A new design.......

was born last week. 

I wanted to include a cluster of flowers and this is what I came up with.

Lampwork, druzy discs and Marc Chagall drops.

Vintage beads and Frida drops.

Lamwork, Roman glass discs and Goyo drops

Lampwork and Shimura drops.

Lamwork and Klimt Tears drops. 

All the decal drops are by the lovely Petra Carpreau

Sorry about the picture only post :D (I actually held back...there's more ;)).  The Klimt Tears pair is now available in my Etsy shop.  Hope you like them and have a fab weekend.

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Vintage Blackberry

I've always liked the jewelry of earlier centuries, which I guess shouldn't be too much of a surprise given that my formal education focused on the Medieval period.  Oddly, though, I'd never really been interested in making vintage-inspired jewelry until now.

You see, a while back I was in need of beads, and I found some beauties in Serena Thomas's Etsy shop, Taneres. Though I usually don't use this type of bead, these lovely, vintage-looking violet-pink-and-yellow beads...

...really appealed to me, so I bought them (well, of course I did!).  Then a week or so later I found these porcelain earring components by Mari Carmen Rodriguez Martinez:  

It was the proverbial match made in heaven!  The colors of Mari Carmen's beautiful charms worked perfectly with Serena's beads, and their shape provided a lovely frame for some very pretty Swarovski "Blackberry" pearls.

Also featured in the earrings are TierraCast antiqued copper bead caps and Swarovski Crystal Lilac Shadow bicone beads. 

I'm really enjoying exploring new things these days.  I hope you're having a wonderful time with whatever creative path you're on.

I'm heading out of town tomorrow, but I'll be back in a few days.

Love to all...and I'll see you in two weeks. 

xoxo

Meridy

My Etsy shop

My Facebook page

 

A New Riff on the Criffles - Topsy Turvy

Many of the components I make aren't exactly matching.

That's the case with a batch of polymer clay pieces I made.

I love how they automatically lend themselves to asymmetrical designs.

I am especially fond of reverse placement in my designs on earring pairs.

Balanced yet more compelling to my eyes with the different placement of the components.

Paired with some of my lampwork "criffle" discs

Topsy and turvy (hmm, those words by themselves are just a bit weird. I think I've felt both topsy and turvy at different times)

These earrings have lots of splash and length but are very lightweight.

How about you? Do you like designing asymmetrically?

Thanks for visiting and Happy Summer creating!

Kimberly Rogers of NuminosityBeads

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

Wonderfully Weird.

In my beads/gems/findings (et al) storage system I have a drawer labelled 'Odd Stuff'. It's for stuff that just doesn't fit anywhere else.

It's mostly filled with things I have got from our own Kimberley Rogers who obviously shares my love of all things weird, wonderful, edgy or gothic. Wacky headpins that look like larva, guitar picks or something equally weird, tektite chunks, odd shaped rocks etc.

And so to this week's earrings. I just couldn't resist these new headpins of hers - she calls them Combobulations - crusty, pitted, shiny, great shape and colour but look at those evil little tongues of flame poking out from the bottom! Positively devilish.

I was a bit stumped as to what to put with them, so of course they sat on the table for a couple of weeks waiting for inspiration to strike.

 
 





Then  I looked into the 'odd stuff' drawer and there were the perfect chunks of deep blood red agate (looks like glass). Stacked with some new silvery Czech glass rondelles and popped on my favourite dark grungy studs and there you are. 

 

 

 

On Saturday I'm off to Venice for a few days - we are celebrating my sister's birthday in style, staying on the Grand Canal in the kind of faded grandeur only Venice can provide. I'll be reporting back in my next post - hoping to find a good Murano glass bead shop of course!

 

See you then

 

Lindsay x

 

Mt Etsy shop

 

My Facebook page

 

Stacked with cornflakes

Why not put some really attractive colours, textures and shapes together in a stack?

Art Beads:
Pink, gold, and black stamped and painted polymer clay beads - GracefulWillowBeads

Handmade Components:
Triangle tinned artisan headpins, antiqued patina - CrowsCacheSupplies
Oxidized Sterling Silver Earring hooks

Other Components:
Bronze/brown/maroon cornflake/keshi pearls
Bronze czech glass rondelle disk spacer beads
Pink rubber spacer beads
Ochre, light green and forest green seed beads
Square profile closed metal rings, rhodium plated, stainless steel coloured

--------------------------------------

All my best,
Malin de Koning

We're All Ears :: June Inspiration :: Fireflies

A right of passage. A curious wonder. A light show like no other. An iconic image of summers past.... fireflies.

Have you ever seen a firefly?

By Bruce Marlin - Own work http://www.cirrusimage.com/beetle_firefly_Photuris_lucicrescens.htm, CC BY-SA 2.5, Link

They seem innocent enough, these brown and tan striped, soft-bodied winged beetles. The Lampyridae is commonly referred to as a firefly or lightning bug. These winged beetles have a bioluminescent glow that attract mates or prey. Their bright little light is a 'cold light' in that it doesn't produce any heat, but is a chemical reaction from the lower abdomen and can be seen as yellow, green or pale red. Tiny antennae on top of their semi-circle heads. I love the heart shape of their tiny feet. But they are a rather unassuming sort of bug. Until the twilight hour. That is when this little creature puts on a spectacular show.


What a magical experience..."as if the stars have come to settle in the forest." These synchronous fireflies all start together and flash together and then stop only to start all over again. And it is mainly about getting lucky! They flash each other and hook up. How romantic!

I have only seen fireflies a few times in my life but it truly is mesmerizing. Have you seen these lightning bugs? Do you remember trapping them in jars and watching them all night long?

Share your firefly experience and make some earrings inspired by these mighty awesome bugs. See you for the reveal on June 16th!

Garden Friends

We've had so much rain this Spring, that it seems now, we have much more little creepy crawlies and all sorts of 'friends' popping over in the garden... One of my favorite garden friends are beautiful  dragonflies!

I wanted to make some jewelry components that featured these cuties, and so I've created a handful of handmade dragonflies earring drops, and decided to use a pair to make these fun lightweight earrings:

The great part about making my own polymer clay colors is that I can pretty much 'match' any other component that I plan on using. In this case, I had this gorgeous green hemp cord that I wanted to use in some fun summery designs. It was perfect to use with the design I wanted to create:

A pair of my handmade green/blue dragonfly earring drops, Greek ceramic beads in dark blue, tiny seed beads in blue, and small TierraCast gold-tone rustic spacer beads, on fabulous green hemp cord.

The light flurry of beads/cords at the bottom represents that flutter effect that I feel/see when they fly around in the garden, like a light trail of happiness that they spread around.

Oh happy happy Summer Days....

What are your favorite garden critters?

You can find these earrings and more of my jewelry components HERE in my Etsy shop.

Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy the weekend!
Cheers,
Nathalie Lesage

Visit my Handmade Jewelry & Components shop here: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Digi shop here: The Crafty Tribe