Throwback Thursday Favorites

I was archiving pictures of jewelry pieces I've made over the years recently, and as I was looking through my designs, I was so thankful that it's so easy now with digital pictures to keep a record of what we've done over time.... how we progress.... how our style changes.

It's also great to keep pictures of all our past work, to be able to go back and revisit old favorites, and maybe change them up a bit and offer a new updated version of the designs. I also realized that I've forgotten some of the designs I'd done (is it because I'm getting old? Or too many years of design work? Maybe a bit of both...)

So today, instead of making and showing you a new pair of earrings, I wanted to show you a few designs I had almost forgotten, but love so much - hopefully they will inspire you with some new design ideas!

One of my favorites is wire wrapping. Some wire wrapping with unusual pairing (pearls and Labradorite - these pearls were huuuuuuge and almost perfectly round - just stunning), or incorporating some wire work in building unusual shapes.... like the triangular design of the Tribal Turquoise earrings below:

Large Freshwater Pearls, Labradorite, 14kt Gold Filled wire wrapped Earrings

Tribal Turquoise and Sterling Silver Earrings

Designs vary from what appears to be a complex chainmaille design in Copper and Sterling, to the simplest of creation (a gemstone dangling in the middle of a chain -> that one made the front page on Etsy back in the day and was a popular seller for me for a little while):

Kings Scale Copper and Sterling Silver Mystic Topaz Earrings

Fancy twisted cut Amethyst on a simple sterling chain - Made the front page of Etsy

We can't forget hoops! They come in all sorts of style (I never get tired of 'em):

Triple Sterling Pink Tourmaline Soldered Hoops

Summer Daisies Fine Silver and Sterling Silver Rustic Hoops

Tanzanite Vine Sterling Silver Hoops

So what about you? Do you enjoy looking back and revisiting some of your past work? Do you use them as inspiration when your muse has taken a vacay? Do you have a favorite technique (chainmaille, wire wrapping, soldering, viking knit, cold connections, stringing, etc) that you tend to go back to or incorporate every chance you get?

I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me. I hope that I will eventually feel well enough to be able to make more of these designs again, but if not, I'm going to go with the flow, and see where the currents take me.

You can find my latest jewelry designs in My Garden Of Love Etsy shop HERE, as well as my handmade jewelry components.

I want to wish my fellow Canucks a very Happy Canada Day (150 years!!!) as well as a Happy 4th of July to all of our dear American readers!

Cheers,
Nathalie
My Garden Of Love Etsy Shop
The Crafty Tribe Etsy Shop

La Serenissima

La Serenissima - the 'most serene republic' of Venice. Unbelievably, it was only two weeks ago I was there with my sister (her 65th birthday treat), my brother in law and him indoors. It's the time of the Bienniale, and the city is full of art installations.

Do you find the same - once you get home, back to the routines of work, child care or whatever takes up your busy day, holidays seem to fade quickly? Thank heavens photographs enable you to relive the highlights.

I'd intended to write this week's blog about my visit and spent the days searching for inspiration for the earrings.

The first thing that strikes you in Venice is the colours.  The lagoon and canals - the blues and greens of the water, the black and gold of the gondolas lined up at sunset ready for the evening; and the buildings lining the Grand Canal - many of them old palazzos, some still family homes, some hotels.  Terracotta, sepia, peach, cream, white. The green of the algae where building meets water. Every one majestic.

              The colours are alive in my head. And in my photos. Still, no idea for earrings!

We arrive home to a pile of mail, among which were packages from Linda Younkman and Patricia Ritchie. Have a brew, open the packages. Never mind unpacking - that can wait!   And there they were, waiting to be put together. In Linda's enamels were all the colours I had been looking at for the last four days - and the black waves - they were the gondolas, lined up at sunset, the moon rising over the grand Canal. Echoed perfectly by Patricia's lampwork.

 

I'll be back in  three days, as I'm covering a spare day - and I'll be looking at another important and very old tradition in Venice - masks. Hope to see you then.

 

Lindsay 

 

 

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Beach Walk

Me, about 1966, on the Washington coast

Do you walk the beach with one eye on the waves and the other eye scanning the sand for sea treasures? These earrings look like I had emptied my pockets after a day at the ocean and had gathered together my best finds.

Spiral sea shells, tiny stars reminiscent of starfish and vintage coral (I never buy new coral, because coral reefs are dying in much of the world).

It's almost as if you could hear the roar of the surf while wearing these earrings - the next best thing to being there.

Me, backpacking on the Washington coast, about 1974.

Linda Landig Jewelry

The best-laid plans

Hello lovely peeps,

How are you all doing? I hope you are enjoying wonderful weather. Here in Greece we had unusually cold and wet weather for the month of June. But summer has arrived. It is 9 AM and 30 degrees Celsius already. 

And I have to apologize (again). You know how it works...you have a to-do list, you planned it all and well.....it didn't quite worked out the way you thought it would. 

The reason why I wasn't able to make new earrings is a wonderful one, though. Friends from the Netherlands visited and we had a wonderful weekend together. Swimming, walking around Nafplio, having diner and wine, laughing, talking. They are on holiday here in Greece and for this weekend we were feeling like being on holiday as well. Just being lazy and spending time with friends. 

So, my earrings for today are a pair I made in 2015.

 It is a wonderful way of using left-over beads. Lots of movement and light weight.

Thanks for looking and I hope to see you in a couple of weeks. With new earrings!

Wishing you a wonderful day,

Janine

Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop

My website/blog

My facebook page

These Earrings Had to Have Chain

Lately in some of my earring designs I've been searching out different elements and colors than I usually favor, mostly as a way to push myself out of my comfort zone a little, which in turn seems to help to keep my creativity sparking.  

This week's earrings feature a pair of Nicola Morse's brass paint effect-and-resin charms:

The charms themselves are Different Element One:  I rarely use gold or gold-tone metal.  Even so, they're so beautiful that I couldn't resist them!  I decided to pair them with lampwork glass--glossy blue discs by Helen Chalmers and small streaky mango-colored rondelles by Beth Mellor. 

Different Element Two was kind of randomly imposed: I'd decided that these earrings had to have chain, something I've almost never used in my earrings.  Somehow the delicate gold-filled chain I found finishes these earrings perfectly.  I used gold-filled head pins to wire-wrap 2-mm round turquoise beads and 11/0 gold-plated seed beads to each segment of the chain and hung them all from gold-filled jump rings. Hey, once I decided to go gold, I went all out!   😉

They're long, lightweight, and swingy.  They'll be in my shop soon.  

Thanks so much for reading about my adventures in golden charms and chains.  I'll be back in a few weeks!  💗

xoxo

Meridy

My Etsy shop

My Facebook page 

  

  

Welcome Sue - Utterly Lovely Stuff!

Hello! I’m Sue Robinson from Utterly Lovely Stuff and I’m utterly (sorry!) delighted to have been invited to do a little guest spot on Earrings Everyday! What a thrill! Especially as some of my very favourite jewellery artists contribute here.

So…I was told to create a pair of earrings especially for the blog, and tell you a little about them. This was no hardship, let me tell you as making earrings is one of my favourite things to do. 

This pair features components from one of my absolute favourite artists (whose beautiful pieces feature regularly here on EE) Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth. I love her rustic, natural style, and think the coppery glaze on these ceramic drops is just beautiful. 

I popped these drops on some copper hoops, loosely wrapped with some pretty, coppery seed beads to pick up the orange hue in the glaze and added another favourite component - recycled glass chunks. I have a friend who goes to South Africa and picks up these recycled glass chunky beads for me from a local bead shop, so I have a plentiful supply of them! A good job as I seem to use them in lots of designs at the moment. I finished these off with some pretty enamelled headpins, made by a clever jewellery friend, Charlotte Rosser of Wild Strawberry Designs. (Link not available.)

Hope you like them! There’ll be over in my Etsy shop Utterly Lovely Stuff.

Thanks for having me!

Sue Robinson

Utterly Lovely Stuff

You can visit me on Facebook as well

I really love these!

Hello everyone. I do hope your week is off to a great start.

This is one of those longer posts I find myself writing now and then. 😃

While making, every once in a while something magical happens and I remember very clearly what it is that I love so much about creating. Those of you who are makers will understand, I think, and I'm sure there are many other things in life that others can relate to, things that create the same feeling: maybe holding your grandchild; sitting with your favorite pet on your lap or at your feet while reading a great book; looking out at the water on a clear, crisp, fall day, trees filled with colorful leaves. That last one is another one for me. They are incredibly special times that create emotions that at least I don't live with regularly. But it's also something that is difficult for me to put into words.

I say every once in a while because for me that is how it works. It is not something that happens every time I create something, even if I love the result. There are many days where it is nothing more than a practice of habit. . . . . I sit at my worktable, pull out a hundred and one things and try to "feel" what works that day. And that can change from one hour to the next. Something I'm excited about can quickly turn to "what was I thinking" after frustration and a break away help me see things more clearly.

But this day, these earrings, the magic happened.

I had these sweet bell ceramic pieces fired with a glazed called "Poppy Fields" for only a week or two. They were made by friend-to-many and Ceramic Artisan Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy. These were not the only pieces I had out on my worktable. At least a half dozen others and I was not at all focused on anything when for whatever reason the rusted tin ceiling tiles that I cherish crossed my mind. And it simply took off from there.

I knew I wanted thin strips, not really sure yet what I was going to pair them with. I cut them out and as I was shaping and filing, the bells became the focus. My idea was to use white acrylic paint to give them a "whitewash" kind of look but pulled out colorants made by Vintaj instead. Testing the coloring on the back of one, in a split second I knew it was exactly what I wanted. It's a white/blue color named "marine."

The rest of the design went along smoothly but at this point the feeling was already there, and it lasted throughout the remainder of the making and far beyond. Even still, I get an unearthly tingle inside when I look at them. Now, I know that they are simply a pair of earrings, and they may not even be something that many will like. But the feeling doesn't depend on those things. It comes from inside. It's a joy that creating sometimes creates. It is what it is. And I am very grateful to be able to experience joy.

Like so many of us do, I spent many years of my life raising a child, earning a living, keeping a house, taking a bit of time now and then to visit with family and friends, dealing with illnesses and a whole host of other "life" happenings, and keeping so busy that I never slowed down long enough to let the mind and body completely relax and let this brand of joy come.

This feeling, this joy that I'm talking about, comes to a quiet mind. I had a brother just 18 months younger than I, until he left us much too soon at age 47, who told me how being on the golf course was the only time his mind shut down. I could not understand that because I had never experienced it, . . . until I began creating. Then I understood exactly what he meant, and what an incredible thing to be able to stop the mind from its constant meandering all over the place. It mostly ponders the past, the good, the bad and even the indifferent, things that mean absolutely nothing at the moment, rehashing old material and old emotions for no good reason whatsoever, or it ponders the future, the when this and when that, then I'll whatever. What a waste of all the brain power we have. Focusing on something one loves to do and that requires focus and concentration is incredibly healing, agree? I'm pretty sure you know exactly what I mean. :)

Back to the earrings, I debated for a bit putting the tiny, matte finish, faceted glass beads along the edge of the tin. They're a great pink with orange undertones, and I thought I would love it but was concerned about adding three more holes to the thin strip. After weighing the pros and cons, and deciding that re-making the strips was not that time consuming, that I could make them again if I had to, it was something I had to try and it worked so well. It was just another moment of "I Love These!!"

And I really do. To me they are very special. They will always be a highlight for me. . . . . at least until the next time. :)

Thank you! Thank you for stopping in; thank you for listening to the musings of my mind; and thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts with me, if you are so inclined.

I'll be back on the 4th of July! See you then.

Sincerely, and with wishes for joy to each of you, each and every day.

norbel

SheFliesAgain

You can also visit me on Facebook and/or Instagram

Earrings Everyday Subscribers receive a 10% discount in my Etsy Shop

Use Coupon Code EARRINGSEVERYDAY anytime

Large things become lighter when acrylic

Large things become lighter when acrylic.

Ingredients:
Transparent olive green/gold facet very large acrylic beads, 25x15 mm

Abalone mosaic cylinder
Tectite charm
Brass wire and findings
Handmade Sterling Silver earring hooks, heavily oxidized

All my best,

Malin

www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

We're All Ears :: June Reveal :: Lightning Bugs + Fireflies

After spending almost a whole week in Milwaukee for the Bead & Button show and turning around this week to chaperone 10 dancers at a pre-collegiate dance invitational, that didn't leave much room for making earrings. But it is my party, so I have to be sure that at least I set up the space to allow everyone else to have fun!

I decided to whip up two pairs of earrings: one inspired by the look and shape of the actual firefly beetle, and the other inspired by the lights dancing around in the night forest. (To see the inspiration, please click here.)

I gave myself one hour to make, photograph and post. A true quickfire challenge!

Here is the first pair called Lampein for the Greek word that their species, Lampyridae, comes from and literally means "to shine," It is funny that this rather unassuming and rather drab looking winge beetle (they are not flies at all!) can produce such a wonderful nighttime light show!

And the second pair I made is called Flashy Flirt for the playful way they do their mating dance in the dark of the forest.

Now it is your turn! If you made some earrings for the Firefly challenge, please share your link below. If you didn't make any and want to do your own quickfire challenge, please join in the fun! The LinkTools will be open for one week. And don't forget to hop around and see all the fun nighttime summertime earrings that were made!

Ocean Turtles

A couple of weeks ago, I made some new cute polymer clay Turtle Charms using some of my favorite ocean and beach inspired colors. I made some extras so that I could design a pair of earrings for today's blog post :)

I had this design in mind for several days. I just had to put the components together.

And.... here's the result:

I have a few of these cool stick pearls that I've been wanting to use for some time. I thought they would go really nicely with my little turtles... what do you think? I added some cute little summery chunks of real Turquoise, and sparkling sunny glass seed beads, all strung on sterling silver wire.

My new handmade Turtle Charms are available in my Etsy shop HERE in a few different colors. 

I also have some nice Handmade Polymer Clay items in my clearance section at 50% OFF (yep!). Sweet deals, if you're interested :)

These earrings have sold within a few minutes of me showing them off on Facebook as I was writing this blog post, but I do have other one of a kind pairs of earrings listed in my Etsy shop.

Have a great Sunny weekend!
Cheers,
Nathalie

Visit my Etsy Shop for Handmade Polymer Clay Jewelry supplies: My Garden Of Love
Visit my Etsy Shop for my Digital Downloads Designs: The Craft Tribe

When simple might be best.

Hello! How are you all? Feels like a good while since I've been here.

I hope you enjoyed Jetta Sellers' post yesterday. She is a sweetheart, and her work is great. Loved the Lettuce Leaves!

So simple. . . . the word simple really means something like having only one element, not compound. So the word itself may be improperly used here, but by simple I mean not complex, not complicated. So although that is not the definition of simple, in the context we use it, I think it's still the right word. When you look for an antonym of complicated, you get simple! lol

I am the least likely person in this group to talk about simple. That's a good enough reason, I guess, to talk about it! It's likely come up before. Sometimes I lose sight of what I'm actually creating, get carried away, and a pair of earrings could be put together and become a necklace! So I do like to try to focus on simple sometimes.

But about 4:00 yesterday afternoon, I still had nothing made for this post, let alone wrote the post, so when I sat down at my worktable I decided I was going to do simple. . . . really simple. So that's definitely one time simple is best.

For me, it's the artisan beads. So many of them, ceramic, lampwork glass, metal, polymer clay, are so perfect as they are, that they often sit in my collection for a long time, maybe forever, because they're beautiful works of art to me. They are the art form I collect. And so many times, the thought of adding something to them seems really wrong. It's very difficult to enhance something that I see as perfect. You wouldn't dream of taking one of Monet's Lilies series and add to it, to "enhance" it. Yeah, that's an extreme example, but to me it's the same thing. The only difference is that the artist that creates them, makes them specifically for the purpose of us adding to them. So of course, it's what we do. So here are my earrings for today:

These earrings are available for purchase in my Etsy Shop here

The beautiful ceramic components in the earrings, by Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy, I've had for a good while now. I have worked with them on a number of occasions and nothing ever felt right. They are just too cool on their own. Knowing that this is a huge decision for me, I decided to simply add one dangle to the bottom connector AND NOTHING ELSE. Nothing! :) I might have done that another time, but would certainly have worked on the top, also. But I stopped. And I love them. Really love them. That was a great lesson for me. What I added were three pieces on each, two silver metal beads and one rustic, natural Turquoise disk nugget.

Previously when working with them I was picking up on both the periwinkle color that you see on the earring on the right -- it's  minimal but it's there -- and they both have a bit of turquoise around the edge of the bronze clay that Petra uses in much of her work.

So being in a crunch is certainly one time simple is good. But it does have other benefits if one is able to make simple. I say"able to make" because using only a few pieces and making a fabulous pair of earrings takes great talent. It's not easy, not for me. So it's an exercise I should take up more often.

The other benefits include keeping the weight down, which for me has become an issue. I can't wear heavier earrings any longer. They hurt and pull down my lobes. Another benefit is price. Less materials, less time, equals lower price. That provides more women the opportunity to purchase handcrafted artisan earrings, often made with artisan beads, at a lower price point.

That's it for me today. I hope you are all heading into a fun-filled summer.

As always, we thank you for stopping in and spending a few minutes with us.

Happy Days to everyone. 

All the best, 'til next time!
Norbel

SheFliesAgain

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will provide a 10% discount in my Etsy shop.

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Welcome Jetta Bug Jewelry!

Exploring Different Styles

                Hi All! I am so excited to have been invited to be a guest on Earrings Everyday. My name is Rejetta. I have been playing with beads and jewelry for over 10 years. Some of you might know me better as Jetta Bug Jewelry.

                Along with making jewelry as the muse takes me, I have done pieces for magazines. Stringing Magazine, in particular, always had tight reins on what themes, materials, and colors they wanted for each issue. This stretched my comfort zone on more than one occasion. My style is more whimsical/ floral/ vintage with lots of artisan beads.

                Now I am addicted to trying new styles of jewelry making on a regular basis. It really allows me to expand my bead buying binges in all new ways!!

                Right now I am creating mostly in the Goth and Vintage Assemblage genre. The first pair has yummy, grungy black ceramic hearts headpins dipped in a shiny blood-red glaze from Bo Hulley Beads. I had some large black rings from Metamorph Supplies I wanted to attach the hearts to but felt they weren’t size compatible. So I whipped out my annealed steel wire and used my ring mandrel to form rings a bit smaller. Now I see a web with my wire rings for the little black widow hearts to rest.

Available at JettaBugJewelry

                The second pair of earrings started with these great, gray ruffly leaves and a stash of mica shift heishis that I had to have but never could figure out how to use. The two together looked so perfect but a bit feminine. I guess the ruffles on the leaves reminded me of ladies petticoats. So I started digging in my box that is mostly bling and vintage assemblage pieces and added some square rhinestone spacers. Then some long horse eye blackened bronze ear wires and I am in love…

Available at JettaBugJewelry

I hope you enjoyed my ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Lettuce Leaf’ earrings. And thanks for allowing me to be a guest and play with more earring ideas.

                Remember, touching beads everyday is good for the soul J

Jetta
My Shop on Etsy - JettaBugJewelry
Jetta Bug Jewelry Facebook Page

And yet another make-over :)

Currently I am not only going through my somewhat enormous stash of beads and "force" myself to use some long-hoarded ones. I am also going through my inventory and select pieces which haven't found a new home for quite some time. Which I take apart and try to make something from the beads.

Yesterday I decided to take this pair apart and create something new with the beads. I made this pair in 2015.
To challenge myself even more I allowed myself to only grab two boxes of my bead stash to see what I could use.
They were made with glass headpins from Earthshinebeads, lampwork disc beads from Debbie Sanders, some Czech glass and vintage lucite
.

And I found some wonderful beads in the two boxes to create my first pair with the glass headpins and Czech donut. I used some lampwork glass, Swarovski crystal rondelles and Czech glass. 
I love Malin's stacked earrings. She definitely is the stack earring queen to my opinion. This pair is an attempt to make a pair of my own.

For the second pair I combined the glass disc and vintage lucite with sari silk, Czech glass and silverplated bead caps.
These are longer ones as the previous pair, but lightweight and comfortable to wear.

What do you think? I believe the new pairs have much more character than the original one. 
These will be available in my shop in a short while.
Wishing you a wonderful day,

Janine
Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop
My website/blog
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A new design.......

was born last week. 

I wanted to include a cluster of flowers and this is what I came up with.

Lampwork, druzy discs and Marc Chagall drops.

Vintage beads and Frida drops.

Lamwork, Roman glass discs and Goyo drops

Lampwork and Shimura drops.

Lamwork and Klimt Tears drops. 

All the decal drops are by the lovely Petra Carpreau

Sorry about the picture only post :D (I actually held back...there's more ;)).  The Klimt Tears pair is now available in my Etsy shop.  Hope you like them and have a fab weekend.

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Vintage Blackberry

I've always liked the jewelry of earlier centuries, which I guess shouldn't be too much of a surprise given that my formal education focused on the Medieval period.  Oddly, though, I'd never really been interested in making vintage-inspired jewelry until now.

You see, a while back I was in need of beads, and I found some beauties in Serena Thomas's Etsy shop, Taneres. Though I usually don't use this type of bead, these lovely, vintage-looking violet-pink-and-yellow beads...

...really appealed to me, so I bought them (well, of course I did!).  Then a week or so later I found these porcelain earring components by Mari Carmen Rodriguez Martinez:  

It was the proverbial match made in heaven!  The colors of Mari Carmen's beautiful charms worked perfectly with Serena's beads, and their shape provided a lovely frame for some very pretty Swarovski "Blackberry" pearls.

Also featured in the earrings are TierraCast antiqued copper bead caps and Swarovski Crystal Lilac Shadow bicone beads. 

I'm really enjoying exploring new things these days.  I hope you're having a wonderful time with whatever creative path you're on.

I'm heading out of town tomorrow, but I'll be back in a few days.

Love to all...and I'll see you in two weeks. 

xoxo

Meridy

My Etsy shop

My Facebook page

 

A New Riff on the Criffles - Topsy Turvy

Many of the components I make aren't exactly matching.

That's the case with a batch of polymer clay pieces I made.

I love how they automatically lend themselves to asymmetrical designs.

I am especially fond of reverse placement in my designs on earring pairs.

Balanced yet more compelling to my eyes with the different placement of the components.

Paired with some of my lampwork "criffle" discs

Topsy and turvy (hmm, those words by themselves are just a bit weird. I think I've felt both topsy and turvy at different times)

These earrings have lots of splash and length but are very lightweight.

How about you? Do you like designing asymmetrically?

Thanks for visiting and Happy Summer creating!

Kimberly Rogers of NuminosityBeads

www.numinositybeads.etsy.com

Wonderfully Weird.

In my beads/gems/findings (et al) storage system I have a drawer labelled 'Odd Stuff'. It's for stuff that just doesn't fit anywhere else.

It's mostly filled with things I have got from our own Kimberley Rogers who obviously shares my love of all things weird, wonderful, edgy or gothic. Wacky headpins that look like larva, guitar picks or something equally weird, tektite chunks, odd shaped rocks etc.

And so to this week's earrings. I just couldn't resist these new headpins of hers - she calls them Combobulations - crusty, pitted, shiny, great shape and colour but look at those evil little tongues of flame poking out from the bottom! Positively devilish.

I was a bit stumped as to what to put with them, so of course they sat on the table for a couple of weeks waiting for inspiration to strike.

 
 





Then  I looked into the 'odd stuff' drawer and there were the perfect chunks of deep blood red agate (looks like glass). Stacked with some new silvery Czech glass rondelles and popped on my favourite dark grungy studs and there you are. 

 

 

 

On Saturday I'm off to Venice for a few days - we are celebrating my sister's birthday in style, staying on the Grand Canal in the kind of faded grandeur only Venice can provide. I'll be reporting back in my next post - hoping to find a good Murano glass bead shop of course!

 

See you then

 

Lindsay x

 

Mt Etsy shop

 

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