Keeping it simple

So, I've had these beautiful ceramic pieces by Spanish artist Mari Carmen Rodriguez Martinez of Majoyoal in my beady stash for a while. The colours and texture of Mari's work are so striking -beautifully luscious! They always make me think of summer, perhaps because i often have pieces with me when i go to Spain on holiday (yes, I take beads with me when i go away!) and they have a very Spanish feel to them.

It's fun to think of new designs and different ways of using components. However, sometimes I like to keep it simple....less is more, right?

Recently, I got some new lilac recycled chunks, which i thought would go beautifully with Mari's indigo ceramic charms. Pretty seed beads accent the ceramic and glass components, and some stainless steel earwires for contrast

 This next pair have aqua green recycled glass chunks. The same simple design to show off those beautiful charms

Both pairs will be available in my next Facebook showcase over on The Earrings Show on 30th June. See you in a couple of weeks
Sue 

The need for colour!

So January is done (hooray!) and I am feeling the need for colour!

For this blog, I revisited an old design which is a bit of a favourite. I got hold of some of Helena Benkoczka's folded copper bails. Helena is perhaps best known for her beautifully colourful polymer clay components, but is a very talented jewellery designer herself AND also makes some gorgeous copper components on occasion too. These beauties have a teeny tiny Buddha stamp.

I paired these up with some of my favourite recycled glass chunks in a vivid purple and wrapped some colourful seed beads onto some oxidised copper wire and looped them through the bails.

Bright, colourful and a bit boho. However, I was in a rush to photograph them before I lost the light today and spotted a tiny bit of wire that needed to be trimmed/tucked in! It has been sorted, but I couldn't take another photo, so it sits above, annoying me! Can you spot it? 

These will be available in my next showcase over on The Earrings Show on Friday 23rd Feb. See you in a couple of weeks!

Sue x 

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Alabama Petticoats

Alabama Petticoats

I have been trying to force myself to use yellow--and not cheat, and use "mustard," or "saffron," or "butterscotch" and try to claim it's yellow--I mean, real, honest-to-God YELLOW. As in Tweety Bird. As in Big Bird. As in Sponge Bob. And here is me, above, using African recycled glass discs in Minion Yellow. I combined them with cool ice blue African recycled glass tulip beads, stacking them for a little more drama (and hey! Petticoats!) Just the two colors together seemed a little lonely, so I added some Indonesian glass beads in turquoise. I love these three colors together. There is something French Country about it that seems to make the yellow go down better.

I capped the yellow glass discs with rustic petaled beadcaps in sterling silver, and capped the petticoats with a pair of my own embossed sterling caps; each petticoat is fastened to the glass disc via one of my sterling silver paddle headpins. I made--as is my habit--the earwires myself and added a couple more turquoise glass beads to pull it all together.

Glass tulip beads from Happy Mango Beads.
Yellow recycled glass discs from Afrobeadia.
Petal beadcaps from Cathy Dailey.

Visit Keirsten and her work at Lune on Etsy.

Confetti Hoops

Confetti Hoops

I was captivated by these strands of tiny multicolor lampwork glass rondelles from Indonesia --I grabbed up a pile of them! I wanted to use them all together in a riot of color. I constructed copper hoops for them, with hammered paddles on the end, and strung them on. Because of the paddles, I needed beads with bigger holes to slip over them, and this was the color assortment that sported the biggest holes--I like it! Then I connected the hoops to earwires via recycled glass discs in sea green, and wired little seed beads in robin's egg blue onto the earwires.

I've been in kind of a confetti mood--THIS really appeals to me too, from BabaYagaFashion, a UK shop--oh for the youth and guts to wear it!

Upcycled Skirt at Baba Yaga on Etsy

(I've marked this shop as a favorite, just in case I hit my head really hard whilst falling into the Fountain of Youth, and I emerge dewy and lithe, with the lack of inhibition common to traumatic brain injuries.)

I'm planning to make additional pairs of these earrings sporting different colors, and probably without the glass disc. This was kind of a prototype, to see if it would work. They are fun to make!

(All of the beads in these earrings are from Happy Mango Beads.)

You can see (a very tiny bit) more of my work at my Etsy shop.

Autumn Turning

Autumn Turning

I recently set myself a challenge of creating earrings from the hoard of recycled glass discs I've been collecting from Happy Mango Beads and Afrobeadia. I have them in a virtual rainbow of colors! I initially wanted to make bracelets from them (which I still intend to do), but then I got a bug to incorporate them into earrings. The lime green discs above are recycled glass from Afrobeadia, and the perfect little amber lampwork roundels are from Happy Mango Beads.

The colors in these earrings were inspired by the nearly psychedelic hues of the spirea bush outside my living room window, which is currently in a state of a blazing metamorphosis--caught between the cool lime green of summer and the fiery sun colors of autumn. I love this time--October has been unusually warm here, drawing out the season--I feel spoiled, getting treated to an extra-long version of my favorite time of year.

I merged these wonderful beads with a riot of sterling silver--torpedo beads and little round beads, which I lightly distressed with my Fretz mini-texturing hammer--and lots of silver wire. I love the icy silver with these exuberant colors.

You can see these and other items at my Etsy shop.

Recycled glass discs in green from Afrobeadia
Amber lampwork rondelles from Happy Mango Beads
Sterling torpedo beads from Monsterslayer

Spring Has Sprung!

Well, officially anyway. I am choosing to believe! Today I heard three different birdsong, simultaneously, through the window. To me that says Spring. I actually had hoped to have these earrings ready for the Beatrix Potter challenge, but I didn't make it. There is always room for flowers, however, so here they are! (Please disregard the somewhat incongruous story line on my book pages--"Prairie Guns"--I chose the pages for their delicious yellowed color and only belatedly noticed cowboys and some shooting. I'm so avant garde!)

These wonderful lampwork blooms are "fairy flowers" by Mermaid Glass on Etsy; the rustic green and ice blue tulips are from Happy Mango Beads; and the little Czech glass flower bells inside the green tulips are from Stinky Dog Beads.

Spring on the Prairie. With some cowboys.

Autumn in Verdigris

Autumn in Verdigris

There's just a hint of autumn color in these earrings--splashes of persimmon, saffron and loden (I saw that last one in an Esprit catalog back in the 80s, sounds so much more poetic than "olive green")--and lots of my favorite sea green color. Czech glass birch leaves from ArteBellaSurplus, saffron patinated copper rings from MissFickleMedia, and recycled glass beads in sea green from Happy Mango Beads. The beads on the earwires are moukaite but I can't remember where I got them.

I of course picture these with a Sundance Catalog ensemble (someday when I'm too rich to care about paying ridiculously overblown prices I'm gonna clean 'em out):

But in the meantime I guess I'll go to Target.

You can see more at my Etsy shop HERE.

Glacier Green

Glacier Milk

This color of green is exactly the color of "glacial milk"--that milky, opaque pale jade green of a high glacial lake.  In fact, it reminds me of Grinnell Lake in Glacier National Park.  I wish I could post a picture of it here! But I don't have any of my own. You'll have to check the link above! HERE is another view. It really does look this opaque and green in person!

These earrings feature all sterling silver construction, recycled glass from Happy Mango Beads in old-fashioned Coke-bottle sea green, and little 4mm faceted Czech rounds in "prairie green."

I picture these with a fun, clean-lined summer ensemble made for beachside shopping:

Via Polyvore

(Aquamarine and aqua quartz bracelet from Cathy Danz.)

You can see more in my Etsy shop, HERE.

My Favorite Things

Ammonite and Recycled Glass Earrings

3 of my favorite things, recycled glass, ammonite and copper!

I'm constantly searching Ammonite, always looking for something unusual I need to add to my collection.

This one has been a favorite for a little while, so far I have resisted!

From Laveo Beads!

And in searching for more recycled glass I found these!

From BottleHood Beads!

I can't wait to get some!

And yet another piece I've been coveting for awhile.

This beautiful Copper Panel

From Viktoriia Gallery!

Thank you for joining me, I hope you enjoyed my newest earring creation!

If you'd like to see more of my work.

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Kristi