Earring Sampler 💗

Hi, everyone!  I'm sorry it's been so long since I wrote a post here, and I'm glad to be back.  I haven't been making much jewelry lately, but today I'd like to share a few pairs of earrings that I have made over the last while.  💗

The whimsical earrings below have so much going on with texture and shape 

that I thought keeping them monochromatic would work well.  The bumpy blue-green

 lampwork beads are by Beth Mellor of Beeboo. The fun porcelain hearts are by the 

wonderful Judie Mountain.  With sterling beads and Two Trees sterling ear wires.  

These little (about 1-7/8" long) chainmaille earrings are woven in the classic

barrel weave, are made of small niobium rings in a subtle rainbow of colors, 

and are as lightweight as they come. 

I think these charms might be some of the most colorfully vibrant that Kristi Bowman has ever made--so

 I decided to take them just a little over the top.  I'm not sure it worked, but it was fun.  

With Kristi and Beth Mellor. 

 These earrings are so much whimsical fun, with Patty Lakinsmith's yellow-and-orange disc beads,

the short stack of blue and green Czech discs, tiny pops of red glass beads, and playful and 

colorful enameled charms by Marlene Kazor Quigley of MarkazoArt. 

Well, I think that's enough from me for now!  I hope you're all well and happy and enjoying the holiday season.  💗

xoxo
Meridy

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Metal...and Rainbows

Hi, everyone!  

My latest pair of earrings, below, is the fourth in a series of similar earrings I've made over the years.   

When I created this style in 2015, I was playing with several pewter charms by Inviciti that all had open spaces in them that could be filled with a stack of little beads.  The earrings were designed to be whimsical and eccentric.  Interestingly, what I discovered while working on this post is that my newest design in this style is probably the least eccentric of all of them. 

These earrings, below right, were the first of the three pairs I made in 2015.  I was learning how to wrap the red linen thread around the top of the "shoulders" of the component and to bring both ends of the thread down on each side, stringing my beads on the front, then threading both ends through the bottom hole and tying them together at the bottom.  I trimmed the linen thread to a nice spiky length.

These little ones below were more overtly whimsical, I think, because of the shape of the charm:  a fish!  So when I put these earrings together I made sure to wing the thread out in the same plane as the "fish tail" of the charm.  💗

These, below, also from later in 2015, are just a little over the top, with two strands of beads, in front and back.  I don't think I would do that again, because it doesn't look particularly tidy.  I do love the stripy beads and the orange-red discs and just the "go-for-it" sort of vibe these earrings carry.

So back to this year's model. 😉 These earrings are more polished, with their threads pulled tight to their backs and tucked under some nice--and carefully glued--red handmade paper.  They're also sporting a beautiful pair of small red and cornflower lampwork glass beads by Beth Mellor of Beeboo. 💗

Thanks so much for reading!  I will be back in two weeks' time.  💗

xoxo
Meridy

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Discs and Circles...

...and DOTS!  Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope your 2019 is going well!  💗

These colorful, happy, and whimsical earrings were so much fun to make!  I've just listed them, and their sunniness is welcome after the rain and windstorms we've had here in Sacramento the last few days!  It's been glooooomy!

I bought the wonderful ombre dotted charms by Nicola Morse quite a while ago, and found their dotty match (the glorious golden hollow beads by Beth Mellor) by chance a number of months ago.  I had commissioned Beth to make me some beads to go with other components I had, and she made those beads as well as many more...including the wonderful dotted beauties that ended up in these earrings.  I love how these earrings came together by serendipity.  💗

To finish the earrings, I added a pair of small orchid glass discs (also by Beth), golden Swarovski rondelles nestling in little gold leafy bead caps, and beautiful 4-mm faceted purple garnet coins.  I wrapped everything together with gold-filled wire and hung them on my Two Trees gold-filled ear wires.

These earrings can be found at Two Trees Studio, here.

Wishing you all sunny days--or at least sunny days of the heart.  💗

Thanks for reading.  I'll be back in two weeks with some new things!

xoxo
Meridy

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Springtime, at the Edge of Winter...

It's nearly Winter Solstice, but I'm still loving florals, especially 

when they're as pretty as the flowers created by

Beth Mellor and Raida Disbrow, here and below.  

These earrings can be found and purchased here.

Such gentle beauty and color from Beth's glass tulip beads (with their blue petals laid over

 underlying green) and Raida's lovely floral enameled copper charms!  I complemented them

 with small blue Czech glass tulip beads, 4-mm olivine Czech glass discs, tiny rosy bicone 

Swarovski crystals, and small leafy copper bead caps.   

Thank you so much for reading!  I'll be back soon. 💗 The happiest of holidays to you all!

xoxo
Meridy
Two Trees Studio

Gratitude and Joy

In the U.S., today is a day officially set aside for giving thanks.  Thanksgiving Day was designated a federal holiday in 1863, during the American Civil War, to be celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday in November.

Well, as it happens, the fourth Thursday of the month is one of my regular blog days here at EE.  So I thought I'd share a few thoughts about thankfulness and gratitude...and maybe show off a new pair of earrings too. 😊



Long ago I was taught the benefits of an "attitude of gratitude," being grateful for the good things in your life, no matter how small, instead of focusing on the negative.  Being actively grateful takes some effort and retraining of the mind. Meditation is, of course, an excellent mind-trainer (and mind-quietener), but I learned that even just making lists of things I'm thankful for is a good (and easy) way to start.

So on this day I'm thankful for all of you EE readers and writers and for creators and appreciators of beauty in all its different forms. And I'm sharing these joyful, whimsical earrings on this day because I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to make them. 

Recipe for the Earrings

Colorful dotted charms by Nicola Morse

Dotted golden hollow glass rounds by Beth Mellor  

Orchid lampwork glass discs by Beth Mellor

4-mm faceted purple garnet coins

Gold-filled bead caps, Swarovski crystal rondelles

Gold-filled ear wires

💗 Thank you, Nicola and Beth! 💗

Thank you for reading...and Happy Thanksgiving!

xoxo
Meridy

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Color Play

Early on in my life as a jewelry designer, I learned that my favorite part of designing was working with color, with line/shape/proportion coming in as a close second, followed by texture.  It's true to this day.  It's probably not too surprising--who doesn't love color, after all?

But I found that I enjoyed the study of color, of what colors complemented what others and what colors really didn't work well together.  For instance, in the earrings below, the beautiful dagger charms by Inviciti were a gently dissonant pink-and-orange, as were the streaky little glass rondelles by Beth Mellor, and I very specifically chose the tiny aqua-green rondelles to go with them, in direct complement to the rest of the color palette.

In contrast, these cityscape earrings, left, are an example of color matching, using lampwork glass, Czech glass, and Swarovski crystal beads in the same colors found in the vibrant charms by Marlene Kazor Quigley that are used in the earrings.










The earrings below, however, started out with a lot of color.  The first items I had to start my earrings were Kristi Bowman's rainbow-painted copper charms, which are so colorful that they could almost be the earrings' entire focus of color.  But I wanted more color. 😄💗

The wonderful Beth Mellor helped feed my color craving by making these gorgeous encased lampwork beads, with their ripples of color and little dark sine-wave-like scribbles.  She also made the beautiful orange glass rondelles.  💗

So...I got a little more color, and I think it works.  In fact, it feels autumnal, and that was a surprise.  Interesting...  

These earrings are available at Two Trees Studio.

Thanks so much for reading.  💗

See you in two weeks!  

xoxo

Meridy

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The Firebird

More than a year ago, I fell in love with these heart-meltingly beautiful resin wings by the wonderful Joanne Louvaine Bell of Twinkiedinky:    

They're perfectly made, with gold veins and just the right amount of sparkly gold dusting, fading into a beautiful padparadscha pink-red-orange color to die for.  I held on to these beauties for a long time, working on other projects, but I kept thinking about them...and I finally asked one of my favorite bead artists, Beth Mellor, to make some beads to go with them.  And did she ever! 

Beth's two-color hollow beads are perfect, with their swirls and streaks of gold over a delicious color that's a close match to the little padparadscha Swarovski crystals right beneath them.  The fiery colors, the lines, the heat of the earrings remind me of the title character of The Firebird, one of my favorite ballets: 

Ballerina Misty Copeland as the Firebird.

The Firebird.

Thanks for reading, all!  

I'll be back in a couple of weeks.  💗

xoxo

Meridy

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Complementary Beauty

After not making much jewelry for the last month or so, I'm happy to be back at work creating with some new and deliciously colored and textured beads and components! 💗 

The design of these earrings is simple, because I wanted the component parts to shine without any fuss.  There's so much wonderful texture in Kristi Bowman Gruel's painted copper charms--colorfully cratered little moonscapes!--and I echoed their hollows with hammered bead caps in antiqued copper.

Beth Mellor's lovely stripey blue-and-green lampwork glass beads--as serene and cool as the charms are busy and warm--pick up two of the charms' many colors. The beading on the glass beads adds balance (and a bit of whimsy), and I mirrored the little beads with tiny beaded copper beads, tucked in just below them.  

As always, thanks for reading!  I'll be back again at the end of September.  💗

xo
Meridy

My shop (Two Trees Studio)
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Wings and Orbs 💗

These beautiful glass wings and beads by Pati Walton and Beth Mellor have been waiting a long time to be made into earrings.  😊  It's funny, though, that I'll be posting this the very day after Lindsay's "Winging It" post.  💗

Sometimes it just happens like that...you have beautiful components and beads that sit quietly in a drawer for a while.  Then you find just the right elements to go with them, pull the beads out for the first time in a while...

...and the earrings come together with such ease that you wonder why you let those beautiful beads languish in that drawer for so long.  

These earrings are rich in twilight colors that are perfect for the coming season of shorter days and longer nights.  They'll be available in my shop soon. 

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back again on September 13. 

Meridy

xo

My shop, Two Trees Studio

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Sister Earrings

Hi, everyone!  It's good to be back.

First, let me thank Norbel, who covered my last blog date at the last minute.  I really appreciate it, my friend! 💓

I've always loved the idea of "sister" jewelry:  pieces that resemble each other but aren't the same.  I hadn't made any sister anythings in a while...but then, about a month ago, I bought these exquisite rainbow leaf earring components from Kristi Bowman Gruel:

From a strand of four beads (by one of my favorite glass artists, Beth Mellor of Beeboo) I picked two that would be perfect with the leaves:  beautiful little round-edge cubes with colorful swirls and teal blooms. They would make a gorgeous pair of earrings.  So I made them, adding some copper beads, Czech glass rondelles, and Swarovski crystals:

These sold quickly (thank you, dear lady!), but I didn't forget that I still had two more of those wonderful floral beads.  Two or three weeks later, Kristi had another show, and I found leaf components that resembled the original leaves. 

 
I used different copper accents for these new earrings, making them more airy, and they're also a bit longer and more slender than their sisters.

These "sisters" are clearly separate designs, but they're definitely family!

  


Thanks for reading!  xoxo
Meridy

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