Lilac

Well, we are enjoying beautiful weather here in the UK...so unexpected! Bright sunshine, blue skies and the flowers are blooming. Now, I love lilac. Really love it. The smell. The shape of the little individual trumpet flowers and the shape they make on the bough. Did I mention the smell? One of my favourite smells. I don't have any lilac in my garden. I keep dropping hints and hope that someone will buy me one, and plant it for me. But this hasn't happened. I think I had better get one myself

I got these beautiful ceramic drops in Petra Carpreau's recent update. The colour is just sublime -lilac and almost luminous. It's an intricate design too -a great combination of wire and ceramic clay -grungy and pretty at the same time

I've just added some textured silver plated jumprings and spacers and rustic silver plated brass textured tubes by Russian artist Anna Chernykh

I think these will be available in my next showcase over on The Earrings Show at the end of June. That's all from me. see you in a few weeks

Sue x

Utterly Lovely Stuff

Quiet Moments and Elegance

As we've been simplifying our life for the 15 months, we've been even more aware of the preciousness of special moments. There's a certain softness and peacefulness that moves into this type of life transformation.

Winter peacefulness - Photo: Nathalie Lesage

It can be a scenery, a glimpse of something surreal, a feeling of a magical moment. When we collect too many physical things, it takes space not only in the space surrounding us, but it also takes up space in our mind.

In a world where we're encouraged with every single commercial on TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, online adds, etc, to 'consume' 'consume' 'consume'... more, more, more, it's good to take a break and re-evaluate what we truly need. Turns out there's a lot of things we don't need at all.

Less is more.

So in that theme, I've decided to design this simple pair of earrings:

The blue-flash Labradorite gemstones remind me of the picture (above) that I took on one of our road trips up North. I've set these gemstones on a pair of lilac drop shape Amethyst gemstone sterling silver headpins (with the cute little trio of dots/detail at the bottom) that I've been hoarding for many years. I only have a couple more.

Although it's hard to see the color of those Amethyst gemstones, the Swarovski Crystals that I've suspended on the Anodized Aluminum rings are the same color... a soft lilac, cool and peaceful.

At the top, I've used a pair of handmade Polymer Clay beads (wavy textured croissants beads, in black and silver) made by the love of my life, my husband Darren :)

Long, Lightweight, Slender, Simple, Quiet Elegance that catches the light... you have to stop and take the time to get a glimpse of the blue flash in the Labradorite when the light hits them 'just so'. It's like a little secret that only a select few will get to enjoy.

Do you have any plans to lighten up your surroundings this Spring? Try it and see how it feels!

Wishing you a peaceful and quiet relaxing day!

Thank you very much for stopping by :)

You can find these earrings in my Etsy shop HERE.

Cheers,
Nathalie Lesage
My Garden Of Love on Etsy
The Crafty Tribe on Etsy

Pink and Purple Towers

I love to stack stretches of beads one after one another. It feels like I am telling a story. And it creates a nice kind of architectural effect. The beads are like miniature building blocks.

I wanted/needed to add something odd to that slim tower, so hence the upside down enameled bead caps by Jade Scott. Inside them a Swarovski crystal is hiding.

I don't know what you see, but I myself find these earrings have a monumental quality to them. Even though they are so slim and delicate. Interesting. Perhaps my mind is effected by the fact that my son and I have been talking about architecture over the past few days. Or the We Are All Ears Challenge for September. As always so brilliantly put together by Erin Prais-Hinz of TesoriTrovati. Very inspiring!

Handmade Art Beads:
Glass Head Pins Capped in Tinwork - Sasha Crow of CrowsCacheSupplies
Enameled Three Petal Bead Caps in Purple and Orange - JadeScott

Other:
A variation of different styles of seed beads
2 sizes of Swarovski bicone crystals
Purple electroplated hematite discs
Vinyl discs
Sterling Silver Handmade and oxidized earrings hooks

All my best,
Malin
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Pobrecitos

I was chatting with buddy Kim of NuminosityBeads the other day and she called something or someone a "pobrecito". Being from the Midwest, Spanish isn't as prevalent in my lexicon as I'd like it be. Since I'm a word hound and love to pepper my conversations with obscure underused linguistic gems, I immediately googled this funny little term. Turns out a "pobrecito" is more or less a "poor little guy". What a perfect expression!

 You stubbed your pinkie toe--it's a pobrecito.

Your basset hound puppy trips over his big floppy ears--he's a pobrecito.

You always got picked last for the kickball team in gym class--you're a pobrecito (or pobrecita).

As I was in the midst of creating a silverworked agate drusy earring series several weeks ago, I found myself cooing over this wee lilac purple pair. So tiny, so easy to overlook, so easy to underappreciate next to their bigger, swankier mates. The earlier conversation with Kim was fresh in my mind, and voila, a star was born. 

To create these teeny post earrings I cut, soldered, filed, and sanded sterling silver sheet and bezel wire plus trios of my hand-cast cratered granules. Such a soft spring hue to usher in all the budding flowers, bulbs, and blooming trees. Squeal-worthy little babies.

So now you have a new word for the day--use it with abandon!

Happy Wednesday,
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Winter Moon

On Saturday, I had the chance to participate in a local Arts & Crafts Sale. It was wonderful to meet local women and their families, and get their feedback on my work.

I haven't had the chance to participate in such events too often in the past, but I do my best to join in the fun as often as I can. There's absolutely NOTHING more precious than receiving real-time, face-to-face feedback from potential buyers.

And inspired by their feedback, and by the beautiful Winter Moon that greeted me on Sunday morning, I have designed these pretty Tanzanite Earrings:

Tanzanite Earrings inspired by the Winter Moon

The women that I spoke with mentioned that they loved gemstone earrings, but that they preferred shorter, more delicate designs (shorter than 2" in total), and it dawned on me that a lot of the earrings I've been making lately were longer than 2". 

It really doesn't take much to get over 2" in length, counting the ear wires.... So I listened to them, and came up with these lightweight little hoops :)

Soft Lavender Tanzanite Gemstones are a beautiful go-with-anything neutral shade

Yesterday morning, when I woke up, I opened the bedroom window's blinds, and found this bright  (almost) full moon, greeting me, and the sky had beautiful painted wisps of lavender, light blue and pink. It was such a beautiful sight. 

I knew right there and then that I had to make earrings inspired by that gift from nature.

I really had a great time meeting everyone at the show on the weekend. If you don't normally do Arts & Craft Sales, I encourage you to go out and meet women and ask for feedback on your designs. Sometimes, they see something that we don't...

You can find these Tanzanite Earrings here on my website...

Thank you for your time! Have a wonderful day :)

Nathalie

http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Lilac Tapestry Earrings

 I met Earrings Everyday team leader, Kristi Bowman for lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant a couple of weeks ago.  I asked her to bring along her new colored copper components and I picked out a gorgeous earring pair.

I could picture in my mind how I wanted the earrings to look.  It didn't seem like it would be too hard.  I've certainly done wired wraps across the face of beads before.  No sweat, right?

 I added the wavy copper discs to accent the copper in Kristi's components and that's where the challenge started.  The wraps needed to be placed on the parts of the discs that dipped downwards, but the discs spun around whenever I put pressure on them from the wire wraps. I finally got the first earring  wrapped the way I envisioned it, but I ended up having to cut the wire off off the other earring and start over again.

But I kind of like the challenge of problem solving when making jewelry.  So fussed with them a bit more and I love how they turned out.  Ah, but the problems did not end there...

I left my computer for about 10 minutes to take photos of some of my ceramic components and when I came back my screen was black and the computer could not be started.  A trip to the computer repair shop resulted in a diagnosis of the motherboard in need of replacement. :(  So Plan B was to take pictures of the earrings and upload them to my husband's laptop, where I could then write this post.

However, there were a few additional hiccups along the way involving my camera and our other laptop, which is why I am currently posting this blog entry at 1:50 a.m.!!!  But I prevailed!  There are lovely earrings with Kristi's components and an on-time blog post. The Lilac Tapestry Earrings are available in my shop.  Happy Wednesday!

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Leaping Greenly

My favorite e.e. cummings poem and some play time with shrink plastic awash in translucent inky swipes inspired these earrings I call 'Leaping Greenly.' The tiny strips of plastic are paired with some of my hoarded Humblebeads and Czech faceted glass beads. I am longing for the return of green and the tender shoots reaching toward the sun that I know is up there somewhere. 

{'Leaping Greenly' earrings available in my Tesori Trovati website}

 

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

{Awesome macro art photography from Erin Johnson Photography on Etsy. Buy her nature photography here.}

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~ e.e. cummings ~

Erin Prais-Hintz invites you to go on a journey of inspiration at her blog Treasures Found :: Inspiration is Everywhere. You can view a gallery of her work at http://www.tesoritrovati.com/ or purchase her popular line of 'Simple Truths' in her Etsy shop.

Plum Poppies

Plum Poppies

These "fairy flower" lampwork beads from Mermaid Glass are a delicious, pale plum color. They make me think of poppies! And plum jelly. I love the burst of amber in the center. I've wired them onto sturdy 18-gauge copper earwires, and accented them with little square glass beads in iridescent butterscotch and lilac glass rounds.

As usual, I picture them with jeans! And some wild shoes.

Purple poppies by lunebijoux featuring lace up boots

You can see more at my Etsy shop HERE.

Crazy Love

I picked up this strand of Crazy Lace Agate on impulse--I love the random mauves, lilacs and cinnamons in it. I had to combine it with copper! It's accented with little glass beads in violet.

I picture something classic and feminine with this:

crazy love by lunebijoux featuring cross body messenger bags

I'm taking a short break, but you can see more in my Etsy shop in a couple weeks!

Sunrise, Sunset

Sunrise, Sunset

The colors in these earrings--from carnelian, lepidolite jasper, and Czech glass--remind me of the lilac Alpenglow of sunrise, and the deep tangerine of sunset. I just love combining opposites on the color wheel--I especially love orange and purple together. The earwires on these earrings are actually made from brass core, silver filled 20 gauge wire from Monsterslayer. I bought some mostly to see how it performed, and was impressed. These earwires are hammered quite a bit where the carnelian hangs from them, as you can see, and the thick, durable plating held up beautifully.

I'm feeling tough today, so this is what I would wear with them!

Sunrise Sunset by lunebijoux featuring a leather fur jacket

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!

You can see more at my Etsy shop HERE.