TOAD-ily SPRING!

It’s finally S*P*R*I*N*G – traditionally, the season for chirping birds, budding blossoms and new life! And hopefully, it’s time for at least a bit of a return to some of the things we’ve all missed over the past 12 months. I don’t have much of a green thumb so there aren’t many budding blossoms in my yard. And the branches on our tall oak trees begin far too high to hear birds chirping in them very often. However, one sign of spring that we do see in the yard pretty regularly are the 🐸frogs and toads🐸 that emerge and begin to spawn following hibernation.

Although I made these absolutely silly copper enamel frogs at the beginning of the year, I didn’t have a plan as what to do with them. But what better time to create a froggy design than the onset of Spring? Initially I was going to play up the sunflower🌻 idea and add bright yellow lampwork. But while I was looking for just the right beads, I stumbled on these chunky black and white striped tubes that complemented the stripes on the frog’s front legs perfectly.

I wanted to incorporate an Artisan component and thought the polka dots on the rear legs was the perfect inspiration. It didn’t take very long to decide on fun lampwork saucers by Ann Spirek-Wierbinski ….almost done. Just a few Czech glass spacers, and some crazy daisy spacers and wallah! Super crazy, one-of-a-kind sunflower frogs – TOAD-ily SPRING!

I would love to know your thoughts – too crazy? Too big?

These earrings will appear later today in my etsy shop, TwinklingOfAnEye

You can find other earrings on my fb page.

Thanks for spending a part of your day with me.🌻See you in a few weeks!

Empty Nest

For whatever reason (I’ve yet to discover a definitive one), I don’t tend to design earrings with my own enamels. But being a brand new year in the midst of a very strange season, I decided it was time to mix things up a bit and change all that…at least for today!

I recently designed a flurry of bird enamels (or maybe that should be a flock?) for a themed show and tried my hand at some enamels that were more like portraits than my typical outlined “cartoon” style pieces. Much to my surprise, the process of making small translucent strokes, firing, adding another layer of strokes, firing (repeat ad infinitum), was somehow mesmerizing. However, having no painting background, my poor birds, although changing appearance with each layer, were not looking at all like what I had intended after even after a half dozen firings! Perhaps they were better kept for my own designs, where I could take my time figuring out how to bring them to life. Which brings me (finally!) to today’s earrings…

Here’s how my birds started their journey after cutting copper sheet and laying down the first base coats (the poor things would have a quite a journey of color ahead of them before they left the nest):

 

If you are familiar with my earrings, you know that I don’t tend to do anything simple – I guess it’s just not how I am wired. But I wanted beads that would complement the birds without distracting from them (after all, they had already been forced through quite a metamorphosis). I think I found the perfect match in a beautiful etched pair from Regis Teixera, and added some leather flowers (how cool is that?) to keep in line with a more rustic vibe, rich amber-hued Czech glass flowers and rings, and an assortment of brass caps. I really like how these turned out, but I also am aware of just how much I have to learn (I would greatly appreciate any painting tips you might have)! It’s difficult to know just when to stop...

Who knows? Maybe I’ll have a few more pairs of bird earrings to add to the flock by next time. But for now, these will be available in my etsy shop, TwinklingOfAnEye later today

You can regularly find other new earrings in my fb group.

Thanks for spending a part of your day with me. See you in a few weeks! :-)

Strange times

Hello lovely earring fans,

I can imagine you have other things on your mind than earrings and I do hope you and your loved-ones are all healthy and safe.What strange and scary times we all are living in.

We are doing fine and staying in the Netherlands at the moment. My sister has been sick. There are not enough tests so she hasn't been tested, so we can't know for sure but the doctor suspects Covid-19. Luckily she only has mild symptoms but even with that she has been sick for 3 weeks already.
Well, enough of the misery, earrings are what you are here for, so here they are:

My collection of ceramic beads and charms made by Natalie McKenna of Grubbi Ceramics is increasing steadily. Look at these sweet earring charms.
Here is another pair, this time with wonderful butterflies:

Well, that's it for today. Thank you so much for visiting. Please stay safe and healthy. 

Wishing you a wonderful day,
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Harbinger Of Joy

 I always feel like spring is on the way when I see the first crocuses pushing up through the soil or peeking out from the snow. Spring flowers fill me with joy and hope (much needed these days).

The purple and yellow earrings I'm sharing this week remind me of the colors of these pretty, little crocuses. But they could also be reminders of purple Dutch irises, with their yellow centers or purple tulips with their vibrant yellow throats. All of these signal joy to me!

You probably recognize the polymer clay tube beads as being the work of Heather Powers, of Humble Beads. I paired them with hand enameled beads by Susan Kennedy of Sue Beads. I love the way the ribbing, in the metal beads, stands out as a contrasting texture. Buttery yellow ceramic floral bead caps and yellow faceted fire polish beads provide the accents.

Polymer clay is very lightweight and the enameled beads are hollow, so these earring are very comfortable to wear. You maybe thinking, "But who needs earrings now?" Well I have found that wearing a little handmade jewelry actually cheers me up a bit. There were a few of the early isolation days where I never got out of my PJs, but I still wore a blue stretch bracelet (hey, it matched my PJs, so why not?). I have resumed getting dressed daily and creating a normal daily routine, as much as possible. It helps. The Spring Crocus earrings can be found in my shop here.

I hope you and your loved ones are staying home and staying safe. Plus you are saving the lives of other vulnerable people, when you shelter at home. Hang in there and enjoy the spring flowers.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Grungy Spring

So, it's now April! In the UK, our clocks have gone forward which means we lose an hour of sleep, but gain an hour of daytime. All very confusing! But upshot is, Spring is very much here. I spent the weekend in Norwich, a city in the east of the UK, collecting my oldest daughter from University and everywhere was bursting with spring flowers. Gorgeous.

Now, as I've been a lil busy driving around all weekend, I've had no time to create something new for this blog. But I thought I'd share these pretties from my last showcase on Friday. They feature some gorgeously grungy ceramic connectors by Petra Carpreau. They remind me of little lily-pads.

I decided to add some pretty green czech glass teardrops, and a little stack of Roman glass rondelles, framed by oxidised brass hoops. Love the shape and the textures of these. You really can't beat Petra for organic, quirky and grungy. So there you are. A bit of grungy Spring. Although I've just read that we are due for gales and snow in parts of the UK next week....so maybe Spring will be on pause here for a little while!

See you in a couple of weeks 

Sue

Utterly Lovely Stuff

Not so green

Hello friends,

Today's post is about not taking the time to read properly. Yep, being impatient as I am, I did not read the post of the "We're all earrings challenge" of this month properly. What stayed in my mind was spring and "leaping green".
So, with much gusto I dived into my polymer clay stash and started to make some pencil stroke flower beads in soft pink with some sparkles (the "spring" part of the challenge). I learned to make these through the tutorial of Susan Bailey of Turtle Soup Beads. 

I love love love her beads. Mine are not quite as pretty as hers, but I am learning.

Thinking leaping green, I combined the  beads with pretty green beads. So I was all set for the challenge. I thought. Not. Nope. When I wanted to post the blog I finally read the second post of Erin... Oops, it was suppose to include much more green. Ah, well, that meant I had some new earrings to show you today :) 

These will be available in my earring show beginning of April.

Thank you so much for looking and your support for Earrings Everyday :)
And you know I love to read your comments, so don't be shy and leave some words. 

See you in two weeks.Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of joy, spring flowers and singing birds,
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Playing with envelopes

Well, that is what these beads were in the first place. Before I went ahead with lots of paint and the heat gun. Making these beads is so much fun and it's like Tyvek is alive when heated. 

This is my first ever batch of Tyvek beads and not as perfect as I wanted them to be. So I made new onces with other colors.

 This is what I made with two soft green/yellow Tyvek beads. I combined them with handmade glass head pins (artist unknown) and handmade ear wires by master basher of metal Lucy Haslam. 

These are now available :)

Thank you so much for looking and your support for Earrings Eveyday :)

And you know I love to know what you think of this design, so don't be shy and leave some words.

See you in two weeks. Wishing you a wonderful day, full of joy, laughter and sunshine.

Janine

Spring in Mind

I know we are in the run up to Christmas but I've had enough of seasonal jewellery already! I started making for Christmas about 3 months ago and peaked last weekend so I'm now on the other side and looking forward to spring designs. My January copy of 'Vogue' arrived this morning and I've already got some new colour combinations planned.

Recently I've been excited by Helen Backhouse's venture into ceramics. I've made a few pairs of earrings which have all flown out but I saved my favourite pair for today's blog post.




The detail on these is quite incredible - the veining, the colouring. I've turned them in opposing directions for added interest.  Above the connectors are some of my favourite lampwork beads from Emma Ralph - great shapes, colours and textures - with bronze spacers from Anna Chernykh and opaque emeralds. Earwires are (of course)  by Lucy Haslam.

                   Below are chunky matte kyanite beads and tiny pieces of silvery leaf chain.

They'll be in my Etsy shop if you'd like them. And I shall be back with you all on Boxing Day - so from me and my family to you and yours - have a very Merry Christmas!

                                                                            Lindsay  x

                                                                         My Etsy shop

                                                                     My facebook page

Bloom And Sparkle

I adore this time of year.  The rhododendrons are in their full glory.

Lilacs are filling the air with their intoxicating perfume.  I have a big bouquet of bright yellow day lilies on the fireplace mantle.  And pink tinged dogwoods fill me with joy. Everywhere you look right now is glorious.

With this bounty of blooms, I can't help but make flower themed jewelry. Today's earrings are brought to you by the colors magenta and green, with inspiration from the large camellia bushes in our back yard.

The shiny dark green leaves with the raspberry pink of the bloom got translated into these earrings.

Unfortunately I no longer remember the name of the artist who make the magenta and green lampwork flowers, but they were the launching point for these earrings.

I had some magenta beads that were a perfect match to the flowers.  I added some rhinestone discs and Czech glass bell flower accents to complete the design.

The Bloom and Sparkle earrings are available in my shop.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Knotted Brass Earrings

I found these cool knotted antiqued brass components at Michaels.  They were part of a chain and they were interspersed with teardrop shaped links. I took the chain apart, so I could use the pieces separately. 

The earrings are super simple, but fun and unique for casual wear. I just linked the chain components to some green and brown ceramic leaves by Lesley Watt. As new spring leaves are in bud here, Lesley's leaf charms seemed perfect for the season.

These knotted brass earrings are available at Linda Landig Jewelry.

Linda Landig Jewelry