Indigo and Iolite

Deep, deep indigo and iolite - two of my favourite things.  It's the thick inkiness of both that I love.

I got the patinated hoops from Natalie of Grubbi.  The little ceramic droppers are from Scorched Earth.  

These earrings are available here in my Etsy shop.  

Short and sweet from me today!

Bye for now, Claire

www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com

We're All Ears :: May Inspiration

Zigzag Nerite shells - Neritina Communis - from Atlantis Shell Co

God is the most marvelous artist.

There is such beauty in this world. And a lot of it is so tiny that we don't even get the chance to see it!

Case in point... this month, at the suggestion of our editor Linda Landig, I discovered the Zig Zag Nerite shell - neritina communis. The Greek legend is that there was a boy of astonishing beauty named Nerites. He was a lover of the sea-born Aphrodite. When Aphrodite was invited by Zeus to join the gods on Mount Olympus, she invited Nerites to join her. He refused, preferring to stay in his home, the sea. In revenge she metamorphosed him into a seashell.

Now all shells are simply amazing, but what I love about these tiny treasures - just over a 1/2" in size - is that each one is completely unique. Within the same population of these creatures found in the brackish mangroves in the Western Pacific, each shell will be completely different from the last. The typical shell is black and white, but can have colors that range from cream and yellow to red and burgundy, proving to be a very variable species. Of course, the more colorful, the more highly sought after!

Zigzag Nerite shells - from SeaLifeGifts.net

Check out this link to a blog post about the 12 Most Common Nerite Shells to see even more variety!

What inspires you from this marvel of nature?

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To participate in the We're All Ears creative challenge:

Make earrings inspired by this picture.

Write a post on your blog.

Add your exact blog post URL link to the InLinkz code right here
on Friday, May 16th.

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Hooping It Up!

Copper Hoops surrounding some of my favorite Recycled Glass Headpins by Genea.

I think these were my last pair so I definitely need to get more.

I took a pair of my copper hoops, roughly wrapped some pale Recycled Sari Silk around then roughly wrapped them with copper.

The photos don't do justice to the beauty of the glass, it's really so soft and beautiful.

I think I need to wait for full on daylight to capture them properly.

I'll be at the Whole Bead Show in Lynnwood WA

The Lynnwood Convention Center

May 2-4

You can see these earrings and lots more finished jewelry and components live and in person!

My friend Linda Landig will be there too!!!

We hope to see you there, please say hello!!!!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Artfire

Wild Fire Girl

My wild days are over, and I'm not sad about it (I love sleeping now LOL... ) but there's always that little wild side of me that enjoys playing a bit with sparkles and glitter :)

I get the chance to create some Limited Edition work once in awhile, and this is one of those pieces:

I'm a member of The Artisan Group, and as such, I sometimes have the chance to submit some jewelry designs to stylists of various TV shows for 'consideration' to be used on those shows. 

Some stylists have restrictions or special requirements, while others give us carte blanche. 

You just never know what will strike a note with them. 

I enjoy the challenge, and hope that my designs will be selected (eventually).

I could so totally see these Swarvoski Sterling Tassle Earrings with this outfit:

Wild Fire In The Night by nathalie-lesage featuring a nail polish

I love the ultra light-weight feel of these earrings. Fun to wear, and so sparkly, it's crazy (did I say how much I hate photographing Swarovski Crystals? Ugh.... Even Polyvore messed up the image that I uploaded). All Sterling Silver, suspended on a pair of my handcrafted Sterling Silver Ear Wires.

These are going to be submitted to the Stylist of the Days Of Our Lives :)

I'll let you know if they get picked! Wish me luck!

You can find these earrings and my other designs HERE on my website.

Thanks and have a great day!

Nathalie Lesage

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Beach Girl

The weather is changing here in WA state. They say we will be in the 80's later this week. My inspiration keeps turning to spring and even summer. Everything is SO green... and bugs are coming out again. This will be our first summer with our new (rescue) dog Molly. She cracks me up the way she chases bees and pretty much anything that flies. One of these days, I'm afraid she will catch one... 

One of my first jewelry stamps - the dragonfly. I think I've only used it twice before. I'm really pleased with how these earrings turned out. I feel like the Iolite with it's royal blue color invokes images of tall blue Iris flowers... and the dragonflies buzzing about... 

Beach Girl by cindybeads featuring etched glasses

These earrings are available at Cindy's Art & Soul 

 http://www.cindysartandsoul.com

Peace and Blessings ~ 

Cindy 

Fire things up!

I've got a thing for rustic earthy colors, and copper is my metal of choice to convey that look and feel.

It is so beautiful, richly colored, luxuriously warm - I just love using it in my designs :)

Today's inspiration came from our weekly challenge over at SRAJD, and the theme was FIRE. 

So, you know that I HAD to go with Copper! :)

And I also HAD to hop over to my latest addiction (Hello Polyvore!) to make an outfit that I thought would go well... If I were several many pounds lighter, I'd definitely dig wearing this rockin' outfit with my earrings :)

Earthy Fire Outfit by nathalie-lesage featuring a sheer red lipstick

These earrings feature beautiful artisan Dichroic glass beads made by Paula Radke Art Glass. 

I love the shimmering burnt orange on the black base of Paula's beads, and the cool contrast between the textured copper and the smooth commercial glass slivers at the bottom.

Paula's beads have a flat back and rounded/domed top where the dichroic color is, so I had to figure out a way to showcase them to display their full beauty:

These one of a kind Copper earrings can be found on my website HERE.

Thanks for stopping by... have a fabulous day!

Nathalie

Metalsmith, Jewelry Artist

NathalieLesageJewelry.com

Tangerine

I was inspired by this photo on Pinterest and when I found these tangerine Czech beads in my bead stash (I recently blogged about organizing my entire bead stash, check it out here), I knew they would be perfect to pair with these gorgeous Czech flower beads. I made the teardrops out of PMC3 and used waxed linen cord to tie it all together.

 

 

 

Drop of Fall by musicity on deviantArt

I thought Tangerine was a perfect name for these because the little Czech beads look like tangerines and Tangerine by Led Zeppelin (one of my favs!) came on my iPod during the creative process. Ha! Meant to be.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fab weekend!

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations

Kristy's Kreations Jewelry Blog

Kristy's Kreations Facebook Page