Sugar Skulls

Who doesn't like them?! Well I never did, but they've grown on me now. For today's post I used a pair of my painted resin skulls. I kept them simple as there is so much going on already...(the honest truth is I had no idea what to do with these 😅).  Hope you like my matchmaking. 

Ceramic beads are from Perlayo on Etsy.

It's a short and sweet one from me today.  I'm listing the earrings on Etsy shortly.  See you soon <3

Suhana xx

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Mermaids....are not just for summer

I've just finished a trunk show for earrings only so earrings were probably the last thing I wanted to make even though I do love making them...I was a bit earring-d out if you know what I mean.  I looked at some of my own components that never made it to the show as earrings.  I had planned on making several mermaid earrings but ended up only making one pair for the Trunk show.  But I did paint several pairs so there were quite a few left overs to choose from. 

Here is how I turned them in to earrings.  

I wire wrapped them on to big hoops, chose dark sapphire cup chain to match the scales and matte gold seeds to echo the golden upper part of the mermaid.

As these hoops were quite substantial in size (30mm) I knew I couldn't add any big beads to go between the hoop and the ear wire. I wire wrapped brass hearts in a central position so I could just attach some ear wire directly on to them.  I did that but the earrings did not look or feel right....something was missing.

I picked up these blue glass flowers which were the perfect size and attached them to the hearts.  Now they were complete.  

This was the only mermaid pair I made for the show.  Here I painted the mermaids in rainbow colours, applied resin on the rainbow area and sprinkled some glitter for fun.  I hung them from brass connectors which I had wire wrapped with glass spikes, flowers and crown caps.  

I hope you like my efforts.  The first pair is now listed on Etsy.  Have a fab weekend <3

Suhana 

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery 

Layering

One of the most recurrent themes in my earrings.  When I don't have the patience for wire wrapping I love to make layered designs.  In my mind they're not as time consuming as wire wrapping but I always prove myself wrong and I also ended up wire wrapping anyway.  I have 4 pairs to show you today. 

Claire Lockwood updated her bead shop recently and I grabbed some....whatever I was able to keep hold of in my cart.  I love these tusks, Colours are just dreamy. I wanted to keep the neutral theme, keep them simple in appearance.  I rubbed back the black patina on these brass flower blanks, placed large rhinestones on top and wire wrapped using brass seeds.  I simply hung the tusks from the flower connector and added raw brass caps for a pop of colour. 

For this pair I wire wrapped squares and attached them to brass connectors.  I hung painted resin daggers (by the Husband) from the bottom and added Czech glass flowers on top to complete the look. 

Lots of layering going on in this pair.  Beautiful lampwork flowers by Yuliana Goldin-Dunn with wire wrapped ovals, brass oval connectors and plain brass ovals underneath.  I added painted resin daggers to the bottom.  

Lampwork flowers by Yuliana on top of brass flowers inside a brass hoop (frame).  I added hamsa hand charms and painted resin charms as the dangles.  I keep changing my mind about these.  I like them, then I don't. 

They're all listed on Etsy.  See you soon. 

Suhana <3 

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

The Metals

Hi everyone, it's busy busy in the Hart household so another sweet little post from me featuring some of my newest painted metal components. I hope you like them.

First pair with some unusual shaped connectors.  These were very fiddly to paint (only 6mm wide), I don't think I'll be in a hurry to paint more of these.  I added brass caps and tubes on top and Czech glass flowers.  I also added some chain and stars.

For these I used slightly curved brass tubes and added various brass findings including some silver plated brass crowns hiding inside the raw brass caps.

Final pair similar to the first but I've turned the top section upside down to give them a slightly different look.

These are available in my Etsy shop now.  I'll be back in a couple of weeks time, hopefully with newer designs.  Until then, have a lovely weekend <3

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Buttoned Up Beads

Incan Inspiration

So it's been a while since I made anything. My beads and tools have remained untouched for weeks, mainly due to a hugely busy time in my day job. I've missed being creative. It's been a bit daunting sitting down to try to make something again. My mojo has been much neglected and so.... disappeared!

When I'm short on inspiration and confidence, I turn to past designs to help get things moving again. I have a stash of Suhana Hart's beautiful painted brass charms which are sealed with resin. They are beautifully intricate and colourful, and I've used these daggers in similar designs for a previous blogpost. These particular daggers are stunning. They were painted by Suhana's husband Martin (what a creative family!) and they remind me of Incan designs. I thought I'd build on this and used brass hoops as a frame for wrapping seed beads in co-ordinating indigo and turquoise colours. I have some vintage beads in my stash, and these seemed to finish off the Incan vibe well, and added some interesting shape and texture.

And here's a shot of them hanging in all their Incan glory

That's it from me. Hugely grateful to this blog for making me sit down with my beads again! See you in a few weeks

Sue x

Utterly Lovely Stuff

❤💗💚 Colour Me Hippy 💙💜💛

Hello, how about a splash of colour this week?  Ok maybe not a splash, maybe a flood of COLOURS!!  You may need to get 'them' 🕶 on.

Here are this week's offerings in their group shot. Very colourful wouldn't you say?  I felt the need to brighten up everyone's days as I've been seeing lots of snow on my FB feed lately.  

1.  First pair features painted resin and brass charms by Martin Hart, layered (I used to do a lot of layering, now that I've re-discovered it....you will see a lot in this design) with vintage enamel flowers, topped with brass spacers (I have softened the colour on these a little, can you see?) and finished off with delicious sparkling rocks by Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens.

2.  Painted resin and brass charms by Martin Hart, layered with those stunning vintage flowers, sitting on top are Carolyn Saxby tyvek beads.

3.  Painted resin and brass charms by Marin Hart, layered with vintage flowers, topped with Roman glass discs, Maryse's sparkling rocks and sari silk.

4.  and a 4th pair in the same design.  I had these vintage flowers in 4 colours....didn't want to offend the cream/white pair by leaving them out 😁.

There we have it.  A riot of colours.  All of these are now listed in my Etsy shop.  See you in a couple of weeks. 

Suhana <3

My Etsy Shop: Buttoned Up Beads

A Rose by any other name...

Today is 25th January - and it's Burns Night in Bonnie Scotland. There'll be some scotch whisky and haggis consumed by Scots all over the world tonight!
Robert Burns, Scotland's national bard - probably most famous for writing 'Auld Lang Syne' - also wrote the lovely poem below, which - being so close to St Valentine's Day - I took as my inspiration for today's earrings. 

O my Luve's like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June;

O my Luve's like the melodie

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair thou art, my bonie lass,

So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun;

And I will luve thee still my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!

And fare-thee-weel , a while!

And I will come again, my Luve,

Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

What's my connection to Scotland, you may ask. Well, not much I thought. But when I was small in the 1950's, my forename was pretty unheard of and I spent lots of time spelling it out for folk. Still do. I asked my mum why she couldn't give me an ordinary name and she told me she read it in a novel and believed it was Scottish in origin. A little trip to Google found I had not only my own tartan, but a Clan Lindsay with it's own motto ' Endure Fort' - Suffer Bravely. I don't know about that....sounds a bit too Mel Gibson for me. That's the bit of 'Braveheart' where I always switch over.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the earrings. I had a little chat with Joanne Louvaine Bell aka Twinkiedinky and asked her to make me pair of her 'Pennythoughts' resin charms with the text of the poem. I think these are a brilliant idea - as well as her stock quotations, if you ask nicely you can commission just what you want to say to someone for that special gift. So here they are. 

The lovely black lampwork roses are from Cecilia Lawrence Midgetgembeads, and come in many colours (most of which I've had at some time!)
Love isn't all plain sailing, is it?  The left is dark and thorny, occasionally drawing metaphorical blood. The right is soft and leafy - those are the sweetly melodious times. 

Will you be celebrating Burns Night? And have you ever checked for the origin of your name - maybe you have a tartan too!

See you in two weeks!

Lindsay  

Precious Violet

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