Into The Forest; Mossy Green with Raw Copper

So many reasons to love copper as a jewelry maker and also as someone who enjoys wearing  jewelry. 

It's the perfect fall color metal and pairs well with most Autumn-like colors. Including Mossy Green and Olive. My go-to colors of late. 

The charms are mill rolled with a heavy fabric to create a deep texture on raw copper. Hand cut, filed, sanded smooth and finally hammered for a gentle curve. Intertwined tiny raw copper hoops are torched fused, danging below. 

Mossy green Swarovski crystals sparkle in contrast to the rustic antique finish copper. 

These earrings were created with a matching necklace in mind. A common way jewelry is born or ideas spring, a continuing thought or inspiration spanning several types of jewelry. 

Molly, Hiking McKenzie River Trail, OR 9/13/16

And my biggest inspiration is of course... the forest. We love hiking here in WA and OR. We have a lot of great forests to explore and enjoy. This photo was taken last month hiking the McKenzie River Trail in OR. I just wanted to soak in all the green around me! It's very lush and grounding.  
 

These earrings along with the matching necklace are available in the Art & Soul Jewelry store today. 

Fall

As you probably might know I’m not a full-time jewellery creator. In my other professional career I’m a self-employed chartered accountant. Due to my crazy working hours of late I didn’t have much time to spend on social media. And guess what, I felt more relaxed as a jewellery creator. Normally I see the most gorgeous jewellery pieces of other jewellery designers in my news feed. When I see this beautiful handmade jewellery I am in awe. I feel overwhelmed and I have to admit, insecure. My designs are not that sophisticated. I am not able to make my own beads. Well, not as long as we are still living in our motor home. 

Then I remember the wise words of Lesley Watt in an interview I held with her: “If I were to offer one tip it would be: be true to yourself and don't be tempted to compare. By which I mean don't compare your work, your style, your sales, your success, your prices with those of others because it will only cause you heartache".

These words are so true. We cannot all be famous or successful etc like… (You can fill in your own hero). But that doesn’t matter. As long as we remember we are all unique human beings, beautiful in our own way.
If you are struggling with insecurity as well, I hope Lesley's wise words can help you, they way it helped me.
For me it means that as long as I enjoy creating my jewellery and I’m doing it the best that I can with the best materials I can afford it is ok. They might not be masterpieces but they are made with love and they are unique.
As for these earrings. They don’t contain expensive handmade beads. I found the glass leafs in a craft store. I always have silver plated beads, Swarovski crystal and Czech glass in stock and I think the combination is lovely.

Thank you again Lesley for your wise words. Thank you all for looking. These fall earrings will be available later today. Wishing you all a wonderful time, full of happiness, laughter and fall joy.

Janine

Esfera Jewelry

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We're All Ears :: October Challenge

The weather is a fascinating force. It is totally awesome in it's impact. I took a meteorology class in college because I thought it would be an easy way to get my science credit. Wrong. There is a heck of a lot of math involved in that study! But I did find it fascinating to learn about clouds and wind patterns and lightning and tornadoes.

Right now the eastern coast of the U.S. is getting hammered by the largest and most dangerous hurricane in over a decade. Stay safe, my friends, if you are in the path.

Since the weather is all over the news even more than just on the Weather.com channel, it seems that it might be a good inspiration for this month's We're All Ears challenge.

I found this website called The Earth Wind Map. It is a beautiful real-time rendering of wind patterns for any spot on the planet. You can click and drag the map to view where the wind is anywhere in our world. Where you see thin strands of green, there are gentle breezes. Long streaks of bright yellow are strong winds. Swirling angry red spots indicate the strongest wind gusts. Quite mesmerizing!

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a part of their site dedicated to Weather Art, specifically historic art, including this picture from a vintage German Cloud Atlas book.

The Met has an interesting slideshow presentation on Clouds in art and life. I found it intriguing to listen to and to see the works of art featuring clouds. Who doesn't love to lay around on a summer day and see pictures float by in the clouds? Clouds were my favorite thing to study in that meteorology class. Cummulus. Cirrus. Nimbus. And this interactive Clouds in Art site teaches you the different types of clouds as represented in master works of art. Love the names of cloud formations. This Van Gogh is one of my favorites. I took a Master Painting class about 15 years ago and this is the painting I set out to replicate. Those swirls! Oh my!

So our challenge for We're All Ears for October is the weather... wind patterns, cloud formations, precipitation... whatever you would like to represent! Looking forward to seeing what you create on October 21st!

Purple Fall Leaves

One of the fun things about having a new house is that you get to discover what you have in your garden as each new season unfolds.  We have a maple tree in our new front yard whose leaves are turning purple as the cooler fall weather is arriving.  Sure the leaves have tinges of the expected red, especially along the veins, but they are mostly an amazing and beautiful purple. In the morning the dew drops sparkle like jewels on the leaves and once more I am left in awe at the beauty of mother nature.

I've been making a lot of ceramic earring components for fall Bead Fest, which is only a week away! I've been inspired by the fall colors around me and so I decided to glaze these leaf charms purple.  Admittedly, they are not maple leaves, but we'll just chalk that up to artistic imagination.

The links the leaves are hanging from, came from some chain I got on sale.  The price was deeply reduced, probably because the chain is too large for most designs.  But I took all the links apart and they are awesome for use as components!

I dangled etched glass lampwork beads (Beads and Botanicals) from the links, along with some lime green seed beads. The earrings have a nice movement and are fun to wear. I love the traditional Autumn oranges, reds and browns, but its also fun to mix it up a bit with some purple!

The Purple Leaf Earrings are available in my shop.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Bound and Twined

A couple posts ago I mentioned how I have been further exploring the use of fibers in my pieces to add textural and tactile variety. I use a lot of "hard" components---stone, metal, ceramic, glass, etc. So in the ever-present quest for balance, I like to add in some "soft" ingredients, as well. 

The problem I have with so many textile-based materials is that they wear too easily. Either that or they discolor or soil, like sari silk, and are almost impossible to wash when incorporated into a larger piece. So I've found myself turning more and more to waxed twines made of durable material, such as hemp, flax, and nylon. 

I'm such a fangirl of the magical and talented Rey at greybirdstudio and have always appreciated the way she wraps, weaves, and melts fibers into her intricate, organic pieces. So when she started offering her hand-waxed, dyed Belgian flax twine for sale to other makers such as myself, I squealed with excitement. The process she goes through to create the soft leathery finish is painstaking yet without a doubt worth it. I had the good fortune of snapping up a bundle of it one day---if you follow her work, you'll know how quickly things fly out the door! 

The twine is very fine and has a nicely tacky quality to it, allowing it to stick nicely to itself when overwrapped, as I did on the "bead caps" in today's pair. Bonus points that the fibers will not discolor with wear and contact with our skins' natural oils. I took a matched set of beautiful blush chohua jasper---one of my favorites---and knotted and wrapped and knotted and wrapped and knotted and wrapped and...well, you get the picture. 

I was at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago last week and was amazed at the ancient jewelry from many of the native tribes of North America. OK, amazed is an understatement. My husband had to restrain me at certain points. But the underlying technique and overall aesthetic of today's earrings remind me of some of those pieces. Art influences art, always!

Happy Wednesday, 
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Ancient

Women in Ancient Times loved Awesome Earrings like we do! And very beautiful ones. Although I would imagine that those who were lucky enough to wear them must have been the elite of their time. 

Hello, and Happy October to you. Fall is my favorite time of year. I find it energizing. It's fleeting here in Michigan; we're lucky to have a small handful of sunny, cool days, but they are the best of the best when they come around. :) 

I've always enjoyed browsing images of ancient jewelry. History intrigues me. I am amazed by the beauty some were able to wear. Gemstones and gold! 

This particular image is of a pair of earrings that were made/worn in about 500 AD, during the Byzantine era, "earrings with pendant chains". It's said they were very popular during that time, but only five (5) earrings are known to have survived. There is one earring "in Baltimore," and a pair in the "Farrell Collection," each with pendant crosses, pearls and semi-precious stones. This image and the info came from the "Christie's" website, and these little lovelies fetched $15,000. 

FYI "The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople." 

What an amazing find, in such beautiful condition. 500 AD! I kept the image in a folder I have titled "Design Inspiration," where I have hundreds of images of stunning jewelry, from all over, including all of our EE talents. This one I have been enamored with for quite some time. 

Rather than use them for inspiration only, I decided to re-create the design in my own way, in our timeline, :), with the materials I love to work with. And there's also the fact that gold is a bit out of my price range. :) Perhaps someday, hundreds of years from now, someone will stumble upon my earrings, and think they're a fun find. 

So here is my interpretation. 



 I chose to use a plain hoop rather than a hoop with ear wire attached. As the AEs (ancient earrings) have a pearl wrapped to the hoop, I did the same. These sweet rondelle-shaped Pearls came from TheFickleBead and I am in love with them. They're a soft peachy ivory and have decent-sized holes. These are wrapped in 22 gauge copper wire.

The beautiful, faceted blue/green stones are Apatite. The way the AEs have the emerald wrapped made me chuckle. If you look at the wire above the emerald, there appears to be a headpin wrapped around the wire holding the emerald, right? Yet at the bottom of the emerald the wire is rather wound and bunched to keep the bead on. Christie's refers to it as a "large granule above the spiral." To me it's a headpin! lol So I used headpins to hold the Apatite, and then used another to create the "spiral" and the "granule." I also chose to put it on the opposite side of the hoop as the pearl, rather than on the same side.

Rather than use a chain, I braided copper wire. I started out with a heavier gauge wire, but  it was too much. Everything I used was scaled down compared to the AEs, as far as the diameter of the wire, the hoop, the length and dimensions of the emeralds and their findings. It just looked better, and I love it. I have never braided wire before. I do know that it is something I will do more often. What a great way to change things up a bit. Hanging from the "chain" are pewter arrow charms, made by Vincent 'n Nooma of Inviciti.

So that's that! This was really one of the most fun projects I've done. Thanks so much for stopping by. We all appreciate it, as well as your comments and feedback. Have a great couple of weeks. I'll be back Oct. 18. Thank you!

Norbel
She Flies Again - my Etsy shop

With A Friend In Mind

 

Art beads and handmade components:

Verdigris patinated brass oval and shard charms - MissFickleMedia

Sterling silver (oxidized) handmade earrings hooks - JNicLoft 

Other ingredients:

Vintage patinated chain with coin shaped links

All my best,

Malin

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com