her own techniques and "recipes" that give their raku a singular, identifiable look? It's an inconsistent and uncontrollable process, yet these artists still manage to create their own consistent aesthetic.

I've been on a raku kick all this year and have hoarded pieces from several incredible artists, including Jennifer Pottner of Urban Raku, who happens to live right here in Cincinnati! She's big into making discs and donuts that are perfect for stacking and layering. Let me tell you how much trouble I got myself into when I stopped by to see her studio...dangerous.

When I first picked up these two mismatched pieces, I didn't know what I'd do with them, but knew that they needed to be made into earrings. After hours of toggling with designs and going back and forth, I realized that the incredible spectrum of colors didn't need any ornamentation - they were stunning when allowed to shine themselves. All they needed was some snug, crazy wire wrapping and extra long ear wires. 

Dark drama, that's what these babies are all about.



Happy Mid-Week :)
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

The Other 1%

We all have them squirreled away in our wardrobes and jewelry boxes, don't we? That hard-edged bracelet or scissored dress or tall boots that just make us feel take-on-the-world confident. I'm 99% a quiet, sensitive, artsy type, but every now and then I enjoy flaunting my 1% bad*ss.

These earrings have all the oil-slicked iridescent flashy black magic that you could ever want. Raku ceramic discs from Urban Raku, crusty little shards of gray ancient Roman glass, plus two insanely flashy electric blue nuggets of white moonstone. Stacked and wrapped. 

Bring it :)

Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy