Hand-Carved Design Pendants

I'm really excited about these hand-carved design pendants I've been doing! You can find these listed in my shop here. I will also be adding a few leaf pendants and some leaf charms in the coming days, so check back soon!

Winter Wonderland & Happy Holidays!

This is the view outside my front window. We've gotten a lot of snow here in New England! It's a little difficult to get around but, it's beautiful! Happy Holidays and best wishes to all my friends here! I wish you all a wonderful holiday break! Love and light to you and yours now and in the New Year. Enjoy!

Blessings Exchange 2 - "Home Address" Bracelet

I have the second piece of jewelry made from the "Counting Your Blessings" Bead/Charm/Clasp Exchange! If you missed the first piece, you can check it out here. To see all the beads, charms and clasps made by all the participants in this exchange, check out Lynn's post here.

Here we have Cristi, Lorelei and Lynn coming together in this bracelet called "Home Address". House and home are blessings indeed. I love this bracelet! I had a lot of fun making it and I like the idea of this theme. I never would have made something like this if it were not for this exchange and these talented ladies. Thank you so much, Ladies!

"Home Address" Bracelet

Cristi's antiqued wooden number bead

Lynn's brass number-stamped connector

Lorelei's home charm

When I first saw Cristi's wooden number bead and Lynn's little brass number-stamped connector, I thought they looked like house numbers. Worn and weathered address numbers on the exterior of a house or on a mail box. I paired these pieces together with Lorelei's home charm which also has an antique, weathered feel to it and it even jingles like a set of house keys! The bracelet practically made it's self. I was just kind of in the room! The pieces just went so well together. Not only in theme but in color, material, finish and style! Amazing! All of the components were there. I threw in some wood round beads, brass wire and a brass swan clasp. I had made that clasp quite awhile ago, holding onto it waiting for the right project. This was it!

Winter-Inspired Offerings

Winter Berry Leaf Pendant
The colors of this leaf pendant lend itself well to a winter inspired design. Red, green and white. The white porcelain peeks through the glaze of light and dark green variations with a cranberry red around the edges. It reminds me of a snow-covered evergreen shrub that holds red berries in the winter time.


Rustic Impressed Pine Pendant
This porcelain pendant features an impression of a real pine branch. The pendant has a rustic, winter feel of a snowy day. I love the contrast between the deep ever-green color stain in the pine impression and the exposed white of the porcelain.

Glossy Silver Leaf Pendant
This pendant looks like a leaf frozen in ice! The silvery, gray glaze on this porcelain leaf pendant glistens in the light and reminds me a bit of silver!

Here are just a few of my porcelain pendants that would make great center pieces for a winter-inspired jewelry piece. You can find these and more in my shop here. Thanks for looking and Happy Winter, everyone!

Jewelry Display at the Holiday Show

This weekend I did my first arts & crafts show with my ceramic jewelry! I did pretty well at the show and I got nothing but complements on my work and my display and set up! I'm very happy with the reception I received! And my friend, the event organizer, was very impressed! Above you can see my table at the show. I still need to work on this display I think but, not bad. I used what I already had in my home as much as I could. Both to save money and to achieve a homey kind of look. Which, I think works. What do you think? I'd be happy to hear any suggestions!

Basket display of my ceramic pin/pendants

Let me know what you think! And let me know if any of you have questions on what I did here for my display. I'd me happy to share! Just leave me a comment!

Holiday Art & Crafts Show

Hi friends, I'm getting ready to do a big show this weekend! I'm still busy making jewelry for it! I need to make at least 6 more bracelets and some earrings. Aaaack! I'll get it all done but, I think I'll be doing last minute preparations up until the first day of the show! I'm really excited about it though. It is a fabulous show! It has quite a reputation for excellence and many people look forward to attending each year. A friend of mine started the show 6 years ago and she is impeccable! Only the finest are invited to show, so I'm so honored she asked me if I wanted to do it this year! I want to look really good for her, so I've been working hard on my display and set up. Wish me luck on that one. I'll posted some pictures of my set up and display next week. Please stop by if your in the area at all! Thanks everyone!

Blessings Exchange

Yesterday, I received my beautiful package from the "Counting Blessings" Art Bead/Charm/Clasp Exchange! I participated in this exchange with 7 other bead-makers and designers. The participants are: Me, Cristi, Gaea, Heather, Lisa, Lorelei, Lynn, and Mary. Thank you to all of you! Please visit their blogs also to see what they are doing with their pretties. Special thanks to Lynn Davis who not only participated in the exchange, but organized the whole thing. Thank you Lynn for running the exchange and making it such a delightful experience!

As soon as I opened my package, I first marveled at the beautiful handmade pouch made by Lynn. Then, I dove right in and oohed at all the amazing handmade beads, charms, clasps and findings! I plan to make a piece of jewelry with all of them. I started by breaking them down into groups and immediately started creating!

First up, Gaea and Heather of Humble Beads come together in this beauty of a bracelet! Gaea's Heart Charm and Heather's Focal Bead work perfectly together! As soon as I saw them, I knew I wanted them in a piece together. Playing off the color scheme in the focal bead, I knotted them up on some waxed linen cord with some Blue Lace Agate, Blue Kyanite, wood and glass seed beads. This bracelet is fun, casual, and pairs great with jeans! Yeah, my kind of jewelry! Thank you Gaea and Heather!

Gaea's Ceramic Heart Charm

Heather's Focal Bead

Owl Beaded Charm by Humble Beads

Heather's package also included this adorable Owl Beaded Charm. So cute! I love him! I strung this guy up on a simple silver chain for immediate wear!

That's it for now, until next time, I had loads of fun participating in the exchange. I can't wait to see the next jewelry piece come together and I'm looking forward to seeing what the other participants do as well! Thanks for looking!

Four Seasons

Spring and Summer

Fall and Winter

I am very excited to present my first completed vision for my ceramic leaf pendants! A leaf necklace representing each one of the four seasons. A simple and classic idea. I have had the vision for a collection of seasonal necklaces since I started making my leaf pendants. These are the first in a series I will continue to evolve.

Clasp detail

Each necklace features one of my handmade porcelain leaf pendants as well as a porcelain button for the clasp. In these necklaces, I tried to achieve a "branch" or "vine" kind of quality coming from the the leaf pendant and ending with a kind of "twig" detail at the clasp. Each necklace has a variety of gemstone and wood beads hand-knotted onto some waxed cording. One of my favorite materials to work with is waxed cording. It's so easy to knot and fun to bead with. I almost exclusively work with the cording now in my jewelry designs. It works really well for the earthy, natural designs I like to make.

I absolutely love to make and wear seasonal jewelry. I have always felt a sense of child-like wonder and excitement around the changing of each season. I gather inspiration from the natural world around me, especially the leaves, buds and berries of trees and foliage. I hope to express the feeling of each season through my ceramic pieces and my jewelry.

Open Studio Tour

Overall the weekend was great. It was really fun being a part of the studio with the other potters and artists. Everyone sold something. It was pretty even across the board! I'm pretty happy with the response I recieved!
Here are a few shots of my peices and my set up. I got this tea light tree at Home Goods. Isn't it great! It's perfect for my leaf pendants and earrings. I put some flameless tea lights in it after I took this shot. It looked better with the tea lights. Thank you to everyone for your well wishes! I really appreciate it alot!

First Show!

I've been quite absent from my blog, I know, but I think you'll be happy to know I've been hard at work at the studio! I have many new pieces I'll be sharing soon. I'm getting ready to do a show next weekend. This will be my first show with my new ceramic pieces! It's the 12th Annual Amesbury Open Studio Tour. November 15th & 16th. I'm very excited to be doing this art show with my friends and fellow potters/artists at Two Rivers Ceramic Studio. Hopefully I will have some great photos of the show to share next week.

Autumn Leaf Necklace

A simple silver chain necklace made with one of my handmade ceramic leafs. I'll be wearing this piece all Autumn long!
Happy Fall everyone!

Jewelry to Fall For: Designs by Lorelei

I'm featuring one of my favorite jewelry designers, Lorelei! Take a look at this collection of gorgeous designs featuring ceramic leaf pendants and charms made by yours truly!

A true master at her craft, Lorelei combines her love of nature, color and texture to create eclectic, eye-catching designs. I love her uses of semi-precious stones and other natural materials along with the finest artisan beads, pendants, charms and findings. I'm not the only one who's noticed this artistic talent. She's the buzz of the beading world, featured on sites, such as the Art Bead Scene. You can read the interview they did with her here. See what all this buzzing is about and check her out!


Shop: lorelei1141.etsy.com
Blog: lorelei1141.blogspot.com

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged twice! Once by Nancy and once by Lynn! Wow! Yay!
If you've been tagged by me just follow the rules below if you want to play along, you don't have to though.

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Hi, my name is Erin and I am a Craft-aholic. I even have a mug that says so.

2. I love sleeping. I think I would sleep my life away if I didn't love making things so much! Even when I am awake, I'm mostly day-dreaming anyway.

3. I talk to myself all the time. I mean like full on conversations. I've even caught myself talking out loud where someone else can hear me talking to myself, like a department store aisle! Embarrassing!

4. I have a formula equation for cuteness. Short + Fat = Cute. This formula works for just about everything except it doesn't seem to work very well for humans though.

5. I love to buy and collect jewelry-making books, even if I know I will never make a project out of them. I just love looking through them and having those ideas in my possession. I have about 30 titles in my collection and growing.

6. I currently do not have a car. I am lucky enough to live in a town where I can walk to every place I need to get to. Work, ceramic studio, bank, post office, and grocery store are all in walking distance from my apartment and anything else I need can be done online. When the walking thing starts to feel like a pain in the neck, I just tell myself that it's good exercise and I'm helping the environment.

7. I pretty much can find something I like in any music genre except for the type of punk music my husband likes to listen to, which makes my head want to explode!

Here are the lucky 7 I'm tagging! All great artists! Please check out their blogs!

Bridgman Pottery
Chinook Jewelry Designs
Elaine Ray
Jessica Sharrah
Lisa Peters Art
Marsha Neal Studio
Oh2122

Walk in the Woods

On Saturday, I took the day off from the bead shop and my hubby and I took a long walk at Maudslay State Park. This park is a town away from where we live. It's a beautiful, enchanting park. I took my camera to take some inspiration shots. I am always so amazed at how beautiful and awe-inspiring nature really is. I really want to start spending some more time there.

Here's one of the paths we walked down. It looks so inviting, doesn't it? We met some little friends along the way that came out to say hi.

Like, this little guy right here. Isn't he cute? He popped his head out just long enough for me to take his picture! I wonder how many nuts he has store in that tree?

Cute little mushrooms along the path.

This little toad leaped out from under the leaves as we walked by.
Thanks for looking! Hope you enjoyed these nature pics!

Harvest Moon Earrings

I made these earrings with a certain friend in mind. She is a beautiful earth goddess and she is my muse for a lot of the designs that I come up with. I started off with my own ceramic leaves and embellished them with a harvest bundle of seed pods, apple coral and wood beads tied together with strands of waxed linen cord from my bead shop.

I decided to submit these earring to this month's Art Bead Scene Challenge. October is A dark and Stormy Night. I imagined a beautiful maiden in a long flowing dress wearing these as she dances in the moonlight of the harvest moon!