Christmas Baubles

Hello Earring Folk

Nothing brand new from me this time, as I am woefully unprepared for Christmas, and it's a whirlwind of picking up people from University, and school carol concerts. However, these are fairly new (I made them for a recent showcase on Facebook) and certainly seasonal!

First of all, I made these sterling silver hoop studs and bashed them about a bit and oxidised them too, to bring out the texture of the hoops. I added some gold coloured ceramic baubles by Petra Carpreau, and some fancy silver jumprings.

I rather like the combination of gold and silver. Good for Christmas, without being too Christmasy!

That's all from me. I'll be back in 2020! Just remains for me to wish you a happy Christmas and a healthy and peaceful new year.

Sue

Utterly Lovely Stuff

Tutorial for Hoop Earrings

Hello, hello, hello!

How have you all been?

It's been awhile and I've been busy making a lot of changes on my website - which is still not reopen for business. There's a lot of changes, and it's going to take a bit longer than I thought.

Since my site is not ready yet, and I don't have new earrings ready to share at this point, I wanted to share one of my very popular video Tutorials that I have on my YouTube Channel - with over 30,000 views, it has helped many make hoops fast and easy to do.

It's a video that I filmed back in 2010. I hope you will enjoy it and try making your own hoops :)

But you don't have to stop there, you can embellish your hoops with 'drops' and also wire wrap some pretty beads all around too :)

Regular Sterling Silver hoops - these are made with 16 gauge wire (for those with larger holes)

You can wire wrap some pretty beads and gemstones around the hoops for a totally different look :)

You can use 14kt Gold Filled wire, or Rose Gold wire to make sparkling gold hoops for the holidays!

I hope that this tutorial will help you make hoops faster.

Everyone works differently. I just find it nice to be able to watch someone make something and learn how they do it...

Thanks for watching and I hope you'll give these a try!

Nathalie Lesage

http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Winter Moon

On Saturday, I had the chance to participate in a local Arts & Crafts Sale. It was wonderful to meet local women and their families, and get their feedback on my work.

I haven't had the chance to participate in such events too often in the past, but I do my best to join in the fun as often as I can. There's absolutely NOTHING more precious than receiving real-time, face-to-face feedback from potential buyers.

And inspired by their feedback, and by the beautiful Winter Moon that greeted me on Sunday morning, I have designed these pretty Tanzanite Earrings:

Tanzanite Earrings inspired by the Winter Moon

The women that I spoke with mentioned that they loved gemstone earrings, but that they preferred shorter, more delicate designs (shorter than 2" in total), and it dawned on me that a lot of the earrings I've been making lately were longer than 2". 

It really doesn't take much to get over 2" in length, counting the ear wires.... So I listened to them, and came up with these lightweight little hoops :)

Soft Lavender Tanzanite Gemstones are a beautiful go-with-anything neutral shade

Yesterday morning, when I woke up, I opened the bedroom window's blinds, and found this bright  (almost) full moon, greeting me, and the sky had beautiful painted wisps of lavender, light blue and pink. It was such a beautiful sight. 

I knew right there and then that I had to make earrings inspired by that gift from nature.

I really had a great time meeting everyone at the show on the weekend. If you don't normally do Arts & Craft Sales, I encourage you to go out and meet women and ask for feedback on your designs. Sometimes, they see something that we don't...

You can find these Tanzanite Earrings here on my website...

Thank you for your time! Have a wonderful day :)

Nathalie

http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Blue Waters

Believe it or not, we are *still* dealing with snow, and you know it... I miss Summer so badly!!

Today, I've decided to venture for the first time on Polyvore, and oh my! 

I found so many beautiful things to inspire me,

and these are the earrings I made for my Carefree Beach Chic outfit:

Blue Waters Brazilian Blue Apatite Sterling Silver Hoops by Nathalie Lesage

I think these would go really well with the outfit I just created:

Wire wrapping is something I've been doing for a number of years (on and off), and which I really enjoy. It speaks to the bohemian woman living in my soul :)

These flirty 1" hoops are made with beautiful natural (untreated) Brazilian Apatite gemstones

and loads of hair fine .925 Sterling Silver wire wrapped on a pair

of my cold-forged Sterling Silver hoops.

I was lucky enough to have the super talented Eni Oken as my mentor a few years ago,

and I've learned a lot from her over time. It takes a lot of patience and time to do fine wrapping.

Since we're on the road and currently living in a place where "good" water is at a premium (we're on a campground with bad pipe water at this time), doing soldered jewelry - which requires a good amount of water for quenching, pickling, rinsing, tumbling, etc - is just not something I can do much of because we have to buy all the water we use for daily living. I have to be very frugal with it.

Therefore, I'm back to doing more wire wrapped jewelry designs instead :)

You can purchase these earrings HERE on my new website.

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!

Nathalie Lesage

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Woodland Folk

Handcrafted sterling silver hoops are paired with artisan pewter oak leaf charms and wee acorns of copper and pearl beads.  Sweet and lovely earrings to go with a folk-inspired outfit. 

Oak Leaf and Acorn Hoop Earrings

Woodland Folk Outfit by humblebeads

Spring Walk

 We have had our first taste of winter these last few weeks.  Today the snow is all melted and it's 50 degrees.  Oh how quickly we yearn for the next season!  I'm ready for walks in wooded paths, where daffodils are sprouting up and birds are chirping in the distance.  

These sterling silver earrings offer a fun take on traditional hoops with a rectangle design.  The tiny buttercup beads are handcrafted from polymer clay, each color a different layer of clay formed to create the pattern.  

You can find them here in my Etsy shop.

spring Walk by humblebeads featuring camper shoes

Click on the thumbnails above for more information on each item featured. 

Frilly Hoops

My normal mode of creating is based on  "one-of-a-kind" pieces, with a few limited edition pieces here and there.  I like this mode of work,  because I tend to be a bit like my ADHD son and get bored/lose focus easily!  Currently, though, I am gearing up for a couple of Holiday shows in the next couple of weeks and need to be in production mode and have been going back through past work to find a few items  I think bear repeating.

A few months ago I created these fold formed hoops. I had been wanting to make more of these, but not really these, though..you know? After sifting through my scrap metal, I decided to change the overall shape and bling them up a bit.
 

I got the copper ones done, and totally fell in love, so I hauled out my tiny hoard of sterling sheet.  It is so expensive, I have been holding on for just the right project! I think I'll go ahead and use it up on more of these...what  do you think?

Here is a fab outfit I put together on Polyvore that I would wear either pair with!

Frilly Hoops by melismatic featuring white wool pants

Find these and more at either of my shops...Melismatic Art Jewelry or Etsy!