We're All Ears: December 2015

Yeah, you read the title correctly... this is my very belated entry for the December We're All Ears challenge over on the Earrings Everyday blog.  Well, another month went by where I just couldn't get it together for We're All Ears.  December is always super busy, but some extra challenges got thrown our way right when the this challenge was due.  That's just the way it goes sometimes.  I was really inspired by the December challenge so I wanted to share my efforts... better late than never!

We were basically challenged to take pictures of our "craftermath" (all that beading goodness that never gets put properly away after a creative session) and make earrings with what we found.  Within the allotted time frame, I did take pictures of my beady mess and started sorting things for possible earrings... I just never got around to actually making anything until after Christmas.  What I found as I started sorting was that what I have is less craftermath (although there certainly is some of that!) and more half thought out projects that got abandoned.  So... here's where I started:

So far I've managed to finish 8 pairs of earrings... not too shabby of an effort!   

In this first set I've started with a variation on a design I've made in the past.  I had a strand of the ocher colored maple leaves sitting out (I had cut the strand for my guest post on the Earrings Everyday blog and never put them away) along with a matching pair of the oak and acorn decorivets that look a little more rusty than the Arte Metal from Vintaj normally does.  Next, there's a pair with some C-Koop charms that I've had for more than 5 years (there's a matching pendant that will hopefully soon be a necklace to go with these!).  I kept these pretty simple and just added some Czech glass and crystal rondelles in coordinating colors.  The last pair includes some beads that have been languishing on my never-used-anymore bead board.  I inherited the barrel shaped beads when my mother in law gave me all of her old beading supplies when I took up the hobby back in 2008 or so.  They were sitting in one of the wells of my bead board along with at least one of the blue flower beads.  The barrels have a Picasso finish with a lot of blue in it so I thought this was a great match.  While I did have a short length of copper plated chain that gave me the idea for the design, I ended up pulling a finer chain out to use instead.

Keys seem to be the theme of the next two pairs of earrings!  Although you can't really tell from the photo, the pair on the left features copper blanks that I textured with a texturing hammer.  They are leftovers from some play I did at a class this summer.  I kept it simple and added some Vintaj Arte Metal key charms and called it good.  The pair on the right puts some etched brass luggage tag blanks to use.  I probably made these several years ago when I first got my BIGkick machine and then set them aside... possibly because they weren't a perfect match but I really don't remember.  I added some speckled blue ceramic beads and brass plated spacers to complete the design.

This final set of earrings are obviously variations on a theme.  I had etched or embossed then painted all of these brass and Arte Metal blanks when I was prepping for the Art Wander in September but ran out of time to complete them.  As so often happens in my studio space, all the unfinished projects got swept aside when I was cleaning up and forgotten.  I finally took the time to dap and seal the blanks and allow them to become earrings.

Even though I'm super tardy, this was a fun way to jump start my new year.  It felt good to complete some half-finished projects and use up some supplies that needed to be up away.  My studio is still a disaster, but I feel like I've got the energy to start tackling that space.  I'll keep my muffin tin handy for now to collect any other possible projects as I begin my clean up... I'm sure I'll be sharing some of those soon!