We're All Ears: October 2016

For this month's We're All Ears challenge hosted by the Earrings Everyday blog, Erin has chosen a fascinating topic... the weather!  She chose some fascinating pictures to get our creative juices going but left things pretty wide open.  She encouraged us to work with whatever weather topic we were inspired by... wind patterns, cloud formations, precipitation, or anything else!

As always, Erin shared some images for inspiration.  I was particularly taken with this illustration from a German cloud atlas book.  This was where I started with pulling beads and findings.  I have to admit I was a little surprised since this is a much more subdued palette than I normally am attracted to!

First up, I made two pairs of earrings using some of the teardrop beads that I picked up from Unicorn Beads.  Most of what I bought was in a teal/blue/green color palette, but I did get one neutral mixed strand that I put to use here.  I haven't been entirely sure how I would use all the pretty little teardrops I bought, so I was happy to make two variations on a theme here.  I simply strung three beads on large brass jump rings so that you could see the colors inside.  For one pair I kept it super simple and just added ear wires.  I got a little more fancy with the others and did some wire wrapping around matte red creek jasper barrel beads in a nice grey.  It's hard to tell in the picture but the beads have some subtle patterns and swirls in them that remind me of the clouds.

Staying with the same inspiration artwork, I picked out a pair of Firelily Glass lampwork beads in a nice mix of amber and tan/brown that reminded me of the colors in the bottom portion of the picture.  My husband thought the beads' pattern looked more snakelike, but I saw swirling clouds.  I added in some matte bronze Czech glass and vintage plastic and hung the wire wrapped bead units from some fun twisted copper bars that sort of reminded me of the jagged lightning.

I was also inspired by the swirling clouds in this Van Gogh painting...  Such amazing movement captured by a Master!  Now I'll admit that my colors weren't spot on, but I'm going to claim creative license on this one.  :)

I decided that this would be a good time to use some of the polymer clay beads that I made last weekend at the Inspired by Nature Retreat (you can read about that HERE if you missed it) to create earrings.   The marbled effect of the beads with their bands of colors mimics the clouds.  I added in some faceted labradorite rounds that my picture doesn't do justice to at all.

I also found some ceramic charms in my stash by Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio that had wonderful green swirls on them.  I added some sparkle with some fun rhinestones rondelles and vintage plastic with some metallic sheen to it.  I topped things off with a little Czech glass bead.

Lastly, I made two pairs using some new Czech glass teardrop beads that reminded me of big, fat raindrops.  The ones on the left have a Mercury Glass finish that I just love.  I decided to keep these pretty simple, just adding some small silver spacers and Czech glass or crystal beads.  I suppose that the pair on the left fits in with the colors of the first picture... but that wasn't what I was thinking about when I made them!

Thanks for stopping by to see my newest earrings today!  You can check out what the weather inspired others to make over on the Earrings Everyday blog HERE.