MONKEY in the MIDDLE!

In trying to figure out what I wanted to design for today’s post, I came across these simply adorable copper enamel monkey charms from Anne Gael that I had completely forgotten about. I just love the colors and how the daisies ⚘⚘ cover the monkey🐵 faces – they make me laugh every time I look at them!

I wanted to keep these earrings as lightweight as possible, and as I went through my bead stash, I just wasn’t having that “aha” moment. And then I remembered these fun, hand-formed polymer clay flowers I made a few years ago…just maybe they would work. Since the flowers are really meant to hang horizontal (what was I thinking?), it took some engineering to attach them so they would be visible from the front.

By keeping the second “arm” of my wrapped loop long, I was able to feed it through the center of the flower and attach it to the wire above and behind it before snipping it off. Then I just worked the first “arm” as usual – walla! To keep a carefree and whimsical vibe to the design, I added a collection of copper seed beads and Czech glass on waxed linen cording to hang from beneath the flowers – super cute and fresh as a daisy!

    

I would love to hear your thoughts, and ideas for future designs!

These earrings will appear later today in my etsy shop, TwinklingOfAnEye

You can find other earrings on my fb page.

Thanks for spending a part of your day with me 🌻. See you in a few weeks, and a very HAPPY MOTHER's DAY to all the moms and special women in your lives! 

TOAD-ily SPRING!

It’s finally S*P*R*I*N*G – traditionally, the season for chirping birds, budding blossoms and new life! And hopefully, it’s time for at least a bit of a return to some of the things we’ve all missed over the past 12 months. I don’t have much of a green thumb so there aren’t many budding blossoms in my yard. And the branches on our tall oak trees begin far too high to hear birds chirping in them very often. However, one sign of spring that we do see in the yard pretty regularly are the 🐸frogs and toads🐸 that emerge and begin to spawn following hibernation.

Although I made these absolutely silly copper enamel frogs at the beginning of the year, I didn’t have a plan as what to do with them. But what better time to create a froggy design than the onset of Spring? Initially I was going to play up the sunflower🌻 idea and add bright yellow lampwork. But while I was looking for just the right beads, I stumbled on these chunky black and white striped tubes that complemented the stripes on the frog’s front legs perfectly.

I wanted to incorporate an Artisan component and thought the polka dots on the rear legs was the perfect inspiration. It didn’t take very long to decide on fun lampwork saucers by Ann Spirek-Wierbinski ….almost done. Just a few Czech glass spacers, and some crazy daisy spacers and wallah! Super crazy, one-of-a-kind sunflower frogs – TOAD-ily SPRING!

I would love to know your thoughts – too crazy? Too big?

These earrings will appear later today in my etsy shop, TwinklingOfAnEye

You can find other earrings on my fb page.

Thanks for spending a part of your day with me.🌻See you in a few weeks!

Bold

and beautiful?!

I went for big for today's post.  I rescued these lampwork flowers (Yuliana Goldin-Dunn)

from a previous pair and attached them to brass flower blanks. I'd already punched some holes on the blanks as I wanted to hang stuff from them....but I had no idea what.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that designs half of an earring with absolutely no clue about what to do with the other half!

So top half done including the 2 teeny butterfly charms hanging on either side.  My mind went completely blank after that.  I tried hanging so many different charms to no avail.  The truth is I was feeling lazy...I wanted to just find the perfect charms to attach with jump rings, easy peasy - but it wasn't happening.  I knew I needed to make something.  I gave up in the end and went for these brass oval frames which I wire wrapped (the number of times I nodded off during wrapping......just coz I didn't want to do it) with blue and orange cup chain to match the lampwork.  

All matched up now and I think they look good.  If you like them, they will be available for purchase in my next FB show - on Monday in The Earrings Show group.  Hope you can stop by. 

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Suhana Hart Jewellery

Snow Flurries

The weather here at the very end of Puget Sound has been completely free of snow - at least so far. However the mountains have been getting some nice snow - skiers rejoice! And its white in the eastern part of the state, where I lived for nearly 30 years. So even though I've been spared the white stuff this year, I was still inspired to design some snowy earrings.

I started with the pretty snowflake charms.  The large, ribbed lampwork glass beads were a perfect choice to go with the charms. The white glass that swirls throughout the blue beads reminded me of the way snow flurries blow and drift all around. The Snow Flurry Earrings are available on my website.

Winter is not my favorite time of year, but I did enjoy designing these earrings. Do you have snow where you live or are you in warmer climes?

Linda Landig Jewelry

Color Play

Early on in my life as a jewelry designer, I learned that my favorite part of designing was working with color, with line/shape/proportion coming in as a close second, followed by texture.  It's true to this day.  It's probably not too surprising--who doesn't love color, after all?

But I found that I enjoyed the study of color, of what colors complemented what others and what colors really didn't work well together.  For instance, in the earrings below, the beautiful dagger charms by Inviciti were a gently dissonant pink-and-orange, as were the streaky little glass rondelles by Beth Mellor, and I very specifically chose the tiny aqua-green rondelles to go with them, in direct complement to the rest of the color palette.

In contrast, these cityscape earrings, left, are an example of color matching, using lampwork glass, Czech glass, and Swarovski crystal beads in the same colors found in the vibrant charms by Marlene Kazor Quigley that are used in the earrings.










The earrings below, however, started out with a lot of color.  The first items I had to start my earrings were Kristi Bowman's rainbow-painted copper charms, which are so colorful that they could almost be the earrings' entire focus of color.  But I wanted more color. 😄💗

The wonderful Beth Mellor helped feed my color craving by making these gorgeous encased lampwork beads, with their ripples of color and little dark sine-wave-like scribbles.  She also made the beautiful orange glass rondelles.  💗

So...I got a little more color, and I think it works.  In fact, it feels autumnal, and that was a surprise.  Interesting...  

These earrings are available at Two Trees Studio.

Thanks so much for reading.  💗

See you in two weeks!  

xoxo

Meridy

My Shop

My FB Page

Complementary Beauty

After not making much jewelry for the last month or so, I'm happy to be back at work creating with some new and deliciously colored and textured beads and components! 💗 

The design of these earrings is simple, because I wanted the component parts to shine without any fuss.  There's so much wonderful texture in Kristi Bowman Gruel's painted copper charms--colorfully cratered little moonscapes!--and I echoed their hollows with hammered bead caps in antiqued copper.

Beth Mellor's lovely stripey blue-and-green lampwork glass beads--as serene and cool as the charms are busy and warm--pick up two of the charms' many colors. The beading on the glass beads adds balance (and a bit of whimsy), and I mirrored the little beads with tiny beaded copper beads, tucked in just below them.  

As always, thanks for reading!  I'll be back again at the end of September.  💗

xo
Meridy

My shop (Two Trees Studio)
My Facebook page   

Rainforest Earrings

Drama!  That's what these earrings have.  Not for the faint of heart!

I recently bought these stunning polymer clay earring spikes from Barbara McGuire.  They were lots bigger than I had imagined them to be.

I didn't want to add any more length to them, but I didn't want to just stick them on ear wires and call them done either. I decided to add a dangle down part of the length of the spikes.  The spikes are drilled horizontally, which made adding dangles a little more challenging.

It took me a few experiments to figure out a successful method.  I cut a length of brass wire and centered a green seed bead, a short length of fine chain and another seed bead on the wire.  I laid these across the front of the spike, threaded both ends of the wire through the hole in opposite directions and pulled it snug.  At the end of the chain, I attached a brass flower charm and another seed bead.

I wrapped the wire above the spikes, added another green seed bead and used the remaining wire to form the ear wires.  The earrings are over 3 inches long, but they are very lightweight, because polymer clay weighs almost nothing.  These are really fun and would look stunning on someone with a long neck.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Having fun with Enamels

I have been hitting it hard with all the enamels out there!

What incredible talent we have in our little beading community, every time I turn around, someone is coming up with something new that I just can't say no to.  They are so much fun to work with and I never have a problem coming up with a way to use them....well, most of the time that is.

One of my favorite artists is Cathleen Zaring, she has this process down.... every pair just stunning with vibrant colors.  When they arrive I just stare at them for a while in amazement.

The two pairs below, spiky flowers and rugged hoops are charms by Cathleen.

A new artist I just discovered is Carolyn Conley, I love the soft pastel, almost folklore look of her enamels in the two pair below.  The very bottom pair with the hoops in the back ground are currently available in my ETSY shop.

You can find both Cathleen and Carolyn on ETSY, links provided below.

Thank you again for stopping by and taking a peek,  Enjoy you Memorial Weekend!!  

See you again in two weeks friends, Lynn

My Etsy Shop►Yucca Bloom on ETSY

Cathleen's Etsy Shop►Blue Hare Art Wear

Carolyn's Etsy Shop►Beads By CC Design

Time for Tin

One of my most favorite earrings to make are simple tin drops.  I've been hankering to make some more of these again as they are super light and the shapes are endless. Not to mention I have a draw jam packed with collected pieces.

I recommend getting some stencil patterns or make your own from cardboard for tracing, this assures your designs are more accurately matched, trust me, I've tried to wing it and it just doesn't work, at least not for me.  

A pair of metal cutters work great, but I find that stainless steel curved nail scissors work the best. Their small and go around corners like butter.

I'm particularly fond of this pair on the left.  If I'm feeling extra creative, I hand paint portions here and there to give them a little more depth and color.  It's pretty simple since the patterns are already there for you.

When making my cut, I make the upper portion just a tad skinnier so I can roll over the tops, a simple jump ring slides through perfectly so you can add your ear wires. 

Gives them a little added character, ☺

This pair has hammered dots along the bottom with distressing to bring out the silver underneath with added beads up top.  

Great Colors!!

So next time your at a thrift store or garage sale, keep an eye out for tins, people are always getting rid of them.  You know what they say, someones trash is another's treasure, ♥

Thanks for visiting friends, see you again in two weeks!! 

Please visit My Etsy Shop

Artisan Lampwork and Pewter Earrings

Artisan Lampwork and Pewter Earrings

Sometimes jewelry components just scream out at me that they need to be together! That is the case when I can find just the right lampwork beads, with a crusty or "old world" look to them. Not any lampwork will do, but when I find the right ones, their voices call out to be matched with time worn style of pewter charms from Vincent and Nooma at Inviciti.

In the top photo, the rugged looking bicone shaped lampwork comes from Karen Hruza and her shop, Bead Fairy on Etsy!

Tribal Arrowhead and Lampwork Earrings

These gorgeous lampwork focals are from another of my favorite lampwork artists, Leah Deeb and her Etsy shop Beads of Passion!














Gloria Ewing

Chrysalis Tribal Jewelry
Chrysalis Too on Etsy