Another Jewelry Designer Who Inspires me

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Mine was just great!!!  Spent with my family in Texas.  It was great to really get to watch niece and nephew open presents and be awed that Santa really listened and granted their long list of wants.  Then spent 2 days eating and drinking and hanging with friends.  So, needless to say i haven't made anything but that's okay I had a fab time.

So I thought i'd share another of the handmade jewelry designers who really inspires me with her awesome use of color and design.  This lady puts together some colors that I would never in a million years put together.  Her name is Lorelei Eurto and her designs are really awe inspiring to me.  She has a great eye for color but i love her designs also.

Below i'll show some of my fav designs of hers:


I love this design.  It's wintery yet summery.  Could be worn in any season.  It's just shimmery.

I love her bracelets and this one is no exception.  The way she puts elements together is an inspiration to me.  I would never put those beads together!  She's a genious!!!

Now those green beads would have made me turn my nose up--as in yuck.  But these simple earrings are really pretty paired with brass.




This necklace is gorg! Again, never would I have put those colors together. Light blue, navy, limey green.

She uses lots of artisan beads which i cannot afford at the moment.  She made several of these long necklaces with many colors that i really like a lot.  Of course i tried doing it and i just didn't like my color choices.  But this lady just has an eye for color combinations and i really admire that.

Look at this gorgeous necklace.  I see peach, green and blue and purple or pink.  Now if I did that it'd look hideous i'm sure.  This lady is another one that when i can afford it i will purchase a necklace.

Since my fav color is blue of any hue i love this necklace.  I especially love the moon on the one side.  The tree pendant just makes me smile.

I really love the muted colors in these earrings.  The different textures used calls to me.  This artist has a store on Etsy that sells waxed linen in color combinations.




Love love love the beads and the pink and yellow waxed linen just wreaks of summer and and really cottony shift dress and sandals.  These really inspire me to create something in that vein.  They make me smell the ocean and feel a breeze blowing!!!

Another long necklace with a pendant and colorful beads.  The blue just stands out for me on this one.

This is one of my most favorite necklaces of hers.  Those glowy pink beads and the pendant are so mellow to me.  It's a calming piece to me.  And then that green just sets the whole thing off.

So hop on over to her blog and check her out for yourself.  She also has an etsy store where she sells her designs.  One day I will buy one.  Hope you enjoyed seeing another of my jewelry designer inspirations!  Her blog is here.   Happy reading!  Hopefully i can settle down enough this week to start making some of my own designs.

A Wonderful Jewelry Designer i'm Obsessed With

I have talked about this lady for sometime now so I thought i'd post some of my fav designs she has made.  She inspires me with her mixes of colors and the fact that she can seemingly make something out of nothing. 

You all must visit her blog here.

The bracelet below is great. I love the elegance of the gold with simple beads and the crust on it.

These earrings are beautiful.  Love the green which she said were just cheap cabs.  That's what I mean by how she can take something a lot of us would never use and use it in such a creative and beautiful way.

These cutie pie mismatched earrings remind me of a merry go round for some strange reason.  I think it's the horse.  I think they go so well together without matching.

And these stunners are heavenly.  There's crust and gold and yellow.  The black findings enhance the colors of these earrings.

I also love her necklaces.  Love the colors in this necklace.  She uses really unique things that I would pass by in a heartbeat as junk.

Love this necklace.  There's something simple but elegant about it.  It's bright yet dark.

So check out her blog.  She is a generous artist who shares some of her techniques and even where she finds some of her oddities.  She also sells tutorials which I bought one for making bracelet stacks.  I made some of the bracelets putting my own spin on them and they were snapped up in a hurry.  For whatever reason i haven't made anymore but i just may have to make some more.  They are fun to make because you can do so many creative things with them.

Lest you think I am plugging her stuff i am but i also think you can gain valuable insight from reading her blog.  TTFN

Some Jewelry Inspirations From Pinterest

So i'm looking at my jewelry inspirations board on Pinterest and thought i'd share some things i've found that really inspire me.  Not only to inspire my jewelry making but they are some items I find simply stunning.  Check them out!



I love these earrings.  They are colorful without being too bright.

modernsurfacesartgallery.com

I have a bunch of raw crystals.  I love long chains with chunky elements hanging from them.  This is def an inspiration piece for me.  I'll be sure and show the piece I make using this piece as inspiration.

This chunky monster is beautiful to me.  I have a lot of large beads bought by accident that I never use because people I know want smaller stuff.

etsy.com

I love leather used in jewelry.  I've only made a couple of items and people snapped them up.  I have a small stash of leather in diff colors that I for some reason horde.

etsy.com

The colors used here remind me of the ocean.  It gives me an idea for some stones that I have.  Def using these as inspiration.  That sterling is gorg.

etsy.com

Am obsessed right now with old rusty stuff especially keys and locks.  They are extremely popular.  I made some and trimmed them with rhinestones.  But they were brass and don't look old.  So i'm looking for more to darken and make crusty as  Fanci of fancifuldevices.blogspot.com says.  Ya'll should check out her blog.  This girl creates some of the most creative designs and she makes everything look crusty and old.  I'm obsessed with her!!

etsy.com

Rhinestones.  Loving them. Oh to find a haul of vintage rhinestones pieces that I could afford.  I look for them all the time!!  I have a few but they are not vintage so they would need to be aged.

Don't you just love the simplicity of this necklace?  I do.  I would wear this with all sorts of colors.

etsy.com

These colors remind me of a sunset.  Talk about inspiring!

earthangelsstudios.com

Rhinestones and an aspirin tin top.  Genious!!

etsy.com

I have a key this big and i'm now gonna use it! This necklace is simple but eye catching.  Lets see what I can do with it using this as inspiration.

rings-things.com

I'm not usually into red but the way it was used here just makes it pop.  Those turquoise stones are gorg.



That's all i'll bore you with now.  But what type of jewelry inspires you??

Made Some Christmas Presents--Beware Bad Pics Ahead

So I  have been busy making some Christmas presents for friends and family.  I have to say though that i probably had enough stuff already made to give as gifts but somehow wanted to make new stuff.  I have to say that I am hoping for a brand new camera for a gift this year-but we'll see.  It's either that or a Ninja.  Of course I want both.  Whichever I don't get i'll buy myself later.  Anyhoo, i have some relatives who love nothing but bling.  Guess that's where i get--it's genetic.  We're like rats, attracted to shiny things. Took these pics with my iphone, piece of crap that it is.

There is nothing else to do right now because it's all ice outside so me and hubs just stayed in all day making fires in the fireplace and eating crap all day long.  Can't wait for the sun to go down cause we are having some egg nog spiked with lots of rum!!!!!!  Who knows what kind of jewelry i'll make after that!!



The necklace below is for a friend who is very simple--i mean who likes simple things.  It's just a pretty button on a leather cord.  I used mixed metal findings like the silver jump ring it's attached to.

One of my nieces has been asking me for a charm bracelet for months but each time i told her to measure her wrist and give me the measurement.  Never got it so never made it.  Her mother finally told me what the size was.  It's certainly not made of sterling-considering the cost of sterling these days-but it'll do until i can make one of all sterling.

The earrings below are strictly bling.  Big ol glass crystals.  These are attached to brass clip on ear hooks.  Those things are hard to find.  And the ones you find are so plain and frankly ugly to me.  I love making ear wires for pierced ears but hate these clip thingees!!!

I posted these in an earlier post where they were attached to some really nice buttons.  But i broke one trying to put a hole in it so had to start over.  Again with the clip ons .  They just mess up the earrings in my opinion. I'm using a lot of steel these days because i love the look of it.  You can make it look like oxidized sterling.  I left this wire rough looking.  Following my jewelry idol Fanciful Devices!!

I used some more of the large glass crystals to make these earrings for another bling lover.  And of course they are attached to clip ons.  They need to find a cure for keloid forming skin in my humble nurse opinion.

I made three of the necklaces below.  One for me of course.  I varied them all a little with embellishments.  That large briolette is glass and it's a dark purple cause i know it's not a very good pic.  One i used mostly vintage pearls and glass crystals.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas.  I will be going home alone to see family and i can't wait to see everybody and eat like a piglet--oh okay like a pic--.  I'll be back to complain about all the lb's i gained and how constipated i am. I know that's tmi but everybody knows the deal.

So Mad--Made a Big Mistake

So those earrings I was so proud of inspired by my secret mentor Fanci I totally ruined them!!!  Thought i'd be so smart to put a hole of my own making in the button and totally caused it to break.  Now have one that is perfect and the other in pieces!  I know mistakes are how we learn but these were going to be a delicious present.

I knew it was too thick to make the hole but thought i was so damn smart and could just slowly twist the hole punch.  So i'm going to just make them mismatched because i only had two of those pretty buttons.  Maybe that'll work.  Since i'm miss "i don't like matchy matchy".  The pic below is of the broken earring and the hole punch i used.

I feel so bad cuz those were for my sis.  i'm gonna see how they look mismatched.    XO

  

A Dreary Beautiful Mess

This snow has to stop!!  Got up this morning fully expecting to go to church. Excuses, excuses but after yesterdays exploration into the nearest town was a good hour and 15 minutes travel time(it's usually about 12-15 minutes) we decided not to go.  So i watched online.  It was a good sermon but wish I had been there.

My so-called creative juices did not flow well.  Ended up being sluggish, lazy and just wanting to do nothing.  It's been so cloudy except for little spurts of sunshine.  I did end up traveling hours into the blogasphere. Stayed up till about 2 am on Friday reading all of the blogs that I love but never have much time to read.  It was magical but still didn't inspire me much to sit and create.  But got some mad inspiration.

One of my fav bloggers is Fancifuldevices blog.  Also known as Marina Rios.  You can check her blog out here.  This lady makes some other worldly designs and I want some to call my own.  Looking at her blog gave me inspiration to make these earrings:

I haven't added the ear wires but I bought the buttons a while ago for something else.  Fanci has been using these beautiful crystals in her jewelry lately and hers are gorgeous.  I've had the raw crystals for a long time.  I used the white ones but not the ones that are darker.  I used steel wire to attach everything. I think i'll use steel for the ear wires too but i'll seal them.

These suckers are pretty long.  About 3 and a 1/4 inches without the ear wires.  Will probably list these tomorrow as they would be lovely to wear for a party.  The pic sucks so will see if we get some sun tomorrow.  I hope so.  My seasonal affective disorder (SAD) ---is going to start soon if the sun doesn't come out at least part of the day. SAD is about right!!!!

Remember the pics I took when this weather began on Thursday?  Well this is what we ended up with as of today.  We even got some more snow this morning!

Happy slipping and sliding  east coast!!!  Not fun!

Weather!! perfect Time to Be Creative

So, today is a cloudy, dreary messy day.  I just looked out of the door and this is what it's doing right now:



the snow started about 12:30

then it turned to something you can hear.   This started almost exactly when they said it would--about noon.

So since i'm not working at the moment i don't have to worry about driving in this mess.  I have no choice but to get to work at my jewelry making table.  I have so much i want to make, so many ideas that i have even put down on paper in the form of sketches.  I guess you can call them sketches.  It's not like i'm an artist or anything.

I'm going to sit and see what i'm inspired to do.  Maybe i'll have something made today and photo'd and put on my blog.  If only I didn't have to work for real!!  But knowing me i'd say "oh i have plenty time" and never get a damn thing done.  See you.

Some Handmade items I'm proud Of

So, i'm going through some old photos today 9nothing else to do at the moment and I found some items I mad a while ago.  Thought you might like to see them.  Okay it's really for myself that i'm posting them.  I was really into wire work for awhile and I made this bracelet and earrings.  All by hand!! What was I thinking?

The bracelet above was ALL handmade of shiny copper.  The beads are a beautiful sky blue! my mom wanted it bad so I gave it to her along with the matching earrings below.  I used sterling silver earwires because some people's skin reacts with copper to give the skin a really lovely green cast!!  She wears it all the time and every so often she polishes it up with a polishing cloth.

The necklace below is in horrible "light".  I made it one saturday night when I had no plans.  Can't believe i sat down for a couple of hours and made all the copper rings.  I had this lovely stone which i have no idea what it its.  I wore this on Sunday morning and 10 ladies stopped me to tell me it was stunning!!  I was so proud of it.  Again, sorry about the light but the stone is a really beautiful blue color.  If you can't tell, blue is my fav color.  I keep trying to stop using blue but it never fails if i'm out looking for beads i gravitate to the blue ones!!!

So the two sets of earrings below are made with crystal briolettes and copper wire.  This was when I first started trying to do wire work.  You can kind of tell but I thought they were pretty good for a newbie.  I still have both pair to this day.  Notice of course one set is blue.  Sorry the pics are terrible but i was really new!!! Give me a little break.  I have to say that my photography is only slightly better these days but i'm gonna keep on trying.

 I made the ocean inspired bracelet below for a lady who requested something beachy.  She's a girl after my own heart who loves blue.  I think i love it because i'm such a fan of the ocean.  Lived in Hawaii for a long time and hope to one day move back.  Probably only a dream but we gotta have dreams don't we??  Anyway I wired all the beads onto a store bought bracelet blank and voila!  She loves it!  I'm glad.

This orange bracelet was made using a copper bracelet blank and I hand wired all of these beads on and made all of the coils.  This one took forever.  I did not do it in one setting cuz I woulda went crazier than i am but i finally finished it and made the clasp too.  I wasn't planning to sell it but a friend saw it one day and said she had to have it.  So she now owns and wears it to this day.  I am not a fan of orange but i got the orange beads for free when I placed a large bead order so i decided to use them.  I'm glad someone wanted it.  I had just learned to make some really wicked coils and wanted to practice making them.  Boy did I get some practice with this monster.  But now I can make a coil in seconds!!  Practice makes perfect as they say.

As you can tell I had my copper period and the necklace below was store bought but the pendant I made.  I wrapped it and then wrapped all of the beads on it.  It took me a while to make it but I was determined to sit there until it was finished.  I think I was sweating because it's not something you begin and come back to.  Notice the BLUE beads!  I'm such a chump for blue.  The necklace is pretty long--almost belly button length.  I gave it to a friend.

So let me apologize profusely for the pic below but i wanted to put these little earrings on my post cuz a really nice lady asked me to make some earrings for a party she was attending.  Of course I used copper but i had just learned this technique and thought it would be festive.  I didn't want them to look like Christmas trees so with the green i used gold.  You probably can't tell but they really are cute.  Sorry about that.

I made these earrings for myself and a friend at work wanted some just like them.  Turns out they were too heavy for her to wear so i sold them on Etsy.  I did put a disclaimer that if anyone couldn't wear heavy earrings not to buy them because of the weight.  Someone bought them and i never heard back so i guess they were fine for her.  They are magnesite and red coral with of course copper wire wrapped around the beads.  I'm not sensitive to copper so I can wear it in my ears.  I used sterling silver on the ones I sold.Always get complements when I wear them.

The gold necklace below is one of the first items i wired together.  The pendant is from soe vintage jewelry that I got at a thrift store.  I used gold glass crystals.  I wore it once and a co-worked wated to buy it so I sold it.  It took me quite a while but in the process I learned how to make wire wrapped loops like a pro.  I used gold toned wire.

I love the black onyx and crystal necklace below.  I bought the onyx pendant at Michael's on sale and hand wired it all together using silver-plated wire and I made the clasp out of sterling silver.  I wear this necklace all the time.  In addition to my love for anything blue i also love, love black.  So this was a great wardrobe addition.

I was following a really talented lady on Etsy (and still do) who makes artist jewelry and I got the idea to try making something big and bold.  These ceramic beads fit the bill.  This is not a bracelet that I would wear to work because its BIG.  But these colors are beautiful to me.  Of course there's a bit of blue in it.

All of the copper wire is handmade and it was difficult because the wire is 16 gauge--which is really thick!  I have never worn it.  I made some earrings to match but would never wear them together.  Too gaudy together for my taste.  I don't really like matchy matchy.  People ask me all the time for matching earrings and if they want that I make it but it's not for me.  Isn't it fab?

And finally last but not least:


I bought these beads at a show and after I got them home I was like what the hell are you gonna do with these huge things.  It was a challenge.  So since they are graduated in size I went ahead and made the necklace below.  The colors are so soothing which is why I bought them.  I sat down and hand wired all of these beads together. It took awhile!!  This is one that my mom keeps talking about but it's for sale in my shop.  If it doesn't sell soon i will no doubt give it to her for a Christmas present.  This one has matching earrings cuz I had some small beads left.  It was wired together with gold plated wire.

Hope everyone enjoys my journey into wire working.  Now that I have gone through all these pics i'm re-thinking wire again.  I really love doing it but it is time-consuming depending on what you are making.  I certainly don't want to lose the skill so maybe i'll start making some wire items again.  If anyone wants something specially made i'm your girl!!