We're All Ears :: January Inspiration :: Color of the Year

Congratulations to Darlene of darlicousrejuvenations!

You are the random winner of an Emergency Earring Kit for participating in the December Use Your Leftovers challenge! Please email me at enjoytheday@tesoritrovati.com with your address so I can arrange to send that out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every year I check out what the people at Pantone decide for us what the Color of the Year will be. And just about every year I have been disappointed. But not this year! I have been waiting and wishing for a good strong blue for years! Now THIS is a color that I can get behind.

A timeless and enduring blue hue, PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue is elegant in its simplicity. Suggestive of the sky at dusk, the reassuring qualities of the thought-provoking PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue highlight our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era. 

Imprinted in our psyches as a restful color, PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue brings a sense of peace and tranquility to the human spirit, offering refuge. Aiding concentration and bringing laser like clarity, PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue re-centers our thoughts. A reflective blue tone, Classic Blue fosters resilience.

Now I don't know about all of that. But I do appreciate this blue, even though I have read some critiques that have caused me to pause a moment. 

I would agree that this blue is definitely a safe choice, particularly since the last few years have been all about much more vibrant and even jarring hues, like Living Coral or Ultraviolet, but not plain-Jane-vanilla. I do like the solidness of this color. I do think it is classic. I find it honest and true. It feels like a very grounded color. It is a good foundation color, something you can build on. And maybe in the world the way it is, perhaps we need to have our feet firmly planted, while looking up at the stars. Grounded + aspirational.

While some of the other more saucy colors of the recent past were better suited for accents in my opinion, not as the star.  I declare that this Classic Blue is a neutral, because I cannot think of any other color that would NOT look good when paired with it. Here are a some color palettes that Pantone suggests work well with Classic Blue.

Now I know that I just said that I thought this would be a great neutral as it goes with every other color. And I do stand by that. However, some of the combinations of these colors in these palettes leaves me to believe that the people of Pantone were drunk when they picked them. Christmas Red-Green-White is "Untraditional"? What I do think is intriguing is this is the first time I care remember that they are actually picking METALLICS as colors. I always instruct people when I teach that metallics are just colors and they mix well together. I quite like that addition and that gives even more exciting options.

If those color palettes don't work for you, or if you just hate this color choice altogether, I have another option for you. Not to be outdone, the big paint companies have jumped on the bandwagon to choose their own Color of the Year, actually months before Pantone. They each have lovely little videos to watch (click the links below) that detail their reasons why, and of course rooms painted in these colors for inspiration. Perhaps one of these three shades will resonate more with you.

Behr selected a light mossy green Back To Nature as its 2020 color.

Benjamin Moore selected the pale pinky-beigey tone First Light as its choice for 2020.

Sherwin Williams went dark and mysterious with this deep blue Naval for the top spot this year.

You know what I think? I think they all got it right. And I actually think that combining all four of these Colors of the Year would make a fabulous palette, don't you?

So tell me, what do you think about the Color of the Year? What color palette do you like the best? Will you be designing with this color in 2020? Do you already have beads to match? Time to break out the blue hues and make some earrings for the reveal on January 17th!

Happy New Year

Hello lovely earring friends,

First of all I wish you all:

I hope you all have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and New Year's Eve.
We were in Greece, going for some hikes in the mountains. The weather was perfect, sunshine and 20 degrees Celsius (in the sun, without wind).
And I finally had time to make jewelry, in preparation of my shows in February. Yep, I need to prepare that much time ahead, as January is always a very busy month in my daytime job, with all kinds of deadlines. And I will have an exam in February and an assignment I need to finish end of January.

 

So, I made a couple of earrings with these beautiful polymer clay charms I have been hoarding for some years.They are made by Alison Page Studios. She now mainly focuses on enamel, copper and wood.

Here I combined them with lampwork glass beads made by Mermaids Glass. I am very pleased how these turned out.

In the next pair I combined them with lampwork glass beads made by 4 Wandering Gypsies. I am not sure if they make beads anymore.









 

That's it for my this month.  
Thank you so much for looking and your support for Earrings Everyday :)  Share the love, don't be shy and leave some words. And do check out the other posts of my friends here. 
See you next month. Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of laughter, joy and lots of love. 
Janine
Esfera Jewelry

Welcome 2020!

Happiest New Year Wishes!

New beginnings, fresh starts!

Cheers!

Stunning ceramic earring charms dripping in gold with rustic clock faces by Lina Macijauskiene.

Festive vintage lucite with captured gold tinsel confetti falling!  Omgosh, I love these!  

Thank you for stopping by and having a look at my worktable!  I'm very much looking forward to sharing 2020 with you, my beady family!  It's always such an honor to be included in this lovely blog.  Thank you all for your thoughts and kind words this past year, it means the world to me.

♡♡

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com 
(although, there isn't much in the shop at the moment - ha - looks like a 2020 goal for me!)

Disco 2020

This  week I've been a little obsessed by a TV advert, of all things. You know the one - it's for a brand of gin, scene set in a 60s/70s disco, the song that's playing is Franki Valli's The Night…………

but the night begins to turn your head around,
and you know you're gonna lose more than you found...…………

(carries on singing, dancing round the kitchen making mince pies)

And it's the dancers that hold my attention. Northern Soul, circa 1971, the year I got married. Tom and I had a few Saturday nights at the legendary Wigan Casino, standing to the side, watching the lads do those fabulous moves. And above us, twinkling away on its perpetual circuit...………..


                                                               The disco ball.  

There it is, in the centre of my earrings this week. Faceted glass, surrounded by textured ceramics by Nitta Elomaki and hung on Faerystones dark copper earwires.

Just ready for those New Years Eve parties. But before that, I wish you all a lovely Christmas season, peace and goodwill to all!

                                                                     Lindsay xx

                                                                My Etsy shop

                                                              My Facebook page

We're All Ears :: Use Your Leftovers Challenge

Hello earring peeps!
It is time for the reveal of the 5th annual We're All Ears Use Your Leftovers challenge!

I always enjoy doing this one because I can create as many as I can no matter the theme or the color and can use whatever I happen to have on hand.

First I pulled together an assortment of beads that I thought might be good for quick earrings. I put them in this vintage cornbread pan that I have. From there I just had to dig in!

I put on the 100 Uplifting Songs playlist on Spotify. They really were happy songs that helped me create happy things! I also set a timer for one hour. I wanted to finish things up in a short amount of time so that I wouldn't overthink things or try to complicate matters, as I am wont to do. (I will admit that I hit the snooze a couple of times so that I could put the finishing touches on!)

One of my tips for a challenge like this that has a time limit is to make sure that you have all the beads and findings (head pins, eye pins, wire, spacers, jump rings) within reach. And I also make all the earring dangles first, and then add the ear wires at the end. That helps me to maximize the time.

Then I gave myself about 45 minutes to quickly photograph the earrings and write this post. So in under 2 hours I made 8 pairs of earrings! Perfect for stocking stuffers for all your favorite people!

I think there are some winners here! I am sure that at least one of these pairs will be on my ears for Christmas, and the rest will be given away to spread some holiday cheer!

Now it is your turn.... show me what you made from your Leftovers!

Pine Tassels

Happy Holidays!

I wanted to do something special for the holidays, something nature-inspired and yet a little dressy!  Here is my version of festive pine needle tassels and holly berries! Ta-da!

Ceramic connectors by JosephineBeads 

Silky pine colored tassels secured with a vintage ornate jump-ring and

rustically wrapped faceted red rondels.

That's a wrap for 2019!  I'm looking forward to 2020 if the kind folks at EE have me back! ;D

Cheers to all,

Loralee xo

www.loraleekolton.etsy.com

Christmas Baubles

Hello Earring Folk

Nothing brand new from me this time, as I am woefully unprepared for Christmas, and it's a whirlwind of picking up people from University, and school carol concerts. However, these are fairly new (I made them for a recent showcase on Facebook) and certainly seasonal!

First of all, I made these sterling silver hoop studs and bashed them about a bit and oxidised them too, to bring out the texture of the hoops. I added some gold coloured ceramic baubles by Petra Carpreau, and some fancy silver jumprings.

I rather like the combination of gold and silver. Good for Christmas, without being too Christmasy!

That's all from me. I'll be back in 2020! Just remains for me to wish you a happy Christmas and a healthy and peaceful new year.

Sue

Utterly Lovely Stuff