Best laid plans

Oh boy, I had it all planned perfectly. 

Last Sunday hubby and I drove to a rented holiday home to finally have a proper holiday for two weeks. The holiday home is only a 1 hour drive from the campsite where we live, but it is a world of difference. Located in the mountains (much cooler, which is sooooooo wonderful) and somewhat isolated. Meaning.....quiet, no waiting lines for the shower or the washing machine, there is actually warm water left to take a shower and equipped with a very large fridge and freezer all for ourselves. Heaven! Please, don't get me wrong, I love our life, living in our mobile home on a campsite. That is, for 11 months of the year. In August it is a different story. Holiday season, so every inch of the camping is packed with people.

 

So, I packed a small selection of my beads to finally sit down and create. Hubby looked a bit worried as the "small" selection was at least 20 kg of beads (one crate succumbed to the weight) but we arrived safely in once piece.

So far so good, the plan worked. But that was it. In short: work interfered, meaning, I am still "playing" with my laptop instead of my beads. But hey...I have a spectacular view:

You get the idea...no new earrings for me to show. But I have these earrings I made back in 2014 I like to share with you. A simple design, made with beautiful fun and colorful ceramic charms made by my friends from Golem design studio. Just by looking at them I feel happy.

I still have some of there charms in my stash, so I am definitely planning to make more of these summery earrings.That's it for me today. I wish you all a wonderful day, full of sunshine, laughter and flowers.

See you next month. 

Thanks for looking and you know I love to read your comments so don't be shy and leave some words. 

Janine

Unfinished projects

For today's post I worked on some brass blanks I painted a while ago.  I didn't really have any ideas so literally forced myself to make these.  Sometimes it works, most of the times it doesn't 😆 I hope you like what I've done with them.  

For this pair I painted brass owls in silver and rubbed them back to reveal some of the gold underneath.  I wire wrapped the blanks with cup chain and the owls on one side, added gold flowers layered with silver and gold caps to the opposite side to balance out the weight.  

Still the same design on this pair but I used a chain dangle instead if owls for balance.  

They are now listed on Etsy.  Enjoy your weekend. 

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery 

Chainmaille: Variations

For today's post, I thought I'd share two very different pairs of chainmaille earrings:  one pair that looks like they might have been worn during the Renaissance--or earlier--and one pair that's much more modern.

The cool thing is that both pairs of earrings are made with the same chainmaille weave, called European 4-in-1 (below),  a simple and familiar weave.  Woven tightly of small metal rings into large flat pieces, it was

the armor worn by medieval European fighters (you may have noticed it in just about every sword and sorcery film or TV show).  (In ancient Asia, chain mail armor was made of a totally different and beautiful weave, which is a story for another day.)

Because I specifically wanted these earrings (below) to look like they could have been worn centuries ago, I needed the triangular chainmaille pieces to hang like banners, so I made the spiraled "hanger" pieces

and hung the chainmaille triangles from their widest section, the seven woven rings.  I made 4-mm mother-of-pearl dangles and attached them to the outer edges of the chainmaille, and then fashioned wire-and-bead links to connect my decorated "Renaissance Banners" to matching ear wires. 

My second pair of earrings are completely different:  small and sleek and simple, sterling silver and midnight blue. The chainmaille part of these earrings was made using the same weave as the first pair, but with one fewer row of rings, stopping at six, naturally making the earrings smaller and slimmer.   

Ingredients:  Sterling silver rings, sterling silver wire, sterling silver ear wires, and deep blue polymer clay spikes by Jon Burgess. 

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll see you in about two weeks. 💗 

Meridy (Two Trees Studio)
xo

My Shop

My Facebook Business Page

Moorish in Marrakech

Now you all know I've just come back from a lovely restful holiday in Greece, and I'm working hard on a bunch of sea themed pieces for a 'Poldark' on-line show this weekend. But to be honest, I'm a bit sick of sea themed......so for this weeks post I thought I'd take a break and revert to a trip to Marrakech some years ago. I've had these lovely Moorish style ceramic drops from Emma Ralph for a while, looking for the right shade of green to put with them. Last week I received a string of faceted green onyx from Sylvia Stungo's shop for another piece of work, and they are perfect.

Simply styled with pewter beadcaps, the onyx and lapis lazuli, I've wired them in bright blue enamelled wire (I'm a big fan) and added blue niobium earwires - they're named for the famous blue Majorelle Gardens in  Marrakech, designed by Yves St Laurent to be an oasis of cool in a hot, bustling yet wonderfully vibrant city. I made our meal tonight with a morroccan tagine from the souks I wrapped with great care and brought back in our hand luggage. Tastes so much better!

 

 

 

Anyhow, I popped these in my Etsy shop and now back to the sea stuff…and see you in a couple of weeks.

 

Lindsay xx

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook business page

 

Pretty in Pink

Hello!

It's been ages since I made anything. My beads and tools have sat in the corner of my kitchen, unused and unloved. But I have a holiday coming up, and i always take a selection of beads along with me, because i know i will have some time to create in peace :-)

In the meantime, I had these beautiful ceramic components in my latest delivery from the legend that is Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth.
Look at those gorgeous mandala decal slices? Such a beautiful pattern and sublime colours.

I also had some of Petra's cute ceramic connectors, in a glaze which matched the mandala slices perfectly. I just added some wire and sweet little lilac seeds.

Love these components together. Very pink and very boho! These will be available at the end of the month over on The Earrings Show in Facebook Land

Until next time :-)

Sue 

Utterly Lovely Stuff

We're All Ears :: August Inspiration :: Spoonflower

Some time ago I bought a gift certificate for a fabric-loving friend to Spoonflower. Do you know Spoonflower? They are a site that prints custom fabrics. You can get them in a variety of styles, from cotton to satin to chiffon, and you can even design your own fabric pattern! How cool is that?

Since I ordered that gift certificate online, I have been getting their quarterly magazine. It is chock full of color and pattern that is whimsical and fun. Great eye candy, even if I can't sew a lick! This time I am smitten with their Lagoon Love feature (and this pretty Mermaid Lagoon fabric, below!). You can even check out their interactive online version of the print magazine, with links that will take you right to the page of the fabric featured on each page. Pretty darn cool!

So I thought that it would make for a fun challenge, to interpret a favorite fabric into earrings! To narrow it down, I have selected the top 10 winners of one of their monthly contests from July: Circles are the New Triangles. These top 10 give you a wide range of colors and patterns and interpretations of circles for you to choose from...because everyone likes to have choices, am I right? 

Click here to see each of these patterns up close.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept, is to select at least one of these fabrics and design a pair of earrings inspired by it... the colors, the shapes, the patterns, etc. Then come back here on Friday, August 17th to share what fabric you chose and show us what you made! 

Oh! I almost forgot! I promised a giveaway to someone who guessed at my summer drink-inspired earrings from July! 

The answers were.... 1) Root Beer Float  2) Strawberry (or Pink) Lemonade   3) Blue Moon Beer with a twist of orange!

I decided that I would give away TWO prizes... one to someone who took up the challenge and participated and one to a commenter on the blog post. 

Congratulations to...

CRAFTY HOPE

+

ANITA of BEADSCHARMSANDWIRE 

Please send me an email with your name and address and I will send you a little goodie package to encourage you to keep making earrings!

Icy Spicy Blue

I love when pastels are set against earthy browns and greys - it just makes them all the more beautiful.

Although perfectly matched, the two components I've paired together couldn't be more different!  

The large ceramic focal charms called "Circle Of Water" and were made by Nadia Terra.  They are 35mm, bold, but still lightweight. So rustic and beautiful!  I love the brush strokes showing through.

The accent beads are vintage lampwork glass circa 1950's.  They are a combination of that same brownish-grey with a glossy organic ice blue pattern.  

 Thank you for popping in today!  Hope you found a little color inspiration :))

Loralee xo

You can find these earrings in my shop below:

loralee kolton ~ artful in beads