Autumn Leaves

A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Kristi Bowman Gruel, of Kristi Bowman Designs, sent me these delightful copper connectors that she colored and sealed with ice resin. I love how vivid her colors always are. I added polymer clay leaves, little ceramic flower shaped bead caps, agates and glass, along with my handmade copper ear wires.

 I'm in love with these! They are perfect for fall - but I'd wear them throughout the winter too, because these are my favorite colors to wear! You can find these earrings in my shop now. 

Linda Landig Jewelry

Scary Melting Faces

I was excited when these wonderful, copper, melting faces, from Kristi Bowman Design, arrived the other day. Such a great and timely inspiration.  

I linked the melting faces to some beaded components made by Anna Pierson. The rustic look of the beads looked great with the copper. I then wrapped Wooly Wire around the bottom links and added my own handmade brass ear wires. I love how they turned out. I hope you do too. The Melting Face earrings are available in my shop now.

Stay safe friends. May Halloween be the only scary thing in your life. See you again in two weeks!

Linda Landig Jewelry

Chrysanthemum Earrings

One of my Pandemic Projects has been cleaning and organizing my studio. It had gotten so bad that I had no space in which to work. Oh look! I've organized one corner!

I won't share any other studio pictures, as the rest is still a disaster zone. I'm taking it step by step, otherwise the task is too overwhelming. Anyway, while I was cleaning, I found a pair of earrings that I had started, but never finished. So I finished them up in time for today's post.

The copper shards are the work of Kristi Bowman Designs. They remind me of the rays of petals that circle the center of chrysanthemum blooms. I used enameled headpins by Sue Beads to wire on a pair of carved fluorite flowers. The fancy copper ear wires are by wire wizard, Joan Langmo. 

The Chrysanthemum Earrings are available on my website.
Do you have any Pandemic Projects you're working on? Let us know in the comments. Stay home and stay safe friends!

Linda Landig Jewelry

Earring Sampler 💗

Hi, everyone!  I'm sorry it's been so long since I wrote a post here, and I'm glad to be back.  I haven't been making much jewelry lately, but today I'd like to share a few pairs of earrings that I have made over the last while.  💗

The whimsical earrings below have so much going on with texture and shape 

that I thought keeping them monochromatic would work well.  The bumpy blue-green

 lampwork beads are by Beth Mellor of Beeboo. The fun porcelain hearts are by the 

wonderful Judie Mountain.  With sterling beads and Two Trees sterling ear wires.  

These little (about 1-7/8" long) chainmaille earrings are woven in the classic

barrel weave, are made of small niobium rings in a subtle rainbow of colors, 

and are as lightweight as they come. 

I think these charms might be some of the most colorfully vibrant that Kristi Bowman has ever made--so

 I decided to take them just a little over the top.  I'm not sure it worked, but it was fun.  

With Kristi and Beth Mellor. 

 These earrings are so much whimsical fun, with Patty Lakinsmith's yellow-and-orange disc beads,

the short stack of blue and green Czech discs, tiny pops of red glass beads, and playful and 

colorful enameled charms by Marlene Kazor Quigley of MarkazoArt. 

Well, I think that's enough from me for now!  I hope you're all well and happy and enjoying the holiday season.  💗

xoxo
Meridy

My Shop
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Renaissance Windows

Hello, lovelies!  It's good to be back--it feels like it's been a while!  💗

The idea for the earrings I'm writing about today started quietly, when I found these beads at Arte Bella Surplus, one of my long-time favorite supply shops:      

I didn't buy them for any particular project, but rather because I like window beads and because their cross-like shape reminds me of certain Renaissance (or Renaissance-style) earrings I've seen in photos and in museums.  

Below are examples of variations of the same cross motif.  The first pair (left to right) is a simple quatrefoil shape, not unlike the window beads pictured above.  The second pair below also reflects the cross motif, in two ways:  with the petals and the pearls. And the third pair is obviously a cross. Each of these three examples also have a central focus where the arms of the "cross" would meet: the first pair has a tiny quatrefoil flower at its center, and white pearls sit at the centers of the other two pairs.     

                                                         

I had a beautiful pair of small rainbow Goddess charms by KristiBowmanDesign, and just for fun I laid them on my work table next to two of the blue-green window beads, and I had a feeling I might have something special.  💗

I added a pair of beautiful three-sided iris-colored Czech glass window beads, and small gleaming lights of glass and crystal.  

Thanks so much for reading!
I'll be back again on September 12.

xoxo
Meridy 💗
My Shop
😊

Vivid!

Hi, everyone!  This past month has been a tough one, with a major household upheaval and the death of a beloved family pet.  💔   So I'll keep this short, but I'd love to show you all some recent earrings.  

The focus of the first pair (below) is a classic polymer clay design by Helena Benkoczka, pretty stylized feathers in violet, fuchsia, purple, and gold.  I paired the feathers with deep-blue lampwork glass rondelles, fuchsia Czech glass rondelles and Swarovski bicones, and gold accent beads, and tied the earrings together with fuchsia linen thread.

Kristi Bowman-Gruel's vividly colorful dotted-and-swirled painted copper charms (below) are so colorful all by themselves that I couldn't resist adding even more color and texture.  Even the little green Czech discs are dusted with gold, and Beth Mellor's rosy rondelles have subtle little dots.  A little over the top?  Well, maybe...  😉💗

Thank you so much for reading!  I'll be back in a couple of weeks.  💗

xoxo
Meridy

My Shop
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Is it Spring yet?

I know I know, we're barely in to fall/winter but I think these will definitely get you in the mood for Spring!!

Monarch Butterfly Wing Earrings

I've paired my Handpainted Monarch wings with wonderful dotted Kazuri beads, a match made in heaven!

Rainbow Butterfly Earrings

These Rainbow wings have been paired with some of my favorite Rainbow Lampwork Beads!

Amber Butterfly Earrings

Three rough and rugged Amber Nuggets are sheer perfection!!!

All of these and more available on my website!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

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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

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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   

Sister Earrings

Hi, everyone!  It's good to be back.

First, let me thank Norbel, who covered my last blog date at the last minute.  I really appreciate it, my friend! 💓

I've always loved the idea of "sister" jewelry:  pieces that resemble each other but aren't the same.  I hadn't made any sister anythings in a while...but then, about a month ago, I bought these exquisite rainbow leaf earring components from Kristi Bowman Gruel:

From a strand of four beads (by one of my favorite glass artists, Beth Mellor of Beeboo) I picked two that would be perfect with the leaves:  beautiful little round-edge cubes with colorful swirls and teal blooms. They would make a gorgeous pair of earrings.  So I made them, adding some copper beads, Czech glass rondelles, and Swarovski crystals:

These sold quickly (thank you, dear lady!), but I didn't forget that I still had two more of those wonderful floral beads.  Two or three weeks later, Kristi had another show, and I found leaf components that resembled the original leaves. 

 
I used different copper accents for these new earrings, making them more airy, and they're also a bit longer and more slender than their sisters.

These "sisters" are clearly separate designs, but they're definitely family!

  


Thanks for reading!  xoxo
Meridy

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Snakeskin

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

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

Super cool and unusual!

These earrings are available here in my etsy shop.

*Snakeskin Earrings*

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

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Spring is springing!!

Some of us are getting more spring than others but it's getting closer for sure!!

I've made these Hand Painted Polymer Clay Hibiscus Flower pair with beautiful bright Lampwork beads by Patricia Ritchie.

🌞🌝🌞

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

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Hoop, there it is

Copper Hoops made with my own texture, paired with amazing Lampwork

 by Regis Teixera of MagmaBeads.

I also added a little bit of Sari Silk to these wonderful components, along with cool ceramic flower caps, a beautiful Red Glass bead on top and lots of messy copper wrapping.

Colorfully fun and Rustic at the same time!!

These earrings are available

⇛ HERE ⇚

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.com

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Facebook