We're All Ears: December 2017, Use Your Leftovers

It's time for the Third Annual Use Your Leftovers challenge over on the Earrings Everyday blog!  The idea behind this challenge is to use up some of the bits and bobs that get left behind after your crazy beading sessions... your "craftermath!"  As I explained a bit last year, I don't really have true "craftermath" per se.  While I usually have 3 (or 4 or 5 or 6!) projects mulling around on my bead board at any given time, I'm pretty good at putting away the excess beads from those projects as soon as they are finished.  My problem is all of the piles of half thought out or abandoned projects that got left behind when some other deadline loomed larger.  So once again, I'm taking a stab at getting some of those orphaned earring projects completed!

Here's my new to me old muffin tin that I acquired this summer filled with a variety of earring projects in various stages of thought-out-edness.  (Is that a word?  It's a word now!)  I think some of these were in my queue last year when I did this challenge and I ran out of time and/or energy.  Yikes!!

First up a couple of fairly simple pairs that were special orders that I haven't gotten around to making yet.  (Seriously, people... if you ever need something from me, give me a deadline!  I don't function without due dates.)  One pair is a replacement for a cherished pair of acorn earrings that got left behind by a friend at airport security and the other is a pair to go with a necklace bought at a recent show.

Next, I've got a couple of pairs of beer can earrings that I didn't finish before my last show at Bad Weather Brewing last weekend.  Better late than never!  These two will join the rest of my Upcycled beer can collection at Unearthed Arts in Waconia in the next couple of days..

This next few pairs are the closest to true "craftermath" that I got.  The painted petals were from a big batch of painting that I did earlier this fall.  This was one of the few pairs that didn't get finished and now I'm kind of glad.  Also in my muffin tin were some beads intended for earrings to match a necklace I made for the Art Bead Scene last month.  Well, the necklace sold before I got back to the earrings so I combined some of them with the painted flower petals for a fun look!  I also had some little Czech glass teardrop beads that I had been thinking about a while back... I paired them with some lucite beads that have a bit of a gold sheen to them and some brass findings.  Lastly, I found the cute little Dalmatian Jasper hearts when I was making a necklace with that stone a while back but set them aside to play with and then got distracted... story of my life!  The hearts and the Dalmatian Jasper rounds came from a bead mix from my friends at Allegory Gallery and the lampwork glass is from the Spacer Bead Shop on Etsy (now closed).

I sold out of all of my post style earrings at my Holiday Open House earlier this month, so I thought it was past time to take care of this two lingering project.  (I also really need to get out the polymer clay to make some new color combinations, but that's got to wait for another day!)  More posts soon though!  Hopefully before the holiday shopping season is over, but we'll see how things go.

Lastly, I finally got around to making a pair that I'd hoped to make last December for Eric's Honey Do List challenge.  (You can see it HERE if you want to see my inspiration.)  The cute little wire wrapped sari silk "cocoons" are by my friend Anna Pierson of Saga Hus that I picked up in one of her events over on her SagaHus Components Facebook group.  I added a short length of Arte Metal chain to the links and made dangles from some vintage glass and garnet beads.  

I really wanted to (finally!) finish some of the polymer clay charms that I started at Heather Powers' Inspired by Nature Retreat back in October.  But I just didn't give myself enough time.  Considering that I didn't start making anything until after dinner last night, I think I did pretty darn well!  Stop by the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else whipped up from their craftermath leftovers! 

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: 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!