✨ Bringing the Bling ✨

Hi, everyone!  This week, I made earrings that pushed me right out of my comfort zone.   Yes, I did--and on purpose too!     

Helen Backhouse's hand-painted polyclay leaves always take my breath away, and these particular leaves are so long and stunning that they seemed to call for something dramatic.

So I went for it!  These earrings are looong (a little over 4 inches).  They feature AB rhinestone rondelles, sparkly 12-mm aqua blue crystals topped by small leafy bead caps and little blue zircon crystals, fabulous spiky double bead caps, and clusters of blue zircon and bright yellow Swarovski crystals, dangling from teal anodized niobium jump rings.

One wonderful thing is that, being made mostly of thin leaves of polymer clay, the earrings are very lightweight and kind to tender earlobes.  Another wonderful thing?  I absolutely loved making these!  Who knew bringing the bling could be so much fun?  💗

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back with more to share in two weeks.

xoxo
Meridy
My Etsy shop
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Fun with Fungus

Fungus. Mushrooms. Toadstools. How often do you really look at them, and see how complex a structure they are? Shapes and patterns. Especially on the underside.

It's been warm and wet over here and fungi are springing up all over the place. Don't they have just that little element of magic about them? Home for fairies and elves. Often at the base of an old,  possibly magic, tree. I've been instagramming them like mad as I walk round our village.

During one of her shows, my eye was caught by these translucent polymer clay pieces by Jeni Houser Alasad . They looked to me like the underside of a toadstool, and I loved those rich garnet brown colours on the edges.  Anyway, I missed them with my slow broadband but Jeni made me a special pair.
How to do them justice? They're extremely unusual.  And quite large. I've given them a few coats of looking at (as my gran would often say) and here we are.

I've tied them up; bound with copper wire and irish waxed linen cord, to Lucy Haslam's twisted sisters, her hand made chain and beaten copper circular earwires. The fab ceramic drops in metallic garnet are, of course, Petra's.  Loads of texture, just like the real thing.

 

                    Hope you like them. And don't forget to look around for your own earthly treasure  
                                                    - you never know what you may find!

                                                                      See you in two weeks

                                                                              Lindsay xx

                                                                            My etsy shop

                                                                       My facebook page

In a gypsy mood

Hello peeps,

How are you all doing?
Well, autumn has arrived here in Greece as well and with those beautiful leaves falling from the trees I was getting a bit in a gypsy mood. Can you tell by looking at these earrings?

Being a hoarder I have been able to amass quite a stash of sari silk as well as seed beads.
I wanted to incorporate those tiny seed beads into my design, so I stitched some peyote bead tubes.









Together with sari silk, Czech glass and some chain they turned out exactly how I had envisioned them.

I couldn't stop myself and made three pairs, with lots of new ideas for more.











Which pair do you like the most?

These are now available in my shop.

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope to see you again next month. As you know we at Earrings Everyday love to read your comments so please, don’t be shy and leave one. It doesn’t have to be in English :)

Thanks for looking!

 Janine

Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop

My website/blog

My facebook page

Life and Laundry

Hi, Jetta here....I have found a nice clean bead or two in my pocket after doing laundry. But that isn't what my post is about today. My post is late this morning because I forgot it was my day to post till late last night after an all day laundry feast of my family's clothes :)

So I freaked out a bit and went to my work table to see if I could find a finished pair of earrings to snap a photo and write about them. Refer back to the frantic paragraph above of all day laundry. My life seems to be running from one major activity to the next. I am sure all of you can relate.

Nope, not a finished pair of earrings in site on my work desk. But I had these beauties as a work in progress....

I LOVE disc beads! These ceramic lovelies are from Marsha Neal Studio. This was my first time using micro screws. I love the effect. I just need to read up on how to cut them shorter so they don't stick in the back of your ear. Then I straightened these long ear wires just enough to slide on star cut strawberry quartz and reshape them to their original shape. I may or may not wire them onto the ear wires...




Here are a few of my earring idea baggies. I get ideas all the time but not always a lot of time to sit and put them together when the Muse hits. So I put them in little zip baggies and sit, relax, and create when those moments of peace and quite come my way.

 

I hope you have a day filled with creativity, lots of beads, and the time to play with them!

Jetta

We're All Ears :: October Inspiration :: Harvest Moon

What's in a name? that which we call a moon

By any other name would shine as bright.

 (With apologies to William Shakespeare)

I love the sky in October. It is my favorite time of year. There is a crispness in the air that I swear makes colors brighter against the blue expanse of sky. The sunsets are richer, and seem to catch fire to the trees that respond in kind with sunset robes of their own. 

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash

Did you know that there are names for all the moons throughout the year? There's the Wolf Moon, Crow Moon, Flower Moon, Fruit Moon and the Frosty Moon. But the moon that I always remember is the one that rose last night, October 5, 2017...the Harvest Moon.

"Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we call the closest full moon to the autumn equinox the Harvest Moon. In 2017, the September equinox came on September 22. And the September full moon came early in the month, on the night of September 5-6 for the Americas. Thus, for the the Northern Hemisphere, the full moon of October 5 – the closest full moon to our autumn equinox – is our Harvest Moon." 
from EarthSky.org

Photo by Tony Detroit on Unsplash

The Harvest moon is pretty special. It was named such because farmers could use the bright illumination of the full moon to bring in their burgeoning crops into the night. The full moons closest to the autumnal equinox rise sooner after sunset than at other times, just 35 minutes versus 50 minutes. That early moonrise gives the appearance that it is hanging low in the sky, so close that it looks as though you could reach out and pluck it from the sky. This is called the Moon Illusion. The orange color is just a trick of your eyes. The atmosphere at the horizon is a greater thickness than higher overhead. The increased thickness of the atmosphere at the horizon scatters blue light in the spectrum the most allowing red light to pass to your eyes which is why the hue will appear more yellow, orange or reddish.

So go out and take a peek a the Harvest Moon tonight or this weekend and get inspired. If you miss it, you can set your calendar for the Hunter's Moon, which is the first full moon after the Harvest Moon and will set the sky ablaze on November 3rd and 4th as a supermoon, meaning it will be even closer in orbit to the horizon causing it to appear HUGE!

Are you up to the challenge? What does that mean? I am glad you asked! Here's a recap of the challenge to hopefully encourage you to play along! Won't you join me? Reveal date: Friday, October 20th.

Hair'em Scare'em

Velcome, beady peeps!
Loralee, here - Von't you come in...

I enjoy taking different spins on Halloween designs.  For me, it's not just about witches and goblins, but, how the season makes you feel deep inside. Shorter days bring a sense of urgency and a bit of drama with the darkness.

I had started out with these silky, glossy, long, black tassels.  At first, when I purchased them, I wasn't even sure what they were going to be used for. However, I knew I loved them and that's always a good place to start.

I was picturing a night out, something special to wear with that black dress. Something a bit out of the ordinary....perhaps even a little 'witchy'.

I attached the tassels to some tribal inspired connectors by Jana of Happy Fish Things.  I wanted to keep the focus near the top and not interfere with the long strands so I added some short, beautiful, vintage, faceted crystals on each side for some sparkle.

This time last year, a sweet friend, Lena Moore, sent me a pair of extremely fuzzy fiber wrapped beads by Sagahus,  I didn't get a chance to use them, so I tucked them away until now.  It was a good thing, too, because, recently I discovered a wonderful bead artist in France with the shop name, Verreet Cuivre. I'm not sure she intended them to look like candy corn (is candy corn even a thing in France???) .....but, they sure do, in a more sophisticated way!

I love the rustic texture surrounded by the hairy softness of the fibers.   Ha, I don't think I've have ever written that description for earrings before...."the hairy softness"...lol  Anyway...lol

Last but not least, another photo of hairy softness, his name is Vincent, and he's turning 6 months old!

             
                  

 Loralee Kolton Jewelry - artful in beads

                                                 

Wishing you all, the best of this wonderful season!

L ~

Quartz points

Hello! So October is here already, and I suppose I should be posting something seasonal. However, I'm not terribly good at seasonal earrings. If you ask me to make something Autumnal, or for Halloween -I'm stuck! I just like making things which catch my eye. This design is a firm favourite. A bit fiddly, but worth it I think.

The starting point was this pair of pretty purple quartz points. I love that they are jagged, natural and non-uniform. I popped them on a longish piece of oxidised copper wire to make a teardrop shape. Next - a bit of fiddly wrapping of wire to keep the quartz in place and the addition of some pretty turquoise seed beads (who doesn't love purple and turquoise together?). Another bit of fiddly wire wrapping with some juicy purple beads on the teardrop and some very pretty tiny amertrine rondelles. And to finish off -very sweet little turquoise czech flowers to match the little seed beads. And there they are. A little bit boho. And not at all seasonal! But I hope you like them.
They'll be available at my next showcase over on The Earrings Show on Facebook on 30th October.

See you in a couple of weeks :-)

Utterly Lovely Stuff