Friday, March 18, 2016

We're All Ears: March 2016

Erin Prais-Hintz has truly outdone herself with her pick for the We're All Ears challenge hosted on the Earrings Everyday blog this month!  She's chosen a collection of breathtaking photographs of decorative tile work from Instagram photographer Mehrdad Rasoulifard.  The photos are part of a project to document ancient Persian and Iranian architecture.  The arabesque art found there focuses on intricate geometric patterns and exhibits a lovely range of colors.  I've picked out a couple of my favorite photographs to share here but I encourage you to check out Erin's inspiration post HERE to see all the gorgeous photos there.

Celling of Hazrate-Masomeh’s mosque in Qom, Iran
Celling of Sheikh-Lotfollah’s mosque in Esfahan, Iran
Sheikh Lotfollah mosque in Esfahan,Iran, about 400 years old

My first thought when I saw the photographs was to play with some of my Vintaj DecoEmboss and DecoEtch dies and patinas.  I pulled out a variety of different shaped brass blanks and started to play!  Here's a picture of my decorated and painted pieces midway through the sanding and sealing process:


Some of them didn't come out exactly how I was hoping but it's hard to tell until you have things sanded down.  In all honesty, I didn't love the way the multi-colored striped pieces were looking at this point or even once I sanded them.  I'm super happy with the finished result after I applied a mix of glaze and bronze paint over the tops.  What I love about these paints is that things are almost never a total lost cause... you can add more layers of paint or use a tinted layer of glaze to change the look. 

Here are the finished pieces:


Can you tell I was most inspired by the turquoise and teal tones from the inspiration photos?  The two pairs on the ends were etched and embossed just for the challenge.  The middle pair had been around for awhile unpainted but I thought the texture of the design (if not the color I chose) worked well.  Whenever I get out the paints, I always have extra pieces to paint if I end up with extra paint... I hate to waste!  I accidentally ended up with waaaay too much of this blue color mixed up so I just rolled with it!  


This second set ended up being my favorite designs despite not being happy with the early stages of my paint job.  What a difference some bronze paint added to the glaze coat made!  I feel like these are the most true to the colors of the inspiration photos.


This final set wasn't originally destined to be part of this post either, but once they were done, I thought the texture in the brass pieces fit... ok, maybe not the purple but who knows, there could be a mosque with purple and gold tones out there somewhere! 

Pop over to the Earrings Everyday blog to see what everyone else was inspired to make this month HERE!

11 comments:

  1. These are gorgeous! The multi-color striped circles are my favorite, but they're all fabulous. Great interpretation.

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  2. I really love love your earrings (esp the second set) they transport me to the palaces and mosques of turkey that I hope to visit someday

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  3. beautiful earrings. I love the Vintaj DecoEmboss components.nice job.

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  4. These all turned out great, very inspiring too. I'm glad you persevered and by layering on more colour you got the look you desired...xx

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  5. Love all the earrings but the teardrop turquoise from the first set my fav.

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  6. Love the middle row! Beautiful, simply beautiful.

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  7. Amazing earrings! Love the textured components. Great job on the challenge.

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  8. I can tell we share a passion for patina and have a couple of the same folders! It's amazing though how each person using these can take the basic patina colors and folder designs and each come up with things so unique. I really love each pair of earrings you've made here! (And I'm also jealous of your plant earring hanger! Perfect for photographing your lovely work!)

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  9. What a great representation of the challenge! I never remember that I have all that Vintaj stuff until I see clever things like this that come from it! I love the colors you used. I especially love that sort of ombre effect with the tri color one! That is by far my favorite! Thank you for playing along with me in the March We're All Ears Challenge. Check back on April 1st for our next inspiration! Enjoy the day! Erin

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