Glorious Geometrics

Hi, everyone!  The first thing I'd like to say about these earrings is that I really loved making them...even if they were time-consuming.  😉

As a chainmailler, obviously I like working with metal, but as a woman who for years transcribed the (sometimes unintelligible) dictation of doctors, I now find myself with arthritic thumbs that aren't up to heavy-duty metal work anymore.  These days, the idea of making chainmaille in stainless steel--famously hard to work with--is a little scary at best.

But I really enjoy working with wire that's easily manipulable, and with chainmaille rings in softer metals.  So every now and then, rather than pair beads with beautiful components like these (made by Marlene Kazor Quigley of MarKazo Art), I create something out of wire instead.

 

In this case, I made circles out of several wraps of copper wire, antiqued and tumbled them, and wired onto them tiny beads in colors that bring out the vivid hues of Marlene's enameled copper triangles.  I even wrapped some little beads to the ear wires.

I always did like geometry.  💗

Thanks so much for reading!
xoxo
Meridy

My Shop
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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

Seed Bead Tassels

Seed beads. Don't you just love them. They come in so many various colours, shapes, finishes and sizes. Just makes my mouth water.

Ingredients:
Seed beads of various colours and sizes
Tassels are strung on FireLine beading thread
Brass coloured large acrylic closed rings, light weight
Brass jump rings
Handmade Sterling Silver earring hooks, heavily oxidized

All my best,
Malin

Long with large acrylic or resin

I am happily continuing on the path I've been on lately with long eye catching earrings with large light weight resin or acrylic beads. Varitions on a fun theme that I very much enjoy working with.

Ingredients:
Large black and brown faceted acrylic beads
8/0 matte metallic bronze seed beads
Black faceted glass beads
Vintaj brass large jump rings
Vintaj brass earring hooks
Strung on 4 ply walnut brown waxed irish linen cord

All my best,
Malin

Drops and Spikes

So here we are in December! I don't really do seasonal earrings, I'm afraid so had a little look in my beady stash for inspiration for this week's post, and thought I'd dip into my supply of Petra Carpreau's ceramic drops and spikes. No-one does drops and spikes like Petra. They are fantastically versatile, come in all the colours of the rainbow and they are just so tactile -gorgeous to hold. I love the way they look like they have been dipped in colour.

Then I got a little obsessed with the same design! I love these pretty czech glass flower beads, and thought they went so well with the drops. I added some antique brass spacers and sweet little yellow picasso seed beads. I love this turquoise version. Who doesn't love turquoise and yellow?

Here's some with rich red drops and gold seeds

Now for some spikes. I love this combination of brass and silver spacers - love the contrast in colour and textures. Some speckled blue spikes and seed beads for this pair

 And green spikes and gold seeds for this pair

Told you I get a little fixated with a particular design!
These pretties are available in my etsy shop, except for the turquoise pair, which have already found a new home.
Thanks for reading! See you in a couple of weeks

Sue x

Pretty insect wings

Hello!
I am Sue from Utterly Lovely Stuff and I'm so happy to contribute to this rather fabulous blog :-)

I've been making jewellery for several years now, and love making earrings most of all. I have an enormous stash of Petra Carpreau's gorgeous ceramic pieces (ScorchedEarthonEtsy ) so turned to this when I was looking for inspiration for this blog. Petra's work is inspired by nature -shells, leaves, flowers etc and her pieces never fail to inspire. These gorgeous insect wing decal droppers leapt out at me. Wings of all descriptions seem to be very popular in earring designs at the moment (see Erin's previous post and beautiful moth inspired earrings). I love Petra's take on this current trend. The colours in both of these pairs are beautiful, they're like little impressionist paintings -gorgeous!

I wanted a slightly different design for both pairs. For this first pair, I added some czech glass roller beads, some layers of pretty black chain for contrast (and to give them a layered look) and some picasso seed beads to finish them off. Love the yellow and pink in this pair.

For the second pair, I used another pair of czech glass roller beads (these are great because of the wide holes) and added some pretty purple seed beads in loops (this was a fiddly business!) and finished these off with some delicate silver plated leaf chain for contrast

Hope you like them. These pretties are available in my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/utterlylovelystuff

See you in a couple of weeks

Pink and Purple Towers

I love to stack stretches of beads one after one another. It feels like I am telling a story. And it creates a nice kind of architectural effect. The beads are like miniature building blocks.

I wanted/needed to add something odd to that slim tower, so hence the upside down enameled bead caps by Jade Scott. Inside them a Swarovski crystal is hiding.

I don't know what you see, but I myself find these earrings have a monumental quality to them. Even though they are so slim and delicate. Interesting. Perhaps my mind is effected by the fact that my son and I have been talking about architecture over the past few days. Or the We Are All Ears Challenge for September. As always so brilliantly put together by Erin Prais-Hinz of TesoriTrovati. Very inspiring!

Handmade Art Beads:
Glass Head Pins Capped in Tinwork - Sasha Crow of CrowsCacheSupplies
Enameled Three Petal Bead Caps in Purple and Orange - JadeScott

Other:
A variation of different styles of seed beads
2 sizes of Swarovski bicone crystals
Purple electroplated hematite discs
Vinyl discs
Sterling Silver Handmade and oxidized earrings hooks

All my best,
Malin
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Fetchingly Light

I'm finding it increasingly challenging to come up with designs that reflect my personal style now that so many have discovered all of the wonderful components available online in groups and shops.

That's when I fall back to relying on my own components that I haven't made available to others yet.

These earrings were created with some polyclay pieces that I made in a workshop with Christine Damm at Art On the Farm in Vermont last May.

I fell in love with the techniques she taught us as I am all about texture and lightness when designing earrings

I dug out some of my old seed bead stash to stack up on these copper enamel headpins that I got from Alaskan artist Tamie Hageland from Copper Creek Studio

I had such fun making them I had to repeat the design in a different color

These are fun and lightweight to wear and you'll see nothing like them! 

Thanks so much for looking. I'll be on a break now to go visit some of my European beady friends that I've met online along the way.

If you'd like to see pics from my trip you can follow my Instagram page here:

www.instagram.com/numinosity/

Adios for now!

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604

Catalina

When I sat down to create a pair of earrings this week for today's post, I had planned on something a bit more festive or perhaps sparkly...since New Years Eve is coming up but I guess my muse had other plans. I was inspired by these Bubby & McGurk beads and so I just went with it. I really prefer the Bohemian look these days to anything else.

                                    You will find these earrings on my website here.

I wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

And thanks so much for stopping by,

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Funky Blossoms

Even though my husband makes lampwork beads, I do buy lampwork beads from other artists on occasion and I have some favorite bead makers. Nikki Thornburg is one of them and I am happy to call her a friend as well. I bought these at the last show I attended a month or two ago along with several more of her fun beads and pendants! You can check out her Etsy site Thornburg Bead Studio and find some of her colorful work there.

You will find these earrings for sale on my website here.

Thanks for stopping by...would love to hear from you with a comment. 

Have a great weekend!

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Tribal

The rustic tribal look is really popular these days but not something that I do very often, but when Jana (Happy Fish Things) sent these to me, I had to give it a try! I thought that these lampwork beads by Bubby & McGurk Beads paired nicely with the drops with their shades of green and cream.

                                          These earrings are available here on my website.

Thanks so much for stopping by.....have a fabulous weekend!

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Bohemian Fringe

These earrings took quite a bit of time because the design was in my head but just took awhile to come to fruition. I love them though and plan on making a pair for myself in silver and turquoise. They are quite dramatic and sexy at four inches in length!

They would look fab with this ensemble found on Pinterest. Original source unknown.

You will find these earrings for sale here and many other pieces on my website. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Sari Hoops

Love adding Sari silk to my work when I can and I immediately fell in love with these Bubby & McGurk lampwork beads so I combined the two and am pleased with the result.

These earrings sold at my show this past Saturday, but there are more great earrings on my website.

Thanks for looking and have a fabulous weekend!

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Kristy's Kreations Facebook Page

Kristy's Kreations Blog

Kristy's Kreations Website 

 

 

 

A Touch of Fall

Trying something new with some of my Polymer Headpins.

 I wanted to add a splash of fall color to them and these little Peanut beads were perfect for the job!

Touch of Fall

I love this scarf, full of fall color!

If there's one thing I like about fall and winter it's boots, sweaters and scarves!!

Source

These Earrings are available HERE in my Etsy Shop.

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

Peruvian Opal

Peruvian Opals are one of my favorite gemstones and so I wanted to make a pair of earrings that would definitely show off these beauties. I used 16g sterling silver wire and wrapped it around a dowel and then hammered it. I used liver of sulphur to patina them along with some sterling wire that I needed to use for wrapping and ear wires.  I'm pleased with how they came out...they will be hard to part with!


Did you know that the Peruvian Opal has soft relaxing energies. Legend says that it takes the tension out of communication and helps ideas flow freely. It softens the impact of stress from the outside world and can help one to release the trauma of old wounds. It facilitates facing the future with a tranquil healing nature.  **info found on www.bernardine.com
 

Check out my website to see more of my work. These earrings just sold but I have some copper ones listed on my website here. 

Thank you,

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Sienna Vineyards

Lately I've become addicted to wire wrapping seed beads. I really like the messy look of it and it's fun. I paired these burnt sienna colored seed beads with these lampwork beads by Bubby & McGurk Beads.  I flattened a couple of Vintaj bead caps and added a seed bead to those as well.

They'd go fab with this gorgeous chunky knit cowl scarf by Glorious Morn

  

You can find these earrings HERE or visit my website .

Thanks so much,

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Aura

I've always loved this color combination of fuchsia and aqua and I have incorporated it into many of my designs. Just made these the other night and they are already a favorite of mine.

I'd pair them with this blouse from Sundance catalog. Throw on a lightweight purple scarf for good measure? Perfection.

 

See these earrings  HERE.

To view more of my work check out my website.

Thanks :)

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Inspired by Lime and Purple

I'm usually inspired by nature but for these earrings Pinterest lead the way. I am constantly seeing wonderful photographs of inspiration there, and saw this beautiful Bedroom in Lime and Purple.
I love all of the different textures- they are classic but romantic just like this room. If you would like to purchase these earrings, they are for sale in my webstore. Thank you for stopping by today!!

Forever Enchanted

When I spotted these wooden tile charms that my friend Janice (of JLynn Jewels) made, I knew I had to have them! I love the colors, love the birds, and love how they are wood burned for a gorgeous finish. You can see more of these tiles HERE. They are super lightweight too!

I could see myself wearing them with this ensemble...

Mmm..definitely craving a mocha latte now! A trip to Starbucks is in order, I'm thinking.

You can view these earrings HERE.

To see more of Kristy Abner's work or to contact her, please visit her website at Kristy's Kreations