En Tiempos Antiguos

Our color palette for today: blush, cream, pearl, coal. 

I'm not the type of girl who gets dolled up often. It's been more than 10 years since I wore makeup. It takes me just a few short minutes to fix my hair out of the shower. Manicures? How about serial nail-biter? Although, I do admit to loving dresses. So what is it about wearing pearls that automatically adds elegance to a look?

I don't design often with pearls because so many of them are too "clean" to suit my preferred aesthetic: grungy, organic, old-looking. So when I came across this strand of wonky etched Tibetan pearls in Tucson this year, I snatched them up. They have the perfect mix of soft pearliness and aged texture---yum! 


When designing around these, I wanted to utilize beads with a matte finish to balance out the smoothness of the pearl. I went with barrels of fossilized stegadon bone (I know!) and two wee ivory colored lampwork glass beads from Karen Elmquist, fashioned to resemble old bone beads. Add in some pitchy black filigree bead caps and cheeky little wire spirals at the bottoms, and I don't think you'd ever miss the fact that the design is so simple. 

They dangle, swing, and sing from your lobes. And they BEG to be worn with your favorite little black dress: you've got class, but you've also got grit. Git em, girl...

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

May Flowers

Welcome to May! May in Michigan is often more like "April Showers" than the May Flowers that follow, but yep, the tulips have bloomed, leaves are an inch long on the trees, and I love the smell of freshly cut grass as lawns are given their first real trim since last fall. The earth comes alive again after its dormant winter sleep. Living in a northern state, it's a time of renewal for us humans, too. We feel more alive, spend more time outdoors, and enjoy the abundance of color that's missing in the white, gray and pine green of winter. I wonder how unusual that must seem to those of you who have always lived in a warmer climate. :) 

When I decided to use flowers in my earrings for today's post I was surprised to find how many floral pieces I had. I've never considered myself flowery. :) But I had so many to pick from, and wish I'd had the time to share more than one with you. They are all so different, one from the other, and each one special in its own unique way.  

I chose the ceramic flowers made by Jana Bliznakova of Happy Fish Things because I was blown away by the fine detail, Jana's gorgeous color work, and the flower's beautiful center.

May Flowers - Ceramics by Jana Bliznakova

I paired them with two Czech glass beads, chosen specifically because Jana was born in and lives in the Czech Republic. One a deeper teal, the other a pale green. It's an interesting thing. . . I generally prefer a contrast of colors rather than "matching" the colors. Neither of the bead colors is actually in the ceramic flower, but they certainly appear to be now that they're all put together. 

The slim rice bead is Vintage Brass, blackened with JAX darkener solution. Although Liver of Sulfur jars state it works on brass, I have not been able to oxidize brass with success using LOS. If you haven't tried the JAX products, you might really like them. I use black, brown and green. 

To add a little horizontal interest, I used three elongated copper-plated links. The links are connected, and rather than put them onto the wire one on top of the other, "weaving" the wire through them creates an interesting effect.

May Flowers Earrings can be found Here

The earrings are colorful but not too bright, easy to wear, and have a nice swing. 

 Thanks for stopping by today! I hope your May is filled with wonderful color and all the inspiration you need! :) I'll be back May 17th. Look forward to seeing you then.

Thank you!

Norbel

She Flies Again Etsy Shop

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p.s. If there is anything in particular you would like to see, something you would like to know more about, or just have an idea for a post you think would be fun, please send me a message through my Etsy Shop, SheFliesAgain and I'll respond as soon as I receive it. We sincerely appreciate your visits here. :) 

Hello

Hello, 

Friday night I went to see Adele live here in Stockholm. Of course it was a totally amazing show. And  she managed to make the atmosphere very intimate despite the size of it all. Around 32 000 audience, and she said it was the largest crowd she ever played for. Adele is really such a fantastic personality. A kind of a queen.

And Saturday the king of Sweden was celebrated big for his 70's birthday. I am not a royalist as such, but still all media is totally covering the event, so you can't really escape it. Tv was broadcasting all day from the festivities in central Stockholm. And it is fun to for instance watch all the beautiful clothing of the royalties and important people of the world. Especially the women's clothing of course.

So, how has these two events inspired me this time? Well ... not at all to be honest. I am still making the same kind of jewelry I am so fond of making. In a style I like to call Classy Bohemian. Sometimes I make more classy. Sometimes more bohemian, (like the earrings I show you here for instance). Almost always I include at least one set of handmade art beads, often more. Every piece of jewelry I make is unique, one of a kind. A little dream of mine is however if the crown prinsess Victoria would wear my jewelry one day. Or why not Adele, or some other music star.

Ingredients from bottom up:

Patinated hammered copper rings - MissFickleMedia

Copper hearts with a stripy structure - DaisyChain (I do miss your bead and component shop Joanne!)

Verdigris patinated bead caps

Wooden carved beads

A selection of different beads in different materials and colors. Ethnic glass, bone, greek clay, vinyl, rubber and so on.

Crowned by a lovely pinkish red swarovski bicone

Oxidized copper wire

Handmade earring hooks in oxidized copper

Above Adele. (Photo taken by my daughter Arabella at the concert.)

Below our crown princess Victoria in the middle, in an outfit from H&M. Always supporting Swedish design.

All my best,

Malin de Koning

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Nostalgia in Reverse

 

I just had to get in on some of the Helen Backhouse's HelensBatCave

wonderful polymer clay pieces. She does exquisite painting on lightweight polymer clay from molds  ( moulds where she comes from) that she creates from shells, leaves, pods and flowers. Let me tell you these are hot items!

I squirreled away some of the raw ruby nuggets that I picked up at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show and even kept a couple of my "kerfuffle" lampwork discs and wired them up with some tiny bone vertebrae and finishing off with my favorite  Lucy Haslam  FaeryStones earwires

 I must add that Helen leaves it to to you  for the placement of the holes. I was able to use my small punch for my holes.

Long yet lightweight. Colorful and springlike

I wish you all a happy spring. I am on my yearly northward journey to Alaska to experience springtime all over again.

Thanks for looking!

Kimberly Rogers 

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/numinositybeads

www.facebook.com/groups/967164829979604/

https://www.instagram.com/numinosity/

https://www.pinterest.com/numinosity/designers-using-numinositybeads/

Nothing Ventured- Nothing Gained

Do you ever get the urge to go out on a limb and try something new? Oh if only I had a torch!!! I can only imagine the possibilities at my finger tips.  Unfortunately my living space does not accommodate this venture, but someday I hope.  Nevertheless, I fall back on what I can do, and that's paint.  I was trying to come up with a cool finish on the surface of metal.  Really loving the crackled look, I Googled how to achieve this.  Turns out you can do it with Elmer's glue, dang...that sounds easy!!  Doesn't it???

I applied enamel paint over the surface of copper, adding two different colors, one over the other.  After drying, I applied crackling gel, ( I did not use Elmer's this first go around).  The results were not as I expected so I tried to sand it off thinking I could start from scratch- NOT!!
As you can see, this removed the shiny crackle and brought out both colors of the paint as I sanded through the finish deeper. I kept going until I reached an affect I was okay with.  

They were looking a little plain, so I jazzed them up with a strip of stamped copper and some tiny copper rounds.

Not quite sure how these were going to be perceived in my shop, but I thought what the heck. Nothing ventured, nothing Gained, right?.  To my surprise they both sold right away ☺

Thanks for taking a peek and would love to hear which finish resonates with you most. 
Bye for now!  Lynn

My ETSY Shop

Yucca Bloom on ETSY

A Night Out _ Chandelier Earrings

I see these being worn on a night out. Something special, and fun. They have a bit of swing and a lot of sparkle. Created with thick sterling silver disks, mill rolled for an embossed texture. I went with Swarovski crystals for this set because I absolutely adore this blue color _ Pacific Opal. And for sparkle Swarovski's can't be matched, IMO. I think the pale blue looks fabulous next to the matte rustic finished silver. Although, I'll probably put them in the tumbler for strength... and end up sanding them again for that matte look!

What do you prefer... Shiny or matte brushed silver? 

Available at www.ArtandSoulJewelry.com

Not quite ready yet

Whenever I hit a designer block I turn back to my old passion: bead embroidery. It gives me more creative freedom, as I can place these tiny little bead treasures anywhere I like. If you haven’t done bead embroidery yet, I urge you to give it a try. There are beautiful guidebooks on the market to teach you the basics.

Bead embroidery basically comes down to gluing and sewing beads and components on a foundation and backing it with another material. I prefer Lacy’s Stiff Stuff as foundation as it is firm, easy to sew through and it will not fray. With a marker I make it a bit darker so the white will not shine through the beads. For components you can use anything you like as long as it has more or less a flat back. Here I used beautiful pewter charms from Inviciti, polymer clay headpins from Studio St James, amethyst cabochons and Lucite flowers. I glued these on the foundation with 2-part epoxy. 

Then out come the little guys: seed beads. Just sew them on the foundation in a pattern you like. You can bezel a cabochon with seed beads, using peyote stitch. You simply cannot go wrong with these little treasures.

I have to apologize, as these earrings are still a work in progress. I managed to finish just one half of the pair yesterday; the other one is still in the first phase. The ready one is also a bit a work in progress as I’m not completely satisfied. So I will fiddle and twiddle with it a bit more before I will post them on Etsy.

Thank you for looking and have I hope you give bead embroidery a try.

Janine

Esfera Jewelry

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