The Artful Dodger

Hello!  So, here is what I've been working on! 

I've named this earring pair The Artful Dodger, not only for the twisted olive and brown glass but, trying to capture them in a photograph was a real challenge!  Ahem, olive twist - camera dodger -see what I did there? *Ha!

The photo above was taken in bright direct light and the delicate, playful, enameled dots really show! 

Below, moving away from the direct light, it's far more subtle in color a little moody and dramatic.

The twisted glass beads are actually three individual pieces that I've fit together to create an ombre effect then caged in steel wire.  

The glass is by Michelle Hicks Lusk of Caliente Art Glass and the rustic amazing enamel work is by Kimberly Rogers.

“Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the sombre colours are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer vision.” 

― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

And so, that is me for now!  Thank you for popping in :)

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook

Happy Ending For The Bride & Groom!

While preparing for their wedding day, this June bride and groom experienced a near tragedy!  *Gasp!

Either the agate bead had a hidden flaw, or pressure from the steel wire wrapping was too tight for the etched Dzi bead and it crumbled right in my hand.

I thought of a couple of options, but as you know, you don't get a second chance wrapping lampwork headpins.  Once you've made the commitment (like our happy couple, here) there's no turning back!

Even before the mishap, I had wanted to bring more warm gold tones into the design.  So, I decided to do a fabric wrapped bead in a mellow gold tone wire on a dark background.  I had also thought of stacking ornate open jump-rings but there would be too much gold on one side; this had better balance.

I think the Mr. is looking even more dapper now.  I love this design far better than the original!  Now they compliment one another and each has their own individual style - like every couple should. 

~

Umm, it's honeymoon time...we should be leaving now I'm thinkin'.

♡

I hope if you experience a mishap while working, you'll think of it as a challenge!  You may discover a new technique or come out with an even better design!  I believe many refer to it as a "happy accident".

The amazing skulls were made by Gaea Cannaday of Gaea Handmade.

The lampwork headpins are the creations of Kimberly Rogers of Numinosity Beads.

Many thanks for stopping by today, it's always a joy to be here and show you what's happening on my work table!

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~ artful in beads

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

Fetchingly Light

I'm finding it increasingly challenging to come up with designs that reflect my personal style now that so many have discovered all of the wonderful components available online in groups and shops.

That's when I fall back to relying on my own components that I haven't made available to others yet.

These earrings were created with some polyclay pieces that I made in a workshop with Christine Damm at Art On the Farm in Vermont last May.

I fell in love with the techniques she taught us as I am all about texture and lightness when designing earrings

I dug out some of my old seed bead stash to stack up on these copper enamel headpins that I got from Alaskan artist Tamie Hageland from Copper Creek Studio

I had such fun making them I had to repeat the design in a different color

These are fun and lightweight to wear and you'll see nothing like them! 

Thanks so much for looking. I'll be on a break now to go visit some of my European beady friends that I've met online along the way.

If you'd like to see pics from my trip you can follow my Instagram page here:

www.instagram.com/numinosity/

Adios for now!

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604

A Little Glamour, A Little Crackle

I've been messing around with polymer clay quite a bit lately and my favorite thing to make is headpins. The earrings are nearly complete and I find just adding an accent bead or two is enough to make a statement.

These are lightweight enough that  anyone can wear them. Seems I have a few seniors that are finding that heavy earrings are a problem for them.

These are made with real copper leaf and are reminiscent of the ulu cutting tools that the Inuit use here in Alaska

You can find some other shapes and sizes of my polymer headpins in my Etsy shop 

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

Sorry for the quickie post  but I'm out the door to our farmers market 100 miles from here to see if I can sell some more earrings!

Thanks,

Kimberly Rogers

Sea and Earth

I'm delighted to have gotten my hands on some of Darlene Fortier House's and Sasha Crow's components recently. I actually won the stamped soldered abalone shapes from Sasha in a giveaway and made a custom order with Darlene from ArtisticRejuvenations for these lovely enameled shapes.

Just a little iridized metallic pyrite and we've got ourselves a dandy pair that brings me right back to Maine with the pearly sheen and mussel shell speckled purples.

You can find Sasha Crow here and on facebook here

 You can find Darlene's torch enameled components here

Enjoy your week and thanks for looking at my latest creations!

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604

https://www.instagram.com/numinosity/

Good Fortune - Vintage Meets Fiber

Nothin like a few new components that come into your possession to inspire a new design.

Oh, I have hoards of beads but these are some of my newest.

I was at the Alaska Bead & Gem Show as a vendor down in Anchorage at the beginning of the month. They had brought in a vendor all the way from Texas. Not an unfamiliar name as I had seen Sandy Schor's booth at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. They had a plethora of vintage beads. These little textured "fortune cookies' fairly  jumped out at me.

Actually I had hallmarked  them for another one of our designers that posts here and immediately posted off a picture to a certain amazing designer Claire Lockwood as  I could see her doing something amazing with them as well. I find it kind of funny now that when I'm bead shopping I  kind of end up spotting things for others!

I must say that feeding the wire thru the corner of the fortune cookie was a bit of a challenge but I persevered  and was delighted to see my wire emerge so I could continue with my idea.

           

Also Anna Pierson of SagaHus has been making some really cool fiber connectors and has been posting new ones weekly in her facebook group.

I have to admit that I made these at the last minute as I'm flying out to New England tomorrow and will be taking a polymer clay workshop with Christine Damm of storiestheytell.blogspot.com which I'm really looking forward to.

Enjoy your summer days and see you when I get back.

Kimberly Rogers ~ NuminosityBeads

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

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www.instagram.com/numinosity/

Briny Deep

Spiny oyster shell discs and some plum satiny donuts from Outwest

I like designing with double hole sticks in the case of this coral for a more horizontal design

It's always a challenge with wirework for me. Usually the first one is successful while the second one I have to futz with a lot to get it to look similar to the first.

I haven't had any training with wirework so it's all experimental for me. I'm sure there are a lot of tricks to solve simple problems.

These are quite lightweight and just a bit brighter than my  usual palette

Now have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Kimberly Rogers

NuminosityBeads

Plumbing the Rocky Depths

Some beautifully etched zipper pattern beads by Bernadette Fuentes that I picked up last year at the Tucson Gem Show paired with some of Petra's Scorched Earth daggers. The most recent elements are the crusty limpet bead caps I made. They are lampwork.

I saved Bernadette's beads for a long time, I wan't sure if I would ever use them, maybe just keep them in a collection. I don't buy lampwork all that often. These beads kind of just lined up on my worktable. I just wasn't sure at first if the bead caps would work but I'm pleased with the result.

The combination of the crusty bead caps, silky etched lampwork and then the glazed daggers stack up for a nice effect.

Here's a better view of the little cruster limpets that seemed to want to hug Bernadette's beads

I like to give the option of offering shorter earwires. Not everyone seems to be comfortable wearing long earrings like I do.

Do you suppose I was subconsciously inspired by the colors and patterns of the mine that we drive by here in Bisbee, Arizona?

Thanks for looking!

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

https://www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

https://www.instagram.com/numinosity/

Just Needed Some Love

There the asymmetrical etched spotted headpins sat in my shop. 

unloved, un-bought-en and finally expired

Then they become my challenge.

I just got some of RaggedRobyn's wonderful stoneware bicones in the mail this week

A little Bali silver and Lila Koberstein's ceramic discs to equal out the length a bit

Good to go, ready for some lobe love!

Thanks for visiting 

Kimberly Rogers

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

https://www.etsy.com/shop/numinositybeads

www.pinterest.com/numinositybeads

www.instagram.com/numinosity

Who's Got the Buckle?

I had gotten these little antique buckles quite awhile ago and decided to use them in this pair of earrings. I really like making assemblage earrings but they seem to present some design problems that take some creative pondering.

I had a bit of difficulty with the one on the right hand side as the wire was sliding too easily.

My solution was to add a bit of waxed nylon for the wire to grip to which seems to be working

The enameled daggers are my own. I'm going to be putting some of this shape up for sale very shortly in my supply shop www.numinosity.etsy.com

The earwires are by Lucy Haslam of Faerystones

Thanks so much for looking.

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

https://www.instagram.com/numinosity/

Solstice Star Shining

I am not usually one to make seasonal or holiday themed beads or jewelry but this construction presented itself to me and evokes a star, the Star of Bethehem or the  returning light of the solstice.

It's the colors of my winters past in Alaska, the blues of the sky and the white of the snow with the magical crystallized sparkle of the ice crystals.

I had spotted these wonderfully organic headpins the first time when Russian artist Nadya of Latirus had posted them on Creative Bead Chat. What better way to welcome a new component maker than to buy her pieces.

What I noticed first when I received her headpins in addition to their delicate and organic beauty was that the headpin wire was a finer gauge than I am accustomed to working with. It's strong enough being the nichrome wire that has to hold up to the firing in the kiln with the clay.

But I realized I could use some of my extremely small holed beads that I normally am not able to use.

I rarely design earrings with my freshwater pearls so it was exciting to  put some to use.

I love this abstract star shape and used a few sparkly Swarovski crystals to highlight the design.

I was super pleased with this dainty pair of lightweight earrings that could be worn any time of year  but seem especially fitting for this month of celebrating  the return of the light.

Thanks for looking at my NuminosityBeads Creations!

Kimberly Rogers

e t s y   www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

f a c e b o o k  www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

i n s t a g r a m    www.instagram.com/numinosity/

p i n t e r e s t  /www.pinterest.com/numinosity/

and my f a c e b o o k auction and sale group 

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

Thong Earrings? Oh My!

A good friend arranged to come out  for a "crafternoon"

out in the boonies where we live over 100 miles down the Alaska Highway from where she lives. She's a hat maker, Heather of Mountain Heather Hats but is quite talented with her designing  and also works in her husband's commercial cabinetry shop utilizing her designing skills

She brought down some shiny bits of metallic leather that  Etsy seller FlorenceOliver had given her and she was generous to share some bits with me.

Heather has bought some components from me over the past few years and never seems to have the time to sit down and make some since that isn't her line of business although she did used to design an sell jewelry at one point in her crafting days.

I simply cut a little leather to run through the poly pieces and glued them together at the top where I punched the hole. The leather is so easy to cut and took me outside of the metal wire realm!

Thanks for looking at my NuminosityBeads Creations!

Kimberly Rogers

e t s y   www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

f a c e b o o k  www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

i n s t a g r a m  www.instagram.com/numinosity/

p i n t e r e s t  www.pinterest.com/numinosity/

and my f a c e b o o k auction and sale group 

/www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

Mount Kailash Earthy Dangles

I named these Mount Kailash for the rough pyramidal forms which are pieces from ScorchedEarthOnEtsy.

The  pastel crusty rounds are some of my matte  NuminosityBeads lampwork beads which have the shine brought down  by an application of baking soda during the torching.

These little shiny seafoam textured Czech rice beads seemed like a good contrast in shape and texture to the roughness of the other components. I used oxidized sterling silver earwires.

These are currently for sale in my Etsy shop NuminosityBeads

Thanks so much for looking and I appreciate all of your comments!

Kimberly Rogers

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook/numinositybeads

Canyon de Chelly Earrings

I made these earrings with some of my most recently made  lampwork headpins. 

In lampworking you end up with a lot of small ends of rods so I have been using them up in this stratification series.

I had just visited a ceramic studio where the artist was making geological stratifications with all manner of clays and materials. We found that our process and results were somewhat similar albeit mine are on such miniature scale.

  These are the headpins I started with. They have a combination of enamel and frit between the layers.

Different colors of glass melt at different rates which make of the difference in the flow and size of the layers.

Being rather hefty to begin with I just added a couple of my "Spacey Crusters' and some African brass spacers to accent the lampwork headpins.

I finished them off with some little Faerystones copper earwires

 Canyon de Chelly

by Kimberly Rogers of NuminosityBeads

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Apogee ~ Homage to Pluto

A hearty hello from the road!

 I penned this post back in Alaska on a cool and rainy day after a damp blueberry picking expedition and I imagine at this time of publication I may be enjoying cool Maine breezes by the bay after our road trip from Michigan to Maine. I will have gone on a  search for different blues on our Leland Blue slag glass finding trip on Lake Michigan with our LoveRoot Nikki Zehler.

 I jumped on the bandwagon of designing with amazing jasper stone sticks after spotting this pair at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. I think they are Dendritic Sonoran Jasper and since I live in the Sonoran Desert part of the year it was fitting that I acquire some.

I paired them with some ever so slightly mismatched sized lampwork rounds of mine that I would be hard pressed to replicate. I write little to nothing down when I'm creating, such is my muse.

While I could have brought down the shine of the copper wire (22 gauge) I found I enjoyed the brightness with this combination.

These are the first I've made of this sort with stone sticks. I think I could get addicted to designing this style.

Thanks for looking!

Kim

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

Allurement

Would you believe that the little stone heishi beads in these earrings I just made are from one of my first ever mail-order bead catalog purchases back in the mid nineties before I even started making my own beads? I think they were from Halstead or Rings & Things. The lampworking came a few years later. I had been making seed beaded moosehide amulet bags and was always looking for suitable beads from my fringes.

Every once in awhile I revisit old stashes and so happy to put them to some new uses.

These torch fired enamel numi-sticks were a rejected custom order so I kept them for myself and was happy that they had so many possibilities for matching colors. the sticks are a much brighter crimson than appears in this photo.

I used the simple fine gauge steel wire for the messy wrap to go through the assorted heishi and sunstone and some EdenArtGlass patina jump rings to connect them and some of Lucy Haslam Faerystones "Simples" earwires.

Seems that my newest designs get snatched up the quickest, I had to say goodbye to these at our local farmers market in Fairbanks, Alaska last Saturday.

I'm hoping you all are having a great summer. My next post will be coming from the road as we will be driving from Michigan to Maine on my next scheduled day.

Stay cool! 

Kimberly

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

Enigmatique Figurations by Kimberly Rogers

When a person find that they have a backlog of magnificent handmade artisan components the compulsion is to save them and admire the ever growing collection. I happen to have two seasonal studios and thus two burgeoning stashes mind you!

To beat this compulsion I endeavored to use up as many pairs of Petra's ScorchedEarth pieces as I could in a sitting.

Now Petra's pieces are pretty popular with us designers for their unique and earthy style so I wanted to add something different to the mix.

Suddenly I came across this other stash of druzy geode slices that I had carefully picked through at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show last winter.

I was super excited to create a collection, a series that would highlight both elements.

"Enigmatique Figurations" were born!

Long and dangly, neutral but with lots of gleam and sparkle, earthy and organic.

I finished them off with some short and simple earwires from Lucy Haslam's Faerystones shop.

Thanks and enjoy your summer!

Kimberly Rogers ~ NuminosityBeads

and here you can follow to your heart's content~

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