Lava, Raku and Hawaii

My husband and I just got back from the island of Hawaii. We spent the week there with our daughter, son in law and their adorable 6 month old daughter, who I'm completely smitten with! We were in the Kona area of Hawaii. If you've ever been to Kona, then you know that many (but not all) of the beaches and hills in the area are covered with lava.

The lava fascinated me. In some areas it was all broken up, sharp and rocky, as in the photo above. But in other places it was smoother and you could see how it had flowed and piled up. It reminded me of pouring just cooked caramel or pudding out of spoon and watching it mound and puddle up.

The raku beads in today's earrings remind me of those mounds of cooled lava.  Very organic and mounded up a bit. Perhaps I've got Hawaii on the mind and so I'm seeing Hawaii in totally unrelated things.  I've always had an active imagination! 😉

The lava, erm, raku beads were made by Xaz beads. The tops and bottoms of the beads have a definite metallic purple sheen to them. I emphasized that purple sheen by topping the raku beads with amethysts. The leaf shaped head pins and fancy, wire wrapped ear wires are from Handmade by JGL.

Linda Landig Jewelry

On Wobbly Legs

Hi again, I'm back. Have been on a brake for a few months as you might have noticed (and if you haven't that's fine too :-)).

Isn't it interesting how often after you have created something and you take a step back and look at it, you realize that it so much represents you and the time you are going through right now. In fact the subconsious always seems to have this kind of grip on me. And it always catches my by surprise.


Like with these earrings. The first piece of jewelry I have completed for some time. And I am on very wobbly legs in my life right now. In many ways. Both literally and methaphoricly. So "wobbly legs" they are named.



Ingredients:
Green and yellow raku fired ceramic disks by Jubilee
Dark grey (black) matte 6/0 seed beads
Oxidized copper wire 20 G
Heavily oxidized sterling silver handmade earring hooks


All my best,
Malin

The Art of Restraint

A very kind woman gifted me with a very generous compliment the other week:

"...you do something very mature, as an artist. You know when to stop with a piece. Most people load on all but the kitchen sink, but your pieces are restrained and elegant. That is a rare quality." 

When I stopped grinning, squealing, and blushing like mad, I had to pause and think, because she hit on something that I strive very hard to emphasize with my pieces: less is more; more is just more. 

As designers, it can be hard to self-edit, especially when you're surrounded by mounds of attractive, colorful, shapely unique beads:

"Ooooooo, I've always loved these beads, let's add in a couple here."
           and
"Ack, the colors of these match those perfectly, let's add in a couple here."
           and 
"Crap, I forgot I wanted to include these stones, let's add in a couple here." 

And before we know it, our designs can get unwieldy, impractical, and sometimes gaudy. 

Knowing when to stop or when to remove components from a design can be a tricky thing. We may feel like we are dumbing things down, like we haven't invested enough time and creative energy into a piece, like it's too simple. I'm here to tell you that's BS! Unless you're planning on hitting the red carpet, a runway, or an art gallery opening somewhere, most people don't typically wear ginormous overwrought pieces of jewelry. Not that there's anything wrong with statement pieces - I do plenty of those - that's a discussion for another day!

 
Case in point: these demure ceramic raku squares from local artist Jennifer Pottner of Urban Raku. Her work is INCREDIBLE. I visited with her the other week at a local bead show and snagged this pair from her table. Their muted, velvety dark gold and plum hues really spoke to me - the colors of autumn without clubbing you over the head with pumpkins and scarecrows and bright orange and all that. The size on the squares was enough to make a statement itself, plus I didn't want to cover up too much of that beautiful finish. So I chose to give them simple ridged soldered "belts". Sleek, geometric, artful, and restrained as all get out.

So the next time you're feeling the need to do more, ask yourself if you could actually do with a little less :) 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

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

Between Her and the Stars

Listening to music - one of my favorite things to do when creating jewelry, cooking, sipping a glass of wine, messing around the house, you name it. I'm continually inspired by other artists, especially those whose medium is the spoken and written word. I'm a word nerd, I can't help it.

When I'm creating jewelry, many times a song lyric or a phrase from a novel will pop into my head. I often wake up with phrases floating around in my skull like a song stuck on repeat. I've made a habit of naming each of my pieces. I find it gives them a soul to inhabit, an identity, a purpose.
 
 






These particular earrings are a bit of a departure for me in that they are PINK...well, as close to pink as I'll probably ever get. They have a visceral, dreamy, desperate bleeding heart romantic quality to them. Their title was inspired by a These Immortal Souls lyric:

"Plot me a course
By Pluto and Mars
To a vanishing point
Between her and the stars"



Art inspires art inspires art...components from several crazy talented bead artists (Kimberly Rogers, Xaz Bead Company, and Diane Hawkey), music from one hell of a talented band, and jewelry from my two little hands. And the circle continues.

Have a great week <3
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy