AJE Earring Challenge - Weeks 23 & 24

It's that time already once again... today is the reveal for weeks 22 and 23 of the Art Jewelry Elements earring challenge.  The challenge is to create and share one pair of earrings a week made with artisan components.  It's been great fun to challenge myself to  use some of the art beads in my stash as well as some things that I made myself. Another side effect of participating in this challenge is that I keep finding great new artisans that I want to purchase things from!

Without further ado, here are my contributions for this time...  both pairs feature lampwork from the talented Tanya McGuire.  I just ordered some new beads from her, but these babies have been languishing in one of my boxes of beads for way too long!  You can check out her Etsy shop HERE.

First up, a fairly simple pair with gorgeous purple and teal lampwork beads.  So that the glass could shine, I just added some teal colored Swarovski crystals and made wire wrapped loops on sterling silver balled headpins.  This purple was really hard to capture accurately, but I think I finally got it.  

Week 23 - Purple Haze Earrings

For my second pair this reveal, I'm getting a little bit fancier.  I got adventurous and decided to try out the multi-faced texturing hammer that I bought last year and haven't used (does any body sense a theme with me??).  I took some Vintaj natural brass altered blank rectangles that had a little loop on one end, cut off the loop, filed the rough edges down, and punched new holes in each end.  After that, I pulled out the bench block and hammered some texture onto the pieces.  I doubled the brass pieces over to make a cool three dimensional shape to hang beneath the lovely blue and creamy yellow lampwork beads.

Week 24

The purple pair is for sale in my Etsy shop, HERE.   Hope everyone is having a marvelous weekend!

Please take a look at all the other great designs if you get the chance!