Land of the rising Sun

I was scrambling at the last minute for ideas to make some earrings. I always have a hard time deciding which colors to go with. I think I need to start writing colors onto pieces of paper and just draw a main color at random and go from there lol

So instead, I went on my FB page and asked my friends what colors I should go with. Orange and Fall colors were some of the suggestions (among many other fun ideas), and since I had a pair of handmade polymer clay components that had some nice orangey shades to it, I pulled out some Carnelians and went to town:

I'm a sucker for Copper, especially when it comes to coupling them with rich Fall jewel tones. I wanted to use some kind of bead cap for the chunky faceted carnelian briolettes, but I didn't have anything suitable on hand. I pulled out some of my handmade slightly domed copper beadcaps and bent them to make a bit of an Asian style cover for the top, as I wanted to add a bit of width to the bottom part.

A few more copper accents and carnelian beads, and voila!

I wish the "rising sun" would make its appearance here. We've been drowning in rain for the past couple of weeks now. I had just a wee bit of a break to go plant my seed garlic in the garden (after the blizzard we had, I thought I had missed the window to plant garlic). It's been very wet and dreary here... these sunny Carnelians were a very welcome sunny sight on my bench!

I need to take better pictures before I list them, although it looks like they might be spoken for already :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends in the US!

Cheers,
Nathalie
Visit my shops:
My Garden of Love on Etsy
The Crafty Tribe on Etsy

Fall Beauties

Hey everybody! I hope you're all doing great and that the weather is behaving in your neck of the woods. I'm sorry I went MIA a couple of weeks ago. I injured my knee the day I was supposed to make earrings, take pictures and write a post, and my coconut just totally zonked out with the pain killers and the ice.

My knee is fine, thankfully... my coconut, well...... it's getting older. I'll leave it at that LOL ;)

I've got a showcase coming up on FB on Nov. 2-3rd in the Handmade Beads and Findings group (I hope to see you there!), and I've been making various things, including these:

But, my heart wanted to make something with one of the pairs I had made, so I grabbed them and here's the pair of earrings I designed for you today:

Handmade polymer clay round earring connectors featuring modern leaves, with shades of orange, russet, and aqua blue, with a touch of brass. I love how the colors play against each other.

I added copper tone chains for a feminine wispy look, on which I suspended a pair of pretty TierraCast hearts. I've also included some cool funky shaped 'tube' Blue Apatite gemstone beads that i bought many many years ago (yes, I'm a hoarder!!), sandwiched between some rustic TierraCast rondelles, topped with sparkling yellow glass seed beads.

These will be available for sale in my Etsy shop HERE over the next couple of days, as well as new handmade polymer clay jewelry making components!

I wish you all a Beautiful Fall season (and my heart goes out to all those still dealing with all the fires, and other storms going on at this time)

Cheers,
Nathalie

Visit my shops:
My Garden Of Love Jewelry Supplies
The Craft Tribe Instant Download Printables

An apple a day

... keeps the doctor away :) Well, at least let's hope so!

I was talking with my hubby a couple of months ago about wanting to make some mini apples and pumpkin beads for Fall creations. It's my favorite season in terms of the richness of colors, the nice cool crisp air, and because it's actually cool enough for me to snuggle up in a cozy sweater. I love handmade sweaters!

I don't knit much these days, but playing with beads is always on the agenda... So my hubby made me a small batch of super cute apple and pumpkin beads! Yippee!!

I may be biased here, but I think he did a really fabulous job. He's very patient and likes a challenge. Each one is individually hand sculpted by him and I added the finishing touches of pretty shimmering mica colors and protective glaze.

Check these out:

Polymer Clay Handmade Red Apple Beads

Don't you just want to eat these precious little Red Apples?

Although I don't eat 'pumpkin' anything.... I know, bad girl lol - but hey, that leaves more for you!
I really adore how these little pumpkins turned out:

Polymer Clay Handmade Pumpkin Beads

I wanted to make a pair of Red Apples Earrings and this is what I made, featuring a pair of my honey's gorgeous apple beads:

Handmade Fall Apple Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

I've added a dangling drop of wood beads (for the tree), and some green and copper Czech glass beads, as well as some Swarovski crystals in Light Siam and Topaz. Lots of sparkles showcasing end of Summer/Fall colors!

Most of the pumpkin and apple beads sold in my FB showcase in July, but we made a couple of extras to list them in my Etsy shop HERE (the quantity is VERY limited). Grab 'em while you can. We're both quite unwell at the moment, and I'm not taking any more custom orders at this point.

These one of a kind Fall earrings are also available for grabs HERE in my shop :-)

Our thoughts and prayers are going to everyone in the path of all the hurricanes, as well as those affected by all the wild fires both in the States and up here in Canada.
Be safe, stay strong, don't give up xoxo

Nathalie
Visit:
My Garden Of Love Etsy Shop
The Crafty Tribe Etsy Shop

Fire things up!

I've got a thing for rustic earthy colors, and copper is my metal of choice to convey that look and feel.

It is so beautiful, richly colored, luxuriously warm - I just love using it in my designs :)

Today's inspiration came from our weekly challenge over at SRAJD, and the theme was FIRE. 

So, you know that I HAD to go with Copper! :)

And I also HAD to hop over to my latest addiction (Hello Polyvore!) to make an outfit that I thought would go well... If I were several many pounds lighter, I'd definitely dig wearing this rockin' outfit with my earrings :)

Earthy Fire Outfit by nathalie-lesage featuring a sheer red lipstick

These earrings feature beautiful artisan Dichroic glass beads made by Paula Radke Art Glass. 

I love the shimmering burnt orange on the black base of Paula's beads, and the cool contrast between the textured copper and the smooth commercial glass slivers at the bottom.

Paula's beads have a flat back and rounded/domed top where the dichroic color is, so I had to figure out a way to showcase them to display their full beauty:

These one of a kind Copper earrings can be found on my website HERE.

Thanks for stopping by... have a fabulous day!

Nathalie

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

NathalieLesageJewelry.com

October Maize

The colors in this gorgeous Purple Artistic Stone remind me of Indian corn, sun dried to warm rich gold, red and purple. This is my new favorite stone, similar to Red Creek Jasper and mined in the same area of China; I can't get enough of it! The colors are even more saturated than Creek Jasper making the patterns more dramatic. I have echoed the rectangular shape of the stones with these tribal copper charms from Kristi Bowman, that are the perfect complement to the stones.

Artistic Stone Earrings
Chrysalis Too on Etsy
Chrysalis Jewelry on Artfire