Rustic Silver Flowers with Ruby Spinel

A few posts back I posed the question - what do you pick out first the jewelry or the outfit? I got mixed responses. My conclusion? It is totally an individual choice! Same goes for earrings and necklaces, I suppose. You find one you like and try to match another piece to it, yes? 

These earrings actually came after the necklace. And the necklace became something completely different than what I started from. 

Either way, I am very pleased with the end result. 

Again, these components came together like magnets! You may have experienced this yourself.. you get on a roll and light bulbs start going off in your head like explosions of inspiration!

The charms are sterling silver disks that went through he rolling mill, pressed with bits of flower rick-rack. The flowers left a lovely embossed impression on the silver. It reminds me of rustic tin... although I hesitate to compare sterling to tin.

They are framed in fine silver hoops that were hammered with a dotted texture. 

And then finally adorned with ruby and pale rose colored Spinel gemstones. Absolutely a gorgeous array of colors in these little faceted stones. I can hardly believe they lasted in my bead drawer as long as they did!

I was able to achieve a nice big loop on my ear wires so it almost looks like a tiny hoop. 

Farewell summer... hello autumn... Rustic Silver Flower Earrings. 

☮ Cindy 

Website

Blog

Facebook

Instagram

Rubies in the Raw

Today we have a guest post by the wonderful Jewelry Artist Julie Thelen.

She recently said she's on an earring kick and she's been making some beauties

 so I asked her to share one of them on our blog.

Take it away Julie!!

I present to you, Rubies in the Raw!!

The inspiration for these exquisite earrings came from a strand of raw, uncut rubies I found at the Smoky Hills Art Gallery, an artisan gallery in my new, small home town of Park Rapids, Minnesota. I immediately fell in love with these earthy gemstones and purchased them (along with some turquoise nuggets and kyanite ovals) on the spot.

 As soon as I got home, I contacted Judith Billig of Icarus Beads, shared a picture of the rubies, and asked her to make me some drippy headpins to coordinate with them. When the headpins arrived in the mail, I couldn’t believe how perfect the coloring matched. I was thrilled and designed the first pair of earrings right away.

These beautiful Earrings are available Here.

Julie Thelen

Julie Thelen's Jewels by Jules

Texture

Blue Zircon Earrings

Mixing and layering textures is one of the more fascinating elements of designing jewelry. It may be a little tricky, but definitely worth the effort to add so much more interest to any piece. 

Blue zircon briolettes, neon apatite rondelles and rubies pick up the pink and blue highlights in these heat patinaed copper teardrop earrings. These delightful metal clay components, with their rich brocade texture, were made by Kristi Bowman. 

Texture by bohobeader featuring anna fields

More rustic copper earrings from Gloria Ewing on Etsy and Artfire.

Fire in the Sky

I have had these gorgeous "aurora borealis" clay discs from Floridity for the longest time just waiting for the perfect ruby gemstones to go with with them. Luckily, I found them in a local bead store a few weeks ago and finally put them to use.

I think they would look fab with this t-shirt! Simple and not distracting so that people would notice your FAB earrings!

You can find this t-shirt on Sandmaiden on Etsy

You can find these earrings here and see more of my work.

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations