Tin Moon Madness

Hello, my Beady Friends!

Happy September!  My workshop is in full Halloween mode now!

    I happened to find this Chocolate tin from at least 20 years ago in one of my nightstand drawers.  It was given to me long before I started making jewelry, so until a few days ago, it was just a cute tin box.  But now, I'm looking at through new eyes!

 

I put my disc cutter to work and began to punch out as many discs as possible, not wasting one bit of this adorable tin.  For this design, I'll just be using the large stripe discs and will save the spooky eyes for another day.

The lovely enameled bats are by Israeli bead artist, Pearly Karpel. 

Thanks for stopping by to see what's happing on my worktable today!  I'm excited about Autumn and looking forward to digging deep into all kinds of Halloween designs for the next couple of months!

 Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

William Morris Faux Tin

Hello, Beady Peeps!  

I've been working a lot with William Morris prints lately.  The Art Bead Scene Studio Blog has been exploring different Art Journey Challenges this year and this time around it's all about William Morris.  As some of you may know, I do earring designs for them as well as "The Earring Whisperer".  Well, after finishing up my post this month I discovered these gorgeous faux tin crescents made by Heather Powers.  I loved the pattern so much that I decided to do a new pair for Earrings Everyday, too! 

*"William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a revolutionary force in Victorian Britain: his work as an artist, designer, craftsman, writer and socialist dramatically changed the fashions and ideologies of the era."

Arched shaped copper charms, faux tin finish with a William Morris Tulip pattern by Heather Powers.  These hang so beautifully and have wonderful movement.

The carved black horn squares made a beautiful contrast against the print and pops of brassy gold accents.  The Arts and Crafts Movement used a lot of dark rich wood and I thought this deep color horn brought out that feature.

I tried the arcs on the bottom first but loved it more as a prominent "crown-like" top. 

Thank you as always for taking the time to see what's happening on my worktable.  I will see you back in a couple of weeks with some new autumn designs :)

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

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

Time for Tin

One of my most favorite earrings to make are simple tin drops.  I've been hankering to make some more of these again as they are super light and the shapes are endless. Not to mention I have a draw jam packed with collected pieces.

I recommend getting some stencil patterns or make your own from cardboard for tracing, this assures your designs are more accurately matched, trust me, I've tried to wing it and it just doesn't work, at least not for me.  

A pair of metal cutters work great, but I find that stainless steel curved nail scissors work the best. Their small and go around corners like butter.

I'm particularly fond of this pair on the left.  If I'm feeling extra creative, I hand paint portions here and there to give them a little more depth and color.  It's pretty simple since the patterns are already there for you.

When making my cut, I make the upper portion just a tad skinnier so I can roll over the tops, a simple jump ring slides through perfectly so you can add your ear wires. 

Gives them a little added character, ☺

This pair has hammered dots along the bottom with distressing to bring out the silver underneath with added beads up top.  

Great Colors!!

So next time your at a thrift store or garage sale, keep an eye out for tins, people are always getting rid of them.  You know what they say, someones trash is another's treasure, ♥

Thanks for visiting friends, see you again in two weeks!! 

Please visit My Etsy Shop

True Confessions of a Jewelry Artist

I think I have a confession to make: I have artistic ADD. 

This is not something I'm particularly proud of, especially in this world of now-now-now, more-more-more, new-new-new. I try to cultivate mindfulness in other areas of my life, but when it comes to creating, I consistently like to learn new techniques. At my own pace, of course. Now, learning new techniques doesn't mean that I have to abandon current techniques. It all just goes into my arsenal - pieces of the puzzle that can be fit together in any beautifully random way that appeals to me.

I have another confession to make: I'm stubborn. 

I like to do things my own way. I'm not really one to take a class or follow a tutorial. I'd rather fumble around and teach myself until I come up with a method that works for me. I also think this helps me avoid that pesky "copy bug" that sometimes pops up.

However, I have to sing the highest praises for the tutorial I purchased a couple weeks ago. If you're not already familiar with Tracy DiPiazza (pipnmolly on Etsy and DiPiazzaMetalworks on Etsy), please do yourself the favor of clicking and drooling over her amazing works of art. She's been one of my heroes since I first joined Etsy. She has an aesthetic all her own, and her pieces are singular.

Tracy's tutorial gives step-by-step instructions on how to create her signature soft-soldered hollow tin baubles. I've been wanting to learn how to achieve that "blobby solder" look for a while now, and who better to learn from than the master? I used scrap pieces of vintage tin to create the grungy bauble beads you see here. Two old German wood beads plus wee tin bead caps complete the dangly (and surprisingly lightweight) look.

Thank you Tracy for generously sharing your gift!

Happy Wednesday :)

Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Shabby Chic and a Giveaway!

Hi Earring Lovers!



I have always been such a sucker for the Shabby Chic- pretty floral patterns, tea parties, pretty pastel colors combined together with lace or cotton. Such a soft aesthetic, and it translates well in any medium! Even Earrings!!!



Here's my take on Shabby Chic this week! A pretty riveted pale pink and floral tin dangling earring pair on bronze ear wires.

I am giving away a pair of these lovelies to one random winner! Please leave a comment here on this post to enter to win! I will pick a winner on my next earring post, which will be Wednesday October 2nd! You've got lots of time to enter. For extra entries, please pass along the giveaway info on your favorite social media sites and comment separately with each share- Facebook, Twitter, blog, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, etc etc.

Thanks for stopping by today!

A Handful of Wildflowers

A pretty little pair of earrings called A Handful of Wildflowers is a project that I created for my stint on the 2012 Nunn Design Innovation Team.

I used the rectangle links from a Nunn Design bezel bracelet with some pretty printed tin that I cut to fit. I riveted these pieces of floral tin to the metal with a floral bead cap for added dimension and attached a whole handful of random beads and flower shapes for the just picked from the field look. These swingy earrings would be perfect to wear with this flirty little tunic in a light gauzy material for surviving the heat.

{Joe Brown's Kaftan and Vest from Simply Be}

Double Trouble

These new double discs are all I've got to show for this week but I am super stoked about this new design in my Harbinger Collection.  I just started playing around with some metal discs and washers, and these double disc riveted dangles happened by accident! To spice em up a bit, I hung a dangling Prehnite cube in the center of the washers.

I really like how these turned out! I am working hard on getting lots of tin jewelry made for an impromptu Trunk Show this weekend in Hamilton NY at a shop called Swank.  I am going to try to take some time to make some of these earrings for my online shop and will get them listed soon!

Making a statement with earrings is a great diversion from the typical attention hog, the necklace. Lately the bigger the better! I can envision these being worn with a cute Summer Maxi style long dress in that beautiful rust red color.