Blog entry

Beautiful Blues - Artisan Handmade - Three for Thursday

Blue is a much beloved, favorite color of many, many people worldwide, especially in Europe and the United States.  But, if you look back at the history of blue, it was an ignored color for quite some time.  The Greek and Romans had no word for the color - it was never mentioned in any of the many texts produced at that time.  The color itself was barely distinguished from neutral shades. In the Odyssey, for example, Homer mentioned white and black hundreds of times, rarely mentioned red and yellow and used the term “wine-dark” to describe blue items, such as the sky or the sea.  What we think of as blue was associated with the Celts who were said to have painted their bodies blue before going into battle, women with blue eyes were believed to have loose morals and descriptions of rainbows omitted the color blue altogether!

Flower Earrings - Artisan Handmade by Shadow Dog Designs

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower.  I want them to see it whether they want to or not. Georgia O'Keeffe

One of my all time favorite artists is Georgia O’Keeffe.  Whenever I’m in Santa Fe, I'm always drawn to the museum named after her.  While there, I almost go into a meditative state while contemplating her paintings.  Her flower paintings are dear to my heart.

All through my life, I have had flower gardens, some rather grand and some on a much smaller scale, such as the one here in the Desert Southwest.  I cannot imagine life without the beauty and cheerfulness of flowers (or dogs, for that matter!). Life would be so bland with out them.  Because of that, flowers designs can always be found in my handmade jewelry, especially the earrings.  For this blog post, I chose 10 pairs of earrings, some new and some that have been in my shop a while, to feature. There are many others in my SHADOW DOG DESIGNS shop.  I hope you will stop by and take a look . . . and maybe buy a pair for yourself or a loved one.

New Christmas Gift Ideas - Give Handmade Earrings This Year!

Earrings are always a great gift for the woman who loves to wear them.  They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors and price ranges - always something perfect for the intended wearer that won’t break the bank.  I’ve featured twelve pairs of earrings that can be found in my Shadow Dog Designs handmade jewelry shop: eight of the newest pairs listed and four sparkling pairs of Christmas earrings.   I hope you enjoy browsing the beauties . . . and maybe at least one pair finds its way into your shopping cart and then under the Christmas tree.

Handmade Jewelry by Shadow Dog Designs - New Earrings and Necklaces

It has been almost a month since I last sat down to share my newest batch of handmade earrings and necklaces.  Visiting friends in Long Beach, California and Charleston, South Carolina took up a lot of time, along with shorter trips to Dallas.  Plus, three big shows are in the not too distant future, all in April, so I’ve been very busy trying to make new jewelry to freshen up the look.  Lots of spring inspired jewelry has been photographed - hopefully, those will make it into the next post.