A bit of gold 'n silver

Hello!

I turned to Inviciti for inspiration for this week's blog. Vincent 'n Nooma make gorgeous pewter charms and I had a little delivery from them recently. These charms had a series of holes, just perfect for threading seed beads through. I chose the accompanying bead first. After trying out various lampwork beads, I settled on these rustic African brass beads -I like the mix of metals and tones -mixing the gold/brass with the silvery tones of the pewter charms.

I wanted to add some texture and so added these twisted silver toned jumprings and silver spacer beads. Tiny brass coloured seed beads threaded through in the charms complete these pretties.  

Hope you like them! I'll pop them in the shop 

See you next time :-)

Sue x

Burnished Berries

Berry Delicious!

These plump copper beads (from Afrobeadia) are my new favorites--they are just the size of a small blueberry, and even the ends are puckered like a real blueberry! I gave them a liver of sulfur bath, buffed them up a bit, and popped them in the tumbler--and out they came in this delicious, plummy-rosy color. I gussied them up with leafy brass caps and sterling silver.

The Real Thing

I think I rather like the metal ones better--if there was a way to gobble them up, I would!

You can visit me at my Etsy shop HERE.

Subtlety in textures and color

I'm attracted to the textural subtlety that my "silk" Fretz hammer produces when I hammer metal with it... I wasn't sure about it when I first ordered it a few years ago, but I always love the results when I use it. My inspiration this week is Subtlety in Textures and Colors:

One of my very favorite "subtle" gemstone to use is Labradorite. See the hint of purple on the top left gemstone? And the hint of green flash on the top right one? (seen in both the picture above and just below)... the purple (especially) makes me go ga-ga lol

I love to chase the "flash" of Labradorite, depending on the direction that the stones are cut, and how the light hits it, you get these gorgeous colors, it's like opening a present on your birthday :)

 

You can also see some beautiful flashes of blue in the larger bottom gemstones... yummy!

And look at the "Silk" texture on the bottom hoops... I love how the look changes depending on the angle and how the light hits the copper (above and below):

 

This is the hammer that I've used. 

It looks funky a bit, and it's not a cheap tool, 

but the results are subtle and pretty darn cool, if you ask me :)

Silk Texture Fretz Hammer at RioGrande

Of course, I had to mix my metals again... I've left the copper and sterling silver au naturel, because so many love their metals bright, but I can oxidize them if a buyer prefers the antique look.

The rich warm hues in the copper are perfect for Fall.

These earrings are listed HERE on my NatLJ.com website :)

So, what about you??

Do you have a favorite subtle touch that you like to use when you make

(or 'see' when you buy) jewelry?

Do you have favorite textures that you tend to be more attracted to?

I'd love to hear about it!

Have a great day and thank you for stopping by!

Nathalie Lesage

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

the Good Life

I had some punched out discs on my worktable and thought I'd put them to better use by stamping some words on them and making earrings with them. Waste Not Want Not? is that the saying? I dunno.
Anyway, I created the discs while a song called Good Life was playing on my ipod.  Hence the inspiration for the text I chose for these discs. Next, searching for something to dangle below.
I recently traded some beads with a FB friend/customer and she sent me these very uniquely shaped Jade beads. When I saw that the hole was across the top of the bead, like a brio, I imagined they looked very much like vases. And so. I added some glass flowers.

These are available for sale in my Etsy shop!

Hoot

It is safe to say that I am loving life being able to stay home and create on a daily basis. No more offices, fancy dress clothes and aggravations that come along with working outside the home. Although I do miss seeing the art every day at the Museum, it really has been wonderfully rewarding doing what I'm doing. These earrings were inspired by my love of jewelry and my mantra these days: LOVE LIFE
I cut out the copper and Silver sheet, hammered each piece, and oxidized them using liver of sulphur.  I stamped the words on the silver discs. Wire wrapped them with some copper wire and include sweet tiny kite charms from Elaine Ray.

Nothing is more fun than a little window shopping in the wee hours of the morning, so I put together an outfit that you could probably see me wearing if you stopped by my house unannounced.

hoot by lorelei-hill-eurto featuring ballet flat shoes

You can find these and other great jewelry at my Etsy shop!
Read my daily blog at: Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio