Openwork

Hello, hello!!  I'll be on my way to the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, WI in a few hours!  It's such a thrill to be around other people who also share the same passion.  You'll see no eye-rolling...or hear, "Omg, is she talking about beads, again?"  Without a doubt, everyone at B&B is as crazy in love with beads as you are ~ and cheers to that!

While I'm there, one of my missions will be hunting for the unusual.  I love looking for interesting shapes and textures.  Here are a couple of cool pieces that I felt were just wonderful together.

The top beads are vintage, circa 1950.  They are made of glass in a rare beehive openwork pattern.  I paired them with some newly created enameled charms, also in a openwork pattern, made  by Marie Demicco of Spurwink River Arts.  Although the enamel work is not vintage they share a wonderful old soul that works beautifully. 

So, I'm off to go hunting now ~ Wisconsin here I come!   Along with shopping, I'm also taking a slightly more advanced (then my last) metalwork class.  I'm pretty excited about that, too!

Thank you for stopping by! 

Until next time, hopefully with new goodies to show and tell -  xoxo . 

Loralee :)))

Loralee Kolton ~artful in beads

Ancient Faces

Hello!
So I made these earrings a few days ago. I was hoping to create something brand new today, but completely ran out of time, but I'm happy to make these the star of the show!
There are lots of jewellery components featuring faces at the moment. None more beautiful (in my opinion!) than Natalie of Peruzi's. These exquisite faces are made from polymer clay and have a beautifully bleached, ancient look. There is some pretty orange mosaic detailing at the top of the faces, which I matched with beautifully rich amber rondelles

I've framed the faces with two different kinds of brass hoops, and added some pretty, rustic indonesian beads

So that's it from me for a couple of weeks! These pretties will be available at the end of the month over on The Earrings Show in Facebook Land :-)

Sue x
Utterly Lovely Stuff

We're All Ears :: June Inspiration :: Kaleidoscopes

Did you ever play with one of these as a child?

Buy yours here.

The text on this item says that you twist to create millions of mosaics, which inspires creativity and imagination and is fun and safe for all ages. Indeed! Now this is the kind of handheld device that kids should have access to. I was fascinated by them. Perhaps that small toy informed my love of color and pattern to this day.

Kaleidoscope animation via Wikipedia

Kaleidoscopes were invented by Sir David Brewster in 1817. This optical instrument has two or more mirrored surfaces tilted at an angle so that objects on one end are seen as a reflected, ever-changing pattern. "Kaleidoscope" is a word from Ancient Greek meaning καλός (kalos), "beautiful, beauty", εἶδος (eidos), "that which is seen: form, shape" and σκοπέω (skopeō), "to look to, to examine",^[4] hence "observation of beautiful forms."

Brewster thought that these "perfectly beautiful and symmetrical forms" would be of great value in "all the ornamental arts" as a device that creates an "infinity of patterns." I couldn't agree more! I am hugely inspired by the shifting patterns of kaleidoscopes. Wouldn't it be cool to be in one? I found this image from an exhibition in 2012 where a child was walking through a human sized kaleidoscope at a Ripley's Believe It Or Not location. So cool!

And as I am wont to do, I fell down a rabbit-hole and discovered a type of "dancing" called finger-tutting and this group from Japan that was in the Asia's Got Talent show is clearly talented doing what they called "finger kaleidoscope." No mirrors, just three guys with very agile fingers creating mesmerizing shapes. Enjoy!

So if you happen to have a childhood kaleidoscope (or if you don't you can check out this video animation), I encourage you to pull it out and travel back to a simpler time when a handheld device meant turning a tube of colored bits of glass and marveling at the ever-shifting patterns and colors brought enjoyment for hours!

See you on Friday, June 15th for the reveal of Kaleidoscopes!

Easy Breezy Summer

When I sat down yesterday to make something for today's post I gave myself guidelines, not at all what I usually do. But the requirements were, only a Few Components (Easy), Lots of Movement (Breezy), Colorful (Summer), and Lightweight (back to Easy ;). Lightweight to me is anything under 0.22 oz, 6 grams and under. Once the earring gets up to around 0.20, it is definitely still lightweight, but the older I get, the less tolerant my ears are for weight. Something we've talked about here before. So I'm really happy when I can keep them around 0.18, all of which these are. But it does really limit what I can do.

Weighing the components in the top pair, I knew it wouldn't work if I used wire, so I wrapped them with teal waxed Irish linen. They still swing because the linen is wrapped onto soldered jumprings, so they move a lot. The other two pairs I used wire, using the X wrap that always adds a bit more of a rustic/edgy feel to me, and I was able to kept them all within the lightweight limits.

I also planned to make lovely, light and airy pictures to go along with the Easy Breezy vibe, but by the time I had them ready to photograph, it was 8:30 last night and we were in the middle of a thunderstorm. So quick-on-slate pictures is what I ended up with, and gratefor for them I was! :) I hope you can use a little imagination.

See what I mean about the imagination? The pics just don't do the summery, colorful earrings justice.

Top left: Bird Wing Manified Ceramic Slices by Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy - Lampwork Glass by Terry Turner of SilverFishDesigns - Raspberry Enamel Copper Beads by Alison Page of AlisonPageStudios

Center: Enameled Copper by Alison Page of AlisonPageStudios - Lampwork Glass by Julie Burgard of Outwest

Bottom Right: Summer Sunrise Ceramics by Jana Bliznakova of HappyFishThings. The other pieces are vintage acrylic and Indonesian glass.

I do hope you are all having a wonderful Spring. . . . . it's been Summer Weather here for a while now. Weather we used to have in July, maybe, for a few days, seems to have become the norm, and months earlier. 95 in May, in Michigan, is just weird! lol Lots of people love it, so for all of you I am very happy. :) I wish everyone the Best Summer Ever!

Thank you for stopping in and letting me share my stuff with you.

norbel
SheFliesAgain

Unfurling.

A quick fill-in post from me today. It's been a lovely week here for half term and I've spent a lot of time in the garden.  We all get excited to see buds start to bloom but how often do we really take notice of the leaves beginning to unfurl?
No-one notices the beauty of leaves quite like Helen Backhouse. As well as being a painter and illustrator by trade, then branching out into making the most beautiful polymer clay pieces, she's also a very accomplished photographer and has a real knack for picking out the less obvious features and textures that others would pass over. 
Take these furled leaves; the colours and textures are lovely but the way she has shaped and curved them round is so unusual. The copper 'leaf' headpins complement them well, along with the carved bone beads in honey shades (Numinosity ) and the 'pop' of wine in the greek ceramic cornflakes - one of my favourite staples, and now in several new colours from Smitten Beads.

 

 

 

Organic and rustic - hope you like them. Tell us what's looking particularly good in your garden just now? And I'll be back in two weeks!

 

Lindsay

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook page

 

 

 

Snakeskin

Incredibly beautiful Lampwork Headpins by Janell Nelson with Copper "Snakeskin" Bails.

Lampwork headpins are one of my favorite things to use and I'm always looking for ways to use Snakeskin in my copper work.

Super cool and unusual!

These earrings are available here in my etsy shop.

*Snakeskin Earrings*

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook

The Metals

Hi everyone, it's busy busy in the Hart household so another sweet little post from me featuring some of my newest painted metal components. I hope you like them.

First pair with some unusual shaped connectors.  These were very fiddly to paint (only 6mm wide), I don't think I'll be in a hurry to paint more of these.  I added brass caps and tubes on top and Czech glass flowers.  I also added some chain and stars.

For these I used slightly curved brass tubes and added various brass findings including some silver plated brass crowns hiding inside the raw brass caps.

Final pair similar to the first but I've turned the top section upside down to give them a slightly different look.

These are available in my Etsy shop now.  I'll be back in a couple of weeks time, hopefully with newer designs.  Until then, have a lovely weekend <3

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Buttoned Up Beads