Month after month, Erin Prais-Hintz continues coming up with such delightful new inspiration for the We're All Ears earring design challenge... and this time is no exception! I eagerly await the first Friday of each month when she unveils what she has chosen for us. This month is all about fiddlehead ferns. There is so much to love and to be inspired by here... the spring green colors, the spirals of their curved fronds, the feathery leaves of the fully sprouted fern. I love it all! Here are some of the photos Erin shared to get us going:
Upon seeing these great images, I ran to my stash and started digging for the beads I would use. I ended up approaching the challenge from several different directions focusing on the colors, the spirals, and the fern leaves themselves. Here's what I came up with!
First up are two pairs that are all about the various shades of green found in the wonderful world of ferns. I had two pairs of green lampwork beads from a strand of Firelily Glass orphan beads... one in vibrant greens and one in more muted, earthy colors that reminded me of the second photo above. I kept these pretty basic to focus on the colors and let the lampwork shine... although I did try my hand at wire-wrapping some seed bead embellishments on one pair. I'm pretty pleased with the result of that experiment!
This next pair is all about the spiral shape of the emerging fiddleheads and features a lovely pair of ammonite charms from Lesley Watt. I snatched these little beauties up at BeadFest and am happy to finally be using them! I love the rich depth of color that Lesley achieved with the glaze... it's just magic to me. Playing off the range of colors in the charms, I used some yummy prehnite and Czech glass along with brass to complete the design. I'm pretty smitten with these so they may be finding their way into my jewelry box!
I had hoped to break out my BigKick again and play with the fern frond DecoEmboss folder and my paints but I ran out of time for that. This is a blog hop... check out what everyone else was inspired to create this month in celebration of ferns over on the Earrings Everyday blog HERE!
Upon seeing these great images, I ran to my stash and started digging for the beads I would use. I ended up approaching the challenge from several different directions focusing on the colors, the spirals, and the fern leaves themselves. Here's what I came up with!
First up are two pairs that are all about the various shades of green found in the wonderful world of ferns. I had two pairs of green lampwork beads from a strand of Firelily Glass orphan beads... one in vibrant greens and one in more muted, earthy colors that reminded me of the second photo above. I kept these pretty basic to focus on the colors and let the lampwork shine... although I did try my hand at wire-wrapping some seed bead embellishments on one pair. I'm pretty pleased with the result of that experiment!
This next pair is all about the spiral shape of the emerging fiddleheads and features a lovely pair of ammonite charms from Lesley Watt. I snatched these little beauties up at BeadFest and am happy to finally be using them! I love the rich depth of color that Lesley achieved with the glaze... it's just magic to me. Playing off the range of colors in the charms, I used some yummy prehnite and Czech glass along with brass to complete the design. I'm pretty smitten with these so they may be finding their way into my jewelry box!
Last but not least, we see the full fern fronds appear with the polymer clay charms from Heather Powers of Humblebeads! These were another Bead Fest purchase that I've been sitting on for a bit. I chose silver and bright crystals to go with the vibrant green and white charms
I had hoped to break out my BigKick again and play with the fern frond DecoEmboss folder and my paints but I ran out of time for that. This is a blog hop... check out what everyone else was inspired to create this month in celebration of ferns over on the Earrings Everyday blog HERE!
