Serendipity With Buttons

I had no idea what to make for this week's earrings, until I sat down at my work table last weekend. There, at the table, were all the leftover beads from a bracelet I'd made last week. I know, I know I should clean up after myself, but that's a whole different story.
Among the debris, I found these buttons that I'd bought at an antique/vintage store a couple of years ago. When I made the purchase, I planned to use them to create button closures for bracelets. But I suddenly saw these buttons in a new light.

I realized they could be used like earring charms or dangles! I dug through the other beads on my table and came across these really cool, rustic ceramic discs that I'd picked up at a bead show somewhere. They have very large holes in the center, so that when I attached them to the wooden buttons, the discs covered up the button shanks.

I added some accents and connected it all with brown Irish waxed linen. I love how they turned out. It tickles me that I could come up with a new, unusual way to use some old buttons. You can find these earrings in my shop now. Thanks, as always, for visiting Earrings Everyday. We love hearing from you in the comment section!

Linda Landig Jewelry

Classic Tribal Ceramics: New Design

I can't think of too many who do rustic tribal components and beads better than the wonderful Jana Bližňáková, and I'm fortunate to have been able to create with her distinctive art components for years. I'm happy to share these earrings, featuring beautiful classic rustic matte ceramic pieces by her, constructed with not much more than lovely red glass beads and 3-ply black waxed linen thread.

I love the "perfect imperfection" of these rustic pieces, and the shapes of the pieces themselves make them conducive to fiber wrapping.  Before I start working, I make sure my hands are clean, because dirt, oil, crumbs, cat hair (💗), etc., are not your friends when you're working with waxed thread.  (I can't tell you how many times I've had to waste time touching up photos because a fiber or a dog/cat hair showed up on my photos.)  I stretch the thread to straighten it and make sure it's not too waxy.  I thread the waxed linen through their various spaces, in and out, over and back, pulling it tight enough to make a stable earring but not enough to break anything (yikes!).  When I'm through, I tie the ends and then snip off the excess and go on to the next section.  There are four wrapped sections in this design.

When everything's finished, I glue the little thread ends to the back of the components and cover them with paper, which I glue and glaze after the glue dries.  I covered these earrings with red handmade paper:

The earrings are little (about 2 inches) and lightweight.  😊

Thank you kindly for reading!  I'll see you in the second week in August. 
xoxo
Meridy

My Shop
My Facebook Page

New ceramics

Hello! Here we are, half way through April already. I've been busy working on some new earrings for a showcase over on The Jewellery Show in Facebook Land at the end of the month. I was lucky enough to come across a fabulously talented ceramic artist called Nitta Elomaki of Corvus Ceramics. She makes beautifully delicate, rustic pieces and I've had great fun playing with some. Let me show you what I came up with.

First off, these pretty green glazed charms. Beautifully textured. I wanted some length  to these earrings -so, added some pretty chrysocolla rondelles, oxidised brass connectors with pretty little green seeds. A bit grungy. A bit elegant too.

Next up -these little textured moon charms. I love these! I added some delicious textured raku beads, stacked up with tiny little greek metal spacers peeking out between them. And some little brass oxidised hoops of course, for a bit of symmetry.

Go and check out Nikki's page on Facebook. These lovelies will be available at the end of the month on The Jewellery Show
See you in May :-)

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

Ancient Petroglyph Design

Hello. We have a new guest today! Please welcome Chris Kaitlyn.

I view making earrings as making a small sculpture or painting, blending elements together until I create a design that pleases my eye. I had so much fun putting these elements together to make a colorful bold earring design. Jill Stoffregen of Foxpaws Ceramics made the focus component for the design. Jill’s petroglyph of people outlined in blue against a brick red background goes well with the blue and red lampwork glass beads from Jody Brimhall of Inspire Glass Studio. 

Chris Kaitlyn Jewelry

Years ago while reading about materials in jewelry designing I came across black annealed steel wire. I tried some and fell in love with the product. It is a sturdy wire that supports any material I need to wire to other elements whether it is gemstones, ceramics or glass. It is also easy to find at my local Ace Hardware store. I also like that it is a black to steely black color and doesn’t compete with the various elements in the design. Currently I’m using a lot of 28 gauge wire as it bends and wraps well and doesn’t wear out my hands. 

Chris Kaitlyn Jewelry

The other element in the earrings is a new one for me. I have used black and antique copper Niobium ear wires from Tierra Cast for years now, but the colored ear wires are new in my earring designs. They really lend themselves well to colorful earrings and they are made so well. The Niobium is a non-allergic metal, being free of nickel, lead, or other additives. The color is applied through an anodizing process where the metal is dipped into an electrically charged solution making the color bond to the metal so it will not flake or chip. They also make head pins and jump rings in colors, but it is good to note that just as with yarn and fabrics, the color can change a bit from one lot of jump rings, to head pins, to ear wires, but they will all look beautiful together.

To avoid getting confused I put all of one order of a specific color in its own tray and do not mix them with the next order as they can be a slightly different shade. Today’s earrings feature blue ear wires. They also come in purple, green, teal, pink, and yellow and look even better in person than in the pictures.

Chris Kaitlyn Jewelry

Thank you to the Earrings Everyday Crew for the opportunity to be today’s guest writer.

ChrisKaitlynJewelry
Chris Kaitlyn Jewelry on IndieMade
Facebook Page

Welcome Loralee Kolton!

Hello, my name is Loralee Kolton, and I've been making jewelry for about 10 years now. I was thrilled when asked to do a guest spot as I've been a follower of Earrings Everyday for some time now.

I thought I'd share a couple pairs of earrings that are just off my work table. These stunning hand charms were made by Vincent 'n Nooma of Inviciti! They look old, unearthed, and I loved them the moment I saw them!

For the first pair of earrings I used a set of filigree buttons which I purchased from Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery. They have a vintage feel and a gorgeous pearlescent finish. I wanted to add a bit of color so I wired tiny glass coral and gold vermeil beads to the center where the button holes were. 

The second pair was an interesting evolution. I had these very old twisted brass rings that at one time had been soldered. For some reason, the solder had let go and were now open. I guess I could have re-soldered the rings, but I thought it would be more interesting to cut it away and add holes for some dangles. So I cut, hammered and filed the ends, then asked my cousin to use his drill press to make some meticulous little holes to the bottom and top. I'm so excited and happy with the result! Sometimes at first, what appears to be a problem, can turn into something more interesting if you give yourself some time to noodle it out.

Thank you so much for stopping by and having a look! I love making earrings more than anything, and I'm so thrilled to share my new designs with you!

Yours truly,

Loralee
LoraleeKolton - the Etsy Shop

Scraps. . . continued

I didn't think Nathalie would mind if I picked up on her "scraps" idea. Her recent post really gave me pause. It was a good challenge for me, to pay attention to what I'm throwing away or simply tossing aside, without giving thought to what it might become rather than trash. I recycle many things in different areas of life, but I am quick to pitch loose odds and ends without thinking about it. The opportunity came up very soon.

The first pair is made from a small piece of tin I still have left from a vintage container. So in a way they're scraps. . . . but they're not really the pair that in my mind were made from scraps. :) The scraps are the second pair.

Earrings Available Here! 😊

These were made from what was left after cutting out the teardrop shapes in the first pair of earrings. It took some Dremel work to get the shapes nicely edged, inside and out. They were not joined at the top; that was where I made the first cut to begin the teardrop shape. I used a brass metal coating on the backs. They are too narrow for me to try to apply the backing I regularly use. 

I punched holes at the top of both ends. I used an aqua/green dye-oxide on vintage steel wavy disks. ***For whatever reason, those appear much deeper and brighter a color than they actually are. Strange. . . . as everything else is quite accurate. I tried lightening the photos at one point trying to soften the color. But the disks are simply not that bright.*** 

Using waxed Irish linen, I strung a single coral Czech glass bead and put both ends of the linen through the center hole in the disk, then one end through each hole in the tin, then knotting it. Pulling the strands tight caused the tin to bow ever so slightly and it looks great that way. Gives it a little bit of depth.

 I considered leaving the entire empty space empty after having tried at least two dozen different things to hang. Nothing worked. It was an odd feeling. I had all this empty space and couldn't fill it. It was baffling, actually. Frustrating too. I am not opposed to leaving empty space. Often it is what I would rather do, but in this situation I felt they really needed something.

I hung them up after finishing and left them as is. Later in the day I was looking for something for another project and stumbled on these Vintage very thin brass-plated findings. They worked, so I left them on. They are attached with waxed linen also, wrapped around the backs of the disk.

So my thanks to Nathalie for her post the other day, for making me stop to think about what I was throwing away, and giving me a new way to look at bits and pieces.

 Thank you for stopping in! I'll be back the 1st of August. Hope you are all enjoying the summer.

norbel

SheFliesAgain Etsy Shop

Visit me on Facebook & Instagram

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

Earth Rebirth

In my last post here at Earrings Everyday, I wrote about how much I was yearning for spring to arrive.  Well, it's finally here, officially at least, and for some of us the weather is even getting warmer and sunnier!  So I thought I'd make earrings that would reflect the beginning of spring, that period of rebirth and renewal, when the birds are building nests for their families-to-be, the flowers are starting to bloom, and the trees are leafing out.

I looked through my cache of earring components and opened my box of treasures by Helena Benkoczka of ARETObeadsjewellry, who (as I'm sure you know) makes uniquely beautiful earring charms.  I found just what I wanted:  a lovely pair of tribal teardrop charms in soft turquoise and purple that reminded me of the Easter celebrations of my childhood.

To go with the charms, I picked lovely streaky transparent purple lampwork rondelles by Beth Mellor of Beeboo and pretty turquoise discs made for me by my friend Barbara Steffen of Fire Spirit Beads.

I added tiny purple seed beads and turquoise jump rings, and wrapped and knotted everything together with turquoise waxed linen cording.  These pretty, softly colored earrings are the result.

Thanks so much for reading--I'll see you in two weeks!

xoxo
Meridy

My Etsy shop

My Facebook page

PEARLS OF WISDOM

 Pearls. Calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, found in the soft tissue of molluscs. Doesn't sound too romantic does it? Yet what woman doesn't love them? Timeless, classic, graceful, with a lustre that illuminates the skin. 

                                Pearl - a metaphor for something rare, fine and valuable. 
 

Rustic, cultured, biwa, keishi; natural or dyed - I use them all in my designs. But there are times when you need a certain colour - a perfect match. It's then I turn to Swarowski crystal pearls. These beautiful new leaves from Helen Backhouse in shades of rose quartz and serenity (why didn't I have my hands on these last year when Pantone made it the colour of 2016?) demand the perfect soft pink that is 352 Powder Rose. A simple yet stylish pair of hand forged fine silver earwires and bob 's your uncle. Perfect Spring earrings - light and feminine.

 

 

 

 

 

So how do you effect your match without expensive guesswork? Well, Swarowski have this clever  resource that has every shade of pearl in every shape and size all in one little bag, with a chart. I'd thoroughly recommend you get yourselves one if you use pearls regularly - mine has been invaluable. In the UK you can get one from Jillybeads and they're surprisingly inexpensive. And a good range of the pearls - priced singly too.  I'm sure one of our US friends will identify a source over there.
Don't confuse them with cheap glass pearls that chip easily - these have a high resistance coating that lasts through environmental influences.   

 

 

 

       So there's your Pearl of Wisdom - a piece of advice. You can never have too many resources to hand.

 

See you next time

 

Lindsay x

 

 

                                                                      My Etsy shop

                                                                  My Facebook page
 

Rustic Leather

hello everyone! i almost always love sitting down to write this post. sometimes having very little to say. 😊 other times having way too much i want to say. today is somewhere in between.

i have a hurt arm right now, wrist and the underside of the forearm. it's not an injury, just overuse, i believe, and that has me a bit concerned but i refuse to think about it too much. i have not been working. i'm on day 12 (starting to really twitch now), trying to rest it as much as possible but everything we do uses the arms so it's challenging, and it's only gotten a bit better, so i'll have to think about what to do next. please excuse the lack of capitalization. it's easier for me to type without using the shift key right now. i apologize. 

the point though is that i have not created anything. i decided i would make something for my post, and i would do so without using wire, as it's the pliers that hurt the most. i love wire. love it. i am not afraid of the discomfort, i can deal with that; it's what the discomfort is telling me that concerns me, so pliers are out for a bit. well, maybe next week i'll give them a try. ;) i only have so much will power to stay away!

I have made designs without wire before, but i wanted to do something more than that. 

i have been very inspired by our own kristi bowman-gruel and lynn ferro in their use of paints and other coloring agents and have wanted to try my hand at it for awhile. i've had these leather pieces for almost two years! so yes, it's been a while. the pieces were made by melinda orr of ORRTEC. melinda is a very creative woman, and my hat is off to her after i worked painting leather, something she does all the time. i originally had purchased a pair of these leather wedges already painted. so beyond being inspired by melinda, kristi and lynn, they are likely similar to the pair melinda painted. she gave me instructions on how best to go about this, and the steps she takes. i did modify the leather pieces a bit. i won't go into the long story. There's nothing to learn from it, otherwise i would. ;)

so i did the painting over a few days. i painted the solid black background, front and back, and let that dry, really dry, and then did the painting in steps, basically by color as i decided what i wanted where. it wasn't the best thing for the arm, but i was not using pliers and that was my goal. i had what i thought were the thinnest brushes but i cut one of them to an even thinner point at the tip. the areas to paint in are very small. some of the areas required repainting with black when i "painted outside the lines." :) 

after all the painting was completed, again i let them thoroughly dry. using melinda's method, i took a piece of sandpaper to them to roughen them up and age them, and bring out some of the tan-colored leather underneath. 

I strung tiny copper-plated link chain between the 3 holes. then using waxed irish linen i hung just about the last of my stash of antique venetian glass beads, more than 100 years old. i have set aside two beads for myself but other than that, this is it of the good ones.  

The tops contain copper spacers and blue green picasso finish czech glass beads on linen also, then attached to a copper-plated flat spacer ring which accommodated both the linen and the black niobium ear wires. 

i did end up having to use pliers for the six copper links which the chain is attached to; it was not pleasant, and that was a sad moment for me. 

all in all it was a challenge, really. the painting was a painstaking process but very fun to see them become. i would will definitely paint again, hopefully sooner rather than later! 

as always, i am so grateful you stopped in to check us out. i thank you for letting me share my passion with you. i do hope this finds you all healthy and well.

thank you!

norbel

shefliesagain

you can also visit me on facebook and instagram

be sure to leave a message or comment there and i will

send you a discount code for a first-time purchase! 😊

Inviciti

Happy New Year to everyone! I do hope you had some fun. 

I wrote a rather reflective post, not serious but reflective, and I thought, ya know, the hell with that! I have been in this reflective state off and on for the last couple of months and even I get tired of it. ☺ So I can only imagine how my friends might feel. And I didn't want that to happen here, too! 

So I decided to just have fun. I finally got a hold of a pair of Inviciti's color patina components. Both their dark patina and the shiny antique polished patina are very popular, and when it comes to the colorful pieces, look out, they disappear like money in my hands! By the way, they now also have a .com website. www.Inviciti.com 

This pair is tribal and colored in lovely greens, gold, rust and black. I had a conversation in my mind wherein Vincent 'n Nooma had a good laugh about -- hey, they even like our stick people! lol Vincent or Nooma, if you are reading this, I am only teasing you!! Ancient cave drawings are filled with stick people. I view a lot of ancient cave drawings, and it is true, including hunters or warriors like this guy. And I love them.

So what to do with them! These are put-on-an-ear-wire-and-wear-them components. When they are, which is often, I want to be sure to not detract from what they are, only enhance them. 

I know, I know, there is a lot going on here, but none of it, either individually or collectively, overpowers the focals. At least I don't think it does?????

I selected complementary colors but all are rather muted. The rusty orange beads are hand-dyed by Ashley Krause of DyedBoneBead. The tube-shaped beads are from Mali and are clay. Copper spacer beads help to protect the thin and often brittle clay beads. A bit of wire work in deeply oxidized copper, and topped off with green faceted Czech glass beads with a Picasso finish. Flattened brass-plated links hold vintage Kuchi clapperless bells, purchased from JewelsOfNomads. The shop has a lot of very cool stuff; prices are a bit on the high side. Just my opinion.

Thank you so much for taking the time to have a look at what we're doing here. We all appreciate it, regardless of whose post it is. :)

Take good care. I'll be back in a couple of weeks. 


norbel
SheFliesAgain

Girls just wanna have fun!

Making stuff is how I have the best fun! I feel very fortunate to have been able to share my fun with you for the last year! Thank you. Merry Christmas to you and yours, and my wishes to everyone for all good things in 2017.

Having been very inspired by Cindy Pack and her work with silver, I planned on making something with silver for this post but it didn't turn into anything "fun." :) So I switched tracks and decided that I would challenge myself somehow. Flexibility. After a few hours of pondering, I decided the challenge would be to work with Pearls. I've only used pearls twice, I believe. A friend, whose name seems to pop up in my posts often ☺, Susan Delaney, gifted me with four beautiful pairs of pearls, and I had a little stash of beautiful, small Keshi pearls from Debbie at TheFickleBead.

This post could be a veeeeeeeeeeryyyyyyyyyy long post with what went on during the time I worked to make these three pairs of earrings, but I won't; it'll be long enough as it is. ;) As an aside, I laughed out loud and read it to my husband while reading Erin's post last Friday. In no way was I laughing AT HER! She said she made 23 pairs of earrings in 2 hours! I was stunned! In awe! And jealous! lol Now, I am not exaggerating when I say that it takes me 23 hours to make 2 pairs of earrings. I truly am in awe, Erin! :)

The first pair is made with connectors that I purchased from Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy in the very FIRST order I placed with her on April 14 of 2013! I just haven't been able to give them up. :)

When I pulled out the pairs of pearls I received from Susan, I picked these first. It's likely difficult to see but they have a lovely texture and a very pretty white color. Oddly enough, I thought of these ceramic pieces almost immediately. And I love how they turned out. They are black stoneware finished with Bronze Gilders Paste. I added brass rings, the beautiful pearls, glass beads and brass at the bottom, with extremely oxidized copper wire.

The second pair also includes Petra's ceramics. I am not a fan of Picasso's work. But I loved it in this medium, and was thrilled to be able to get them. They're paired with wonderful rustic sticks of Rust and Blue Kyanite, purchased from Kimberly Rogers/NuminosityBeads, and another pair of pearls from Susan. These are smooth, glossy, round white pearls.

One of the difficulties I had throughout this project was that the teeny, tiny holes in the pearls require thin wire, 24-gauge. The lower connection was wrapped with 22- gauge on top of the 24. They sell large-holed pearls but these are not those, and they are much too beautiful to ignore.

The last pair was made with the Keshi pearls. An 18-gauge loop wrapped with 24-gauge. A separate piece of 24-gauge was used for the pearls, the

This pic depicts the purple beads
more accurately than the other

ends wrapped around the loop, wrapped a bit at the top of the dangle for stability. The pearls are thin, beautiful, peacock Keshi pearls, a lovely gray with metallic colors. The purple polymer clay beads were made by Jon Burgess of JBDRusticOrganic
and the accent beads are black, blue and green Vulcanite beads handmade in Nigeria.

   I do hope you had a bit of fun here with me today. I look forward to making the earrings and writing the post and simply being a part of this great group. When I say the "group," I mean all of you who enjoy taking a look at what we have going on. I am so grateful to all of you.

Once again, Merry, Merry Christmas
to you and yours, and all the best this life has to offer in 2017!

See ya next year!
Norbel Marolla
She Flies Again

Brick and Mortar

Once again, I'd like to welcome our lovely friend and wonderful designer, Meridy Migchelbrink, of TwoTreesStudio, and thank her as well for giving us her time to design and create these earrings special for today. I love Meridy's style, her work; she is also one of the loveliest women you will ever meet. She works color expertly! If you have not yet, a walk through her shop is joyful.
norbel

I love well-crafted, beautiful, and whimsical earring components, so when I found these beautiful, playful enamels by Marlene Kazor Quigley of Markazo, I knew I wanted to make something with them! 

The enamels begged for RUSTIC, so I went looking in my stash to see what beads I might have that would work with them (I’m trying to cut back on my bead spending—yes, you may laugh now, I’ll wait).  After no immediate success, I remembered that I still had a pair of Leese Mahoney’s, GlassByLeese, gorgeous crusty-rustic cones in a perfect shade of green. 

So I started to play.  I needed a bit more red, so I pulled out some chunky 10mm red horn discs, which looked great with the cones and the enamels.  I also wanted motion, so I made small wire-wrapped dangles in red and olive green and hung them from matching green niobium jump rings (thank you, chainmailling habit—I always have plenty of rings to choose from!).  Since I wanted to use my signature fiber-wrapped earring technique, once I got the cones and horn discs onto the linen cording, I had to weave the cording through the holes in the enamels AND through the rings, making sure the linen was wrapped tight enough around the area between the enamels and the beads (so that all was secure) before I started the decorative wraps that drape over the tops of the rings.  

When I was happy with the look of the earrings, I trimmed the cord ends and made backings from red handmade paper and glued them to the backs of the enamels to hide the cord ends.  

 

And the finished product.  Pretty, whimsical, swingy, and definitely fun. 

And they’re even a tiny bit Christmas-y—which hadn’t even occurred to me until I had finished them!  ;)

Thank you for inviting me to sit in here at EE again—I always enjoy being here with you all.  J

Meridy Migchelbrink

Two Trees Studio on Etsy  -- 

Two Trees Studio on Facebook  -- 

how do things end. . .

. . . up the way they do?

Hello! Happy November, and thank you so much for taking time out of your day to give us a look.

I don't know how others design jewelry. I've never sat with anyone else while they were designing, nor had discussions about it. But for me, very often, I don't know what I am going to end up with. Sometimes it's great; other times not so much. But either way, it's a joyful adventure and a learning experience for me. And yes, I'll admit, sometimes a little bit, or more, of frustration. 

I hear people talk about sketching their designs, and that sounds so wonderful. They can visualize the beginning and the end. I do have some visual but it often ends up different. If I'm making wire or sheet metal pieces, those I do lay out on paper. Anything else generally starts with a lot of handcrafted components out on the table, and I take the ones that yell the loudest. "Me, me, pick me! "Nah, not me, I don't feel like working today." :)

From there, I ponder a bit where I want to go; I go through colors, textures, beads in my mind until something clicks, and then I might pull out many possible complementary things, glass, bone, metal, chain, linen, etc. I often do basic try this, try that. A lot of trying. And if after whatever amount of time I find reasonable, if nothing is working for me, I go back and start again with the other things I had out that are in their containers on my table, out of the way but close enough to pull them right back. Or something else entirely might pop into my head. That is basically how it goes. Not at all scientific. There are many times that I want to work with a specific something. Sometimes I can; sometimes I cannot. I think the bottom line is that it ends up being all about how I feel. My head doesn't get too involved. There are even the rare occasions when I'm not sure how it all got put together and all of a sudden it's done! Love when that happens. :) I would very much like to know if others work in this relatively haphazard fashion, or how do you generally work? 

Over the weekend I selected these sweet, little, pale blue handcrafted ceramic drops by Lorna of Balela Ceramics. She has a distinctive soft and muted style in much of her work, yet will also throw out the most gorgeous bright and shiny blue beads here and there.

You can find these earrings here

These drops were sweet and a bit whimsical. I wanted to "rustic them up" a bit so I selected stone-like ceramic beads, also by Balela Ceramics, and a simple handmade copper bead. That was all I had at that point. So I cut a long piece of copper wire and wrapped it around once, finished up the top, and then went back down to the other end of the wire and decided to wrap a whole bunch of it in a deliberately wide and messy fashion. I would have stopped there except that there was an ugly vacant space left below the wire, which showed only the bare loop at the top of the dangle and it all looked not so nice. But I didn't want to wire all the way down; I wanted the dangle to be able to move. So I added back in a bit of whimsy and created a series of "swags" with tiny 2 and 3mm beads along the bottom, sides and back of the wire. No more empty space, and I liked the result. 

You can find these earrings here

And that is how they ended up the way they did!

Thanks so much for visiting us. I hope you enjoyed my musings today, and I'll be back in two weeks' time. :)

Norbel Marolla
She Flies Again

To Crystal or not to Crystal

Hello everyone, and thank you so much for joining us.

I rarely use crystals in my work. Not that I don't love them because I do. As an object they are fascinating. The sparkle and colors, twists and turns, are mesmerizing. And sometimes I wonder why I don't use them? I think there is still a part of my process that isn't fully open. Why can't I use a Swarovski crystal rather than a Lampwork bead? I don't know the answer to that, and I think the answer is buried underneath what I think I SHOULD do rather than doing what pleases me. This writing, what I am writing right now, has brought this to my attention and it is something I need to explore. I always say, with all honesty, that I make what I like, not what I think I should. Yet if I like crystals and don't use them, that seems to belie the fact. It's amazing to me what sitting down with a "pen and paper" can do. So you have now just witnessed a revelation! lol True. The title of this post was not "To Crystal or not to Crystal" before I wrote this paragraph! 

Okay, back to the task at hand. I love both of the handcrafted pieces in these earrings. The beautiful, celestial, pewter pieces were made by Vincent 'n Nooma of Inviciti. I think this is my favorite to date of their work. And the headpins at the bottom! When I received these, I honestly felt I could never do them justice; still don't think I can. They are one of the most unusual pair of headpins I've ever seen. They were made by Sasha Crow of CrowsCacheSupplies. 

You can view the full listing here:

I had already added the Swarovski crystal to the pewter pieces, knowing I wanted to use them, but there was nothing else going on as far as a complete design. I simply put them aside and went on to other things. I have pulled out the glass/solder headpins frequently over the last couple of months, not necessarily with the intent to use them; I just love them! Many times I thought I would simply put a bead on them that I love and keep them for myself, but that never happens. :) 

Pondering what to add to the bottom connection of the celestial pewter, the idea of clear crystals, or Crystal Quartz nuggets kept coming up as a possible, and eventually the vision of the clear glass struck and I leaped from my chair -- literally lol -- and knew that is where they would go. Adding a simple silver metal spacer and a second Swarovski bicone was perfect. 

You can view the full listing here: 

 I began to have thoughts of adding Crystal Quartz dangles here and there and more silver. . . and then I stopped myself. I thought about it, talked to myself about it. I have a tendency to want to keep going. . . I'm not sure why that is. Both of these handcrafted pieces could stand on their own, with nothing added. Yet I often persist in adding more embellishment than they need. I am really working on that!

The psychology of creativity confuses me. I've worked hard to encourage myself and allow myself to be me, to create what I want to create and be okay with it. Things changed a bit when I decided to sell my "art" in an attempt to contribute to the family income. Long story there completely unrelated, but all of a sudden I went from the joyful time spent creating to attempting to think business. I've done that most of my life, not a big deal, but THIS is very different and it became a big deal. It is still something I struggle with, but it no longer causes serious anxiety or sleepless nights. I've learned to not allow life in general to do that to me, and that includes designing and the sale of same. 

What I think is required for me, and for anyone who has that tiny (or large) feeling of insecurity about their work is to STOP (in the name of love. . .  :) comparing my work to that of other designers; no bouncing around Etsy and Pinterest viewing the work of those who are more successful than I am, more talented than I am, better at marketing than I am. Those people will always exist. There will always be those that are better than I am in all of those areas.  Loving my work and being proud of my work is a must if I am to create honest work. 

So join me in being free with your designing. Don't allow visions of the designers and shops that are more successful than you are enter into your design process. Designing that way inevitably looks contrived.

For me it continues to be a process. For the most part, I am free of it. Then a dry period, or a dry-er period comes around and the little gremlins start trying to spin the wheels. I take those little angry creatures and pop them right off their tiny stationary bikes and stop the wheels in their tracks! It is NO fun that way! 

So my bottom line is, and it's always my recommendation to en"joy" creative time; create what makes "me" happy, not what I think others might like, not what I think might sell. I think that keeps my designs honest and fresh.

Well, that was not at all the post I had planned. :) lol 

Thanks so much for stopping in. 

Yours in joy,
Norbel
She Flies Again Etsy Shop

Wire is my Friend. . . .

. . . .except when it's not! 

Hello, and Happy Day to you!

I love playing with wire. And every once in a while something fun that I can use comes of it. I don't mean the soldering kind of playing; just taking various gauges of wire and trying to make things. In recent months I've been playing around with what what I call "bead frames." I haven't yet made one that actually looked like something I'd like to use, but I keep playing.  

So speaking of wire, which is my friend so much of the time, I have two earrings for you today. Two earrings, but they don't match. And no, they're not asymmetrical in design. They are two earrings, one each of both pairs I planned to share with you today. 

So yes, I love playing with wire. It's fun, it's therapeutic, and I love putting in something a bit quirky in designs. The problem comes in when I have to repeat what I did the first time! There is nothing so complex to warrant such difficulty in either of these designs, but I spent way too much time attempting to make the second earring for both of these. 
These earrings are not at all complete either. I'll say they're "half baked." Consider it a prototype. :) They will be oxidized and look more pulled together when finally completed. The Peace Sign with charms by Vincent & Nooma of Inviciti, and the Lampwork Glass by Leese Mahoney of GlassByLeese, will be oxidized to black. That will highlight the tiny silver beads around the frame. The same tiny beads run up and down the wire connected to the charm, on both sides.

The "Scream" earrings, copper by our very own Kristi Bowman-Gruel of KristiBowmanDesign, will be oxidized and buffed back to highlight the copper loops in the center. These pieces felt so not me at all but yet I wanted them, and in the end I loved them. I had a couple of more "Halloween-like" ideas I thought I'd try, but in the end I kept it more everyday wear, the ivory and black looked much better than the white and black I initially tried. And anything colorful didn't work for me. The lava stones add a bit of rustic, which you are not getting at all from my photos. The ivory Lampwork is shiny; I tried the matte version; didn't like it. The top bead you aren't seeing well either, really. It's shiny, but it has a very full Picasso finish underneath the shine. It's an interesting bead. :) This is probably a good time to apologize for the poor photos. I have lost the best place to take my pictures in natural light. So forgive me as I struggle to figure it out, or decide to depend on a light box. 

I have no intention of dropping these designs all together; I like them and will keep going. If I decide to make a change along the way, well, that's a designer's prerogative, isn't it? And I do that a lot! ;) Truthfully, I simply ran out of time to finish for today. Never did I expect to have such a problem with these. One, maybe, even though it didn't cross my mind, but both? Well, it is what it is. 

In the "Scream" earrings, it's a wonky piece of wire work to begin with, so it wasn't at all that I was trying to make them perfect one to the other as far as the wire. But it is the kind of design that for me requires the length to be the same. With many handcrafted components it's a challenge, but these two sets were perfectly matched. But length was the main problem I was having, and similarity of the loops in a secondary way. All I did was roll three rounds of wire on the step pliers with a wire pointing in either direction at the end. The wire facing down was bent inward to become the wire that the lava stone was put on, and then into the Scream face. The wire facing up was bent down and inward to wrap around the first wire. I then took a second wire and strung it through the middle of the three loops and wrapped it up from there.

The Inviciti Peace Sign earrings were a different story. I broke several pieces of wire from overworking while attempting to get this done. I could NOT get the wire centered in the kite-shaped frame, nor could I get it to come out the same size. Measurements did no good. Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I was so frustrated. Wire DOES, in fact, have a mind of its own, and you will never be able to convince me otherwise. 

So these earrings are not yet available; they will be but I don't know when. :) I've also attached a collage of a few of the things I've done with simple wire stuff; nothin' fancy; just fun little things that add a quirky something. These earrings have all sold; some of them recent, a few of them two or three years old. Like I said, I love wire; she simply doesn't always want to do what I ask her to. It's okay though; I'll keep her around anyway. :)

So thank you for taking time out of your busy day to have a look at what we've got going on here. We all appreciate it. We also appreciate comments or questions. We very much appreciate that! I'll be back in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, please let me know if you have some fun playing with wire! 

Thank you!

Happy Days to You!

Norbel Marolla

She Flies Again on Etsy

She Flies Again on Facebook

p.s. I wanted to mention that we are attempting to organize a request for a challenge made by an EE follower. Not all of us will be able to participate, but those of us who are able will be working on it. She has requested that we each start with the same elements, a pair of "something," to see how differently we all use the same pieces. Fun idea! So we're working on it and will keep you posted. We hope you'll enjoy it.