New Beginnings

Today we got to meet our new baby grandson, Kai Landig! Grandma and Grandpa got to hold him and give him lots of loves! See how content he looks in his Grandpa's arms!

However, as far as blogging goes, you'll have to forgive the blurry earring photos.

I'm editing them on my phone, in the motel room near our son's  house, whereas I usually take them with a regular camera and edit them in Photoshop,  on my laptop.

If you do crafts of any type, have you had days where your hands seem to have a total disconnect from your brain and they bungle anything you try to do? I was having such a day when I made these earrings. The first earring came together reasonably easily,  but the second - gah! Either the decorative, crossed wires on the pearl, wouldn't lay flat or the cross was too high up and couldn't be coaxed back in place or....you get the idea. I had to keep cutting it apart and starting over. And this was Sterling silver wire I was mangling! 

Anyway, eventually I wrestled it into compliance. 

The earrings feature my own handmade ceramic dangles, colored mother of pearl beads and sterling silver. I named them New Beginnings in honor of Kai's new beginning in this crazy world of ours. 💖

Linda Landig Jewelry 

Tribal Fun

Hi, it's very wet here and I just got soaked walking the dogs, I hope the weather has been kinder to you wherever you are today.

I thought I'd show you this fun pair of earrings that will be available in my FB group. They have quite a few elements and took a while to put together before I was happy with the design. I have used my hand painted/resin copper components with lampwork by Jolanda Van den Berg, small enamel components by Bea Stoertz, beaded components by Ellie Bead together with Czech glass bead caps, ceramic bead caps and black patina bead caps and ear wires.

With this design I thought it would be fun to echo the colour circles in different elements and give them my usual burst of colour. Adding the beaded caps gives them another dimension with a bit of a tribal twist resulting in an eclectic mix.

Thank you for taking a look. These will be available in my FB group today - Nicola Morse Jewellery & components.

Blue for you?

Last weekend my focus was to host a challenge in my Facebook Group for members to explore the new Pantone Colour for 2020 - Classic Blue. This also fit nicely with Erin's topic for We're All Ears this month.

There were some beautiful entries - jewellery, scarves, textile wraps, lampwork beads. We all came to the conclusion that Classic Blue was a lot more workable with than we had anticipated.

The first thing I did was to see what Helen Backhouse could come up with for me and these I thought were fabulous - deep rich classic blue with terracotta. Warm and mediterranean, full of texture.

This pair has shells in polymer clay, with copper, jasper and lapis lazuli - both the faceted drops and the larger, matte beads.

The second pair, ceramic shells with glossy, sky-meets-sea lampwork by Karin Hruza, wrapped in copper with vintage coral.

So are you a blue fan? Judging by the fashion magazines, you'll be seeing plenty of it this year. Both these pairs are now available in my Etsy shop. See you again in a couple of weeks. Take care!


                                                                         Lindsay x

                                                                   My Etsy shop
                                                                 My Facebook page

Pagoda inspired earrings

Hello!

I've had these pretty enamels in my stash for a few months now. I wanted to do something special with them and tried them in a few designs, but I wasn't happy! They are so pretty -made by Carole Pons who always creates the most beautiful copper and enamel components. I love the delicate pinks and whites in this pair -they contrast well with copper.

I was playing around with some copper wire, and created these little frames. Wiring the enamels to them created a shape reminiscent of Chinese pagodas.

Adding some pretty wrapped briolettes in co-ordinating colours completed the design.

So there we are. Hope you like them. They'll be available over on The Earrings Show on Facebook on the 1st February.

See you next month

Sue 

We're All Ears :: January Reveal :: Color of the Year

Hello earring peeps!

Time got away from me this month so I didn't quite finish what I was making. But I promise that I am going to keep working on it and in the next few days I should have something to share here. But I didn't want you to suffer because I didn't get the assignment done (and I don't even have a dog to say that's who ate my homework!).

I have been working on some new polymer clay ideas for a class that I will be teaching in Galena, IL this summer at the fourth annual Adornments Retreat. Four days of fabulous beady fun in a gorgeous resort. Can't wait! One of my classes is called Slab Lab. This class will feature making polymer clay slab veneers that will be utilized for modular components that work well with a variety of styles and types of jewelry. So in working with the Pantone color of the year - Classic Blue - I decided to make a slab with that color in it.

I mixed my own colors of clay to mimic the colors in the palette suggestion - Ponder. I liked the very soothing tones and thought that they would look good with the dark and mysterious blue, particularly that last row on the Color Harmonies.

I then proceeded to build up layers of clay, sort of like a tapestry that is embroidered to add detail and texture. I started with little blue leaves and vines. I came up with a way to turn tiny circles of clay into a modern rose and gave it a bit of punch with a gold leaf center. Then to fill the space I added dots of the bronzy brown color. In this technique it is all about the layers, the colors and the textures. It is amazing what you can do with a simple ball-stylus tool!

From there I cut out various shapes. As I was doing this I realized that I needed to do WAY more patterning on this slab, particularly for earrings, which are smaller shapes. This pattern would look really good as larger shapes for pendants, but I stuck to earrings for this challenge.

Next up: baking. Then finishing with some light sanding and buffing. And then making earrings! So I apologize for not having the earrings done. But I wanted you to see where I was going with this so hopefully you will check back in the coming week to see what I made as I will edit this post.

But now it is your turn! Which colors did you pair with the Classic Blue? Can't wait to see!

Hearts and Musings

With Valentines Day on the horizon, I've been making heart themed ceramic components. Today's earrings are my first completed heart pieces.

I did a lot of thinking, over the winter holidays, about what direction I wanted to go with my ceramics. Last year I focused mainly on selling my ceramic components. It was a more profitable endeavor than selling jewelry, but I missed designing jewelry - my first love. Also, you have to make a lot of jewelry components if that is going to be your main focus. I didn't enjoy the production pressure that caused me. So I've decided that this year I am going to focus on designing finished jewelry, using my own handmade ceramic jewelry components. I will still occasionally sell beads or design jewelry with art beads from other artists, but mostly I want to tie together my ceramics and my love of jewelry design.

These sweet earrings combine my ceramic heart charms, with Swarovski crystals, commercially made ceramic floral bead caps and sterling silver.  They are one of a kind, which makes them a perfect gift for that one of a kind person in your life - mom, sister, friend or yourself! These will be in my shop later this afternoon. As always, thanks for visiting Earrings Everyday and for listening to my musings on how I'd like to move forward in 2020.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Flutterby

Thinking about Spring in January gets me through the winter!

So, how do you like these flirty-girls?  Aren't they sweet?!!

I picked out these lovely vintage petal-shaped sequins from Andrew Thornton and William Jones of Allegory Gallery last summer (they still have them in stock, FYI).  I also purchased them in pink and yellow but my studio seems to have swallowed them up whole and I can't find them at the moment! *sigh

The top Robin's-egg blue, rustic enamel flower wheels, were made by Susan Kennedy of Suebeads.

Transparent sequins in mint green with a lovely pastel iridescent cast.  The quality of vintage sequins is wonderful.

The beautiful pod-like handcrafted enamels were made by Anne Gardanne.

On darker backgrounds and/or in a certain light, the pinks show up! This photo shows all the layers fanned out. When it is worn it hangs straight down.

Well, thank you for stopping by and seeing what I've been up to!  I'll be back in a couple of weeks :)

All the supply resources are linked with the names of the artist or shop.

Cheers! 

(I've been watching a lot of British Shows lately.. ♡)

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com