When I signed up for the AJE Earring Challenge to make a pair of earrings a week (for 3 months) I thought it would be easy since I can sit down and make five or six pair in an afternoon. But I was so excited to be working with artisan's beads and components that I wanted to try to find the best way to bring out it's color and texture. I wanted to make each one the star. So some of these sat on my bead table for weeks while I paired them up this way, and that way looking for the right fibers and beads to add to each one.
This is my gallery and you can find these all in my Etsy Shop. I've also listed each artist and their shop, blog or website:
1. Three Drops :: Lampworks Beads :: Patricia Dugmore of pj Beads (Website, Etsy)
My final pair of artisan earrings use a pretty little polymer clay bead from Patricia Dugmore of pjBeads. I found Patricia's work at a bead show and spent quite a long time there just sifting through all the little bowls of beads. I was particularly taken with her polymer clay and their likeness to sea shells. These beads are her sea urchins, that I just love. I also decided to make my own earwires. I have made one or two before, but not many. But I realized as I was making these that it really is pretty easy. And wonder why I don't make earwires more often? These earrings are available in my Etsy store. I've really enjoyed the challenge put out by AJE this quarter, but it is time to pass the torch to a new set of participants. The team over there asked for 4 groups (one a quarter) to make a pair of earrings a week and post to their pinterest board. So if you're interested, hop over and sign up!
Happy Easter everyone. Hopefully some bit of sun has found you over the weekend. We had egg dying going on yesterday, with sack races and egg hunts. We stayed outside until the sun went down just enjoying the first day we've been able to get back outside in warmer weather. I did also manage to get in my last few pair of artisan made earrings for the AJE Challenge. I will post them this week, and start with this pair using some beautiful green bronze charms by Lesley Watt. I just love the organic, almost sea grass-like look of these charms. I added just a few simple light green, glass pearls to this pair. My love affair with Lesley's components is on-going. There will be more from her studio showing up in my work. She's got a big show going on this weekend, so I'm wishing her lots of success! You can find these earrings in my Etsy Shop.
Ok, who here thinks the groundhog lied? Because I sure do. This morning it was yet another chilly one at 36 degrees, and it feels like snow out there. So while I wait for the flowers to appear in my yard, I've been pulling the soft colors of spring into my work. Here is the latest using a pair of charms from Diana at Suburban Girl Studio. I do so love her charms. These are such a soft sprout green porcelain that I used as the focal adding a seed bead ladder stitch and a few Czech lentils. Who knew I'd be beading up with such a storm with all these darn little seed beads? I'm warming up for Christine & Therese's 3rd installment of a Time to Stitch. I've been working on a few stitches; both flat and spiral. I had a couple of go arounds this weekend with a stitch called a Cellini spiral. Oy. I stitch, I stop, I rip out. I finally broke down and moved from my book to a video tutorial. Again I start, I stop, I back up and watch again. After roughly 4 hours of this I finally got it. I might be a slow learner, but I'm darn persistent. More on that piece in April when we reveal our work for the hop. For now, this is my latest artisan pair of earrings for the AJE earring challenge. Yes, I am now woefully behind. I think this makes #10. I have some lovely components on my bead table from Lesley Watt just screaming at me to 'get busy.'
I am continuing to plot right along with my earring designs for the AJE earring challenge. The latest using another gorgeous lampwork bead from Patricia Dugmore of pjBeads. So recently my daughters and I have seen 2 different remakes of Snow White. The first one (called Mirror, Mirror) was fantastic. Lots of humor woven into the script with Nathan Lane playing the role of nurse maid to the queen. The dwarfs were hilarious No spoilers here as you should see this one. The best part was the Ballywood finale. We were singing that for days. Ok, so the second movie was Snow White and the Huntsman. The script actually had some good story line adaptations, but the movie itself was dark. And in my opinion, some pretty bad acting. I'm sure at this point you're all wondering what movie reviews have to do with earrings. Well, I'm glad you asked. Or at least kept reading. In the second movie there is a whole storyline behind 3 drops of blood: the original queen sees a red rose bloom in defiance of a cold winter. She reaches out to touch the rose and pricks her finger. Three drops of blood fall on the snow. The effect is so beautiful that she wishes for a child with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and strength of a rose in winter. I confess I don't remember 3 drops of blood being in the original Snow White story, but it made me think of these earrings! At the end of the movie: with the step-queen looking to take Snow White's heart says "by fairest blood it is done," and she can live forever. But of course Snow White replies "and by fairest blood is it undone," or the spell broken and the queen's power drained. An interesting twist. Like I said, the script had some good points; if you can get through the acting.
Back in the Fall I joined a blog hop hosted by the Brit Pack Beaders where I created a Jane Austen inspired choker and matching earrings. My inspiration was the city of Bath, and the lovely Pippa of Pips Jewellery, rewarded me with a set of her beautiful petal covered beads. This is just a simple pair of earrings using the petal beads and a hint of silver. I didn't want to distract from the flowers as they are so pretty on their own. They seem like the perfect pair to make right about this time of year as I wait for the first signs of Spring, and a hint of the flowers in the yard to pop up through the snow. This is pair #8 in the AJE Earring Challenge.
One of my new favorite art bead designers is Diana from Suburban Girl Studio. Just look at how fun these sweet flower patterned porcelain charms are! She's not new to making beads, it's me who has been drooling over her work! They remind me of a sea shell print, and I wanted to carry that beach boho feel throughout the earrings. I used hemp cord to wrap the wire loop on the top of the bead. Then used the hemp to string onyx rounds, which give the pair a little 'swing' to them. The finishing touch is a large silver patterned post that I think also have that boho look. You'll find these listed in my Etsy shop.
I picked up quite a few items from Diana's shop, so there will be more projects coming. These earrings are my 7th pair in the AJE Earring Challenge (but who's counting!)
I've had this Crowded House song (Four Seasons In One Day) running through my head for days, and it got me thinking ... what better way to inspire what's on my bead table but to pick a theme. And this one was seriously top of mind. And so, I picked colors by seasons and designed a series of earrings thinking about what other various components and findings would add to the seasonal designs. Check down at the bottom of the post for the song if you feel like humming along. I found a great version of it live with mostly just piano and acoustic guitar. Ok, now on to the earrings. Last week I posted the spring pair from this series, as part of the on-going, 13-week AJE earring challenge. This brings my count up to 6 pair, so I'm cruising right along. I promised to return with the completion of my 4 Seasons series using Marsha Neal's charms... and here they are. I went just a little crazy when I saw Marsha's charms at a recent bead show and bought quite a variety of her work. For the line up, here are the details on each pair: Summer: Lemon Meringue. Materials: Marsha Neal porcelain charms, enamel leaf, gold wire, vermeil flower earwires Fall: Foliage. Materials: Marsha Neal porcelain charms, citrine facetted rondelles, gold spacers and earwires Winter: Snow Tracks. Materials: Marsha Neal porcelain charms, hemp cord, silver spacers and bead, silver patterned posts Spring: Fern Furls. Materials: Marsha Neal porcelain charms, hammered silver, silver patterned earwires
I'm continuing to work on my one pair of earrings a week challenge from AJE. Ok, is anyone keeping count? Just to keep everything honest here, this is pair #3. Recently I was at a bead show and saw some of Marsha's work. I could not help myself as I love the organic look of her pieces! Her beads and charms just make me want to create. I did some serious damage to the credit card at her table. This week I saw a write up at Love My Art Jewelry of how Marsha creates her patterns by rolling clay out over textured plates - so cool! She also talks about what inspires her and how she manages to still find enough balance in her life to spend time with her family. These earrings feature a pretty ceramic porcelain in a soft green that I paired up with hand hammer 16g silver wire. I just love a good hammering session... great stress release! And I managed to not hit a thumb - most excellent. The pair turned out to be whimsical with a nice swing to them and the swirls remind me of new ferns in the spring as the furls are just starting to unwind. They are now in my Etsy Shop. I've pulled out several pairs so I can do a 4 season series. This is the first in the series, so I will be back with a few more.
Early December I was at a bead show and stopped by Patricia Dugmore of pjBeads booth. She has such a passion for making lampwork glass beads, and in her words she says "The journey and discovery of glass is just as exciting today as it was on the day I took my first class." That was in 2003; a mere 10 years to hone such a talent. I picked up quite a variety from her as her beads were just so gorgeous. I could not help but stand there sifting through the baskets of multi-colored glass. My partners in crime (Christine and Sally) were right there beside me; just as mesmerized as I was. So you'll definitely be seeing more from me using her beads in upcoming earring designs. The pattern of each bead is its own custom design in red, black and olive green. My picture-taking skills (or lack there of) just don't do these justice. The colors are just stunning. I paired them up with some hammered silver to create paddles for my onyx rondelles. I haven't made paddles before, but found them easy to create. This is a second pair in a series of artisan bead earrings that I'm working of for the AJE Earring challenge.
AJE (Art Jewelry Elements) has put out a challenge asking jewelry designers to create a pair of earrings each week for 13 weeks. The challenge is actually for all of 2013, but they are breaking up groups into 3 months at a time. I signed up for the first group. The rules are pretty simple. Create a pair of earrings using art beads or art components, and note (in a blog post) who made them. This is my first pair, and I used some gorgeous bronze headpins by Lesley Watt of THEAtoo. I absolutely love these headpins. They are a great weight, the wire was easy to work with and they are simply a beautiful pattern. I used some turquoise heshi beads with lots of veining to really play on the beautiful color of the bronze by Lesley. Now on my Etsy. I decided to take a look at the history behind turquoise and found that the stone has been used for thousands of years, in fact it dates back to ancient Egypt and Persia. Ok, I didn't know that. The stone was thought to bring good fortune. Some used it as a tailsman, worn around the neck or waist, as protection against unnatural death. And if it changed color the wearer was thought to have reason to fear the approach of doom. Right. The original 'mood ring.' In reality, the change in color can be caused by light or a chemical reaction from cosmetics or the acidity of the skin. Turquoise shows up in King Tut's burial mask, which makes sense as he is widely known for being sickly. The stone in the mask likely came from the Sinai Peninsula then called the 'Country of Turquoise.' The Egyptians loved to used the stone in great sweeping necklaces, and when King Tut's tomb was excavated in the early 20th century it brought on Egyptian Revival jewelry. The modern name for turquoise comes from an old French word for 'Turkish' because the stone was first brought to Europe (likely along the silk road) from Turkey. Much of it came from the historical mines in Khorasan province of Iran. Iranians used the stone as inlay in palaces as it's intense blue color was the symbol of heaven on earth. In the Americas it dates back to the Aztecs who called it 'teoxihuiti' and used it as inlay in many items including ceremonial masks, knives and shields. The Pueblo, Navajo and Apache used it as an amulet with the Apache believing that the stone gave an archer dead aim. Native American Peoples used turquoise as beads and freeform pendants, and are thought to have greatly influenced its production and use. It is amazing how much history this one stone has, and across so many continents.
When I signed up for the AJE Earring Challenge to make a pair of earrings a week (for 3 months) I thought it would be easy since I can sit down and make five or six pair in an afternoon. 
