Bunny-Go-Round

Hello!  It's Loralee, thought I'd show you something fun today!  

Stunning lampwork glass headpins by Kimberly Rogers of Numinosity Beads.

Vintage lucite bunny that looks very much like stone, stunning vintage glass Haskell pearl and vintage German glass accent bead in a circular pattern.

These reminded me so much of a carousel.  I added a tiny pop of red which really enhanced the beautiful variations of grey tones. 

I always love working with these magnificent headpins, it gives me a chance to do something asymmetrical and experiment! 

Thank you for stopping by today and seeing what I've been up to - I'll be back on Wednesday!

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com 

Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again...

Presently, it's all about autumn and All Hallows' Eve on my worktable.  The dog days of summer, in my mind, have drifted away and all I feel is cool crisp air with a hint of mystery.

Striking pewter charms by Inviciti featuring printed images of original art by Nooma Cav.  These are rare pieces and so lucky to get one!

I had some edgy cool glass with metallic raised dots made by Dana M. Graham in my stash.  The petite size was perfect and had a cast of blue-grey which brought out the colors on the bottom of the charms, adding a lot of life to the pieces.

For the finish, I chose some lovely vintage coated glass pearls, the kind that was used by the Miriam Haskell Company, circa the 1940's.  They have an amazing patina in a grey metallic.

♡

Thank you for stopping by and seeing what's happening in my tiny studio!  I'll see you again the first Wednesday in September!  

(that's right, one chair for me and one for the kitty)

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~ Artful in beads

En Tiempos Antiguos

Our color palette for today: blush, cream, pearl, coal. 

I'm not the type of girl who gets dolled up often. It's been more than 10 years since I wore makeup. It takes me just a few short minutes to fix my hair out of the shower. Manicures? How about serial nail-biter? Although, I do admit to loving dresses. So what is it about wearing pearls that automatically adds elegance to a look?

I don't design often with pearls because so many of them are too "clean" to suit my preferred aesthetic: grungy, organic, old-looking. So when I came across this strand of wonky etched Tibetan pearls in Tucson this year, I snatched them up. They have the perfect mix of soft pearliness and aged texture---yum! 


When designing around these, I wanted to utilize beads with a matte finish to balance out the smoothness of the pearl. I went with barrels of fossilized stegadon bone (I know!) and two wee ivory colored lampwork glass beads from Karen Elmquist, fashioned to resemble old bone beads. Add in some pitchy black filigree bead caps and cheeky little wire spirals at the bottoms, and I don't think you'd ever miss the fact that the design is so simple. 

They dangle, swing, and sing from your lobes. And they BEG to be worn with your favorite little black dress: you've got class, but you've also got grit. Git em, girl...

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Curve With Silence

Since I started doing ceramics, I've been ruminating on trying to make my work more 'from scratch'. I recently started doing metalwork classes to help me to this end. The thing now is trying to co-ordinate all the different lines of development/experimentation that I'm doing with these different materials. Do I sit down and sketch designs then make all the elements? I don't tend to work like that. I've always favoured the chance, 'hands on', combining of things, the designs that come to you when you happen to have some of the materials in front of you.

I've just finished (and listed!) a large batch of beads. When making them I did make the time to make some beads just for me, to use in pieces that were already formed in my head. This pair of earrings is one example.

Admittedly there wasn't much to add. Really, sometimes, I'm just a sucker for 'sticking a pearl on top'. I did stretch to a pair of blackened vintage bezels, drilled to make bead caps, and a couple of etched brass rings.

And I don't think they need any thing more. They're listed here on Etsy.

Bye for now, Claire

www.somethingtodo.etsy.com

www.somethingtodobeads.etsy.com

www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com

Art Deco Revisited

Art Deco

I found these fabulous fan-shaped shell beads at a local shop, Powderhorn Trading Company. They are just lovely, like giant pearls. I used my embossed poppy caps on them in sterling silver, with Argentium silver earwires and Indonesian glass beads (from Happy Mango Beads) in a soft turquoise color and matte finish.

I was surprised, when they were finished, what a strong Art Deco vibe they had, which delighted me because I adore Art Deco!! I think it was the repeating fan shapes and angular lines, with both the shell beads and the caps--there are fan shapes, sunbursts, and similar motifs everywhere in Art Deco! And of course an emphasis on angular patterns:

From Wikipedia, 1930 Milwaukee Gas Light Building, Photo by Seth Anderson

From Wikipedia, Chrysler Building, New York City, Photo by Postdlf

From Wikipedia, Sunburst, Eastern Columbia Building entrance, photo by Binksternet

From Wikipedia, Griffith Observatory detail, Los Angeles, Photo by Nathan Day

I've never really considered myself a triangle person, but all this Art Deco goodness could make me change my mind...

More information available at my Etsy shop, HERE.

Not your grandma's pearls

I've accumulated an extensive stash of fresh water pearls over the years. I hoard them. 

I really think I need an intervention group or something for my bead-hoarding...

(but I'm guessing that we'd all end up participating in the group lol)

The other day, when Miss Erin showcased the new 2015 Pantone colors, I started looking through my stash and pulled out a couple of strands of pearls that caught my eye with their soft cool hues.
They seemed to match really well with this year's palette.

When I use pearls in my designs, I aim to set them up in a non-traditional way, so that we don't end up thinking that we're wearing our grandma's pearls ;)

So this is what I've come up with for this design:

Designer Pearl Earrings by Nathalie Lesage at NatLJ.com

The fresh water pearls featured at the top are a soft cool blue, almost a dusk blue (Pantone 16-4120). Although the color is soft, I think these two pearls at the top really 'pop' and add a touch of brightness and spunk to the design. They seem almost luminescent :)

The set of pearls at the bottom is a Titanium grey (Pantone 17-4014) that picks up

the same metalic hues as the Hill Tribe Fine Silver Squares.

Soft cool grey hues inspired by the Pantone 2015 colors

These hollow HT square were very plain originally, but a few years ago, I had heavily distressed them to use them in a project, and I ended up using something else instead. I kept wanting to do something with these, and it seems that today was the right moment.

I hope that you'll agree that these are not your grandma's pearls :D

You can find these earrings HERE on my website.

Have a fabulous day!

Nathalie

Metalsmith & Jewelry Artist

www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Inspired by Music

I am working on completing my Challenge of Music pieces for the reveal this Friday, March 1st. I am working with a song called Shadowplay that inspired me to create these sinuous curves and coils. As the music grows in intensity, the coils become fuller and more entwined, like the unfurling of fiddlehead ferns. I am still working on the necklace, but these earrings will accompany them. I created an outfit that would pair perfectly with these.

We are the Music Makers by erin-prais-hintz

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.

Frosted Gingersnaps

{Frosted Gingersnaps - available in my Etsy Shop}

I love the sweets of Christmas.

Each year we go to my sister-in-laws house for Christmas eve and she always has the most amazing assortment of frosted, sprinkled, sugared and dipped-in-chocolate confections. That is my favorite part of the graze-a-thon. I want to try one of everything but there are usually like 20 different kinds of cookies and sweets!

One cookie that reminds me of older times is the gingersnap. I love the spicy bite that they have. I like them frosted, or just plain rolled in sugar.

These little ceramic disk charms from Marsha Neal Studios reminded me of gingersnaps. I wired them up with a loop of chocolate-y nugget pearls and wrapped the excess wire around the top for a spicy little detail.

Frosted Gingersnaps by erin-prais-hintz

Lands' End cowl neck sweater / Wood Sign Made to Order - MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS 12 x 12 / Brown Leather Crossbody Bag with Black by StudioWaterstoneBags / Tesori Trovati Designs / Frosted Gingersnaps - Marsha Neal Studios...

Wherever you are today, no matter what you might be celebrating, I wish you the joy of giving,  the warmth of family and friends and the peace of the season.

Merry Christmas!

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.

Inspiration...

So I was watching the television show "How Do I Look?" and the host, Jeannie Mai, had on a really cool pair of earrings. It was hard to get a good look at them, but I could see a large pearl and some chain. So I decided to try my hand at making a similar pair and this is what I came up with. They are one of my favorite "go to" pairs. You just never know when inspiration is going to hit you!

I'd wear them with this ensemble, of course being 5'9 I would never wear heels that high!

Night on the Town by Kristy Abner on Polyvore.

These earrings are not for sale, but check out my website to see more of my work.

Thanks and have a wonderful holiday!

Merry Christmas

Kristy Abner

 

Kristy's Kreations

 

Peacock Blues

Peacock

These earrings are a custom order for a lovely young woman I will be telling you about soon on my blog. They are a kind of combination of some washer and bar earrings I have done before--my customer thought the washers would be nice combined with a longer element--I think she was right! The washers have been textured with a 1959 British half crown coin, and the bars were created from two short lengths of 14 gauge copper wire. I left the bars a little brighter than the washers so they would flash in the light.

The washers are about as big around as a quarter, but not terribly heavy.

You can see more at my Etsy shop.