Spring Blossoms

It's been a lovely sunny few days up here in the north of England  (if still a trifle chilly) and that's reflected in my choice of colours for this weeks post. I have a bowl of double red tulips just coming out - so sunshine and tulips!

The enamel rings with flower burst murrini are by Kaz Baildon; the enamelled red beadcaps by Anne Gardanne. Rustic yellow Czech glass forms the inner bud and also the drops on the end of the chain. 

Something to cheer up your days!

                    Hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the spring sunshine - if you have some!

                                                                 See you in two weeks.

                                                                           Lindsay x

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Bold, Brown and Boho

Lately I've been making an effort to work through my mound of UFOs (Unfinished Objects). I have an embarrassing number of jewelry projects that I've never finished or pieces that I no longer like or which aren't in fashion anymore.  I'm determined to either finish them, rework them or cut them apart and use the beads for something else. Today I'm going to share a pair of earrings I made a long time ago, for Earrings Everyday, but which I never liked much.  In fact I never even listed them on my website, because I wasn't satisfied with them.  Here's the original version.

The dangly beads on the waxed linen always looked too bulky with the fat ceramic drops, and the waxed linen caused them to stick out awkwardly over the rounded drops. Also the drops have a beautiful glaze on them, which the beads pretty much covered up. The earrings look OK in the photo, but in real life - not so much.
Sooo...I cut them apart and tried a bunch of variations till I got what I liked. I love the colors of those little barbell shaped beads in combination with the ceramic drops, so I wanted to keep them. Here's what I came up with.

The new version was hard to photograph because the little dangles fall off to the side when the earrings are horizontal, but you can see how there are beautiful shades of caramel, chocolate and coffee in the glaze, (sounds like a restaurant menu!).  Here's how they hang when worn.

The mother of pearl hoops used to be part of a necklace that I also took apart and re-purposed. The earrings look so much more airy and uncluttered in their new form. Unlike the first version of these earrings, I have listed this remake in my shop.

Linda Landig Jewelry

We're All Ears :: April Inspiration :: Wanderlust

My daughter is a dancer. I am sure that if you have followed along with me for some time you know this. As such, April is a very busy month for me as the annual Spring Showcase dance recital and the Spring Spotlight dance shows happen at the end of the month. This year is no exception, except that this will be it, her

very.last.one.

Tiny Dancer through the years

I won't be crying tears of sadness, but tears of great joy. For this Tiny Dancer who started at three has blossomed into this amazing adult who is now pursuing a dual major in dance and neurobiology at the University of Wisconsin in the fall. So there will be more opportunities to see her dance in the future.

wan·der·lust/ˈwändərˌləst/noun 

a strong desire to travel.
"her wanderlust would not allow her to stay long in one spot"

Wanderlust is when you can't get enough of this world and hope to see something new everyday which you have never seen before. In simple words, it is a beautiful disease which has no cure. The Spring Spotlight show this year has the theme of "WONDERLUST" with an O. A twist on the familiar word meant a desire to see the world, this is also about seeing the wonder of the world as you wander.

When you are a young person with your toes on the threshold of the world, there is a great desire to get out and experience it all. To send her off on the right foot, her graduation gift from me is a trip to New York City in June. I was only there once (but I had walking pneumonia so my recollections are pretty foggy), so I am pretty excited about it, too. In addition to seeing some great shows (including a brand new ballet debuting while we are there with the prima ballerina Misty Copeland in the lead role), my daughter will also have the opportunity to take dance classes at both the Alvin Ailey Dance Center and the Broadway Dance Center, where classes are taught in every style from those that are in the dance and theater scene in the middle of the bright lights of Broadway. I also can't wait to see the architecture of the big city and immerse myself in the local day-to-day bustle. I want soak it all in and make some lasting memories with my girl. 

So this month, our theme will be WANDERLUST and I hope you will share some TRAVEL-themed earrings...Inspired by actual places you been, the methods of getting there, or even the places you want to travel to! Let's explore the world! See you on Friday, April 19th!

craving for color

Hello friends, how are you all doing?

I don't know about you, but after winter I always crave for color. I recently bought 2 pairs of very, and I mean very, colorful shoes. My colleagues look at my shoes, look at me, look back at my shoes with a bewildered look on their faces. But then they see my tote bag (yep, very colorful), my chaotic hairstyle with curls everywhere, and sigh. Colorful shoes belong to me. As are colorful earrings. And nobody does colorful earring components better than Helena Benkoczka, with whom I had an interview in March. She is such an interesting lady and talented artist.
Her earring components always make me happy. I made these 3 pairs of earrings:

I combined the polymer charms with lampwork glass beads made by Lesley McIver, Czech glass and other bits and pieces.

And you can win this last pair :) Isn't that great. If you go to the interview you can see what you need to do to win this pair or win a pair of earrings made by Helena.

Thank you so much for looking and your support for Earrings Everyday :)
And you know I love to read your comments, so don't be shy and leave some words. 

See you in two weeks.Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of joy, an abundance of color and singing birds,
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Frida Kahlo

Some earrings tug at my heartstrings more than others, and these do just that.  Normally I don't tend to gravitate towards beads with portraits or printed words on them (unless they are really silly words - ha).  However, when I saw these charms by Sue-Lin Tarnowski I just utterly fell in love.  I was especially drawn to their shape, color, soulfulness.

♡

For this pair, the chains really appealed to me ~ the suggestion of the tortured artist I suppose.  Then, loved adding the softer, beautiful floral beaded hoops by our very own, Suhana Hart ~ kinda wonderful in a quiet way.

Thank you for sharing your time with me!  I'll be back in two weeks!

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest under my name.

Tribal Dancers

Hello I’m here again,how are you all ?
So this last weekend we had a lovely show over on The Very Nice Group which I co-host with Lindsay Phillipson.
The theme was “Out of Africa” and when Lindsay suggested it my heart sank a little,I’m not very good at tribal jewellery,don’t get me wrong I love it,and Lindsay makes some epic pieces strong ethnic and very original. Somehow I struggle with it, but I thought “ ok this will push me to try something different.

I searched all over the internet for inspiration and also through old books of my dads and suddenly things started to twinkle in this old brain of mine !!
Tribal Dancers !!!

These are the last of my stash of these wonderful pieces from Helen Backhouse in these amazing colours , ranging from peacock blues and greens to soft bronze these wonderful shells match perfectly with our Juliette Mulletts stunning lampwork beads that swirl with colour ,and as with all of Juliette’s beads seem to glow from within. I’ve hung a small pretty ceramic drop from Claire Lockwood and a few twiddly hematite twiglets and hung them from my simple “ pins “ earwires in soft bronze .

I was trying to catch that foot stomping swirling dance from those amazing tribal Dancers as they sway along to their music.

Well what do you think? Are they tribal enough? Or have I just put my own interpretation on them, whichever it is I’ve had fun doing it .
Love and hugs Lucy from Faerystone xx

Grungy Spring

So, it's now April! In the UK, our clocks have gone forward which means we lose an hour of sleep, but gain an hour of daytime. All very confusing! But upshot is, Spring is very much here. I spent the weekend in Norwich, a city in the east of the UK, collecting my oldest daughter from University and everywhere was bursting with spring flowers. Gorgeous.

Now, as I've been a lil busy driving around all weekend, I've had no time to create something new for this blog. But I thought I'd share these pretties from my last showcase on Friday. They feature some gorgeously grungy ceramic connectors by Petra Carpreau. They remind me of little lily-pads.

I decided to add some pretty green czech glass teardrops, and a little stack of Roman glass rondelles, framed by oxidised brass hoops. Love the shape and the textures of these. You really can't beat Petra for organic, quirky and grungy. So there you are. A bit of grungy Spring. Although I've just read that we are due for gales and snow in parts of the UK next week....so maybe Spring will be on pause here for a little while!

See you in a couple of weeks 

Sue

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