In Praise of Color! 💗

I enjoy designing and making jewelry for a lot of reasons.  I love following the spark of a creative idea and enjoy learning and using techniques that allow me to make new kinds of things.  I enjoy the feel of wire-wrapping and, even more, the back-and-forth rhythm of a knotting project.  I also love scrolling through my favorite haunts on the net for new art beads and components (well, who doesn't?).

But, even though it's sometimes hard to point to exactly what inspires me to design something, it's almost always color or a colorway that grabs me first.  Color is powerful:  It energizes us, soothes us, nourishes the part of our being that knows and responds to beauty.  

I've had a wonderful relationship over the years with the talented jewelry artisan Helena Benkoczka of Areto Beads and Jewellery, who makes gorgeous jewelry and components in multiple media.  But I've particularly loved working with her vibrantly colorful polymer clay earring charms, and I thought for today's blog post I'd introduce my newest pair of earrings made with Helena's components as well as share a few of my earlier earrings made with her colorful earring beads.  It's a Feast of Color for the Eyes!

Blue-Sky Days

                                      

With components as colorful

as Helena's (including these, left), my urge is to really go with it by using beads (lampwork, glass seed beads, and copper), fiber, and even ear wires that play up the colors, in this case, the orange and teal. 

Pink Champagne

These earrings (above) were made with Helena's teardrop components, a shape I grew

to love because they're perfect for adding colored rings and bead dangles 

for movement and even more color.  These are some of my favorites. 💗 

Fruit and Vine

These teardrops (left) are such a blast of color, and the earrings were SO much fun to make.  With seed beads on top and dangling from the purple aluminum rings, Czech Saturn beads, and little lampwork glass slices in a grassy green to match the waxed cord, and green niobium ear wires.

Colored Feathers, Colored Stone

This pair (right), more recent, starts with a vibrant pair of Helena's teardrops that have so many colors that I chose just two colors to use in my earrings:  purple and magenta (magenta and purple lampwork beads, purple Czech rondelles, magenta cord, purple rings, and tiny magenta seed beads).

Summertime Mandalas

The vibrant floral earrings above are brand-new--I couldn't resist the lush colors of Helena's gorgeous mandala components!  I hung lots of little beads from sterling silver rings, including pink agate rounds, tiny faceted pacific blue apatite rounds, silver rondelles, faceted dyed purple jade rounds, and turquoise blue magnesite rounds, finishing each beaded dangle with tiny sterling silver drops.  They have a Summer of Love sort of vibe, I think.  ;) 

Thanks for reading, everyone!  I'll be back again in a couple of weeks.  💗

xo
Meridy

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Gift of the Mermaid

I recently came upon these gorgeous enameled components in Raida Disbrow's Etsy shop, Havana Beads...

...and a dialogue started between my head and my heart.

Heart:  Oh, my gosh, those are GORGEOUS.  Look at those colors!
Head:  Ohhh, but those can be such a pain to work with. They're handmade--those things are never even, you have to fight to get them to hang straight--
Heart:  But I've got beads the same color as those little violet-pink dots!!  And lots of pink rondelles--
Head:  --hey, come to think of it, there's that stash of rhodolite garnets that haven't been used in about seven years!




That argument didn't last long.


Since I did have a goodly stash of little Czech glass rondelles in various shades of pink, the garnets, and sterling silver beads, jump rings, and headpins, I gave in to the lure of the Boho chandelier earring--and I loved it. Now that my heart has helped my head get over its jitters, I aim to make more. 💗

And, funny thing--they do hang straight after all.  😉

Gift of the Mermaid

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back in two weeks.
 
xoxo
Meridy
My Etsy Shop
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Winter Blues. Cindy's Art & Soul.

Black Inspiration

I was recently asked to make some black earrings for a client. Ideas and inspiration exploded in my head. I believe with jewelry designers, artisans, this is how it happens sometimes. 

It's either feast or famine, right? 

Dry times of "making" can be so discouraging. I get through the "dry spell" by looking through my past work, cleaning my work space, and then just randomly digging through my supplies. Generally that's all it takes. Beads and components start coming together like magnets. 

However, this was not one of those dry times. This time, the inspiration was flowing like a river in the winter. It's like being filled with a spirit and your hands are not your own. For a few hours you are in another dimension being guided by a muse and when it's all over... you can sit back and bask in the glow of your creation. (hopefully) or be applaud by it- that's happened a time or two as well. 

Back to the black inspiration. 

 I am thrilled with how this came out. 

These earrings feature micro faceted Black Spinel gemstones, flower charms created from bits of recycled pure silver, and small fine silver hoops, hand forged. Available at Art & Soul Jewelry. I see a matching bracelet in the future!

See the rest of my Black Inspiration here!

peace, blessings, and INSPIRATION~

Denim Ready Set Go

With Fancy Heels. by s-elle featuring retro posters

 Boho Blues Handmade Earrings 

Featuring handmade ceramic beads 

with Denim blue glaze by Cindy's Art & Soul.

Wrapped in fine silver wire 

with hand forged silver bead caps, 

paired with flashy blue Spectrolite gemstones. 

Handcrafted sterling silver ear wires are 

stamped with tiny accent images. 

 

Rustic Silver Flowers with Ruby Spinel

A few posts back I posed the question - what do you pick out first the jewelry or the outfit? I got mixed responses. My conclusion? It is totally an individual choice! Same goes for earrings and necklaces, I suppose. You find one you like and try to match another piece to it, yes? 

These earrings actually came after the necklace. And the necklace became something completely different than what I started from. 

Either way, I am very pleased with the end result. 

Again, these components came together like magnets! You may have experienced this yourself.. you get on a roll and light bulbs start going off in your head like explosions of inspiration!

The charms are sterling silver disks that went through he rolling mill, pressed with bits of flower rick-rack. The flowers left a lovely embossed impression on the silver. It reminds me of rustic tin... although I hesitate to compare sterling to tin.

They are framed in fine silver hoops that were hammered with a dotted texture. 

And then finally adorned with ruby and pale rose colored Spinel gemstones. Absolutely a gorgeous array of colors in these little faceted stones. I can hardly believe they lasted in my bead drawer as long as they did!

I was able to achieve a nice big loop on my ear wires so it almost looks like a tiny hoop. 

Farewell summer... hello autumn... Rustic Silver Flower Earrings. 

☮ Cindy 

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Beach Girl

The weather is changing here in WA state. They say we will be in the 80's later this week. My inspiration keeps turning to spring and even summer. Everything is SO green... and bugs are coming out again. This will be our first summer with our new (rescue) dog Molly. She cracks me up the way she chases bees and pretty much anything that flies. One of these days, I'm afraid she will catch one... 

One of my first jewelry stamps - the dragonfly. I think I've only used it twice before. I'm really pleased with how these earrings turned out. I feel like the Iolite with it's royal blue color invokes images of tall blue Iris flowers... and the dragonflies buzzing about... 

Beach Girl by cindybeads featuring etched glasses

These earrings are available at Cindy's Art & Soul 

 http://www.cindysartandsoul.com

Peace and Blessings ~ 

Cindy 

Earrings and Inspiration

There are as many sources of inspiration as there are earrings created. Each pair has it's own story and original creative energy.

I find Pinterst to be a *great* source of inspiration. From design and fashion to a simple color concept. I tend to view color inspirations in vast categories. Meaning I don't just look at flowers for purple or sky photos for blue inspiration. 

The great thing about Pinterst is that you can search a color or colors and it will show you everything under the sun and more! 

Here is a glimpse of My "Color" board on Pinterest~

Sometimes just looking at the colors you want to incorporate is all that is needed. 

Inspired earrings...

These earrings will be available 

at Cindy's Art & Soul

Be sure to check out the 

Earrings Everyday Blogspot Pinterst Board  

for more inspiration

Enjoy the day!

Cindy

Poseidon's Garden

Poseidon's Garden

These colors remind me of Caribbean waters.

View of Caribbean Ocean from Bodden Town, Grand Cayman Island,
Courtesy Wikipedia Creative Commons

For these earrings, I started with a pair of my copper tulip caps, and gave them an aged blue-green patina. They made me think of blooms from a deep-sea garden! I chose gemstones in the same hues--I just love the way this aqua chalcedony glows, and the sea green aventurine nuggets match the patina on my tulip caps so perfectly. I dotted the earwires with Czech glass in a matching aquamarine blue.

I would pair them with a gown worthy of Amphitrite (especially if she was guest-starring on Downton Abbey--this dress is so Lady Sybil):

Amphitrite by lunebijoux featuring a chiffon dress

You can see more at my Etsy shop HERE.

Raspberry Lemonade

These little enameled pale lemon-lime keyholes from Gardanne Beads have delicious berry sprinkles in them--I immediately thought of moukaite for them! (They make me think of raspberry lemonade). These tasty little ovals are from Lima Beads, and I happily found some lampwork glass spacers in my stash in pale apple from The Spacer Bead Shop. I just love these colors together!

I would pair them with this fabulous split skirt:

Fabulous split skirt

and this lemony tank top:

You can visit my Etsy shop HERE.

Garden Party

Garden Party

These earrings started with just a pair of enameled tulip beadcaps from Gardanne Beads, in an inspiring mix of butter yellow, green and strawberry. I combined them with antiqued copper, pink quartz marquise briolettes (from Fine Gems), seed beads in pale peach knotted onto waxed linen, and Czech glass roundels in antique rose on the earwires. Oddly enough, the soft linen in these earrings reminds me of Lamb's Ear in a garden, surrounded by other flowers.

I picture them with a little retro springtime ensemble!

Pink and yellow by lunebijoux featuring diane von furstenberg

I have few more pair of earrings in my shop right now using Gardanne Beads beadcaps--you can check them out HERE.

Serendipitous..

I love that word!  It describes how I feel about the creation/evolution of these earrings!

I had etched a big copper disk a couple of weeks ago when I was writing this post over at Art Jewelry Elements.  This past weekend, it was on my beading table at exactly the right moment when I needed something pretty to fasten a length of leather cord to a chain necklace for my Bead Soup piece.  I cut the center strip out of the disk and rolled it up into a tube!

Fast forward to last night, as I suddenly remembered that today was indeed my day to post here.  I saw the curled up scraps from cutting the center strip out of the disk and was like,"hmm, these are to pretty to ditch...I wonder if I can use them for earrings?"

So I did!  At first that were going to hang horizontally, with chain connecting them to the earwires, but after turning them around a bit, I liked the mirror image vertical look much better.  To bring the bling, I added some faceted chalcedony briolettes in a finish called "Mystic Mango" by the seller!

Add a fun, flowy spring blouse and your favorite jeans, and you are ready to go!

These will be up in my shops later today!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Kleenex Box...

You've gotta take inspiration wherever you can get it!

I have been staring at this box of Kleenex for the last week at my office...

Torch-fired enamel, copper and carved stone flowers (serpentine?)...the colors of the 2 filigree are not really as different as the photo shows, but the lighting brought out more purple in the one on the left.  They are actually sort of a dark periwinkle that I came up with...I'd tell you my recipe, but can't give away all my secrets ;)

These will be up in my shop later today!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Tomato Blossoms

Tomato Blossoms

The color of the red agate beads in these earrings reminds me of tomato soup! I love it with the gunmetal color of the nickel beadcaps and the pewter cubes. Handmade sterling silver earwires.

I'm picturing it with winter white (in case you wanted Cream of Tomato soup instead) and denim, with matching tomato boots! I think it has a Victorian flavor.

Via Polyvore

You can see more in my shop by clicking HERE.