To Gnome Me Is To Love Me

This month’s challenge, hosted by Art Elements, is “To gnome me is to love me…”  A gnome challenge is just what I needed! I made a ceramic gnome for my daughter last Christmas, but then just before I was ready to fire it, I broke it’s hat off! So I promised my daughter I’d make a replacement, but I’d never gotten around to doing it – until now! I glued the hat back on the broken gnome so you could get an idea of how it was supposed to look.

After I joined the Art Elements challenge, I made 3 new gnomes. However, I glaze and fire my ceramics at a community ceramics studio, which is closed now, due to Covid 19. So I’ll have to show the gnomes as just greenware (unfired clay). The other issue I had was that, other than a fettling knife, (a special knife for use in ceramics), all my tools were at my community studio. So these little guys are literally made by hand – only my hands, without any tools. They are a little rough, but I can clean them up once I can get back into the studio, before I kiln fire them.

Two views of new gnome 1

Two views of new gnome 2

And below is a photo of me smoothing the surface of the second gnome.

These first two gnomes were made about a week ago and have been drying ever since. Then last night I made a third, larger gnome. Here he is in the beginning stages. He has a body and a nose, but nothing else, at that point.

And here he is sort of complete. He needs to dry more and then get the details refined and the surface smoothed.

Two views of new gnome 3

Thank you for visiting my blog and viewing my unfinished gnomes. Can’t wait to get some tools, glaze and fire them. Thanks also to Jenny Daves-Reazor and Art Elements for hosting this challenge.

This is a blog hop. Please visit the artists below to see their interpretations of the gnome challenge.

AE team:
Marsha
Cathy
Jen
Jenny
Lesley
Claire
Niky

Guests:
Tammy
Linda – You Are Here
Hope
Cat
Sarajo

What’s Happening

Life has been pretty hectic since we returned from Oaxaca and I haven’t had much time to keep current on this blog.  Only a few days after our return, my father was  hospitalized and then needed some convalescence time. Fortunately he is fine now and celebrated his 88th birthday this week.  I got bronchitis and needed a week or so to recover.  And then my brother and sister-in-law came to visit us for 10 days.

My sister-in-law is very artistic and we had fun playing with clay during her visit.  I blogged about her creations here and here.  If you are curious about the process involved in the creation of ceramic pendants, then you’ll find these 2 posts especially interesting.  Here’s a picture of my sister-in-law forming some of her pendants.

I also took her to Shipwreck Beads, which claims to have the world’s largest selection of beads.  It only about a 15 minute drive from my house!

Here’s what she came home with.

And of course, not wanting to be left out 😉 I came home with a few goodies too!

The rondells are Cherry Creek jasper and the other 2 stands are very cool glass beads that nest together and create a great texture.

We spent some time in Seattle and I went crazy photographing the gorgeous flowers in Pike Place Market, but I’ll save that for another post.

We’re back to our normal routines now and I’ve had time to resume working with clay.  I’ll have some results soon, which I will share with you here.

So that’s what’s happening  with me.  Hope all is well in your world too.

-Linda

Spiral Earrings

AJE Component of the Month Reveal

Once a month Art Jewelry Elements hosts a component giveaway and reveal.  June’s component was made by the talented Jenny Davies-Reazor.  Members of the Art Jewelry Elements team, plus four guest artists were given organic ceramic charms that Jenny made for us. Here are the giveaway charms:

Charms by Jenny Davies-Reazor

I received an awesome pair of the rustic green spiral charms, pictured above.  I know that Jenny often uses motifs derived from myth, legend and history, so I became curious to learn more about the significance and meanings of spirals.

First I headed over to Pinterest and made a new board for spirals.  I’m amazed at all the spirals that occur in nature.  I was familiar with some, but found many more.  Here are some of my favorites:

I used to weave baskets, but I had never particularly associated that art with spirals, although many baskets are built up through spirals.

Spirals can be found on ancient rock carvings and in Celtic, African and Native American art.  Spirals are present in Arabic architecture, Japanese rock gardens and Hindu spiritual texts, too.

I learned that spirals are the oldest symbol known to be used in spiritual practices.  They reflect the universal pattern of growth and evolution.  Spirals may be seen as a representation of life’s journey, growth and death.  Apparently in ancient Britain, the spiral was associated with the feminine as the doorway to life.

Chameleon Tail

After gathering all this information I wanted to really accent the spirals in my design. So I started out by forming  a wire work spiral and then I added some whimsical curves, leading down to Jenny’s spiral ceramic charms.

Spiral Earrings

I’ve been working hard at growing my wire working skills, but let me tell you, it is challenging to make earrings where each earring should be as closely matched to its mate as possible.  Obviously only machine-made things are perfectly matched.  A little variation is part of the charm of owning handmade crafts.

Spiral Earrings

So next I figured that these earrings deserved handmade earwires, too.  I added a small green Czech glass bead to each earwire as I was forming it.  I really like that little punch of color at the top.  The Spiral Earrings can be found in my Etsy shop .  Jenny’s ceramic components are available in her Etsy shop.  Check them out!

Spiral Earrings

Want to see more gorgeous  jewelry with Jenny’s ceramic charms?  Here are all the links.  Have fun!

Guest artists:

Leah – http://beadyeyedbunny.blogspot.com

Elisabeth – http://beadsforbusygals.blogspot.com

Jean – http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com

Sarajo – http://sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com

The AJE Team:

Jennifer Cameron –  http://glassaddictions.com/
Jenny Davies-Reazor  –  http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog 
Susan Kennedy  –  http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/
Linda Landig –   http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/
Melissa Meman   –  http://melissameman.blogspot.com/
Rebekah Payne  –  http://www.treewingsstudio.com/
Jo Tinley  –   http://daisychaindesignsjewellery.blogspot.com/
Lesley Watt  –   http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/
Francesca Watson  – http://www.francescawatson.com
Diana Ptaszynski   – http://www.vintagebluestudio.typepad.com/
Kristi Bowman –  http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com
Kristen Stevens  – http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/

I am always delighted to read your comments!   Hope to hear from you.

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry – ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry – Etsy

Chinook Jewelry Design Partner

I have been very fortunate, this month, to be able to collaborate with Mellisa Essenburg of Chinook Jewelry.  I was given one of her beautifully patterned ceramic buttons to create this necklace, which I titled “Turquoise Tide“.

Turquoise Tide Necklace

I love ceramic where the glaze pools in darker colors in the recessed portions, while the raised portions remain white!  When I saw that the button that Mellisa had sent me was just this way, I thought:  “YES!”, (fist pump!).

I looped a piece of gold sari silk through the holes in the button, for a soft and pretty accent.  Then I added a ring of glass seed beads to suspend the button-pendant from the necklace.

Turquoise Tide Necklace

The round faceted beads are amazonite (a semi-precious stone). The little gold spacer beads with the rounded edges are vintage German glass.  The gold colored stones near the chain are agates that have been accented by lacy looking antiqued bronze bead caps.

Turquoise

The uniquely shaped turquoise, tear drop shaped beads are from Wynnwoods Gallery in Port Townsend, WA.   Port Townsend, a beautiful Victorian seaport town, is my favorite place in the state of Washington.  And a big bonus is that there is a truly awesome bead store there, where I can always find the most unique and wonderful beads!

Turquoise Tide Necklace

The back of the necklace is finished in antiqued bronze chain, which fastens with a hook and eye clasp on the side, near an agate.

“Turquoise Tide” is now available at Linda Landig Jewelry.

Turquoise Tide Necklace

Four talented designers were chosen to work with ceramics from Chinook Jewelry this month.  Please check out their blogs, too, to see more jewelry that features ceramics from Chinook Jewelry:

Cilla Watkins of Tell Your Girlfriends.  Blog:  Tell Your Girlfriends

Patty Gasparino  of  The Junquerie  Blog: My Life Under The Bus

Hope Smitherman of Crafty Hope  Blog: Crafty Hope

Birthday Gift

Birthday Necklace

Buried Treasure Pendant

I was grateful to be chosen as a July Design Partner by  Mellisa of Chinook Jewelry.  Melissa makes the most wonderful ceramic pendants, beads and bead caps.  She is known for her awesome glazes and she really outdid herself with the new glaze she developed for her Shipwreck Series.  I received the Shipwreck pendant you see below.  It is made of porcelain clay and is finished  in a rough matte rusty-gold glaze.  I love this rustic look; as though the pendant had just been unearthed from many years below the sea.

Heike’s Birthday

My sister-in-law, Heike, had a birthday coming up soon, so I got to work on designing a necklace for her with this pendant. Now Heike is the queen of handmade, so I knew she would appreciate a handmade necklace for her birthday!  She has taught me how to dye silk, create paper-cut wall hangings, paint with acrylics and who knows what else, over the years.

I met my husband-to-be when he was an exchange student from Germany, in my high school.  We were now going to Germany to celebrate Heike’s birthday, our 38th (!) anniversary and, most importantly, we were going to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 85th birthday.  This necklace would come with me.

Heike's birthday necklace

I wanted a rustic look for the necklace, in keeping with the pendant.  I found a couple of strands of organically hand-cut golden carnelian that I loved with the pendant.  I made a bail for the pendant with a round of seed beads and then two loops of right angle weave.  I then threaded one strand of the necklace through each of the seed bead loops.

A year or so ago, I bought a woven bracelet at an import store that had the coolest organic metal cubes.  I then cut the bracelet apart, so I could use the beads!  Some of those brass beads found their way into the front portion of this necklace.  I added a rustic stone, placed off-center and highlighted it with wood and serpentine.  Next came a small accent on the opposite side and an artsy brass colored toggle clasp.

We arrived in Germany on the morning of Heike’s birthday.  That evening she opened our gift and was delighted with the necklace.  She wore it several more times during our stay.

Thank you, Melissa, for inspiring me with your wonderful pendant.  Designing is a joy when you have such a great focal piece to work with.  Please visit Melissa’s website, if you’d like some inspiration, too!  Erin Prais-Hintz was also a Chinook Jewelry Design Partner for July.  I’d encourage you to hop on over to Erin’s blog, so you see the wonderful jewelry that Erin designed with Melissa’s ceramic pieces.  Melissa blogged about both Erin’s and my designs.  You can read about them on Melissa’s blog.

Bead Table Wednesday: Meadow Necklace

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

I made a necklace with a gorgeous ceramic clay pendant from Shaterra Clay Studio and I was so pleased with how it turned out.  I was holding it up to admire it last night when…awk…I found a mistake!  See, look, I messed up the pattern of the little tan jasper beads!  So now this necklace is back on my bead table, to be re-strung.  I hate re-stringing!!!  By the time this blog is published though, I’ll have it fixed and listed in my ArtFire studio.

I named this necklace Meadow.  Don’t you just love this pendant?  It was the inspiration for the color scheme for the rest of the necklace.

Going with the flower theme, I finished the necklace with this great brass filigree leaf  clasp from Israel.

Meadow is now available (without bead-pattern errors!) in my ArtFire Studio.

I encourage you to hop over to  the BTW Flickr group and  see what is happening on other bead tables.

Wiped Out Wednesday

Because I have had art and fine craft shows the past two weekends…

Because it is the holiday season…

Because I had a bunch of (wonderful) commissioned pieces to work on and…

Because I am in the middle of reorganizing my whole bead studio…

This post will just be a picture tour of the second of my holiday shows.  There  so much amazing talent!  All the different ways people find to express their creativity is endlessly inspiring and delightful.  Enjoy!