We're All Ears: June 2015

I missed out on last month's We're All Ears Challenge but I'm back in action for June!  To kick off summer, Erin Prais-Hintz picked tide and rock pools to get our creative juices going.  Here are some awesome retro illustrations pictures that she shared with us and you can check out her original post HERE if you'd like to know more.

ILLUSTRATION BY HASHIME MURAYAMA

ILLUSTRATION BY THEO CARRERAS

I would love to say that I immediately starting working on my projects, but those of you who know me realize that that would almost never happen.  Eleventh hour panic designing is my specialty when it comes to challenges!  Hey, whatever works, right?

Anyway, I knew that I had lots of yummy sea life beads and charms... tons to choose from... so I started dragging things out to see what went best together best.

The first design to gel was this one with more of a prehistoric tide pool feel.  I've had these little ammonite shaped Czech glass beads languishing in my stash for a while.  I pulled a couple out and paired them with some dyed coral and copper plated "limpet" bead caps.

The second pair I made used some "sea glass" nuggets that I picked up last month in Asheville, NC and some sand dollar charms from Vintaj.  (For the record, I really wish they would bring these back in the smaller size, but whatever.)

Next up, I grabbed these fun textured ceramic charms from Jenny Davis-Reazor that I got in my Bead Cruise goody bag this year.  I thought they had a sort of coral-y feel to them.  I used the same dyed coral beads and limpet bead caps as in my first pair but in silver this time.

When digging for the coral beads, I unearthed these multi-colored Czech glass coin beads.  The color and the shape spoke to me for this challenge.  I kept it really simple... I just wire wrapped the beads and added some shell charms to the bottom.

I'd already more than made up for missing last month's challenge, but I wasn't done yet!  I picked out some Firelily borosilicate glass that had an undersea feel to them and paired them with some new brass fern pieces that reminded me of kelp or the white tendril-y thing at the top of the second inspiration picture.

Last but certainly not least, I decided to finally do something with these sweet little starfish charms that I bought from Heather Powers on the Bead Cruise this year.  The polymer clay Humblebeads are so lightweight making them a perfect complement to the weightier lampwork beads from Mermaid Glass.  I love, love, love how these turned out and might not be able to part with them!

Whew, that's it for me this month!  All these little ear bobs (except the Humblebeads starfish ones!) will find their way to Unearthed Arts for sale next week.  Make sure to check out what everyone else made too...

An InLinkz Link-up