On my worktable... (right now)

Summer is full of colours... just have to add ear wires to them all!

A tiny wee key I got from a friend to use in my work combined with some of my new ceramic beads...

More wings in copper and also brass this time... (I was asked soooo nicely, I couldn't say no... but now I run out of wing material... but will also have some new brass butterflies)

Embroidery yarn is perfect for everything! Wrapping old metall bracelets...

"Roman gold" - Rustic, dark earrings

The organic, rustic surface of the hammered brass looks old and worn. Like an ancient piece found after being forgotten for hundreds or even thousand years ago. A different time, a different empire...

The dark red of the glass, the glimmer of gold from the brass, it brings so many ideas and stories into my mind.

The earrings are made from hammered and oxidized/darkened brass with copper ear wires combined with artisan tiny lampwork beads. The earrings move beautifully. You may find a "dangling" quality in most of my earrings.

I am not sure why but jewelery is something more than just pure adornment for me. It is a reflection of who I am and also what speaks to me. I can understand how jewelery had a deeper meaning in a lot of older cultures. There is jewelery that I can see and it is pretty but in the end just that. I am also not tempted to buy anymore (I was being younger). Now there has to be more, a story, a feeling, a tribal vibe just for me. It can be organic, rustic, worn, ancient... not pretty. But beautiful.

These earrings reminded me of old roman jewelery. Yes, it is more rustic than they would have used for their quite often more delicate style. But it was the story and images that came to my mind, so be it! :)

"Roman gold"

There are also here in my shop :)

"Uliginous dreams" - Earrings

Uliginous dreams may sound strange, but seeing these earrings there are so many images coming up in my mind. The dark mood inside the swamps, all the lush growth of plants, the humid air, the air filled with natures own flavour, the strange mixture of flowers and decay, the water with all its life in between, overgrown and hidden. 

There is life everywhere. There seems to be movement around you, but as soon as you try to have a closer look, it is hidden again. 

The earrings jingle while moving, a light and playful sound. Something to lure you in, to tempt you to go deeper inside. 

The enamel metal pieces are tintins made by Kimberly Rogers from Numinosity beads. I love them and struggled a lot if I should really use them together with the brass toads. But nothing else seemed right, nothing except this combination. I oxidized the brass toads to get this dark brown to black surface. The earwires are made from oxidized copper.

And in case you are curious: Have a look at the back! You can see how all the little chains are attached. There are a lot of different chains, all of them upcycled from old jewelery (from the stash Rumpels mother gave me). 

Combined with czech glass bead drops. Julie (from uglibeads) send me some glass etching solutions to play with and see if I need it (the answer is yes! Thank you again soooo much Julie!) and I used it to get these matte glass drops. The clear ones would not have been fitting for my feeling of deep hidden swamps. 

I am just in love and enchanted by these earrings! The movement, the sound, the colours... and most of all, the hidden stories!

 If you want them, you can get them here in my shop :)

"No rose without thorns" - Earrings

Smooth and rough. Soft and hard. Light and dark. Young and worn. No rose without thorns...

Sometimes there is just an idea in your mind. Simple on one hand, a triangle combined with the soft coloured rose lammpwork headpins. But it is not simple, not at all. The copper got its organic and worn look due to every single step involved in the making. They are handcut, uneven, and hammered again and again and again. Every stroke leaving a single mark. Round imprints or harsh lines.

They are growing during the process. From a simple piece of copper to something more beautiful. The texture was enhanced with liver of sulphur. The same was done for the copper wire of the lampwork headpins. The wire was really long and I could not only make the loop but wrap it around the bead itself. They dangle, they move, they are soft but still catch the light.

The lampwork headpins are made by Julie Wong Sontag from Uglibeads (not my last but my stash grows smaller and smaller especially on small headpins!). 

You can find them in my etsy shop here :)

"Fallen leaves" - Earrings

Maybe not the best time for fallen leaves since summer just tries to start but...

The folded and formed copper pieces remind me of the beauty of fallen leaves, Fragile and crumbling but with gorgeous shapes and colour.

These are my first copper folded pieces. I am surprised why I never used this technique before because it creates so wonderful organic shapes!

Why did nobody ever tell me how much fun this is? And how lightweight pieces can be made from thin copper sheets but still stable and robust?

They needed some movement so I added some copper headpins. Just getting the idea of the barren woods and maybe even the last stems from flowers after the bloom. 

You can also get them here :)

On my worktable...

On my worktable right now!

Maybe this needs to be clarified: On a part of my temporary worktable also known as living room table in a lot of piles and boxes lying and standing around. Also the term temporary is used in a very broad definition. It started somewhere and it might end sometimes, that could be called temporary, or not?

I drilled some plastic toys a long time ago. Time to wrap and use them finally! I like miniature animals. They are as weird as they are cute!

I found some old crocheted rings I made years ago. I made a lot of earrings with them and then I got bored of creating them. Now I may be tempted again. Or I may even find some more already finished rings ;)

I also bought a box with copper wash rings. Difficult to get, I had to order them online! Nowadays they are mostly not made from pure copper anymore. 

After annealing I played with texture, oxidised them, polished them again... Aren't they all ebautiful?!

Look at all the pattern made with only two hammers. All the not roundish ones are made with a simple household hammer. My favorite hammer ever!

In my hand you see my absolute number one textured copper ring! The secret? More force, less control ;)

I also can show you a lot of necklace UFOs...

This could also just be a bead assembly for a market ;) But I combined some cermaic beads from Karen Totten with some of my polymer clay beads and a pendant. Actually I love how they work together. Just the worst to come: What kind of chain/string/necklace to add?

This is an older polymer clay pendant I made. I love the bird and the bright blue but until now it was just colelcting dust. So, I had to start somewhere!

I made a pendant from a uglibead headpin made by Julie. I could wrap it after making a double loop! The golden leather and a lot of the czech glass beads are from several Curiosity kits Rebecca is selling at her Curious Bead Shop.

I also started using one of my bird skulls! Oh, I just love all of them! With crackles and metallic spots... 

Here you can see how I actually start: Randomly assembling beads that are just telling me that they belong to each other. I don't know how the elefant jumped into the imade. He was not meant to be there... but you have to see how well he looks on the numinosity bead made by Kimberly (the etched glowing one)! Is there a organic rustic playful style? I don't know but he will stay ;)

Uhm... the picture of the new wings is actually not very good. They reflected the evening sun to well and were still on the paper towel drying. But I made some more! I used one for myself (one of the small ones at the top) and will start adding some of the other to my shop. I was asked for these and so here we go. They will probably also be my last for a long time. I can't stand too much repetition ;)

"Forgotten" - Earrings

You may say that I am really fond of this style of chain. This time I gave the brass fish bone chain a light brown patina combined with some green patina It is always a more random than controlled process but the result is so stunning organic, weird and ancient looking!

The earwires are made from oxidised copper wire, the same material I used to wrap the czech teardrop glass beads.

Look at the blue and green colours! It reminds me of old artifacts found in the sea or deep down in a dark and old forrest.

They could fit into tribal or post-apocalyptic jewelery (thanks Julie for that category, yes, soooo me! ^^). It also looks organic and alive and weird but still beautiful.

And again, one step further, you can find them here in my shop :)

"Gothica" - Earrings

Again... earrings that are difficult to capture on photos. Or rather to capture their movement and beauty!

The earrings have such a beautiful dark and romantic feeling. The dark oxidised copper and brass looks old and work like they were hidden somewhere for a long time. An old treasure found again...

The lampwork headpins are made by Julie Wong Sontag from uglibeads. She always leaves the wire really long so I could make the hole loop out of it and wrap it around the glass too. Just for the sides I added some more copper wire to balance the whole look.

The headpin moves freely below the dark flowers. As you may already know: I love dangling earrings!

See how the wire part inside the glass seems to glow? It is the same red copper like the middle of the flower and next to the purple and dark copper, it really seems to glow from inside!

Maybe you noticed: I finally started to fill in my etsy shop (took me long enough, I know... put since I don't know when I will find some time for the next market, it was long overdue....!).

You can also find these lovelies there!

"Purple wings" - Earrings

Okay, just as a warning: In this blog post are way too many images from the same earrings. Always the same... just maybe a different ancle or whatever. I was just not able to edit them any further. After some struggling I thought: Why not? It is your blog. Don't waste too much time with editing if you could otherwise create something new. 

Also add a warning, here it is ;)

The lampwork beads are made by Julie Wong Sontag from uglibeads (I always want to write Sonntag being german ^^). Lovely shades of colour, yet subtle and with a certain amount of playfullness...

...they were just waiting for the wings to be! I started my first etching trial this year since the temperature go up. You may remember by necklace from the Swap 'n Hop Blog hop (have a look here) with the butterfly. I made several and under one butterfly there was an airbubble and I just had part etched. 

I cut the butterfly apart and cut out the useable parts thereby craeating these small wings. 

They go so perfect together... what would I have done without the airbubble? ;)

And both earrings and lampwork beads a little bit more in detail :)