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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Silver In All It's Glory _ Hoops Are For Any Day

I feel like silver doesn't really need any bead or color to be beautiful. It's quite lovely on it's own. And hoops are my personal go-to earring of choice. Different sizes for different occasions work wonderfully. 

Going to see Cheap Trick at the Amphitheater? Gimme the big swinging hoops! Going out to dinner with the family? Gimme the medium sized hoops! Going out to the grocery store and just need a little something on the ears? Gimme the tiny hoops. (I can sleep in those too!) Yes, I love hoops any time, any day. 

BTW, Cheap Trick is still fabulous in concert! 

I've had a HUGE amount of fun and immensely enjoyed this summer working on new jewelry for my shop. My big reveal is today! Finally, breathing easy for a day or two... taking a few days off, then I'll be back to it working on the next update! #ilovemyjob 

These are a few of the earrings I am offering in today's shop update: 

Big Silver Hoops_
http://www.artandsouljewelry.com/
Average Sized Hoops_
http://www.artandsouljewelry.com/

Tiny Hoops_
Of course you could wear these whenever you like! That's just my take on it!

Shop updates happening now.
http://www.artandsouljewelry.com/



 
 

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Working Through the Rough Spots

Hello. We are very happy to introduce you to a new guest contributor today. Her work is fresh and alive, and shows her passion for color & texture. She designs beautiful earrings, and I'll just let you see for yourself her wonderful style. Many of you likely know her and her work. Introducing the lovely, talented, delightful Meridy Migchelbrink, of Two Trees Studio

It’s kind of amazing what you can do with simple glass, copper, and fiber, isn’t it?  But it isn’t always easy to know what to DO with those simple but beautiful elements. 

Don’t get me wrong—I’ve had many “It almost designed itself!” moments, when a design comes together so easily that it feels like magic.  But I’m sure I’m not alone in admitting that I often buy jewelry components because I fall in love with them, even when I’m not sure exactly what to design with them once I have them in my hands.  
 
Case in point:  I’d had these gorgeous rustic verdigris copper daggers by Shannon German of MissFickleMedia  for months before I finally figured out what to do with them.  I mulled over ideas from time to time, trying out different beads and different concepts, but nothing sparked my imagination, at least not to my satisfaction, and I kept putting the daggers away for “later,” always later. 

When I was asked to write a guest post here at Earrings Everyday, I was happy to do it even though I’ve been going through a rough time personally for the last couple of weeks.  I knew it would be a good chance to explore the experience of pushing through the “rough spots” we all run into from time to time…and give me extra incentive to finally make the earrings I’d only been flirting with!  J

So finally I knew I just had to sit down, focus, and brainstorm.  I took out the verdigris daggers, my trusty fountain pen, and my journal and started writing down words that came to mind as I studied the daggers:  teal, green, forest, tribal, lush, textured, organic, stately, hammered, rustic, fiber, beads...and then:  guardian and sentinel.  I wasn’t sure where the words “sentinel” and “guardian” came from, exactly, but it was those words that got me to the heart of the design, the place that goes beyond form and color and medium.   

I went straight to my little stash of Helen Chalmers',  HelenJewellry, lampwork discs and pulled out the deep forest green ones, found a set of small streaky petroleum green rondelles in my store of lampie spacers, and then added a set of hammered copper spacers to my work mat, and I was off. 

Fortunately I had plenty of rustic Czech glass seed beads in the right sizes and colors and a good hoard of Irish waxed linen cord to make these earrings in the style I most love to play with.Three wraps of beads and square-knotted forest green cording later, and the earrings were finished, with only the handmade-paper backings to apply.  

It really IS amazing what you can do with simple glass, copper, and fiber (insert your favorite media here), in so many different and beautiful ways.  And it’s an endless amount of fun too.  Thanks so much for letting me share your very welcoming space here at EE, everyone!

Meridy Migchelbrink

Monday, August 29, 2016

Fetchingly Light

I'm finding it increasingly challenging to come up with designs that reflect my personal style now that so many have discovered all of the wonderful components available online in groups and shops.
That's when I fall back to relying on my own components that I haven't made available to others yet.

These earrings were created with some polyclay pieces that I made in a workshop with Christine Damm at Art On the Farm in Vermont last May.
I fell in love with the techniques she taught us as I am all about texture and lightness when designing earrings

I dug out some of my old seed bead stash to stack up on these copper enamel headpins that I got from Alaskan artist Tamie Hageland from Copper Creek Studio

I had such fun making them I had to repeat the design in a different color




These are fun and lightweight to wear and you'll see nothing like them! 

Thanks so much for looking. I'll be on a break now to go visit some of my European beady friends that I've met online along the way.
If you'd like to see pics from my trip you can follow my Instagram page here:

Adios for now!
Kimberly Rogers

Friday, August 26, 2016

3 wire headpins

So I managed to grab me a pair of 3 wire Pati Walton headpins during her recent FB headpin sale. I was fascinated and daunted by the 3 wires.  I had absolutely no idea how I would 'tackle' them.  I've only seen them being used by Lynn Ferro and Cheryl Zink.  I love these ladies' designs.  But I needed to make sure mine looked nothing like theirs - a difficult task as I kept thinking about how they'd used these headpins.

So these are the headpins in question


and this is my interpretation.


I'm really happy with the way they've turned out.  Here are a few more pictures




But once you start making earrings there's no stopping - I'm sure a lot of you will relate to this ;) So I went ahead and made some more :D


Headpins by Pati Walton
Birds by Lorna Johnston


Flowers by Elaine Thornton
Beaded beads by Ellie Bead


And lastly Ceramic decal charms by Petra Carpreau

That's it for today.  I'll be listing these earrings either in my Etsy shop or in my FB show which is currently running in the Handmade Jewellery Showcase group

Thank you <3<3<3

Suhana xxx





Thursday, August 25, 2016

East Meets West


I call these East Meets West because there is a bit of an Asian feel to these earrings. I think it's the combination of the painted Medallions and the Heishi Pearls maybe and the Turquoise Barrels always make me think of the West.


I love this color combination.
These earrings are available to purchase


Kristi

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Earthy Ceramics

I'm a big fan of ceramics and porcelains in my pieces and I'm always on the look out for new works.  I just happen to stumble across ETSY shop Butterfly Emporium who started offering these little ceramic charm sticks/slabs.  I was drawn to them for their rich color, organic textures and overall pricing.   I ended up purchasing three sets to start and all sold in just a short period of time.  They are super light in weight and all come with a wire loop.  





I love this bursting blue flow,  I just happen to have some lovely lamp-work glass caps that were some what mismatched in color, because the drops had such a variety of tones, there was no problem combining the two, ☺




Another great earthy look with more mismatched lamp work square glass beads.  Bottom pair is combined with Etched Agate rounds and porcelain spacers.


So head on over and see if there is something you cant live without,  I guarantee your gonna love em!!!

See you in a couple weeks friends, ♥
Lynn Ferro

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Blast From The Past. Fused Hoops. Cindy's Art and Soul

I am still very busy working on new jewelry for my August 31st shop update. Therefore I am going to share some earrings I made about six years ago. They are being modeled by my beautiful daughter who magically makes them 100 times prettier! Don't you agree?

Interestingly (or not?) enough, back then I was naming all my creations in order to keep track and ID them. This set I named Molly which is the name of my dog now. (fun fact!) 


I am still very proud of this design and that is why I am sharing it today.

Created with pure copper and pure silver, the hoops are fused. Fusing occurs when the metal is heated to the point of being molten and thus does not need solder. Fusing copper can be tricky, but is so rewarding, for me. I adore the rich hues of this metal and the natural patina that begins even one day after polishing. 


See you in two weeks! 
Peace.

Monday, August 22, 2016

An earring state of mind


As I am not a full time jewellery creator I have to plan my “play-with-beads” days. Usually they are on a Saturday. I make a cup of coffee, take out my bags of (art) beads and boxes of components and findings, take a seat on the dining table and start fiddling with beads.

What I create next will define what I create the rest of the day. That is just how my brain works. When I start my day creating a bracelet, I simply cannot make a pair of earrings after that. The flow isn’t right. I have tried many times but I always can tell. Usually these designs don’t sell and I take them apart. So, I stick to my routine. When the first creation of my play day is a pair of earrings or a bracelet, I stick to that the rest of the day. A few Saturday's ago I was in an earrings state of mind.


On the hunt for art head pins I came across these beautiful head pins of Elasia. The colours are absolutely gorgeous. They combine beautifully with Czech glass (flowers) and brass. The flow that day was particularly good, as I was able to make 4 pairs. 

Headpins: Elasia
Copper ear wires: Faerystones
Greek ceramic, Czech flower beads, brass.



The first two pairs have sold already but the other two are still available.


Headpins: Elasia
Copper ear wires: Faerystones
African glass beads, Czech glass, brass






 


Headpins: Elasia
Copper ear wires: Faerystones
Lampwork glass beads: Radiant Mind Beads

Brass








Do you recognize this thought/design process? Or is my brain just working a bit weird LOL. That would not surprise me at all.

Anyway, thank you so much for looking. I love to read your comments. See you on the second Monday of September.

Wishing you a wonderful week full of joy, laughter, sunshine and creative design processes.














Friday, August 19, 2016

We're All Ears :: August Reveal

Sorry for the delay! This show that I am mounting (opening on August 30th!) is busting my behind with all the work that needs to be done! And while I didn't manage to get even one fire pit in over the last two weeks, I did manage to eke out a few pairs of earrings for the challenge (double duty as they will go into my exhibit! Woot!)

When I see flames dancing and chasing the sky, I think of copper. It perfectly embodies the molten core of fire. And I also thought of glass, particularly lampwork, that would be created in a flame. Lucky for me, my hoarding tendencies are well known and I came across this little stash of copper pieces from our friend Kristi Bowman. As luck would have it, they were right next to lampwork glass swirl discs from Melissa Rediger. Sweet serendipity! Since both components are flat, I didn't want to miss out on showing off their incredible detail so I did a little bit of simple wirework to show them off. I call these Flame Dancer. (I think I may be tempted to keep these for myself! So light and glowy!)



I came across some polymer clay headpins that I made at the Inspired by Nature retreat in 2015. They look so much like the lumps of molten heat in the center of the flame. There is always a lot more color in fire than just red and orange and these have a touch of purple shades and tiny white flecks. Wrapped in rings that simulate the tangled branches of the fire pit, I call these little wonders Hot Spots.


At the end of the night, the grey ash mixed with the charred remains and the tiny spots of dying flame are as fascinating to watch as when the flames are shooting sparklers into the night sky. These are another pair of headpins I created last year with a perfectly weathered look. The headpins are on blackened annealed steel wire which I made into a frame. I wrapped a copper colored wire around that ending in random twists of wire. I call these Embers & Ash.


I really need to get my flame on and enjoy that fire pit (maybe as a reward for getting this show, "Beauty in the Broken Places" off the ground!). I think a cold beverage and some s'mores would make a great way to celebrate!

Let's see what you did. Share your blog links below.


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Thursday, August 18, 2016

German Rose Earrings

Having a huge pile of copper components by Kristi Bowman on my work table, inspired me to dive into them and start creating.  I have an art walk show coming up, so the more earrings the better.

Shameless Self-Promotion:
I won these copper pieces in a Facebook auction giveaway that Kristi had. I like the asymmetrical shape and pattern.
 I topped the copper pieces with a few Greek ceramic discs and some lovely vintage, German glass  roses.
I did some wire wrapping down the back of the roses and beneath them to keep them facing forward. To give visual balance to the asymmetrical copper pieces, I added dangles consisting of transparent  Swarovski crystals and Czech glass flowers.



Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Shady Sinner

I seem to be in the minority when I say that I really don't prefer jewelry/beads/components that include words. Which is an odd thing for me to say, being a self avowed word nerd, bookaholic, and walking dictionary. There's something about the bluntness (?) of it that doesn't appeal to me. It's hard to describe, other than you will 99.9% of the time never see these in my work. The same goes for beads and charms that feature humans or body parts. But that's another story.


HOWEVER. 

 
When my latest order of ceramic beads from the insanely talented and lovely Claire of somethingtodobeads arrived, she included a generous pair of freebies: grungy twirled smooshed ceramic beads stamped with two simple, devious, wicked words---SHADY and SINNER. 

Now, when I laid eyes on this pair, my first thought was oh, now that's cheeky. And my next thought was wait, those actually kinda go together. Followed quickly by a grin and an oh yes, challenge accepted

 
And, thusly, today's pair of earrings was born. I torched my own fat-bottomed copper headpins, strung each ceramic bead on, and then topped them with graduated stacks of rusty, crusty, patina-riddled bead caps---no two the same. I dotted the top loop of each with some silver solder, gave each earring a good oxidation bath, and then hung each from one of my long curvy copper ear wires. Swingy, potbellied little devils.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

No Bones About It

Hello Everyone. And welcome to the second half of August 2016!

I found a new shop. . . . and No Bones About It, it is filling THE missing link in my stash. Bone beads. Many, many bone beads. All hand dyed!! Rustic but not too rustic. Many different colors in a variety of sizes. The shop is new; just opened a couple of months ago, and already her sales are taking off. I'll give you just a bit more in a minute. No, the shop name is not No Bones About It, although that would've been a good one. I just like the phrase, and it is apropos.  :) 

My earrings today are my own rustic copper pieces. They started off as a square piece of 24-gauge copper sheet metal. After cutting it in half and giving it a very basic, rough shape, the rest of the work was done with a dremel, until the shape was what I wanted and all the edges were smooth. They actually had a different incarnation before I settled on this one. Originally they were meant to be vertical; it just wasn't working. So then when I turned it horizontally, the holes I had made for the first idea were not in very good places for the new look. But I worked that out by adding more and creating a design that would look great even if the holes were a little wonky. Five strands of 4mm and 10mm hand-dyed bone beads were strung on waxed Irish linen. The "handles" were a bit of a challenge, and I wasted a bit of leather, but in the end I was happy with it. It is 1.5mm natural-dye grey leather. 

The texturing was done with a simple texture hammer. The one used has two different designs, lines at an angle, and the other side is circles. Liver of sulfur was the oxidizing agent, and they are sealed with matte finish Clear Guard.  

I could have selected any number of color combinations. I considered turquoise, red and sort of a lavender/grey, but I use that palette a lot, the turquoise and red. It works great with copper. But I wanted something different, different for me. And I often use "bright" in general with copper for the contrast. So I went in a different direction this time. I decided on the peachy/lavender beads, lemon/lime, and aqua/green/turquoise :) , and the pale green 10mm beads. 

One of the awesome things about these beads is many of them have a variety in the package, or the strand. For example, the larger green beads, which have great speckles and stripes in most of this rustic strand, run all the way from this lighter green to a deep olive. 

When I find something this good, of course there is that initial thought. . . . I'm not telling anyone about this. lol That lasts about five seconds. I can't do that, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I want her shop to be successful. I think there will be many who will love her beads, and they'd eventually find it anyway; I just want to give it a jump-start. And I can "see" the wonderful work so many people will be doing with them. I meant it when I said these have filled a hole in my stash. 

Here is the basic information for the shop I've referred to. The name is "DyedBoneBead". The young woman who is the owner and the bead maker is a college student in Nashville, TN; her name is Ashley Krause. I know many of you will love it. The red type above is a link to her shop.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today. 

I am really enjoying being a part of this great group of designers and creators. We hope that all of YOU also enjoy what we're doing here at EE. We are always happy to receive your comments, and happy to answer questions. 

Thank you! And Happy Tuesday.

Norbel - She Flies Again 
You can follow me on Instagram
I'm also on Facebook

Monday, August 15, 2016

Rustic

This week I was in the mood for something rustic. Perhaps it's because autumn is on its way. I love the air in the autumn. I go on morning walks on the small road between the fields by my house. Lilo the cat, most often walk with me. He's very nice company. See picture further down :-).

Art beads:
Green ceramic charms - HappyFish

Other ingredients:
Black horn beads
Dark teracotta pony beads
Grey and aqua blue rustic glass discs
Pale yellow rustic glass beads
Hematite discs
Oxidized copper wire (messy wrapped)
Handmade earrings hooks (oxidized copper)



All my best,
Malin
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com