Renaissance Windows

Hello, lovelies!  It's good to be back--it feels like it's been a while!  💗

The idea for the earrings I'm writing about today started quietly, when I found these beads at Arte Bella Surplus, one of my long-time favorite supply shops:      

I didn't buy them for any particular project, but rather because I like window beads and because their cross-like shape reminds me of certain Renaissance (or Renaissance-style) earrings I've seen in photos and in museums.  

Below are examples of variations of the same cross motif.  The first pair (left to right) is a simple quatrefoil shape, not unlike the window beads pictured above.  The second pair below also reflects the cross motif, in two ways:  with the petals and the pearls. And the third pair is obviously a cross. Each of these three examples also have a central focus where the arms of the "cross" would meet: the first pair has a tiny quatrefoil flower at its center, and white pearls sit at the centers of the other two pairs.     

                                                         

I had a beautiful pair of small rainbow Goddess charms by KristiBowmanDesign, and just for fun I laid them on my work table next to two of the blue-green window beads, and I had a feeling I might have something special.  💗

I added a pair of beautiful three-sided iris-colored Czech glass window beads, and small gleaming lights of glass and crystal.  

Thanks so much for reading!
I'll be back again on September 12.

xoxo
Meridy 💗
My Shop
😊

Cherry Blossoms

Who doesn't love a bit of cherry blossom, eh?

These beautiful enamelled charms are by  French artist Carole Pons of Brume de terre. If you've not checked out her shop yet -do. Such beautiful work. Delicate and vibrant at the same time.

These are her pretty Japanese cherry blossom charms. This pair -a rather striking pillar box red. With little freshwater pearls and oxidised black brass hoops

I bought this turquoise pair a while ago ( I may even have written about them before!). Czech glass and red lampwork spacers accompany them, and the enamels are framed by oxidised black brass hoops. These were a favourite pair, and I was delighted when a lovely friend bought them. They look rather splendid on her

 So, the red pair will make an appearance in my Facebook Showcase over on The Earrings Show on August 23rd. See you next month!

Sue x

Summer Trees

Hello Earring Folk!

I treated myself to some enamelled charms by Carole Pons of Brum de Terre recently. They really are the prettiest things.

Love the bright sky blue colour, as well as the pretty tree design. Perfect for summer, don't you think?

When I have components that are this pretty, I'm always tempted to just pop them on some earwires and leave them as they are! I resisted this urge!

However, I didn't want to over-complicate things, so i added some very lovely chrysocolla rondelles, some brass hoops to sit just behind the enamels and some little leaves -to echo the the tree theme.

Hope you like them! They'll be available over on my Facebook page

See you in a couple of weeks :-)

Sue x

Utterly Lovely Stuff

Roman Shields

Hello! Looking for inspiration for today's blogpost, I came across these etched copper discs. I've had them for ages, and I can't remember who made them ... But I love the texture of them; they remind me of little shields.

I knew I wanted to add some little Roman glass rondelles (going with the ancient theme), but also wanted an additional focal point.

 Step forward these delicious lampwork headpins by French artist Carol Pons of  Brume de terre. Now Carol makes some fabulous enameled pieces, which are very popular at the moment. But I also love her lampwork glass and copper components -always beautiful.

I tried to match up the colours of the headpins with the Roman glass in my stash.

So there we are...Roman shields... they are listed here

See you in a few weeks  

Sue x

Broken

Hello Earring Lovers!

No new makes from me today I'm afraid, but I made these recently for a showcase, and they were probably my favourite pair. They feature beautiful rustic ceramic drops by Nitta of Corvus Ceramics. If you haven't checked out Nitta's work -go take a look at her beautiful work on Facebook. So clever the way she's stapled the pieces together, don't you think? Adds to their rustic, delicate appeal.

There was a slight sepia look about Nitta's drops, which I wanted to complement. I chose delicious citrine -probably my all time favourite semi-precious stone. Apparently, it improves self esteem, and energises and stimulates creativity. What's not to love, right? I added a brass connector at the back of the ceramic drops, and finished these pretties off with a little co-ordinating czech glass briolette.

They'll be in my shop soon. 

See you next month!

Sue

Bold, Brown and Boho

Lately I've been making an effort to work through my mound of UFOs (Unfinished Objects). I have an embarrassing number of jewelry projects that I've never finished or pieces that I no longer like or which aren't in fashion anymore.  I'm determined to either finish them, rework them or cut them apart and use the beads for something else. Today I'm going to share a pair of earrings I made a long time ago, for Earrings Everyday, but which I never liked much.  In fact I never even listed them on my website, because I wasn't satisfied with them.  Here's the original version.

The dangly beads on the waxed linen always looked too bulky with the fat ceramic drops, and the waxed linen caused them to stick out awkwardly over the rounded drops. Also the drops have a beautiful glaze on them, which the beads pretty much covered up. The earrings look OK in the photo, but in real life - not so much.
Sooo...I cut them apart and tried a bunch of variations till I got what I liked. I love the colors of those little barbell shaped beads in combination with the ceramic drops, so I wanted to keep them. Here's what I came up with.

The new version was hard to photograph because the little dangles fall off to the side when the earrings are horizontal, but you can see how there are beautiful shades of caramel, chocolate and coffee in the glaze, (sounds like a restaurant menu!).  Here's how they hang when worn.

The mother of pearl hoops used to be part of a necklace that I also took apart and re-purposed. The earrings look so much more airy and uncluttered in their new form. Unlike the first version of these earrings, I have listed this remake in my shop.

Linda Landig Jewelry

All that glitters

Hello everyone! My last post of the year, and it's a glittery one :-)

Treated myself to these beautiful components from Petra Carpreau's shop. Firstly, these gorgeous porcelain and ceramic triple star stacks with 3 different glazes. Aren't they fantastic?

I added some brass triangles with some African silver spacers, and Hill Tribe silver beads. Cool party

 earrings, perfect for the festive  season!

Now this next pair are a commission and feature more of Petra's triple glaze stacks, but this time -pretty circles. This time I wrapped some pretty bronze seed beads around the middle section and added some more gorgeous Hill Tribe silver beads

The star earrings are available in my shop And that's it from me for 2018. Just remains for me to wish you a Happy Christmas and a happy, creative 2019 

Sue x

A blast of colour!

Hello!

Although it's December, I've decided against a wintry theme and instead have gone for gorgeous explosions of colour! All these beautiful charms were hand-painted and sealed with resin by the uber-talented Suhana Hart.

First up, these glorious hearts! The detail on these is just beautiful. I used oxidised brass hoops as a base, chrysocolla rondelles and some pretty oxidised black chain at the front.

Next up -these fantastic painted fiery daggers. Love the colour of these. However, making them involved much swearing. Quite a lot of expletives. Sorry. 

First, I started with a brass triangle frame. Then added some co-ordinating seed beads to match with the colours Suhana used in these charms, and added some pieces of filigree brass chain (lots of expletives at this point). Finally, some beautiful cerise lampwork spacers to finish these dangly boho beauties. 

The final pair, I'm hiding at the end, as they are a birthday gift for a fab friend's significant birthday! I don't think she reads this blog, so I'm safe...Beautiful circular charms with pretty purple, green and pink lotus flower patterns on double brass hoops, with African silver spacers and semi-precious rondelles (I've forgotten what these are! But they are from Sylvia Stungo's shop).

Hope you've enjoyed all the colour. These beauties (apart from the last pair!) will be available in my shop. I'll be back in a couple of weeks :-)

Sue x

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

My Shop
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Gorgeous ceramics

Hello! My turn on the blog again. Mojo has been lacking recently -too many things to do, and creative pursuits are always the first things to be shelved. But this morning, I had some time. And the mojo returned! 

Looking in my stash for some inspiration for this blog, I came across some seriously beautiful discs from the magnificent Claire Lockwood of Something to do with your hands. As always, with Claire's work -the colours and glazes on these ceramics are stunning. I worked on these gorgeous deep purple discs first.

I thought Jana Bliznakova's wonderfully tribal stoneware beads added a nice contrast to the glossy purple of  Claire's little concave discs. I added some pretty czech glass teardrops, brass chain and some purple glass spacers. 

For this next pair, Claire's ceramic discs were the starting point again. A gorgeous blue-green glaze on these. 

A dash of czech glass again (this time a little green flower in the centre of the discs) with more chain and a wrapped green czech glass teardrop. I went with some rustic, chunky African recycled glass beads this time. 

They will be in my etsy shop. Hope you like them. See you in December :-)

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

My shop

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Amethysts All the Way Down

Recently I've been fortunate to have collected a number of pairs of delicately beautiful enameled earring components by Raida Disbrow of Havana Beads.  My newest earrings, below, are made from one of her gorgeous pairs: luscious florals in purples and deep purply blues, with droplets of pink and baby blue.  

It's been a long time since I've made much rosary chain, but I enjoyed putting together the little chains of small faceted amethysts.  And I'm not dreading this whole briolette-wrapping thing so much anymore either, probably because I'm getting a little better at it despite myself.  That's what happens when you keep working on it, right? I can hear my mother asking me now from the other side.  (Of course, she's right.) 😉🌷

Recipe for Amethysts All the Way Down

(2) Enameled earring components

(12) Small faceted amethyst rounds

(6) Small anodized niobium rings, purple

(2) Faceted 10mm amethyst briolettes

(2) Anodized niobium ear wires, purple

24 ga copper wire, darkened

26 ga copper wire

These pretties can be found
  here at Two Trees Studio.

Thanks so much for reading.  I'll see you next time! 💗
xoxo
Meridy

My shop

My FB page

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)
My Facebook page   

Rainbow Tassel Earrings

I've been wanting to experiment with leather a bit. I had some ideas for today, several of which did not work out.  You know how it goes sometimes.😉 But I did come up with this simple idea.

I had some silver, metallic leather that my friend Lindsay Starr had given me awhile ago. I cut around a teardrop shaped template that I usually use for making my ceramic earrings. Then I cut out an oval, inside of the teardrop.

I dangled some rainbow colored tassels in the center of the ovals and they're good to go!  Lightweight and breezy.  Perfect for a summer day.  Speaking of which - I hope you're having a fantastic summer!  See you next month,

Linda Landig Jewelry