We're All Ears December 2019: Use Your Leftovers

This is the fifth year of the We're All Ears "Use Your Leftovers" challenge!  I haven't looked back to last year but I expect that I'm doing something similar since I've been knee deep in salt water etching for the second year in the row!  I honestly have made much of anything else this month... I knew had good stock built up of everything other than Christmas ornaments for my holiday shows.

If you want to see most of the ornaments I made this year, I have them for sale in my Etsy shop.  You can see them HERE.

Anyhoo... for my contribution to the Use Your Leftovers challenge I present you with the pieces that I made from the etched copper sheet left over after I cut out my ornament shapes.  I used my handy dandy disc cutter to cut as many circles as possible out of the extra copper then gave them a good tumble to help smooth any rough edges.  Then it was time to match things up for earrings, punch holes, and dome them.  Yes, there are some necklaces in the mix too, but that's just how I snapped my pictures as I was making things.    

This is a blog hop.  Pop on over to the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else made with their personal craftermath!

We're All Ears: August 2018: Circles

This month Erin picked a bevy of cool circle-inspired patterns from a contest over on Spoonflower in July.  If you don't know Spoonflower, it's a super cool website where you can get thousands of patterns on fabric, wallpaper, giftwrap, and more!  You can even upload your own designs/patterns to print.  If I were a quilter or sewer, this would be a crazy dangerous place for me!  Anyway... the top 10 winners of their July "Circles are the New Triangles" challenge gave us a ton to be inspired by!  You can see the patterns up close HERE.

I wasn't sure that I'd have time to make anything this month with some serious travel on the August docket, but I managed to squeeze in a little creating time in between gathering essentials, doing laundry, and deciding what to pack for a 16 day trip.  I have to admit that I looked for circle-inspired beads first and then looked to see if they worked with any of the Spoonflower designs.

First up, some I found some little corrugated, enameled circles from Blue Hare Art Wear that worked with the top right option.  They are a little more red than in the design, but they do have an orange tinge to them.  I used denim ???  and carnelian rounds with a little swirl of wire wrapped around the top beads for fun.

For my second pair, I grabbed some fine pewter charms from Green Girl Studios that have some great circle patterns all over them that reminded me of the mandala-esque patterns in the second from the left design on the bottom row.  Once again, I chose only round beads to complement the charms... picking some aquamarine and very pale faceted rose quartz.

This is a blog hop... stop by the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else was inspired to make!  To those of you participating, my apologies, but I probably won't be able to hop and comment until we get back from our trip!

We're All Ears: April 2018: Paradise Calling

For this month's We're All Ears challenge over on the Earrings Everyday blog, Erin got inspired by the Bead Cruise!  (You can read about my adventures on this year's cruise HERE if you want to learn more.) 

Having just returned from tropical climes to about 16 inches of new snow in Minnesota, I was perfectly content to go back to my happy place (if only in my mind) this week to design some beach/Caribbean inspired earrings.  I even used some of the beads and charms that I made in Heather Powers polymer clay class!

I'll start off a little simple with two pairs of earrings featuring patinated brass charms that I picked up a while back from Lima Beads.  Each of them also features Czech glass, plated hematite, and Vintaj Natural brass.

Next up, a little trio of earrings using different versions of Heather Power's starfish charms.  I have another pair similar to these that I made for myself a few year's ago with the whitewashed version of these charms... I get tons of compliments on them so it made sense to just whip up variations on a theme.  Plus, I needed to make room for all the new pretties I bought from Heather on the Bead Cruise's Bead Bazaar night!  Each pair features lampwork glass and either Czech or cultured sea glass.  The lampwork glass in the right hand pair is by Mermaid Glass... sadly, I'm unsure of the artist for the other two but they were a gift from my sweet husband.

When I was fishing all those little starfish out of my Humblebeads drawer, another set of charms also caught my eye.  I snagged these little pineapples ages ago and decided it was high time (or maybe high tide??) to use them!  I used some orange and green Czech glass to pull out the colors of the pineapples.  These are super fun and make me think of fun fruity cocktails!

Last, but not least, I made two pairs of earrings with some of the fruits of my polymer clay class with Heather on the Bead Cruise.  I wasn't going to let those babies gather dust with this challenge on the horizon!  The first pair uses my attempt at disc beads with leaf canes and the second pair features two of the leaf charms that I made from the cane ends where it became a little more distorted.

Thanks for stopping by to see my tropical paradise inspired earrings!  Pop on over to the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else was inspired to make this month!

We're All Ears: September 2017

I have to laugh because Erin and Eric were on the same inspiration wavelength this month...  I was literally sitting down to read the We're All Ears inspiration post when Eric emailed me pictures of sunflowers that he took for the September Honey Do List!  (You can see the post with all the information on how to play along HERE if you're interested... I hope you'll play along with us!)  What a perfect flower to inspire us during the fading days of summer as we start to feel the first nip of autumn in the air. 

Photo credit :: via Unsplash :: Becca Romine :: Ciprian Lipenschi :: Nick Nice :: Thomas Smith :: 

Marko Blazevic :: Jenni Peterson :: Lucas Silva Pinheiro Santos :: Papaver Rhoeas :: Marjorie Bertrand

Here's a little peek at some of the sunflower-y beads in my stash.  Since I was looking down the barrel of dueling sunflower challenges, I figured that it was only fair for me to use the earring-friendly beads for the We're All Ears challenge.  Eric will have to be happy with some sunflower inspired necklace creations.  :)

The first thing I made was a total no brainer for me.  I had picked up some flower charms from Golem Design Studio at Bead & Button this year and one of them was perfect sunflower colors!  I had already used one pair for last month's Honey Do List, so I already had a basic design/style in mind so there was no reason not to get to work!  Since I was on a roll, I went ahead and whipped up earrings with the other two remaining colorways.  I had lovely coordinating Humblebeads disks that were perfect for all three pairs (probably because I pretty much bought a set of every color that Heather Powers had at B&B!!).

Since I was still in painting mode trying to get some of my fan favorite designs finished for my next show that's approaching way too rapidly, I decided to add some paint to a few sunflower charms (or maybe some are really daisies) for a fun effect!  The unpainted pair was a last minute addition when I realized that the Czech glass I had in mind didn't match the painted sunflowers.  I had all the stuff out, so why not?

Lastly, I revisited my Golem collection... and this time fished out some fun polka dotted lentil beads.  These are certainly my least literal interpretation, but I thought the colors were spot on for sunflowers.

So that's it for me this time.  Check back with me on Monday, September 25th to see what other sunflower designs I come up with for the Honey Do List challenge.  I hope you'll consider playing along with us!

Check out the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what other sunflower earrings folks dreamed up!

We're All Ears: June 2017

Summer is finally here... and with the warmer weather many buggy friends have arrived.  Some not so welcome (mosquitos, ticks, ants) and others that bring a smile to my face every time I see them.  This month's inspiration for the We're All Ears challenge from the Earrings Everyday blog is one of those friendly bugs... the firefly or lightning bug (which is what I always call them.)

By Bruce Marlin - Own work http://www.cirrusimage.com/beetle_firefly_Photuris_lucicrescens.htm, CC BY-SA 2.5, Link

Erin mentioned in her blog post that she's only seen fireflies a few times in her life.  At first I was a little shocked and taken aback by that... I mean they were all over the place when I was growing up in Alabama!  But then I stopped and thought about it and realized that I really have only seen them maybe twice in the 17 years I've lived in Minnesota.  I guess I just didn't think about it since the mosquitoes make it unpleasant to be out at dusk.  I just assumed that they must be out there... but I think we may be too far north for these magical little critters to thrive here!

I feel like the picture above is what summer nights of my childhood felt like... just a vast expanse of flickering fireflies.  I know there were really never quite this many, but things just feel different when we are children.  My friends and I spent countless hours chasing lightning bugs, holding them in our hands mesmerized by the flickering light of their tails, bringing an unlucky few home in jars to light our bedrooms.  

When this challenge was announced overachiever me wanted to try and make some little firefly charms out of copper sheet using Heather Powers' "metal sketches" technique and some patinas.  Realistic, time crunched for two trips in two weeks me said "Shut up, that's not happening!"  Sigh.  Maybe I'll give that idea a try down the road when I have time on my hands.  *Laughs hysterically.*

Rational me remembered that I had a strand of little green and gold Czech glass ladybugs in my stash.  (At least I think they're ladybugs since I have the same shape in red with black... but I'm not sure why the bead makers decided on this particular color combo.)  I dug the little guys out and made the executive decision that they would have to work as fireflies... maybe they're just short!  

The first design that came to mind involved having the little buggy beads dangling from some sort of flower.   The flowers are mostly white with faint touches of color so I added more of the green in the centers.

The second pair of earrings didn't end up the way I was initially imagining them, but I like the end result so much better!  I thought I could pull something off where I had little piece of waxed linen with seed beads tied to the ends hanging behind, and reaching below the bug bead.  I made one that way and it just didn't sit right and I wasn't loving it.  The earring design was fine without that but lacked something.  I rummaged through my tubes of seed beads and found some in a similar green that, thankfully, fit onto the topmost jump rings.  A small touch, but it gave the needed pop the design had been lacking.

I don't often work with gold, but it just seemed the right thing to do for both of this month's pairs because of the gold in the bug beads.  I also thought the tiny gold filled bead underneath the bug was reminiscent of the firefly's tail.

In other news, I also made a firefly necklace the same weekend that I made these earrings.  You'll have to wait to see that one though until the reveal for the Art Elements June Theme Challenge.  Find out more about that HERE.

We're All Ears: May 2017

For this month's We're All Ears challenge over on the Earrings Everyday blog, Erin has challenged us to turn trash into treasure!  Basically take something we would normally toss out and turn it into fabulous earrings!

I immediately knew that I wanted to finally get back to playing with some aluminum beer and pop cans that I've been saving.  I even bought some new punches (really meant for paper) to use for the project and Eric and I have been buying some beers exclusively for the cans they are packaged in.  (So much for not judging a book, or a beer, by it's cover!!)

I specifically wanted to try out the two flower shaped punches that I picked up... hoping that they would work together size wise for earrings... spoiler alert... they did!  I wanted a good pop of color for the center flower so I chose a super funky can from Stillwater Artisanal.  I didn't have another colorful can that coordinated with the pink, purple, and yellow so I went for a neutral and used the grey color from one of our local breweries, Insight Brewing.  Here's a before picture!

Aluminum cans are much thinner than you'd expect... that meant that for jewelry use I wanted to have some sort of more substantial backing for them.  Luckily, my flower shapes were the perfect size to fit on top of a circle blank from Vintaj.  I used an embossing folder with my Big Kick on an Arte Metal blank and then sanded the front side to bring out some of the silver color on what was going to be my base layer.  The upside of the ultra thin aluminum is that I was able to stack my components and punch a hole in the center of all three at one time!  I then riveted the pieces together and used my dapping block to dome the whole thing.  Lastly, I wanted the earrings to have a little more dimension, so I gently curved up the petals of both aluminum flowers.  To finish off my design I used some coordinating Czech glass rondelles.

I hope to play more with this idea soon, but life has been crazy busy with not nearly enough time at my bead table.  I feel lucky that I finished one pair of earrings!  As a bonus, I'll also share a pair of earrings that Eric made using circles cut from an Indeed Brewing can.  (They have some super fun designs!)

Thanks for stopping by to see my newest earrings!  Pop over to the Earrings Everyday blog to see what trash transformations other folks came up with!

Earrings Everyday: April 2017: Eggs

I have to admit that I came really close to skipping this month's Earrings Everyday challenge.  It's not that I wasn't inspired by the subject that Erin chose for us... I just didn't think I had any beads that really worked for it.  I had written off the whole thing and then on my afternoon walk on Monday, I had an idea.  When I got home I went digging for the beads I was thinking of, and wonder of wonders, found them!  For some reason that got me thinking about some decal-ed wooden beads that I got in one of Andrew Thornton's destash events... and I found them too!

But I'm putting the cart in front of the horse here.  Let me step back for a moment and share this month's inspiration!  She challenged us to create earrings inspired by the egg in any form but shared some amazing photos of Ukrainian pysanky eggs.  Eggs really are a perfect inspiration in this time of year when many of us celebrate the holidays of Easter and Passover and Spring is bringing new life and color to the world that has been so grey and dreary through the winter.

Embed from Getty Images

Obviously, my childhood Easter Eggs never looked as fancy as these, but I've always been fascinated by these delicate blown eggs.  I've got a small collection of blown egg Christmas ornaments that I bought in Hungary a lifetime ago that I cherish.  Most of those are hand painted florals, but I've got one made with the wax resist technique that's truly amazing.  Anyway, here's what I ended up creating...

First, the pair with the Czech glass beads that I first came to my mind.  I've had these oval shaped cornflower blue beads forever and haven't used many (if any) of them until now.  Apparently this isn't a shape that really speaks to me or I would have used them and/or bought them in more colors.  I felt like the design in the center of the beads was reminiscent of the designs "written" on the pysanky eggs.

My second pair features some vaguely egg-shaped wooden beads decorated with pink and white floral decals.  I added some white Czech glass flowers with pink beads in the center to add to the springtime flower feel of these.  The added beads have nothing to do with eggs, but I wanted to add some whimsy and interest to the earrings... and I felt like it!  :)

Stop by the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else was inspired to make this month!  I just delivered both of these pairs to Unearthed Arts if you're interested in them.

We're All Ears: March 2017

This month the inspiration for the We're All Ears challenge over on the Earrings Everyday blog is all about one of my favorite birds... owls!!  There are so many amazing and beautiful types of owls and a few of them are pictured below.

Photo credits :: Unsplash :: clockwise from top R
Quentin Dr :: Andy Chilton :: Massimo Mancini :: Paul Morley :: Ray Hennessey :: Andy Chilton :: Cliff Johnson

Unfortunately for me, most of my owl beads are not really earring appropriate.  They are mostly art bead focals and some other beads that are just a little bit to big or heavy for earrings.  But there is a pressed Czech glass owl bead in my stash that I've collected in a variety of colors.  I've been making an owl and oak leaf earring design for a couple of years with these beads (see below) but I didn't want to rest on my laurels.  Instead, I knew that I needed to come up with a new design or two for this challenge.

A rainbow of owl earrings from last fall!

I pulled out a few pairs of the owl beads in various colors and started to play around with some new ideas.  My first thought was to put a little wooden bead under each owl to make it seem like they were sitting on a perch... I then added a little bit of brass plated leafy chain dangling from the bottom.

Even though I thought that this was a pretty cute idea, I still wanted to come up with a design that was a little smaller scale.  Not everyone wants a super long dangly earring after all!  For my other two pairs I matched the owls with some wooden disc beads and coordinating Czech glass at the bottom.

Thanks for stopping by to see my owlish earrings!  Now flap your wings and fly on over to the Earrings Everyday blog to see what the hoot owls inspired other designers to make!

New Earrings... Muffin Tin Style!

Taking a page from Heather Powers' Muffin Tin Challenge, I decided to pack up a little container filled with everything I needed to make a collection of earrings to take with me when I worked at Unearthed Arts last week.  I haven't been as focused on making earrings lately and I knew that I could plot out a bunch of designs for portable projects.  (All the necklaces I had on my bead board weren't completely figured out yet... and I like having all my beads at my disposal when working out a design.)  Some of what I gathered was left over from the December use your "craftermath" challenge from Earrings Everyday, some were to complement necklaces I was working on for other challenges, and some made use of newer beads and findings that I hoped to avoid putting away!  Here's a look at what I brought along with me:

Now I didn't manage to finish everything that I carried with me that day, but over the weekend I got the majority finished.  All in all, I made ten pairs of earrings from my little project box.  (I'm sharing nine of them today but saving one for when I finish the coordinating necklace.)  This experiment made me realize how much more of my time is used deciding upon a design than actually executing it!  Without further ado, here's what I made!

First up, two "craftermath" pairs that have been in partial progress since December.  Both feature Vintaj components that I had painted a good while ago.  I selected faceted carnelian and orange Czech glass for the embossed pair on the left and faceted jade, rhinestone rondelles, and purple Czech glass to go with the butterfly charms.

I picked up some fun little enameled charm components from a craft store after Christmas that I thought would make fun earrings... here's what I did combining those with some little Czech glass flower dangles.  I think they are bright, happy, and fun... I just adore the combination of red and turquoise!

Lastly, I've got a little grouping of earrings that I made with some new charms that I ordered online in December and hadn't managed to get put away.   The two on the ends are variations on a theme using some pretty silver plated crystal drops.  The pair on the left is all crystal beads while the one on the right makes use of dyed agate and Czech glass.  Both are on sterling silver ear wires.  The middle pair features some fun charms by Zola Elements and a mix of Czech glass and dyed agate on gold filled ear wires.

Well, that's it for my little earring interlude.  I hope you enjoy seeing what I've been making!  Now I'd better get back to work on the other projects I need to finish before setting sail on this year's Bead Cruise later this week... including the necklace for my Midsummer Night's Dream themed party costume!  Stay tuned...

We're All Ears: December 2016

For the last We're All Ears challenge of the year over on the Earrings Everyday blog, Erin has once again challenged us to bring some order to the chaos of our craftermath!  What is "craftermath" you ask?  It's all the leftovers that get strewn around, buried, or otherwise abandoned after a creative making frenzy.  Thus, this year she's calling our challenge the Leftover Transformation Game!  

Because of the way I tend to work, and the fact that I am forced to clear off at least my beading work table once a month for a social gathering we host, I'm actually moderately good about putting extra or unwanted beads away at the end of each project.  That really cuts down on the true craftermath.  Where I get myself into much more trouble is not putting things away in the first place!  If something doesn't have an easy to locate/clearly defined home, it tends to linger either on one of my beading "landing zones" or, more often, gets shoved into one of my bead hiding places when I have to "clean up."  Don't believe me?  Let me show you the evidence... it's pretty damning...  Warning, the following images depict graphic disorganization and are not intended for an anal retentive audience.

A good deal of what's in my bead hidey holes are more recent purchases (including two brand new shipments that I haven't even opened to check, destash and bargain bundles) but there are things in here that I've had for more than a year... maybe more than two years... and I just haven't used or found a home for them yet.  I've also got a few partially finished class projects and bead kits hidden away.  Super embarrassing, but we all know that creating is WAY more fun than putting things away.

Now I had absolutely no delusions that I'm going to be able to clean up all these hoarded goodies before the We're All Ears reveal (or ever!), but I gave it a good try and at least dug through for some low hanging earring-making fruit.  With two shows in early December, a holiday party at my house, and company in town, I didn't get all that far and I didn't find some of the things I was expecting/hoping to uncover for the challenge.  But this is what I came up with:

I clearly didn't have everything I needed in my little bins, but I pulled extra beads and findings to round out my designs based on the goodies I did unearth from my mess.  Here's what I managed to make... the other items will have to wait for another day to become something.

The first pair that I made started with a pair of beads from an orphan strand that I bought from Firelily Glass and embarrassingly lives in the box they were shipped in inside the bowels of my cabinet.  (Don't judge me... I know exactly where they are!)  I also grabbed a pair of painted bead caps that had been sitting around for a while then added some Czech glass and plated druzy beads to the mix.  These have just the right amount of sparkle for me!

Moving onto another item from the category of "I bought it a million years ago and never put it away," I present you with two pairs featuring some little square pewter charms.  I think what happened is that these were smaller than I had expected (I often struggle with sizing when shopping online) and they just got pushed to the side.  Needing to get things organized, and still not having a great place to store these charms, I had no choice but to make something with them.  I added some glass beads, and voila!  Simple and sweet... yet I think the long ones look kind of fancy!

Other goodies I uncovered in my mess of "to be put away" items were some enameled bird charm pairs by Gardanne that I bought at Bead & Button this summer.  I've used all the other charms I got then, but these have languished for awhile.  These two pairs of earrings are another slight variation on a theme... using the same rhinestone rondelles and chain but different colored beads and charms.  Hopefully these will quickly fly away to new homes!

Thanks for stopping by to see my earring creations.  I certainly didn't get through everything that I pulled out (or make nearly as much as some folks... check that out over on the Earrings Everyday blog HERE) but at least I was able to get a few new things done.  I'm going to keep that little container handy and continue to work through its contents as time allows.  For now, I've got a couple of other challenges and a few Christmas presents to make so I've got to go get busy!

We're All Ears: November 2016

Miss Erin always finds the most delicious things to inspire our earring making... this month that is true both literally and figuratively!  She found a fascinating video of hand crank candy machines from the 1800s that a Tallahassee, Florida candy company has restored and put back into use.  So cool!  And I love the company's name: Public Displays of Confection!

A big ol' pile of the Victorian Nectar Drops

I was inspired by the color of the Victorian Nectar Drops, the cool vintage machinery, and the idea of the pressed shapes achieved through this candy making process.  I ended up with three pairs of earrings this month!

First up a pair that is all about the golden amber color of the Nectar drops!  I thought the Czech glass looked a little like the shapes that rolled out of that machine.

Next is another pair that features beads with a cool pattern that I could imagine being used with drop candies.  The color is darker and less true to the inspiration, but I used gold plated and filled findings to bring in the amber tones.

My last pair is also my favorite.  I'm finally making use of some enameled gears made by C-Koop Beads that I've been hoarding forever.  I wanted to tap into how cool that machinery is and the gears are my way of representing that.  I added some yellow vintage glass beads (thank you, Allegory Gallery!) that remind me of gum drops to the bottom of the gears.  And of course, I used brass findings because the brass rollers in the machine!

I hope you enjoyed the candy-inspired ear candy I made this month!  These will be at my Holiday Open House on December 4th.  You can check out what everyone else was inspired to make over at Earrings Everyday HERE.

Some Sunday Earrings!

I had a good time this weekend making my favorite thing... earrings... and I wanted to share with you in a quick post!  I'm going to be heading to Heather Powers' Inspired by Nature Retreat on Friday morning for a weekend of beady fun, but that means that I've got a lot to do to get some jewelry delivered to Unearthed Arts before I leave.  For the second year, Unearthed Arts, the gallery where I sell most of my jewelry, is going to be setting up an exclusive shopping boutique during the Achieving a Healthy Balance event sponsored by the Ridgeview Hospital Foundation on October 15th.  Anyway, my point being that all of these earrings are headed to this great event to support a great cause in our community!

I finally made a couple of earrings using some of the beads from Allegory Gallery's Mermaid Lagoon challenge.  (You can see the necklaces and bracelet I made with the kit HERE if you missed it!)  First up is a pair using glass beads from the kit paired with brass beads and findings.  The idea is that these would go with the starfish necklace that I made.

Next is a pair that features a gorgeous pair of ceramic charms made by Marsha Neal that I picked up at Bead & Button.  I added some recycled glass, more brass, and some funky glass beads from the kit to top things off.  Now I'm itching to play with more of Marsha's pretties that are in my hoard... we'll see what the week ahead brings!

It wasn't all mermaid colors this weekend... I also whipped up some more earrings with hand-painted brass elephant charms!  I had a recent playdate with my friend Marcia where we broke out my collection of Vintaj patinas and I got a few pairs of charms painted and sealed.  I love the green and purple color combination!  I made another pair in turquoise and red like I sold during the Art Wander.  I want to try these in some other colors soon because I think they are so cute!  

  

And for my last pair, it's back to the beach!  (Seriously, why am I in the mood for beach and ocean themed jewelry when I should be in fall mode??)  More charms that I painted with Marcia.  The base color is really a turquoise color, but I wanted to demonstrate how to mix the metallic patinas with the glaze for a nice overcoat and she'd already poured out some gold.  The result is was a happy surprise that turned out a cool and weathered greenish color.

I hope you enjoyed my newest earring creations!  It was fun just to get to play around with some things with no real direction... just following my muse this weekend.