Classic Tribal Ceramics: New Design

I can't think of too many who do rustic tribal components and beads better than the wonderful Jana Bližňáková, and I'm fortunate to have been able to create with her distinctive art components for years. I'm happy to share these earrings, featuring beautiful classic rustic matte ceramic pieces by her, constructed with not much more than lovely red glass beads and 3-ply black waxed linen thread.

I love the "perfect imperfection" of these rustic pieces, and the shapes of the pieces themselves make them conducive to fiber wrapping.  Before I start working, I make sure my hands are clean, because dirt, oil, crumbs, cat hair (💗), etc., are not your friends when you're working with waxed thread.  (I can't tell you how many times I've had to waste time touching up photos because a fiber or a dog/cat hair showed up on my photos.)  I stretch the thread to straighten it and make sure it's not too waxy.  I thread the waxed linen through their various spaces, in and out, over and back, pulling it tight enough to make a stable earring but not enough to break anything (yikes!).  When I'm through, I tie the ends and then snip off the excess and go on to the next section.  There are four wrapped sections in this design.

When everything's finished, I glue the little thread ends to the back of the components and cover them with paper, which I glue and glaze after the glue dries.  I covered these earrings with red handmade paper:

The earrings are little (about 2 inches) and lightweight.  😊

Thank you kindly for reading!  I'll see you in the second week in August. 
xoxo
Meridy

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Currency

When I was researching on Pinterest for my last show - Out of Africa - I found lots of photos of African jewellery, masks, and headdresses using cowrie shells.

The cowrie shell was one of the most successful and universal forms of currency in the world, but in West Africa it worked its way into the cultural fibre, taking on a deeper spiritual and ritualistic  meaning that has never been entirely lost. They were phased out (reluctantly, by the African people who were resistant to the imposition of colonialism ) in favour of the French franc in the 1940s. But traces still remain - in Burkhina Faso, alms are given to the poor in the form of cowries, and some ritual services still use them. The West African Central Bank headquarters in Benin is decorated with cowrie shells. Fascinating stuff.

For todays post I remade one of my favourite pairs from the show with variations - using cowrie shells, leopardskin jasper, oxblood lampwork rings from  Julia Hay and warm coloured glass beads wired to beaten brass domed connectors, with hand made brass earwires. The cowrie shells are from Sylvia Stungo of Fizzyelements. Very dangly, very African.

 

    Hope you like them - available in my Etsy shop, if you do. See you in two weeks time.

                                                              Lindsay xx

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Out of Africa

This weekend I'm taking part in a show I've been planning for ages - Out of Africa. I haven't made much tribal jewellery for a couple of years but it's one of my favourite styles. I had a whole collection named for Conrad's novel 'Heart of Darkness' about 6 years ago so it felt like time to revisit. I've made quite a lot of pieces with old African beads that Kimberly Rogers sourced for me at last month's Tucson Bead Show and the lovely Claire Lockwood, who was over there staying with Kim, brought them back for me in her luggage. What it is to have beady mates, and to choose your stock via Messenger!

The pair I'm showing you today are typically African in style, with vibrant yet earthy colours and textures, and plenty of movement.

Beautifully enamelled brass work by Candam Imrak is complemented by a fringe of rich red amber - vintage from my mums collection - on copper ball end headpins with tiny brown, lilac and gold seed beads. Hand made pure copper earwires finish them nicely.

 

 

Do join us over in facebookland in The Very Nice Group from Friday evening - I'm in good company, with Helen Backhouse, Lucy Haslam, Susan Schmidt Moran and Julia Hay. We plan  a virtual tour of the dark continent, from the Souks of Marrakech to the plains of Kenya, the treasures of Cairo to the sands of the Kalahari. And after that, I'll see you in two weeks.

 

Lindsay x

 

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A Question of Balance.

Asymmetry. Not always easy, is it? To some it comes quite naturally, to others not so much. My head veers to the matching pair and I have to force myself to deviate. And how to achieve a sense of balance when your components/sizes/colours are different? This pair was a case in point.

 

 

These great neutral tribal patterned stoneware beads and charms are of course by the one and only Jana Bliznakova, but one is different in shape and considerably shorter than the other. The answer came in the form of this one off crusty soldered headpin that Lucy Haslam made for me. Fits perfectly with the design and balances the length. In the centre we have black crusty lampwork criffles by Kimberly Rogers - Kim and her husband Dave are about to set off from Alaska  to come over to the UK and we are hoping to meet up again (not least because she has a huge stash of stuff for me!) Criffles just make any design dance; like little ballet tutus. Joyous.

                                   Hope you all have a good week - see you again soon. 

                                                                 Lindsay x

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Mother Earth

It's been a sad week in the Philipson household. On Saturday my mother-in-law, Annie, fell asleep for the last time. She was nearly 94, and had suffered dreadfully from Alzheimer's Disease for the last 10 years. So although it wasn't unexpected (and if we are being entirely honest - seeing her deteriorate to a nil quality of life - often wished for) it's still a shock when the day finally comes. So very final.

At a bit of a loss what to make for this weeks post, I decided to share a pair I have ready for a show I'm doing at the end of the month on LBA Designers Galleria Showcase with my friends Helen Backhouse, Lucy Haslam, and Jeni Houser Alasad. We are calling it Mother Earth - entirely appropriate for today.

These are called 'Pachamama' - the Inca goddess of the earth, or Mother Earth. A tribute to Annie. Not that she'd ever have worn them though - far too big and ostentatious!

The ceramics are distinctively Mari-Carmen Rodriguez Martinez. Proper goddess headdress they are too. Completed with tiny colourful seed beads on waxed irish linen and glossy wooden tribal figures.

  
         Hope you can join us there - I'll be donating the price of this pair to the Alzheimers Society.

                                                              See you in two weeks

                                                                       Lindsay x

                                                              
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Earthy and tribal

Hello! It'll be a brief post from me today. A little pair of earrings I made recently with some components from my very favourite artists. And also illustrating my slight obsession with layering in earring designs!

Firstly, we'll take Petra Carpreau's beautiful ceramic droppers. Made with black stoneware, they are earthy and rather tribal.

I added some oval brass connectors at the back, which act as a frame for some rather fabulous red brass chain, which peaks out from behind the holes in the droppers and at the bottom of the earrings for extra swing! I had a pair of Claire Lockwood's gorgeous textured denim ceramic rondelles in my beady stash for a while. They were part of a set of earring beads that Claire sold in one of her shop updates (her updates are rare, but oh my word, they are worth waiting for!) and I really like both the colour (that pop of blue is a nice contrast) and texture of these (co-ordinates with the primitive, tribal vibe I think!). Finally, I added some greek ceramic rondelles and some copper twisted jumprings.

Hope you like them. They are available in my shop.

See you in a few weeks
Sue

And now for something completely different...

After making so many ruffly, floral, super-girly earrings for my last post a couple of weeks ago, I was ready for something different:  (1) tribal style and (2) crows. 💗

Thanks to the dynamic duo of Vincent and Nooma Cav of Inviciti, I was able to combine these two favorite things in one pair of earrings.

Why crows/corvids?  They're extraordinary birds.  Crows remember faces; they remember the people who feed them and who are kind to them--and they remember the people who hurt them too.  They tell each other who to watch out for and whom to look after.  They have a kind of magic. 

I love Inviciti's rustic bird charms, and they called out to be made into a pair of simple tribal earrings.  I'd had the carved-wood African beads and the beautiful dark red lampwork spacers by Julie Wong Sontag in my bead collection for a while, and I didn't need much else, just a couple of gunmetal spacers and some black niobium ear wires.  They came together easily...and I so enjoyed making them!

   
The earrings, called "Tribe of Crow," can be found in my shop, here. 

Thanks so much for reading--I'll see you all in a couple of weeks!  💗

xoxo
Meridy

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Second Guessing

I guessing that I'm not the only jewelry designer who holds on to components for long periods of time before making something (beautiful!) with them.  I mean, there are always good reasons for not immediately making something as soon as a gorgeous bead or headpin comes into my eager hands.  Maybe I have a bunch of other designs stacked up on the runway.  Or perhaps I can't find the perfect components to complete what I envision.  Or--and I confess this does happen from time to time--I may not have the vaguest notion what to do with my beloved purchase...and the lovely little piece of art has to sit with me for a spell while I figure it out.  :)

In this case, the lovely pieces of art were Pati Walton's amazing headpins.  I at least knew what I wanted my earrings to be:  long, lean stackers with a ceremonial tribal atmosphere.  Since Pati's headpins were so beautifully decorated already, I thought that I should probably keep the rest of the components fairly neutral.  But nothing "neutral" I tried worked.  Black beads, pink beads, even purple beads on top were just kind of...there.  They were too neutral.

I HAD considered a pair of beads, cute little things by Deborah Crow Roesly that I'd been saving for just the right thing...

...and I kept taking them out of the drawer where they lived and looking at them, then putting them back.  No, I thought each time, they're just too busy paired with those headpins.  So more time went by.  

Then one day I picked up the headpins and pulled Deborah's dotted purple beads out of the drawer again and started putting them together with some of my favorite copper beads.   When I was finished, they looked pretty much the way they do in these photos, minus the little pale pink Swarovskis at the top.  And I set those prototypes aside again.

But by the time I pulled the nearly finished earrings out to look at them the next time, weeks later, I realized that I couldn't really imagine them any other way.  The dotted purple beads looked like they'd always belonged with the amazing, colorful dotted headpins.  I'd finally stopped second-guessing myself, so then I finished the earrings...my kind-of-amazing ceremonial tribal stackers.  :)   

Thanks so much for reading!  

I'll see you all in a couple of weeks!  

xoxo

Meridy

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Colored Feathers, Colored Stones

It's so great to finally be over the flu--and it felt so good to finally be able to sit down and make some new earrings (five pairs in all--I did say it felt good to get back to making things, right?).  ;)  It's also wonderful to be back here at EE with all my beady friends.

You can find these earrings here.

These earrings are a variation on one of my favorite styles.  I made them with these pretty little bumpy purple-and-fuchsia lampwork rondelles by Deborah Crow Roesly, paired with vibrantly colorful polymer clay tribal feathers by Helena Benkoczka.

Complete "recipe" for the earrings:  Deborah's rondelles, Helena's feathers, 3-mm fuchsia Swarovski crystals, scalloped copper bead caps, 3x5-mm tanzanite Czech glass rondelles, small copper jump rings, 15/0 dark fuchsia seed beads, dark fuchsia anodized aluminum jump rings, fuchsia waxed linen cording, and dark pink anodized niobium ear wires.  

The earrings are extremely lightweight and easy to wear.  The backs of the feathers are covered with glazed paper to keep the cord ends tidy and out of sight.

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back again in a couple of weeks with some new earrings.  :)

xoxo
Meridy

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Earth Rebirth

In my last post here at Earrings Everyday, I wrote about how much I was yearning for spring to arrive.  Well, it's finally here, officially at least, and for some of us the weather is even getting warmer and sunnier!  So I thought I'd make earrings that would reflect the beginning of spring, that period of rebirth and renewal, when the birds are building nests for their families-to-be, the flowers are starting to bloom, and the trees are leafing out.

I looked through my cache of earring components and opened my box of treasures by Helena Benkoczka of ARETObeadsjewellry, who (as I'm sure you know) makes uniquely beautiful earring charms.  I found just what I wanted:  a lovely pair of tribal teardrop charms in soft turquoise and purple that reminded me of the Easter celebrations of my childhood.

To go with the charms, I picked lovely streaky transparent purple lampwork rondelles by Beth Mellor of Beeboo and pretty turquoise discs made for me by my friend Barbara Steffen of Fire Spirit Beads.

I added tiny purple seed beads and turquoise jump rings, and wrapped and knotted everything together with turquoise waxed linen cording.  These pretty, softly colored earrings are the result.

Thanks so much for reading--I'll see you in two weeks!

xoxo
Meridy

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Waiting...and Waiting...and Waiting for Spring

Why, oh why, does it seem to take forever for spring to arrive?  Is it the old "a watched pot never boils" syndrome?  Maybe it's just me.

I can't complain about the cold and snow, because I live in Sacramento, California, which has pretty nice weather, actually.  It has a Mediterranean climate, rainy in the winter (no snow), hot and dry in the summer, and spectacular in the spring.  Seriously, in the spring, virtually everything blooms here.  Having moved to Sac (as we say) from Colorado, I wasn't used to that.  Colorado has its own stunning beauty, but here everything grows fast, gets large, and blooms--all sorts of flowers, bushes, and even trees, from huge magnolia trees to ornamental trees that fill the skies with beautiful blooms of red, fuchsia, baby pink, or purple.

And spring comes early here.  Our first flowers usually start peeking out of their beds in mid-February, maybe a crocus or a dwarf iris.  The warm weather usually follows along gradually, getting a little warmer each week.  This year, however, California had heavy rains caused by "atmospheric rivers" that parked themselves over the state, causing floods and mudslides.  We were happy to have the rain because California was in a five-year drought, but these heavy rains caused real problems.  The cold, heavy rain lasted for almost two months, with only a few short breaks of blue skies and sunshine here and there.  We were starting to really feel the lack of sun!

Anyway, since it's been such a cold, wet winter, I decided to make these golden-sun, grass-green, and blue-sky earrings using Cathleen Zaring's beautiful enameled copper earring charms and a pair of lovely green

These "Bringer of Spring" earrings are available here.

lampwork discs by Terry Turner.  It's only recently started to warm up here, and I'm really feeling the quiet arrival of spring, with its fresh energy.

Who knows--maybe my earrings will help move things along a bit.  After all, the Spring Equinox is only about ten days away!  ;)

As always, thanks so much for reading!  I'll see you in two weeks. 💙

xoxo
Meridy

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A Boy called Hilda.

This week I thought I'd introduce you to one of my favourite photographic props. It's the tale of a boy called Hilda.

 

'Hilda' was one of the myriad of antiques/objets d'art/bits of tat my mother used to collect when she retired from work. As well as some wonderful beads and pieces of broken antique jewellery; that's for another day. 

 

Hilda is a beautifully carved native head in a solid hardwood, well polished by age. 'She' had pride of place on one of my mum's many cabinets, and when my kids were younger they always used to turn 'her' head towards the door as they left and tell my mum it would afford her protection from robbers while she slept. So it became a bit of a tradition, and when Hilda passed to me we always made sure 'she' was facing the door in our home. And yes, touch wood, we have never been burgled.

 

You will, of course, all have noticed that 'she' is male, but my mum would never have it and so 'Hilda' stuck. I'm guessing he's from some S. American tribe - but if anyone can enlighten me please do.

 

Hilda has provided an atmospheric backdrop to many, many pairs of tribal style earrings  and I wouldn't be without 'her'!

 

 

 The earrings this week I've called 'Arrowhead'. I imagine Hilda with a bow and arrows, maybe with tips poisoned with curare! The dramatic arrowhead shaped ceramics in green and bronze are by one of my favourite ceramic artists Mari Carmen Rodriguez Martinez and I've wired them to beaten wrapped oxidised copper rings by Irish metal artist Colleen Campbell. Faceted pyrite chunks echo the bronze cast to the ceramics, and they hang from fab beaten copper circular earwires made for me by Lucy Haslam.

 

Have you a favourite photographic prop to share with us? Or maybe you could think about using them a little more - they can provide great atmosphere and add meaning to your work. 

 

See you next time

 

Lindsay x

 

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The Bringer of Dawn

I love it when I can find earring components with the graceful curves of a goddess, and Kristi Bowman Design's beautiful copper components never disappoint.  Whether the components are slender or zaftig, dramatic or delicate, it always makes me happy to make a beautiful pair of goddess earrings with Kristi's copper pieces.

Here are just a couple of examples of goddess earrings I've made over the last couple of years.  

These earrings, with Kristi's richly textured shield-shaped components, have an ancient, feminine, Tribal Goddess feel to them.  I also had a lot of fun playing with fiber. (Lampies are by Magdalena Ruiz.)

These earrings with tapestry-textured copper points are also tribal in tone, but they have a more modern and casual spirit, mostly because of Julie Sontag's colorful, fun enameled lampies.

Given my penchant, you have to know how excited I was when Kristi made some new goddess components recently:

They're graceful and shapely and beautiful--and of course I bought a set of them.  When they arrived and I had a chance to run my fingers over them, I knew what I wanted to make and what goddess I wanted to celebrate:  Aurora, the goddess of the dawn.  This goddess offers dawn's hopeful, renewing energy and is known for the elements of love, joy, beauty, health, and fertility.  

You can find Aurora here. 

As the goddess of the dawn, it stands to reason that her colors are the bright, warm colors of a beautiful sunrise: pink, red, magenta, gold, lavender.  I added to the beautiful copper components hot pink Czech glass flowers, magenta Czech glass rondelles, and copper accents and then wrapped and knotted everything together with magenta waxed linen cording.

Shapely, graceful, lovely...the Bringer of the Dawn.

May you all have a wonderful dawn, no matter what time of day (or night) you're reading this.  I'll see you next time!

Meridy  

xoxo

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Scorched Earth, Inviciti, Numinosity & More!

Hello! I do hope everyone has had a joyful Christmas and is looking forward to a fresh, new year. It always seems to be a time of hope, regardless of what recent times have been like. There's no real reason to expect new and different, but to me a "fresh start" nonetheless increases the sense of change is in the air.

I have had a rough couple/few months. And the little girl of a muse that usually accompanies me seems to have vanished right before my eyes. I don't know what to think about that! :) But it has me bogged down in many ways, or rather, I suppose she's gone because I am bogged down in many ways. Onward and upward!

There are always one to three days at the end of the month that aren't covered with our regular twice a month schedule. That is when our visiting artists come in to share their beautiful creations. This month Kristi and I are picking up the two extra days at the last minute. Not having anything prepared, I decided to do what Lynn did yesterday and share with you some of my personal favorites from the last couple of months, and maybe a couple have been used as part of a post? Not sure! lol These have sold, but I believe some could possibly be available for custom orders.

BTW, you'll notice a new Artist Contributor appearing at the end of the column!! There are actually two; we don't have a design picture yet for the second. I'll wait and let you be surprised by who it might be. I, for one, cannot wait to have them both share their amazing work with all of us. They will be starting the second week of January! :)

Please note that the captions under the photos are links to the shops whose pieces were used in the designs.

NuminosityBeads
NomvulaCrafts
TheFickleBead

NuminosityBeads
EclecticPrairie
DyedBoneBead

DyedBoneBead

NuminosityBeads

HappyFishThings
DyedBoneBead

NuminosityBeads
DyedBoneBead

Inviciti
CrowsCache

ScorchedEarthOnEtsy

ScorchedEarthOnEtsy

My wishes are for all of you and all of your families and friends to experience a New Year filled with love, laughter, joy, and above all, peace of mind. I am honored to be able to share my work with you. Thank you!
norbel
SheFliesAgain

"NeoTribal"

Hello! I do hope you are all enjoying the summer.

A friend I met through Etsy, Susan Delphine Delaney, sent a pin to me the other day with the title being NeoTribal, saying she liked the word as a descriptor. To my chagrin a few moments later, I said I don't really know what that means. She responded, oh, I just took it to mean New Tribal. duh. . . . right? Of course it's New Tribal! So that sparked the idea to make tribal-like earrings for today's post. As I was working I started to think about what really was traditional tribal jewelry, specifically traditional tribal earrings. I did not have a real vision of what it was. I did some searching (I admit, not a lot) for tribal jewelry. I expected it to be an easy search with a plethora of images. Not so.

Fulani 

Maasai

The two photos are of African earrings. Two very different styles. The colorful beaded earrings are 9 1/2 inches long, and were made in Africa by the Maasai people. The gold and cotton earrings, also from Africa, made by the Fulani people. These two photos are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They are early 20th century. 

I searched then for Native American Jewelry. This photo came from the website http://www.beyondbuckskin.com in a section called Ancient Southwest Jewelry. The dates of these earrings are, starting from the top, 1100-1200 CE, (common era), the 1800s, and 1978. Beautiful mosaic inlay of Turquoise. So a lot of Turquoise and Silver was mostly what I found, again, on a cursory search. 

So I now have some real curiosity to dig deeper when I have the time to see what I can find.

1.

2.

Just briefly then, my earrings today: 1. "Bone" ceramic sticks, as well as ceramic beads from the same strand, paired with Red Creek Jasper, various metal beads, copper wire and Niobium ear wires. Ceramics by Andrea Salkowe of Josephine Beads. I love this pair. . but I ended up not listing it. There was more I would have liked to do with them, a basic jumping off point, but they were getting too heavy. I will likely take them apart and start again. 

2.  I think these are my favorites. :) The ceramic focals are by Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy. Paired with Ceramics from the same strand as No. 1. Natural Sig-Id Vine beads are wrapped to the black dagger-shaped Sgraffito focals with waxed Irish linen. I didn't use any wire in this design, just the linen. There are natural, rustic Turquoise bi-cone beads, topped with a red glass bead. The linen was knotted to a Tierra Cast copper-plated spacer bead. The dangles at the bottom contain green turquoise glass beads, tea-stained bone beads, and vintage Kuchi/Kochi tribal clapperless bells.

3. The last pair, both ceramic elements were made by Georgia Neumann of AtHomeInTaos. I used various copper beads, ball-tip headpins I made from copper, Czech glass beads, more copper wire, Niobium ear wires, and a tiny brass teardrop.

3. 

If you ever have any questions at all about techniques and/or processes, please just message me through my Etsy shop. It's great fun to look at other people's work for inspiration, or when looking to purchase. But if there is anything I can help you with that you see in these earrings, please just let me know.

As always, I appreciate your taking the time to stop by. All feedback/comments are welcome. In fact, we'd appreciate it! 

Thank you! I'll be back the first Tuesday in August. I do hope the rest of July is joyful! 

Norbel
She Flies Again on Etsy
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