Center Of Attention

Have you heard about the Muffin Tin Challenge on Heather Powers' Humble Beads blog?  It's a way of kick-starting your creative juices at the start of the new year. I decided to participate, for the 2nd time, this year.  You gather up all you need to complete 6-12 projects and place all the project components in each cup of the muffin tin.  Then whenever you have a moment, all you have to do is start creating, because you've already gathered up all the "ingredients" needed for your design.

My muffin tin.

Unfortunately a bout of bronchitis got in the way of completing the challenge in time.  However I did get 3 projects completed before the bronchial bug bit.  The earrings I ended up making kind of hopped from one muffin cup to another.  See the turquoise spikes (Suburban Girl Studio) on the top left?  They ended up getting paired with the beaded beads (Sue Beads) in the next muffin cup.

At 3 inches long, these guys are kind of drama queens!  This pair of earrings will be perfect for someone who has the confidence and poise to be the center of attention.  They're not gaudy and the narrow profile gives them a flattering line. But they definitely command attention - which I totally love about them.

What about you?  Do you prefer long or short earrings - or some of each?

 The Center Of Attention Earrings are now available in my shop.

 

 

 

 

Linda Landig Jewelry

Red Tulips

As you may know, we recently moved to a new house.  Its been fun to discover which plants lay below the surface in our new gardens.  Much to our delight, red tulips appeared in the early spring.  I've named today's earrings in their honor.

The ceramic discs and beads are from Suburban Girl Studio.  The discs are glazed around the rims and have a hole in the middle. I decided to fill the center hole with flower beads.

Because I was filling the hole with beads, I had to come up with an alternative method of hanging them from the ear wires. This required a little mechanical engineering. Several of my initial tries weren't strong enough and the discs flopped forward.  Here's a view from the back showing what I finally came up with.

I placed the flower on a headpin, and then added a 4mm red fire polish bead.  Although the bead doesn't show, it  fills up the hole and stabilizes the flower. After the fire polish bead, I made a wrapped loop.  Using a heavy gauge headpin, I added two size 8 seed beads, the wrapped loop and four more seed beads. Then I added a spacer and the red ceramic bead.  I wrapped the top loop snugly and wrapped down around the top of the bead, to strength to the construction.

I think the Red Tulips will be fun to wear all summer!

Linda Landig Jewelry

Autumn Wings

I've been collecting leaves on my daily walks.  The colors and the patterns they make fascinate me.  The golden yellow and light green of these earrings echo some of the colors I have been seeing.

These earrings came together serendipitously.  We are placing our house up for sale within the next 2 weeks or so.  I've been trying to clean up my studio to prepare for the house viewings. As I was working, I scooped up these ceramic dangles by Diana P. of Suburban Girl Studio and the glass "Wing-Dings" by Genea Beads.  As I was about to put them away, I realized that they went really well together.  Consequently, I never put them away, I just made them into earrings instead!

My husband and I are at the time of life where we would like to downsize, not only our home, but also all the work that goes with maintaining a big yard and the cleaning and upkeep on the house.  We are only moving across town, and I am happy to say that although the new house and yard are smaller, I will still have room for a little studio and my kiln.
They Autumn Wings Earrings are available in my shop now.

-Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Bead Fest Energy

I just returned from Bead Fest in Philadelphia and I'm experiencing that strange combination of exhaustion and creative buzz that always follows my return home.  Today's earrings feature some of my new Bead Fest treasures.

The ceramic flowers were made by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio.  Although Diana wasn't vending at Bead Fest this year, I stayed with her for a few days and picked up these pretty charms from her at that time.

I bought quite a few wood beads at Bead Fest this year.  They came in such yummy colors that I just couldn't resist.  The nice thing about these beads is that although the cubes are somewhat on the large side, they are so lightweight that they are totally comfortable to wear.

The flowers remind me of our dahlias that are blooming in profusion right now.  You can hang onto summer through early October with these earrings and with late blooming dahlias.  Enjoy!  The Dahlia Earrings are available in my shop.

-Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Ammonite Bloom

I've combined work from 2 of my favorite Ceramic Artists,

Beautiful Flowers from Karen Totten of StarryRoadStudio

And Rootbeer Ammonite drops from Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl.

Wrap them all up with Copper Wire and throw some Silver Seed Beads around the center to finish them off!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

Sutherland Earrings

I've had these earrings in my head for about a month now.  I intended to make them for the Art Jewelry Elements Components January Challenge, but I ran out of time.  So I am happy that I finished them and can share them here, finally.

The earrings proved difficult to photograph.  If you lay them on a horizontal surface (as in the picture below) then the dangly chain slinks off to the side.  When worn, they hang as in the picture above.

The lampwork glass beads, by Genea Beads, have swirling colors of jade green, tan and blue, with cream colored tops and bottoms.  The ceramic, dagger shaped dangles, by Suburban Girl Studio, have a gradient of colors from, light blue-green to jade, to a deep green-teal color on the tips. I added a little bit of decorative chain just for fun.

As I was admiring the colors in these earrings, I realized that they were the same blue and greens of Lake Sutherland, where my family used to vacation when I was in elementary school.  Its an alpine lake on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington State.  If you woke up early in the morning, before the boats were out, the water was as smooth as glass and emerald green.  I was always my happiest and most peaceful self when I was at Lake Sutherland.

Isn't it cool that the colors can bring back such a flood of happy memories?  And its a great treasure to have memories that fill you with joy, even 50 years later.

 Maple Grove Resort on Lake Sutherland, in the 1950's, when my family vacationed here.  Found this vintage photo in a Google search.

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Winter Blues

Got our first snow of 2015 here in Maryland yesterday, and I immediately thought of big bulky sweaters, jeans and boots!  These cuties would be the perfect accessory all the way into Spring!

Cool speckled blue stoneware drops from Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio, LLC dangle beneath copper washers that have been hammered, then wrapped with copper wire and colorful Czech glass beads.

I added a couple more glass beads in between, and finished with some my favorite lever-back ear wires...these are the only mass-produced ones I use!

Happy Winter!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry

Autumn Harvest

Fall is in the air!

We just got a post-card from the local farm where we normally take our yearly autumn hayride into the pumpkin field to choose a few for Halloween and to have on the porch for the rest of the season into Thanksgiving.  I love those little jaunts with my 2 boys.  The little store where you pay for your pumpkins always has a pile of cute little gourds and multi-colored corn with dry shocks; beautiful chrysanthemums in magnificent shades of magenta, yellow, and rust; and yummy apple cider!

Photo from terragreenhouses.com/ via Pinterest

I got these sweet little ceramic hearts/leaves from Diana P of Suburban Girl Studios, when I made a short trek to BeadFest in August.  I thought they actually looked pretty "Spring-y" and was going to save them for then, but when trying to find inspiration for a post today, they were on my table along with some enameled brass elements I had been experimenting with.  The colors sort of popped out at me and said "Apple Cider"!

They needed another color though, so after looking through my Czech glass stash, found these cute little flowers in rust.  They wouldn't face forward though, so I strung them on sterling wire and did a sort of herringbone wrap with copper to hold them tight!  I finished the pair with hand-wrought sterling earwires embellished with copper.

Perfect for the season, or anytime!  They are long, about 3 inches, and would look so great with lots of outfits, but neutrals, denim, leather all sort of jump to mind!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Sailing...

These ceramic charms by Suburban Girl Studio are so much fun! I couldn't wait to make a pair of earrings with them and did just that as soon as they arrived in my mailbox.

Wouldn't they look fab with this summer outfit?

Summertime by kristyabner featuring gauze dresses
  

Ah...it would be nice to be on Cape Cod again about right now...Sailing....

To see these earrings and more of my work, please visit my website.

Thanks,

Kristy 

Kristy's Kreations