Scraps

Last week I mentioned that I had been going through my photos of years of jewelry designs I had created. And, I came across a few that touch on the subject above: These earrings are all made with scraps that were on my bench. Since I wasn't well this week, I didn't make anything new, but I wanted to talk about scraps and leftovers.

Do you aim to re-use everything leftover when you make jewelry? What do you do with all the scraps and odds and ends? Whether I work with metal, or polymer clay, precious metal clay, etc...  I re-purpose/re-use/transform scraps into new components and pieces. There's basically zero waste in terms of materials in my studio and I'm quite proud of that :)

Here's some earrings I made using scraps:

Tribal shields: Scraps of Sterling silver wire balled up, flattened, soldered to leftover pieces copper from another project, and everything is soldered to the sterling silver wire frame, and decorated with  two small Turquoise stones:

Tribal Sheilds by Nathalie Lesage

These Moonstone Moon Earrings are not made with scraps, but there's a part of these that ends up in other designs - I use a sterling silver round disc blank, and I offset it in my disc cutter to quickly cut out a crescent moon shape to make these earrings:

Moonstone Moon Earrings by Nathalie (Girard) Lesage

So when I make these, I'm left with 'eye shaped' or 'marquise shaped' pieces of sterling silver. Some of those scrap pieces ended up in these designs:


Mother Earth Earrings: The textured sterling silver piece (shaped like a marquise a bit - vertical) is soldered on top of the 'dome' in this pair. I textured the pieces and soldered them to the base round disc shape.

Mother Earth Lampwork & Sterling Silver Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

And in this pair of Kyanite Chandelier Earrings, I used that same leftover cut-out shape from the Moon earrings, but this time, I used them horizontally to make the foundation of this unusual pair of chandelier earrings:

Kyanite Sterling Silver Chandelier Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

So how do you like 'scrap' earrings? Are you happy with how much you can re-use and re-purpose in your own studio? Can you share some of your re-using tips with us? We'd love to hear what you do!

I will be back later on this month with new earrings to show!

Cheers,
Nathalie
My Garden Of Love Etsy Shop
The Crafty Tribe Etsy Shop

Dapping Fool

Isn't it wonderful how new tools can gently help guide our evolution as artists? 

For years the only dapping set I've had was cheap, wooden, and next to useless. It would divot whenever I used it, had way too much "give" when I would hammer, and would chip and flake all over the place. I limped by with it on the few projects where I wanted domed metal discs. Oh, and those metal discs? I was cutting those out by hand and praying to the symmetry gods that everything would turn up roses. I'm all for winging-it in the studio and making do with what you have, but come on, this was complete amateur hour. 

A month or so ago I decided enough was enough--I needed a decent set of graduated metal dapping punches, a dapping block, and a disc cutter. In other words, I was putting my artistic big-girl-panties on and growing up a bit. And the difference has been night and day.

So since I've been DAPPING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT lately, the other week I had a notion to experiment with some half-hollow forms. The idea happened to coincide nicely with a new order of deliciously primitive ceramic cone beads from NadiaTerra. The result: half ceramic, half copper, scrappy little oddities. I'm reminded of excavated ancient pottery and weathered bronze age metalwork. 

I cut, textured, and dapped copper discs into domes, strung them on my own fat-bottomed copper headpins along with the ceramic cones, and connected both halves with a ribbon of blackened silver solder. A dot of solder on top, an oxidation bath, and a good seal with wax, and there you have it. 

The only downside to my new tools--I may have to invest in a good pair of noise cancelling headphones for my husband, as I'm sure all this hammering is less than acoustically pleasing... 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

Life is Change

"HEY. That thar's a piece o' wood hangin from yer ear..."

Why yes, yes it is. It's a twig of black walnut, to be exact. Cut into small segments, rounded at the ends, drilled through with a hole, and sealed with wax to help preserve the wood. 

Sometimes I wonder if I've taken my "back to roots" routine a little bit too far. In this example:

1. I love wood beads. 
2. Let's take it back a step to old ratty vintage wood beads. 
3. Oh, but wait, what if we went back even further to part of the tree branch itself and just made that into a mini log-bead? 

Lunacy? Inspiration? The line between the two is far thinner than we like to think.

For this long, swingy pair, I picked out a particularly luscious pair of lampwork glass headpins from dear friend Kim of NuminosityBeads. The swirled moss, sage, delft, and cloudy hues work perfectly to provide a habitat for the natural wood beads. Plump rounded blobs of blackened silver solder cap off the wood, while wee rusty metal bead caps crown each headpin. These are earthy, subtle stunners.

 
I ended up titling this pair "Life is Change". Because I'm sure this black walnut tree could have never dreamt, even in its wildest imagination, that it would one day end up adorning someone's ears.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

RinTinTin

I've had a hankering lately to play with materials that I've taken a break from in the past year, including tin--both vintage and new. I shared this story earlier in the week on my Facebook page, but I do believe it bears elaboration here. 

My husband and I host a family Christmas party every year. Last year someone brought cookies on a red and white tin plate which got left behind at the end of the night. For all of the past 12 months, Matt and I have kept the plate stashed on top of the fridge, loathe to throw it away because it was kind of nice, but not wanting to keep it because it's not really our style. Being slick, flat tin, it would occasionally slide off the fridge and clatter to the ground, eliciting expletives and foul moods. 

the devil platter on the workbench

Last week I decided that enough was enough. I took metal shears and cut it up for use in hollow tinned metal baubles. Annoyance eliminated, jewelry gained. 

Using a technique elaborated by guru Tracy DiPiazza of pipnmolly, I cut out circles in the tin, gradually dapped them into half spheres, soldered them together using my soldering iron, filed, sanded, oxidized, and waxed. In the past I have typically hung each bauble with a lightweight wood bead of some sort. However, since I've been headed in a "less is more" direction the past year, I decided to let these little wonders speak for themselves. I simply torched up some fat-bottomed copper headpins, dotted them on top with some additional silver solder, and hung them from my long copper ear wires.


I did a whole series in different prints and colors. And when they were all done I sat on my couch and let them pour through my hands, making the most delightful muted popping noise. 

Quite the transformation--from annoying clatter to music for the ears. 

Happy New Year!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Shady Sinner

I seem to be in the minority when I say that I really don't prefer jewelry/beads/components that include words. Which is an odd thing for me to say, being a self avowed word nerd, bookaholic, and walking dictionary. There's something about the bluntness (?) of it that doesn't appeal to me. It's hard to describe, other than you will 99.9% of the time never see these in my work. The same goes for beads and charms that feature humans or body parts. But that's another story.


HOWEVER. 

 
When my latest order of ceramic beads from the insanely talented and lovely Claire of somethingtodobeads arrived, she included a generous pair of freebies: grungy twirled smooshed ceramic beads stamped with two simple, devious, wicked words---SHADY and SINNER. 

Now, when I laid eyes on this pair, my first thought was oh, now that's cheeky. And my next thought was wait, those actually kinda go together. Followed quickly by a grin and an oh yes, challenge accepted. 

 
And, thusly, today's pair of earrings was born. I torched my own fat-bottomed copper headpins, strung each ceramic bead on, and then topped them with graduated stacks of rusty, crusty, patina-riddled bead caps---no two the same. I dotted the top loop of each with some silver solder, gave each earring a good oxidation bath, and then hung each from one of my long curvy copper ear wires. Swingy, potbellied little devils.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Repeat Offender

For those of us who gravitate toward art beads---and who doesn't, really?---we tend to have favorite bead artists that we keep going back to, time and time again. Can't seem to shake em. And just when you think that 1.5 trays of their beads are going to satisfy your hunger, they list new components and you find yourself going back again for another fix, like a zombie in the endless pursuit of BRAAAAAAAINS. 

One of the bead artists on my short list is Marsha Neal. I remember buying from her years ago when I first started designing jewelry and I still buy from her to this day. Her abstract, organic shapes and earthy glazes have captured and held my fascination through quite a lot of creative growth on my part--through it all, her beads have always played a note in my cumulative song.

Some of my favorite beads are her twisted horns. It's clear that she takes great care in forming them but still lets them take on their own unique, evocative shape. I have yet to find two that match perfectly--that's part of the magic, for me.

For this pair, I used a slate blue-gray matte glazed pair of horns, stacked them with vintage German pressed wood beads, and capped them with rusty petal bead caps. Throw in some blackened soldering to fill the gaps, hang them from some of my extra long ear wires, and you've got two edgy pieces of art for your ears.


Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

Stop to Hear the Frogs Sing

For those who have known me since childhood, it will come as no surprise to hear me say that I'm a fan of frogs and toads. I don't know what it is, but they have always made me squeal and immediately squat down to try and catch them. Mind you, not to hold them captive or torture or scare them, but to give their little heads a tap and whisper some cute equivalent of "who's a good boy". 

Even today as an adult I have the same reaction, much to the chagrin (and embarrassment) of my husband. I don't care if a grown-ass woman shouldn't be chasing frogs in a creek, I'm gonna do it. Because I do what I want. 

 
Ground zero for this favorite pastime was my grandparents' farm in central Ohio. They had several acres on which they grew various crops, most importantly strawberries. Locally famous for their pick-your-own berries, their farm was a haven for my brother and I growing up. And especially when it came to the small pond sitting at the back of their land. You wouldn't believe the frogs, fish, turtles, snakes, insects, and fowl that would flock to this watering hole. In the spring you could see velvety soft tadpoles teeming around the shallow edges. As the year progressed, they morphed into wee frogs the size of a quarter and would sun themselves on the embankments. We tried to quietly creep up on them but their keen froggy senses warned them every single time, sending them plopping back into the water with a chorus of "eeeeps". If they were lucky enough to survive adolescence, they would grow into one of the many grandaddy bullfrogs that would serenade us with deep, throaty "moos" while we were picking strawberries in the fields. To this day, if you want me to tear up, just put me in a wide open field on a hot, sunny, breezy day and let me listen to the frogs.

My earrings for today feature small smooth stone bullets of limey green serpentine. The mottled colors and patterns on these stones remind me of the amphibians I adore so much. I have hung them beneath stacks of precious bits, as I am wont to do: grungy antique clear glass "dogon" beads from Africa, two-tone tiger kamagong ebony wood beads from the Philippines, vintage brass saucers, and wee star-shaped metal bead caps. I added in some decorative blackened silver soldering, as I am also wont to do, and hung everything from my extra long curvy copper ear wires.

For all of the nostalgia and anecdotes that I share on this blog, I suppose I do have a loose theme that ties them all together, and today's post is no different. Please don't ever become so jaded that you lose your wonder for the world and its tiny miracles. Even if it's as simple as stopping to hear the frogs sing. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Take It Eeeeeeasy

Ever feel like you're taking a cop-out easy route with one of your designs? But you really don't care because the end result turns out so perfectly that you wouldn't change a thing? 
 
I had some of that guilt when I made this pair a couple weeks ago featuring some more of Kimberly Rogers' deliciously mismatched lampwork glass headpins. The glass itself is a very soothing, neutral, streaky birch color---I've been gravitating more and more toward neutrals and earth tones over the past year. I wanted to highlight the fact that Kim deliberately made one headpin twirled like a horn and left the other drippy. What better way to do that than to make one of my soldered caps twirled and the other smooth? And the "I feel so clever" moment: I switched up the swirls. Oooooo, gettin' tricky!


Ok, so it's not a complex design. I could have hung these headpins beneath stacks of grungy precious bits, like I'm wont to do. I could have hung them from gnarly hoops or used them as focals in a chandelier-style pair. But lately I've been craving stated simplicity. 

To be honest, it's almost more difficult to reign yourself in when designing. At least for me, anyways. Plus, I always try to be sensitive to the wearability of pieces. It's one thing to create a masterpiece for a gallery or a competition, but it's another thing to make pieces that people are able to wear and love every day of their lives. That's the miraculous thing about creating art---every artist has unique goals for their work. There's never a wrong or a right answer. It just is. And that's a beautiful thing. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

My Favorite Things

Favorites---we all have them. 

Whether it's your favorite color (olive green), favorite food (garden-fresh tomatoes), season (autumn), author (Cormac McCarthy), shoes (black biker boots)...the list goes on. We can learn so much about a person by looking at their favorite things. See, look how much you just learned about me? Of course, we as humans are much more nuanced than a condensed list of favorites, but these are great starting points. 



One of my most favorite stones---and honey, I've worked with a LOT of stones---is chiastolite. A form of rosy brown andalusite and otherwise known as "cross stone", this wicked material features completely naturally occurring black graphite crosses or Xs at its center. The iconography of the cross goes back thousands of years across untold cultures. I love the provenance and fluidity of such a symbol.

So any time I see a nice piece of chiastolite, I tend to snap it up like a hamster---hoarding it away for future use. These little teardrop pieces weren't in my hands very long before they spoke to me. I gave them wee soldered caps and dangled them simply beneath vintage wood beads and ratty pronged black metal bead caps. Ever so slightly industrial and gothic (see aforementioned proclivity for black biker boots) with a crunchy earth goddess vibe thrown in for good measure. Hey, that pretty much sums me up.

OK, now tell me some of YOUR favorites!

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Lively Up Yourself

vintage industrial hoops, red river jasper

Isn't it funny (for those of us here in the Midwest, at least), how we were concerned and complaining about how warm it was on Christmas (+60F degrees!)? And now that the holidays are all over, a cold snap has set in and it's 20F degrees and we all feel like we're dying? I guess you could call that funny. Or perhaps nature's form of karma. 

I actually prefer a cold winter, myself. It just feels more natural that way. If we didn't have the biting cold in the dark months, we would not as deeply appreciate the pleasure of a sunny 80F degree day. 

I tell myself that, at least.

lampwork glass by Kimberly Rogers, brass hoops

So as I sit here typing, I'm bundled in an insanely poofy knit sweater with a bunchy turtleneck that is a mile high. I'm surrounded by at least two of our three cats. I have on my embarrassing hot pink fleecy socks that I loathe but, dammit, they get the job done. I'm doing my best to keep warm. 

I suppose that desire also crept into my jewelry last week as I created several sets of earrings using red, a color that I have grown to appreciate more in recent years. Hot-blooded, tempestuous, uncontrollable red...

ceramic red lilies by Claire Armstrong, wood beads

Hope your holidays ended up on a high note and hope your new year is a deliciously creative one!

Happy Wednesday,
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Rough Around the Edges

I'll be the first to admit that I'm rough around the edges. I like things that may be considered ugly or junky or taboo.  I like being a black sheep. I like my jewelry to have some bite.

I'm big on re-purposing elements in my jewelry---not from a tree-hugging recycle-hound standpoint (not that there's anything wrong with that), but from a "I really love the look of this old bead/rock/found object" standpoint. Stuff may be busted or have a crust on it---a patina of time, if you will. I like that.

Along these lines, one of the things I love playing with are vintage industrial metal bits.  They're old, they're beaten up, they're rusty, they may be broken and unusable in any other application. I like the challenge of looking at an object and then figuring out how to bring it back to life in unexpected ways.

Like this pair of earrings that I made for myself that feature some old industrial metal rings. What they were used for at one time, I have no idea. But they're pitted and corroded and covered with a layer of dark green verdigris patina...and I love them. I kept it simple by hanging them with two unusual lightweight vintage German wood beads. Each bead sports a little filigree bead cap to add some verve, plus my own headpins, ear wires, and soldering. Blackened metal because YES, please.

These are the kind of earrings that I wear everyday. They make a confident statement without clubbing you over the head. Some people may call it an "industrial chic" trend, but I just call it ME.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

The Art of Restraint

A very kind woman gifted me with a very generous compliment the other week:

"...you do something very mature, as an artist. You know when to stop with a piece. Most people load on all but the kitchen sink, but your pieces are restrained and elegant. That is a rare quality." 

When I stopped grinning, squealing, and blushing like mad, I had to pause and think, because she hit on something that I strive very hard to emphasize with my pieces: less is more; more is just more. 

As designers, it can be hard to self-edit, especially when you're surrounded by mounds of attractive, colorful, shapely unique beads:

"Ooooooo, I've always loved these beads, let's add in a couple here."
           and
"Ack, the colors of these match those perfectly, let's add in a couple here."
           and 
"Crap, I forgot I wanted to include these stones, let's add in a couple here." 

And before we know it, our designs can get unwieldy, impractical, and sometimes gaudy. 

Knowing when to stop or when to remove components from a design can be a tricky thing. We may feel like we are dumbing things down, like we haven't invested enough time and creative energy into a piece, like it's too simple. I'm here to tell you that's BS! Unless you're planning on hitting the red carpet, a runway, or an art gallery opening somewhere, most people don't typically wear ginormous overwrought pieces of jewelry. Not that there's anything wrong with statement pieces - I do plenty of those - that's a discussion for another day!

 
Case in point: these demure ceramic raku squares from local artist Jennifer Pottner of Urban Raku. Her work is INCREDIBLE. I visited with her the other week at a local bead show and snagged this pair from her table. Their muted, velvety dark gold and plum hues really spoke to me - the colors of autumn without clubbing you over the head with pumpkins and scarecrows and bright orange and all that. The size on the squares was enough to make a statement itself, plus I didn't want to cover up too much of that beautiful finish. So I chose to give them simple ridged soldered "belts". Sleek, geometric, artful, and restrained as all get out.

So the next time you're feeling the need to do more, ask yourself if you could actually do with a little less :) 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

Fundamentally Me

For anyone who asks, I tell them that my work is just as much about finding unique components as it is about fancy technique. I'm by no means the most widely accomplished jeweler in terms of depth and breadth of skills. But I do have a keen eye for beads, stones, fossils, and random found objects that have artistic potential. I'm not going to divulge how many hours of my life have been spent surfing the web for strange items or pawing through bead/rock show tables. Let's just say it all goes "into the soup". 

I'm especially fond of stocking up on treasures that I know I'll most likely never ever find again. Seems like a smart approach, right? Until your hoard starts to cast shadows on the floor...I digress.

Something that I found a few years ago and have been greedily holding on to are these fossilized echinoderm "petals". Echinoderms include sand dollars and sea urchins---so when you look at these fossils, imagine their spokes or arms. I saw these fossils and snapped up more than a few pairs, knowing that they were fundamentally ME: rustic, old, organic, neutral earth-tone. 

A couple weeks ago I bravely decided to cut one pair loose. Continuing with the soldered bead cap concept that I've been working lately, I added in a rustic spiral to each cap to give some energy and movement to the metal. I think it helps accentuate the shape of the fossils, as well. A healthy dose of oxidation and buffing really help to bring out the underlying texture and pattern. Add in some of my extra long ear wires and you've got versatile, crunchy, dark, edgy little twins for your ears.

Hope your week is a delicious one!

Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Raiding the Sewing Cabinet

Let's talk about thimbles. 

They're wee, they protect our precious fingertips, they are passed down from generation to generation of nimble-fingered women. Even the word puts a smile on your face. I'm not even sure if thimbles are used much anymore? Then again, I'm not a seamstress. I'm sure if they made finger protectors for metalsmiths, I'd be all over it. 

I enjoy incorporating oddball found objects in my earrings, so antique shops can be a treasure trove when it comes to sparking my muse. One of my favorite Etsy supply shops sells lots of vintage, old, crusty, imperfect artifact bits from Eastern Europe. These items range anywhere from 100 years old to a few decades old. 

During one order (read: binge) I came across these vintage brass thimbles and the first thing that came to my mind was BEAD CAP! The edges are ragged and they have a dark green verdigris patina on them, and a lot of people may look at them and think "junk, gross, why would you want to wear that?" 

But to me, they bring to mind previous generations of strong, make-do, self-reliant, hard-working women. Women who tended and cared for those they loved. Women like my grandmother who lived through the depression and still mends towels and undershirts and socks to this day.


To turn these thimbles into wearable art, I carefully punched holes in the top and hung them with natural spotted jasper stones in complementary hues of sand, terracotta, army green, and vermillion. I then gave the stones blackened silver soldered caps and hung everything from my extra long ear wires. They dangle freely beneath the thimble, making for really unique nostalgic statement pieces.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Asymmetry and I

As a designer who gravitates toward earrings, I'm always thinking in terms of pairs, especially when it comes to purchasing art beads. It's just one of those things that gets engrained in your brain and becomes second nature---like riding a bike, remembering to turn off the burner when you're done cooking, or making sure you put on deodorant each morning.

So when Kim of NuminosityBeads threw me for a loop and offered just ONE of these crazy glowy ultraviolet etched dichroic lampwork glass beads, well, I was vexed. Panting, starting to break out into a cold sweat, I assured myself that I could incorporate it into a necklace...make it a focal...pair it with other complementary beads. It will be fine, right? RIGHT??!!

Against my better judgement, I was determined to make it work in a pair of earrings. Which could only mean one thing: it was time to get asymmetrical. 

Asymmetry and I are good friends---sometimes we veer way off to the left and sometimes we operate in a more conventional range. What's more important to me in a piece is the balance, not so much the symmetry. 

So I pawed through my bead hoard and came to the last tray in the tower (yes, tower)---the box I reserve for my own polymer clay beads. I keep them at the bottom because I don't make many polymer beads. And the sets I do make tend to get mostly used, leaving one or two left over. Those one or two tend to languish and get forgotten.

This pearly cratered lavender polymer chunk was just the ticket. Its soft frostiness plays a beautifully complementary second-fiddle to the intense ultraviolet flash of Kim's glass. I opted to keep the design simple, pairing each bead with two grungy vintage bone "cruller" beads and capping everything off with some soldering. Sweet, dangly, squeal-er-ific. 

Hope you're having a delicious week!


Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy