Purple Haze

My hammered copper & torch-fire enameled morsels, embellished with Jen Cameron's fabulous lampwork headpins which have been wrapped into a bail, finished with  my hand-wrought sterling and copper earwires.

"'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky"...(thanks, Jimi!<3)

"is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?"

Have a "purple haze" kind of day!

Disclaimer...after writing this post and looking at the photos, I realized that these aren't truly purple, but more raspberry-ish?  But, I have been singing "purple haze" now for at least a day, and can't really get it out of my head, but if you like, you can substitute "Raspberry Beret" by Prince :)

Melissa

Pinwheels

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've had the privilege of posting on EE, but am happy to say I will be showing up with a post here and there!

These fun earrings were created from lampwork headpins by the talented and lovely Jen Cameron of Glass Addictions.  I layered them onto brass flowers that I torch-fire enameled with bright colors and then wired them onto textured copper ovals.

Even though they are securely attached, they have just enough slack so that the flowers twirl around...sort of like a pinwheel or a whirligig!  Remember these cute little toys?  As a kid, I used to get plastic ones that had little candies in the stem.   I would stick them out the window of the car to let them twirl in the wind as we drove home from the store...much to my mother's disapproval!

From livingtheswelllife.com via Pinterest!

They are so fun....I will be putting them in my shop later today, and will be creating more, since I had the opportunity to snag more of of Jen's gorgeous headpins at BeadFest last weekend!

A sweet bouquet of lampwork headpins by Jen Cameron and Sue Kennedy!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Autumn Harvest

Fall is in the air!

We just got a post-card from the local farm where we normally take our yearly autumn hayride into the pumpkin field to choose a few for Halloween and to have on the porch for the rest of the season into Thanksgiving.  I love those little jaunts with my 2 boys.  The little store where you pay for your pumpkins always has a pile of cute little gourds and multi-colored corn with dry shocks; beautiful chrysanthemums in magnificent shades of magenta, yellow, and rust; and yummy apple cider!

Photo from terragreenhouses.com/ via Pinterest

I got these sweet little ceramic hearts/leaves from Diana P of Suburban Girl Studios, when I made a short trek to BeadFest in August.  I thought they actually looked pretty "Spring-y" and was going to save them for then, but when trying to find inspiration for a post today, they were on my table along with some enameled brass elements I had been experimenting with.  The colors sort of popped out at me and said "Apple Cider"!

They needed another color though, so after looking through my Czech glass stash, found these cute little flowers in rust.  They wouldn't face forward though, so I strung them on sterling wire and did a sort of herringbone wrap with copper to hold them tight!  I finished the pair with hand-wrought sterling earwires embellished with copper.

Perfect for the season, or anytime!  They are long, about 3 inches, and would look so great with lots of outfits, but neutrals, denim, leather all sort of jump to mind!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

More Leaves!

I was cleaning out a closet the other day and found an old box of jewelry...some silly costume stuff from pre-jewelry making days and some early pieces I attempted.  The leaves in today's earrings were favorites that I used to wear before I discovered artisan/handcrafted.  They were a brass finish, without any real patina, and immediately, my wheels started to turn.  I took the old earwires off and went down to my work station and stuck them in the torch!  Yay, they didn't melt!  I had been working with seafoam and nile green enamel, on a previous piece, so that is what I used.  I love how they turned out.

Old bits and bobs...going to see what else I can salvage!

I had been working on completing my necklace I started for Art Jewelry Elements' Component of the Month for August, which was my month.  The combination of juicy orange with the seafoam blue really hits home for me, so I decided to keep the earrings in that color scheme!  I added Czech glass leaves and flowers dangled from a bit of chain.

My Melismatic Morsels with enameled copper and Czech glass..finally finished!

It is fun to breathe new life into something that was probably going to be tossed...I am going to see what else I can find to repurpose.

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Red and Purple...

go together?  I didn't use to think so, but I changed my mind!

I have had this gorgeous set of beads by Sue Kennedy of SueBeads for a while and they are some of my all time favorites of hers!  The fuschia-ish purple frit she used just pops!!  I enameled bead caps in coordinating colors and topped off the beads like little hats.  Faceted Czech glass beads dangle jauntily below.

Looks like a lot of people think red and purple are great together...I searched for 'red and purple' on Pinterest.com and got loads of fun inspiration!

via Pinterest.com

Doesn't this make you smile?!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Red, White and Blue

Happy Independence Day!

Perfect for today's barbecue, or any other summer day for a patriotic girl!  

Carved red coral flowers, my torch-fired brass stars, and little, faceted lapis briolettes, all wired together with copper wire and finished with sterling earwires that have been embellished with just another little pop of blue glass!

Flag on my back deck a couple years back!

Star on my backyard fence!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.