Beach Walk

Me, about 1966, on the Washington coast

Do you walk the beach with one eye on the waves and the other eye scanning the sand for sea treasures? These earrings look like I had emptied my pockets after a day at the ocean and had gathered together my best finds.

Spiral sea shells, tiny stars reminiscent of starfish and vintage coral (I never buy new coral, because coral reefs are dying in much of the world).

It's almost as if you could hear the roar of the surf while wearing these earrings - the next best thing to being there.

Me, backpacking on the Washington coast, about 1974.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Sea and Earth

I'm delighted to have gotten my hands on some of Darlene Fortier House's and Sasha Crow's components recently. I actually won the stamped soldered abalone shapes from Sasha in a giveaway and made a custom order with Darlene from ArtisticRejuvenations for these lovely enameled shapes.

Just a little iridized metallic pyrite and we've got ourselves a dandy pair that brings me right back to Maine with the pearly sheen and mussel shell speckled purples.

You can find Sasha Crow here and on facebook here

 You can find Darlene's torch enameled components here

Enjoy your week and thanks for looking at my latest creations!

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604

https://www.instagram.com/numinosity/

Sailing Under The Stars

My husband and I celebrated our 42nd anniversary, last weekend, with a visit to Port Townsend, WA.  Port Townsend has been one of our favorite getaways for about 30 years now.  We love the ocean, the Victorian seaport homes, the many art galleries and the delicious restaurants.

And if all that weren't enough, PT (as the locals call it), is also home to Wynwoods Gallery and Bead Studio, one of my favorite bead shops!  The shop owner, Lois Venarchick, designs and casts her own line of metal charms.  I added these delights to my stash last weekend.

Today's earrings feature the Lois' bronze sailboat charms, which I paired with gorgeous matte lampwork beads by Out West.

I knew immediately that the charms and the beads belonged together.  Together they seem to tell a little story.  The bronze sailboats are sailing under a golden star and the blue, turquoise and black beads above the star represent the night sky. Everything feels peaceful and tranquil. It is all smooth sailing.

Lois Venarchick

Lois Venarchick

The Sailing Under The Stars earrings are available in my shop.

-Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Lois Venarchick

We're All Ears :: June Reveal

 “The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.”
~ Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson was a world-renowned marine biologist and author of some of the most famous books ever written about the natural world. She wrote with passion and expertise, and her writing was accessible and poetic and lovely. Her message of conservation, preservation and love of the earth that we call home is as fresh and compelling today as when she penned them over six decades ago. The following quotes about the sea are from her writings, urging us to never take for granted this world we live in, filled with glory and wonder.
  
I created a new bead set in my Symbol Bead Series that I call Tide Pool Treasures. The smaller size (about 3/4" round) is a new shape for me and perfect for earrings. The earrings that follow show the front and back of the same pair. At the bottom you will see an example of two focal beads, all sides. They are each made individually with molds and special stamps, painstakingly place. For me, these beads evoke the wonder of those tiny puddles of sea salt brine where the magical worlds of ocean wonders collide and coexist. I will start taking custom orders for these beads through my website, www.tesoritrovati.com.

"Tide pools contain mysterious worlds, where all the beauty of the sea is subtly suggested
and portrayed in miniature." 

“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.” 

“The winds, the sea, and the moving tides are what they are. If there is wonder and beauty and majesty in them, science will discover these qualities... If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself,
"What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?”  

I have never seen a tide pool or rock pool in person. One day I would love to have that chance. It gives me pause to consider that final quote from Carson... what if when I do get there, they don't exist anymore? A sobering thought, that makes me even more passionate about conservation and preservation of this amazing world we live in.

 

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We're All Ears :: June Inspiration

When I was a young teen, I took my hard earned allowance money and bought myself a subscription to National Geographic. It is what made me want to be a photojournalist when I grew up. I loved reading about lives and cultures on the other side of the world from me. The pictures they captured always told amazing stories even without the in-depth reporting.

Sometimes I go and peruse their website. So much fascinating stuff on there. I was poking around when I discovered that they have an app where you can view past issues. I stumbled on an issue from February 1986, the year I graduated from high school. There is an article with accompanying photographs from Robert Sisson (and an equally enchanting painting by Karel Havlicek that I couldn't find elsewhere) entitled "Tide Pools: Windows Between Land and Sea." It is a great article. You have to log in to read it, but it is worth it. And that is what inspired me for June.

illustration by Hashime Murayama

Hashime Murayama was a Japanese illustrator, born in 1879. He used to work for National Geographic until 1941.

Seeing as summer is about to kick off, and that means thoughts turn to vacations and getaways that include a lot of water, I thought that this month we could focus on tide pools or rock pools.


Now, I have never witnessed a tide pool in person, but I know I would be completely fascinated by them. All manner of marine life brimming over in the tiny microcosm of that space. I imagine it would get pretty crowded in there! But yet all those species live together in a sort of harmony in diversity. Maybe we can all take a cue from this natural order.

illustration by Theo Carreras

Theo Carreras was an illustrator of some well known books about insects, like "Marvels of Insect Life," and was known for his detailed still-life illustrations

So many textures, colors, shapes. So many unique life forms, both above and below the surface, each dependent on the rising and ebbing tides in their craggy homes. Barnacles, seastars, octopi, crabs, mussels, anemones, kelp and even all manner of birds make their homes in these shallow pools teeming with life.

illustration by Theo Carreras

So that is our inspiration for June! Tide pools or rock pools. I look forward to seeing the marvelous earrings you will create with this beach-y theme. Dive on in!

What inspires you about tide pools?

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Friday, June 19th.

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Feeling down? Say this one word...

...limpet.

No, I'm serious, go ahead and give it a try. Just one little time. Go on...while no one is listening.

See? You feel a little better, don't you? Maybe a teensy smile just crept across your face? A little levity to your soggy gray winter Wednesday? Perhaps even a smidge of impish delight when you imagine the cute cup-shaped domed shell of a LIMPET? 

You think I'm mad, but if you haven't picked it up already from reading my blog posts and jewelry listings, words really do hold that much power in my life. There are some really fun words, like limpet, bauble, and mallard. And then there are some really horrible nasty evil words, like moist. *shudder*

 
All this to say, I found some limpets last week! My day job shipped me off to the Pacific coast of California for a week and our hotel was right on the beach. As in, I could hear the waves crashing from my room. It was like every insanely picturesque post-card you've ever seen, and it was ALL RIGHT THERE. I couldn't help myself but to kick off my heels, sneak away, and do some beachcombing and toe-wiggling in the sand. 

I haven't been to a beach in probably 15 years. As a child, the few times we went I almost lost my head over all the cool little shells, pebbles, and scraps of sea life that would wash onto shore and get trapped in tide pools. I've always been fascinated by it, and nothing has changed as an adult. Every day last week I would sneak furtively back up to my hotel room with handfuls of sandy briny shells.

Now that I'm back home in landlocked Ohio, I've been sifting through my finds and picking out a few shells to incorporate into jewelry, since you know how much I like weaving organic found objects into my pieces.  

These earrings are quite special, as they feature some really sweet little purple banded limpets that I collected. They swing lightly under stacks of ancient Roman glass, wood bodhi beads, pyrite nuggets, and some antique opalescent Venetian glass "moon" trade beads (100-200 years old). Purples and teals and indigoes, all wire wrapped up together and ready to whisper songs of the sea into your ears.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy