Shinies!!

Hi again, everyone!  Yes, it's me, once again being distracted from other projects by shiny new things from Nunn Design.  And why not, I say!  (My husband has been known to call me "Maggie" because of my magpie habit of moving from one shiny object to the next.  He is a very intelligent man in most other ways.)

I bought the Nunn Design copper- and gold-tone rings last week (along with some small round silver-tone rings), and yesterday I got out the gold and copper rings, along with some fine brown leather cord (cut into two 18-inch lengths).  Then I just started experimenting with the rings and the leather. If I wanted to connect the oval ring to the round one, a lark's head knot was fairly obvious, right?  So that's what I did, bringing the two ends of the leather cord straight up through the middle of the oval ring.  Then I tied the leather ends in a maddening (but kind of nice) braided knot at the top of the gold oval.

So at that point, I had the two rings connected with the leather cord, and the ends of the cord were at the top of the rings.  The earrings at that stage looked rustic and tribal, and my first thought was finding African or another type of rustic beads, with a large enough hole to accommodate the doubled cord.  I have a lot of beads that fit the description, but I happened upon these green/silver glass beauties by hot glass artist Wayne Robbins.  I added 2/0 matubo 3-cut glass beads, tied loops in the leather, and hung my Shiny Objects on Two Trees sterling silver ear wires.  😊

      

These earrings are a kind of prototype, because I was feeling my way around all the way, but it was really fun to play around with the different shapes and textures and mediums. 

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll be back in two weeks.  💗

xoxo
Meridy
Two Trees Studio

 

Tribal Fringe

Helloooo Bead Peeps!  This is a short but sweet posting today as I'm off to Bead & Button in Milwaukee, WI this morning!

True confession:  I have forgotten who made these lovely tribal ceramic connectors so If anyone can identify them, please let me know!  I've paired them with some wonderful African glass, wrapped sari silk and some vintage golden beads.

I made the fringe by recycling some scrap gold plated parts.  Originally, I was going to hang them from jump-rings but, I really wanted them splayed apart so I messy wrapped them directly to the wire connector to achieve that effect.  

Thank you for stopping by today!  Hoping to find some unusual goodies at B&B this week!  I'm also on the hunt for new tools.  Most importantly, I'm looking forward to seeing my beady tribe!

Loralee xo

wwwloraleekolton.etsy.com

The Best Laid Plans

I had a vision. 

I was lying in bed--drifting, woozy, floating in that liminal netherworld where ideas come to us so fluidly. What I would do, see, is I would take a piece of copper and fold form it and beat it over some rocks, see, and then texture it and punch it and file strategic places and shape it just so and...

I awoke the next morning with vague recollections of my vision and headed straight to the studio to bring it to fruition. Fifteen minutes into the project when the copper buckled and snapped, I realized:

shit, this isn't going to work

See, sometimes our dreamy ideas seem perfectly logical and functional. And then we go to execute and we realize they could use a little more refinement. There is nothing wrong with this. Rome wasn't built in a day. There is beauty to be found in the process.

Today's pair of earrings features the salvaged results of this vision. I took the two snapped pieces of copper, trimmed them up, softened up the edges, oxidized, sanded, and turned them into simple lightweight earring tabs. And you know what? For being "failures", I'm really quite fond of them. Funny how that works. When life gives you lemons...well, you know.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

We're All Ears :: September Reveal

[Photo credit :: Erol Ahmed :: Chicago :: Unsplash]

I love all the different textures in the pictures of the cityscapes. There are lines and dots. There are spindles and squares. There are angles and intersections.

So for my earrings, I decided to play with the shape and colors and textures. I kept the shape consistent, but used different metals for their industrial palette and each with a distinct texture - from a hammer, a microfold brake or etching. I attached them slightly off-center to evoke that feeling of the perspective of the city landscape using square jump rings. The look of a modern skyline in a contemporary format.

So what about the cityscape intrigued you most? Show us what you made!

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Blast From The Past. Fused Hoops. Cindy's Art and Soul

I am still very busy working on new jewelry for my August 31st shop update. Therefore I am going to share some earrings I made about six years ago. They are being modeled by my beautiful daughter who magically makes them 100 times prettier! Don't you agree?

Interestingly (or not?) enough, back then I was naming all my creations in order to keep track and ID them. This set I named Molly which is the name of my dog now. (fun fact!) 

I am still very proud of this design and that is why I am sharing it today.

Created with pure copper and pure silver, the hoops are fused. Fusing occurs when the metal is heated to the point of being molten and thus does not need solder. Fusing copper can be tricky, but is so rewarding, for me. I adore the rich hues of this metal and the natural patina that begins even one day after polishing. 

See you in two weeks! 

Peace.

Fundamentally Me

For anyone who asks, I tell them that my work is just as much about finding unique components as it is about fancy technique. I'm by no means the most widely accomplished jeweler in terms of depth and breadth of skills. But I do have a keen eye for beads, stones, fossils, and random found objects that have artistic potential. I'm not going to divulge how many hours of my life have been spent surfing the web for strange items or pawing through bead/rock show tables. Let's just say it all goes "into the soup". 

I'm especially fond of stocking up on treasures that I know I'll most likely never ever find again. Seems like a smart approach, right? Until your hoard starts to cast shadows on the floor...I digress.

Something that I found a few years ago and have been greedily holding on to are these fossilized echinoderm "petals". Echinoderms include sand dollars and sea urchins---so when you look at these fossils, imagine their spokes or arms. I saw these fossils and snapped up more than a few pairs, knowing that they were fundamentally ME: rustic, old, organic, neutral earth-tone. 

A couple weeks ago I bravely decided to cut one pair loose. Continuing with the soldered bead cap concept that I've been working lately, I added in a rustic spiral to each cap to give some energy and movement to the metal. I think it helps accentuate the shape of the fossils, as well. A healthy dose of oxidation and buffing really help to bring out the underlying texture and pattern. Add in some of my extra long ear wires and you've got versatile, crunchy, dark, edgy little twins for your ears.

Hope your week is a delicious one!

Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Industrial Chic

 

I can't believe that it has been 10 days since I was in Washington, D.C. for the ArtBliss workshops. While I was there, I got to meet all sorts of people that I had only known online. I got to meet and connect with teachers that have been my idols, my mentors and are now my friends. And I got to learn some really cool techniques that I suspect will be showing up in my work.

One such idol-mentor-friend is Stacie Florer of Soul to Substance. She is truly a delight to be around. Her cheery personality just bubbles with enthusiasm. She is a gifted teacher with an easy-going style that is encouraging and generous. I spent all day on Saturday, September 28th in her Thin Gauge Metals workshop. 

Usually, when I have worked with metal, we are using a much more stiff gauge that necessitates using heavy equipment, jeweler's saws and the like to work with it. But the metal that I used in these earrings was 30 gauge, so flimsy that you could wave it in front of you like a piece of cardstock. However, when you are done with the manipulation to achieve these interesting textures, that look to me much like folds in fabric, then layering and even riveting, you get something so much stronger yet completely lightweight.

I created these steampunk-style earrings using copper, brass and perforated aluminum (?) along with a rivet just for fun. While these are very cool and edgy, they are not quite my style. However, I have bought the tools and more materials so that I can do something that feels a lot more like me. I already have one pair that I have made in a completely different shape and everyone who sees it says that it looks more like me. I am sure that more metal earrings will be coming from my hands soon!

So, that makes me think... is there a shape that is most like you?
Do tell!

Flower Petal Earrings

Metal flower petals that have been given an aged patina offer a delicate and unusual look to these earrings.

The petals are paired with handcrafted polymer clay beads in a soft pink hue. Tiny glass beads in a cheery mint green with delicate copper flower bead caps finish off the design.

Flower Petal Earrings can be found in my Etsy shop here.

Petal Soft by humblebeads

Mixed Metal Corsages

Mother's Day, Spring Dances, Proms, Weddings...1 common denominator to these events? Pretty flower corsages!  While working on some larger soldered components this week,  I found that if I layered some of my filigree and brass pieces, they made cute little "corsages".

These are layered onto small copper washers that have been covered with lead free solder that I hammered and patinaed for texture. I then added Czech glass beads with a cool bronze metallic finish, using sterling wire, then dangled everything from hand wrought sterling earwires.

These are so versatile...equally sweet with your  little black dress or your jeans and t-shirt!

Corsage from theflowercupboard.com via Pinterest.com

I did a search on Pinterest for corsage images and there were so many gorgeous ones!  Here is a link!

These and more of my eclectic jewelry can be found at Melismatic Art Jewelry!

Earring Display: Moxie Metal

Check out the wickedly cool hand forged metal displays for jewelry from Sparkafarian on Etsy.

MOXIE METAL jewelry display set



MOXIE METAL ladder style earring display



I am totally not into fluffy pink and red hearts, but there is something sweet and special about these grungy and rustic heart themed displays that just tugs at mine. Totally on my wish list.

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 new line of 'Simple Truths' in her Etsy shop.

Entwined Earrings

My challenge was simple - create a pair of earrings that were mostly wire and used my tiny handcrafted beads.  After several attempts, I finally arrived at these oval hoops that are entwined in steel wire - looking very much like a bramble of twigs in a forest and rather nesty.  Nesty things make me all sorts of happy, so with that I called it a day.

Entwined Earrings

Here are a few of the trials and errors.  My first thought was a wire Christmas tree with seed bead lights that you can see on the top.  Cute and I may revisit and refine the idea before the season is over.  My next idea was hoops with seed beads and wire wrapped.  I like them, but I need to figure out some of the construction. I will save that for another day.  And finally, I tried round hoops with the wire wrapped around and they didn't quite work for an earring.  But with a little shaping the circle became the oval above and I went from there.

A seemingly simple pair of earrings took quite a bit before I was able to pare them down to a shape and design that best complimented the bead.  And that's what goes into creating a simple pair of earrings!

Heather Powers' blogs at www.humblebeads.blogspot and more of her work can be found in her Etsy shop.

Twig Earring Holder

Swoon!  Twig earring holder from Pottery Barn - this is so me.  I would sport this on my dresser, I would use two of them in a booth display.  The little side twigs hold bracelets or necklaces.  How very clever.  I would probably match it up with a mirror framed with real twigs.

Would it be too much to only display bird, nest, tree and leaf themed earrings on them?  Over the top - just a smidge?  But darling!

A Pair of Magic Scepters

The design for these earrings morphed over a long period of time, initially spurred by some of Kristi Bowman-Gruel's earrings. I love how she stacked the lampwork on top of the charm, making it seem like one piece. Then I was kind of intrigued by Blackstar's bullet earrings. Both of those ideas lay percolating in the back of my mind, and eventually became infused with imagery from too much Harry Potter and Middle Earth exposure. (Pardon me, my geek is showing.)

My first brainstorm was to use a metal bar and a dagger type bead to create a sort of Magic Barbarian Spear (Plain Barbarian Spears are so drab), but then in the midst of sawing copper tubing for tube beads for other purposes I had a EUREKA! moment. How about a copper tube bead, textured and perhaps adorned with  some wire, and a glass teardrop? Upside-down. It would be like a MAGIC SCEPTER!! But upside down. Like if you hung your Magic Scepter from the coat rack when you weren't using it.

I would envision these earrings worn with the garb below (this would of course be more of an evening look):

Or perhaps this for daytime:

(This would be more of a Magic Urban Scepter look, you know, like from Underworld. Like when Selene is just chillin' and her vinyl outfit is at the cleaners.)

You can see more of my work at my Lunedesigns Etsy Shop, or see past work and a glimpse behind the curtain at my blog, The Cerebral Dilettante.

Autumn Sunset

Ahh Autumn...my most favorite time of the year! 

One of the best things about this time of  year are the evening skies with shades of orange, purples, and blues. I was inspired to make these earrings after observing a particular gorgeous sunset. First, I hammered Vintaj blanks and then used acrylic paints to paint my own Autumn sky. I sealed them and added Swarovski crystals and more Vintaj metal to the mix and then voila! I had my own Autumn Sunset earrings.

I think they would look great with this outfit (found on Pinterest).

Kristy Abner blogs at Kristy's Kreations Jewelry Blog and her shop can be found here.