We're All Ears: November 2017

This month's We're All Ears challenge hosted by Erin Prais-Hintz over on the Earrings Everyday blog is all about inspirational quotes.  As our friend Loralee pointed out, words are Erin's magic (or at least part of her magic!).  She gave us four options to choose from:

I found this challenge a little more, well, challenging than some.  The first quote that sparked something for me was A... "stars can't shine without darkness."  I'm guessing this one worked for me because stars were something that I could grab onto. 

I had just bought a set of Starry Night faux tin charms from Heather Powers of Humblebeads fame, so this seemed like an obvious starting place for me.  I pared them with star cut aquamarines (get it, star cut?!?) and some tiny dark blue Czech glass rondelles.  I think that these are for me so I kept them pretty simple and just added some grey with sterling niobium ear wires on the top.

Next up I made something for D... "never stop growing."  Now, at first I thought those objects on the leaf were acorns.  After slipping off my glasses and taking a closer look I'm not so sure that I was right.  Regardless, I interpreted them that way and the photo does have a very autumnal feel to it, so I made some acorn earrings!  I bought some silver plated acorn bead caps from Nunn Design a while back and I'm finally getting around to using them.  I've got a fall show coming up in a few weeks, so this seemed like a good time to get going!

I managed to pull something together for one last prompt, B... "Chart Your Own Course."  I grabbed some compass decorivets from Vintaj that I've had for a bit and never done anything with for my first pair.  I just bent the rivet pieces on the back side into nice loops and added the ear wires and some labradorite teardrops by way of jump rings connected to the loops.  They are a little bit on the big side, but pretty light weight.

A little more abstract, I had some earring charms from Erin herself that I got as a prize for the Art Bead Scene challenge a few months ago.  They were part of her Minutia line... you can see some other options in her store on her Tesori Trovati website.  I'm guessing that her intention for the design was more floral, but they read a little bit compass-like to me for some reason.  I decided to just go with it... I could use a few more designs with some sparkle as we head into the holidays anyway!  I kept it simple and just made little dangles with some Swarovski crystals, copper plated spacers, and some plated hematite.  I think these would be a perfect accessory for a holiday party!

With everything that's been going on in my life this month (both good and bad) I'm pretty proud of myself for getting this many designs completed.  There's no rest for the weary (or the wicked!) since I've got two shows coming up in early December.  Thanks for stopping by... I hope you'll head over to the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else was inspired to make this month!