Shell Lantern Brass

Wishing everyone a very happy new year 2018.



Ingredients:
Lovely lucite beads in a milky very pale blue with gold/brass
Small firepolished facetted brass/bronze colored beads
All the other components are in brass

All my best,

Malin

Art Deco Revisited

Art Deco

I found these fabulous fan-shaped shell beads at a local shop, Powderhorn Trading Company. They are just lovely, like giant pearls. I used my embossed poppy caps on them in sterling silver, with Argentium silver earwires and Indonesian glass beads (from Happy Mango Beads) in a soft turquoise color and matte finish.

I was surprised, when they were finished, what a strong Art Deco vibe they had, which delighted me because I adore Art Deco!! I think it was the repeating fan shapes and angular lines, with both the shell beads and the caps--there are fan shapes, sunbursts, and similar motifs everywhere in Art Deco! And of course an emphasis on angular patterns:

From Wikipedia, 1930 Milwaukee Gas Light Building, Photo by Seth Anderson

From Wikipedia, Chrysler Building, New York City, Photo by Postdlf

From Wikipedia, Sunburst, Eastern Columbia Building entrance, photo by Binksternet

From Wikipedia, Griffith Observatory detail, Los Angeles, Photo by Nathan Day

I've never really considered myself a triangle person, but all this Art Deco goodness could make me change my mind...

More information available at my Etsy shop, HERE.

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

Pebble Beach

Ok, yes, I'm getting a little punny with my title here, but I couldn't help myself. These earrings are the perfect marriage of beach and primitive - for the organic earth mother in all of us. When Rey from greybirdstudio gifted me these little salmony and lemony shells from the Isle of Skye, I knew I had to create a study in warm beachy sunset hues. 

It took some fiddling, but I settled on a neat ladder design to feature a handful of smooth tumbled Lake Michigan pebbles. 

Some creative wire wrapping plus little scraps of hemp twine, and you're ready for some sand squishing between your barefoot toes. 

 
A flowy long dress, hair tressed up and wild, sun kissing your bare shoulders...I can feel it now :)

Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy