A Study in Color

Berry Martini Necklace
Originally uploaded by cymbaline84

I have just started to work with cabochons, after quite a while of sttering clear from them. When I first started, I used to scoff at beads that didn't have any holes in them~ what on Earth could I use them for? But I studied some ways to incorporate them into jewelry designs. In this necklace I have paired a raspberry wine hued flower cabochon with a large filigree flower. I then did something I don't normally do: matched this raspberry tone with a complimentary color, rather than something that matched it. I really love the efect! I studied a color wheel and saw that raspberry was a shade of red, which was complimentary to green. I paired this cabochon with beautiful muted olive green beads. This proves that you don't have to match things perfectly (say if I used a pink bead instead) to have a wonderful look!

An Addition to My Art Collection

I was so happy to have found out yesterday that I had won a blog giveaway sponsered by Karen Faulkner (http://www.karenfaulknerart.etsy.com/)~ I've been following her wonderful blog ever since I started my own blog and enjoyed reading about her new pieces and her life. Her blog is: http://www.karenfaulknerart.blogspot.com/.

The giveaway was for an ACEO from her shop, which features one of her simple and beautiful watercolor flower paintings. I chose one entitled "Dragonfly Wings". Each blogger had to write a short blurb on what they were buying their loved ones for Christmas that was handmade. I wrote that I was making a necklace for my boyfriend's grandmother, bought watercolor notecards for my grandmother, bought a handmade bookmark for my aunt, who is a reading teacher, and best of all, bought a painting from Karen Faulkner for my mother!

This picture is so peaceful and simple, which will bring a tranquility to my room I use for jewelry. I especially love all the hues of purple and violet. I can't wait to hang this on my wall!

Thank you so much Karen!

Adventures in My Backyard

So I wandered about my backyard today with my camera. I don't go outside too often, and am in awe of the beauty that is...leaf season. We call it this at the restaurant, because it is the season where everyone comes out of the woodwork (especially from the cities) to drive up here and look at the trees, and then go out to eat. :) I did happen to take a couple of pictures of the mums that Mike brought home a couple of weeks back. They are in full bloom, and they have such wonderful color. White is a color that is gorgeous no matter what season it is, and this brick red bouquet of mums just sings autumn.

Blackened Silver

I am really falling in love with the look of oxidized silver. It really makes the color of anything that is paired with it pop! I even like it better than bright silver, because it can look delicate and bold at the same time! The color combinations do not have to stay strictly with black and white. Any color would look amazing with black. I have found a collection of really eye catching lovelies on Etsy that I am excited to share.

This pair of earrings is handmade by BINAGEYER (http://www.binageyer.etsy.com/) . They are entitled Vintage Frost Earrings. The frosted beads, paired with the oxidized sterling silver, give off such a luminescence!

These earrings, handmade by ShopClementine (http://www.shopclementine.etsy.com/) , are have a wonderful contrast, between the bright yellow and the blackened silver. These are entitled Radiant Daffodil Earrings. What a perfect title for them~ they are radiant indeed!

These earrings, entitled Poppies...Vintage and Sterling Silver, has one of my favorite color combinations~ red and black! These are handmade by jewelera (http://www.jewelera.etsy.com/) .

Oh... My.... God. I am in love with these shells! On their own they are adorable, but their beauty is heightened when they are paired with these blackened sterling silver earwires.They are entitled Conch Earrings, and are handmade by clevergirl (http://www.clevergirl.etsy.com/).

I have tried my hand at making my own pair of earrings~ I have used oxidized sterling silver earwires and ballpins, handmade by http://www.e2ssupplies.etsy.com/, and joined them with bright white top drilled freshwater pearls. I call this pair of earrings Let's Dance. These type of pearls are often called dancing pearls, so I thought incorporating dancing into the title would be whimsical.

A New Lariat

I had off from work tonight~ the perfect opportunity to sit down and create something! I came up with a new lariat necklace. It is inspired by a pair of earrings I have in my shop, sporting these wonderful bright brass daisy shaped bead caps. I have added white freshwater pearls onto gold plated chain to create a simple necklace~ the necklace, measuring about 18 inches, is threaded through the gold toned ring that is worn in the front, and therefore doesn't have a clasp.

This is the pair of earrings that this is inspired from~

Make A Wish!

Remember when you were young, you would stop and pick up a dandelion (not the bright yellow ones, but the fuzzy white ones), and blow on it, scattering its seeds everywhere? They would go flying in every direction the wind took them, piloted by their fluffy parachutes. The best part of the whole thing was making a wish, every time you did it. While I am still reminiscing the dandelions and wishes from my childhood, I would also like to share wonderful finds from the Great World of Etsy on this very subject.

This clock is awesome~ it hangs up on my wall right now. It was featured on Etsy's front page months ago, and it was one of those purchases that I knew I had to make. The flowers remind me a little of both dandelions and Queen Anne's lace. The color combination is so bold. It not only keeps the time, but it is a work of art as well. This clock was handmade by bode22 (http://www.bode22.etsy.com/). This store has more clocks that have wonderful designs, all of them unique.

I love the different shades of gray in this picture~ very serene! This proves that gray is not just a "one tone" type of color~ there are a lot of contrasts throughout this picture. This print is called "Dandelion Dreams". This photo is by thebunnycage (http://www.thebunnycage.etsy.com/). This store has an array of wonderful prints and phots that are definately worth checking out!

These lovely little dandelion graphics are actually four separate wall decals. These wuld be perfect on a blank wall, spaced out in a manner so they look like they are drifting up, up, and away. They are handmade by holly, (http://www.holly.etsy.com/). She has many different decals in her shop~ these particular decals come in a variety of different colors. A great idea to go beyond the traditional framed art!

This print, handmade by papermoth (http://www.papermoth.etsy.com/), is one in a series of prints that has this particular design, "Perennial Moment", in a variety of soft pastel colors. This one is tea green. I love this color, it is so soft, and makes the dandelions look for delicate. Other colors include silver, aqua, lavendr, pink, gold, and an original color of a mixture of gold and deep aqua. This fun shop has many more designs to chhose from~ all are whimsical and fun, and alot of them bring a soft feminitity to a room!

I couldn't resist putting this print, handmade by Vieiragirl (www.vieiragirl.etsy.com) into this collection. I love the almost grayish blue-violet backgound, and the soft bursts of wisy white. This print is entitled "Fall Branch". You can almost reach out and touch the little white bursts, expecting them to feel like fuzzy dandelions! This shop sports a colorful variety of prints that are nature inspired.

Cooling Aquas

Fall might be here, but it's pretty close to being in the thirties out right now outside my window. I am already looking ahead to snow. I am for skipping for now the warmth and spice of autumn's colors and turning to the crisp cooler (colder!) side of the color spectrum. One of my favorite colors from that side of the spectrum is aqua blue. The lighter blues are used in interior decorating to bring a serenity to a room. I have comprised a list of a few of my finds, spotlighting Etsy artists who also pay homage to this calming color.

Not only do I love the muted tone of aqua used this soap, I also love the way it was photgraphed. The white background makes the color of this picture really pop! This soap is called Caribbean SpearMist, and it is handmade by AngelBellaBody (http://www.angelbellabody.etsy.com/)

It is a goat's milk soap, scented with Spearamint essential oils and sprinkled with rose hips on the top.

This print, handmade by OrangeWillow (http://www.orangewillow.etsy.com/) , has crisp lines and a bold color scheme. I love the details of the petals. The aqua hued background is perfect! It is another one of my favorite ways to create aqua, with a bit of gray mixed in, to make it more muted. This is entitled "Petal Dreams". It is a perfect size, 8.5" X 11", and would look so sharp with a black frame.

The pendant on this gorgeous genuine sea glass makes me thirsty... perhaps it is the refreshing color, a bit warmer tone of aqua that the previous two pictures, and perhaps it is because the pendant is a bottle top that was weathered by the sea. I love how this photograph was taken, it really shows the clear details of the pendant, and its vivid color. This necklace was handmade by seaglassdesigns (http://www.seaglassdesigns.etsy.com/) .

This aqua brings us back to the more muted aqua hues of the color spectrum. A wonderful piece of pottery that incorporates earthen browns, reds, and greens. This piece was handmade by redhotpottery, (http://www.redhotpottery.etsy.com/). It is perfectly sized to serve soup in, which is a wonderful thing this time of year. Personally I love eating soup out of pottery mugs, as opposed to eating it out of bowls~ they have handles so they can be held while you are curled up on the couch..wrapped up in a warm blanket. Did I mention it was very cold out right now? :)

Mixed Metals

With jewelry, I've always liked things to match. If I worked with glass beads, all the colors had to be similar to each other in some form. When I started to like working with copper, all the copper had to be the same shade~ there couldn't be a mixture of bright and antiqued copper. But I've been searching around Internet forums and discovered that mixed metals are are very popular.

Here are a few examples of mixed metals I have found on Etsy. I have these in my favorites list and kinda stare at them every day, like a kid who looks longingly in a toy store window.

This is a chainmaille bracelet made by MBOI (http://www.mboi.etsy.com/) . I love chainmaille, though I don't have any jewelry that has chainmaille in it. It reminds me of knights of Arthurian times, who wore chainmaile with their armor. It is a very epic medium. I love this bracelet because of the contrasts of the brass and the silvery steel.

This set of rings was made by kateszabone (http://www.kateszabone.etsy.com/) . There is a mixture of rose gold, which is beautiful pink, sterling silver, and yellow gold. Put together, they make a soft yet strikinng combination. I love how they have a hammered texture as well. They are simple~ there are no glittering jewels, and I really like that. They let the beauty of the mixed metals and the texture shine.

This stoic bracet is handcrafted by TammysTreasureChest (http://www.tammystreasurechest.etsy.com/). Not only do I love the mixed metals and its rustic appearance, I love the fact that its a cuff bracelet. I am am more into big chunky pieces of jewelry that I can wear often thatn the more delicate pieces. This utilizes brass, silver and copper. There is just the right amount of contrasting colors in this scheme.

In celebration of my new found fascination with mixed metals, I sat down at my own beading desk and created a simple pair of mixed metal earrings. I've taken beautiful brass daisy bead caps and accented them with a white freshwater pearl. I have contasted the bright brass with elongated sterling silver earring wires.

Blue n' Brassy

One of my favorite reasons I love working with glass beads is the amount of colors I can work with. One of my favorite color combinations is a rich navy blue that is paired with antiqued brass. Antiqued brass has a burnished dark gold color that works so well with the dark blue. I have made a few pieces that have this.

The necklace is lariat styled, featuring a simple antiqued brass chain that ends in a cluster of navy blue flowers~ it is worn with the brass ring in the front, with the cluster threaded through it. I like how the earrings turned out~ they are bold, swinging, and dangling. These, too, end in a small cluster of flowers. I was going to go with a streamlined earring, with three flowers in a line instead of the cluster at the bottom, but I love how the cluster has more visual appeal.

I am very much inspired and in awe of costume jewelry from the past century. If anyone is interested in this subject, there is a wonderful book out there called "Fabulous Fakes" by Carole Tanenbaum. It has a gorgeous array of pieces that the author has in her collection and has included for show in this book, illuminating what women wore in the past decades.

Bouquet Lariats

I am still on my little journey through making necklaces. I had an idea for a necklace that fit perfectly with the style of earrings that I make. Glass flowers are one of my favorite mediums to work with, so I incorporated them into a lariat necklace. I really liked the end result. I made a couple of them to match my earrings.


The Caribbean Cluster lariat~















This necklace is very simple, and I believe that my focus is on how the colors, the copper and the beautiful opaque turquoise hue, compliment each other. I personally love the shape of these flowers~ they dangle together in a cluster so well!

Flowers...and more flowers!

I've been pretty obsessed with flowers these days. There can never be enough colors for them. I've been working on a few projects for my shop that I'm pretty proud of. I've taken those awesome little lucite flowers and paired them with brass caps and Swarovski crystals. The frosted flowers go really well with the opaque brass. A couple of examples of these earrings are below: