We're All Ears February 2020 :: Sculpt the World

I was sailing around the Caribbean when Erin announced this month's We'er All Ears challenge... since so many of these amazing designs seem to be "built" in the sand, that seemed kind of perfect!  I am just smitten with these designs created by Jon Foreman out of natural materials including rocks, shells, sticks, etc.  The spiral designs are particularly appealing to me.

I couldn't help but be reminded of an amazing geological map we saw on our trip to Great Britain in June...  There was a super cool piece in the middle of a park in York where the Yorkshire part of William Smith's 1815 geological map was all laid out using a variety of natural stones by artist Janette Ireland.  You can read more about the project HERE.  (I really meant to do a real write up with highlights of that fabulous trip, but I still haven't gotten around to it!)  I'm glad I could find my pictures of this art installation to share today.  I could have stared at this thing for hours!

There are fossil patterns in each of the four corners – fossil ferns, ammonites (seen here), crinoids and sea urchins.

Kind of cool that York is represented by an icon made from stone discarded in the renovation of York Minster.

Ok, sorry for that little diversion... onto the main event, the earrings!!  I had grand plans of making a new pair of spiral wire earrings like I made in Tracy Stanley's class on the very first Bead Cruise I ever went on in 2014.  Let's just say that I'm rusty and that it didn't go so well.  I'm going to keep working on it to see if I can finally make another pair in copper.  My sterling ones are my go-to earrings for everyday.  (I'm actually wearing them as I type this!!)

When I got frustrated with my first idea, I moved on to some long dangly earrings that were far less cantankerous!  I saw that I had some little teardrops from Unicorn Beads in colors that reminded me of polished stones.  I slipped a few on large brass jump rings and then decided they needed a little something else to complete the look.  I grabbed some metallic English cut Czech glass, a brass spacer, and then a smaller Czech glass rondelle to connect the jump rings to the ear wires.  I like the look even if they are a little subdued for my normal taste.

Inspired by the red spiral piece in the bottom left of the collage at the top of this post, I managed to whip up a second pair of earrings just before the deadline.  I had some fun red glazed spiral lentils from Golem Design Studio that felt just right.  (I actually bought this design in a variety of colors because I was smitten with the style.)  I added some Czech glass and blackened components for a fun pair of dangly earrings!

This is a blog hop!  Pop on over to the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else was inspired to make!

Art Elements Theme of the Month: Stars

This month Laney Mead over at the Art Elements blog chose the theme of "Stars" for the theme of the month.  At first glance, the theme seems pretty specific, but she left it open for a broader approach.

My first design plays on the star of the ocean... the starfish!  I had gotten the idea to put a bunch of Unicorn Beads drops along my bracelet chain (instead of a different type of bead I've been using) from one of my fellow Inspired by Nature retreat goers.  I thought that these turquoise with white, cream, and black had a beach feel and coordinated nicely with the two-holed starfish bead from Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  I added a fun shell charm and some Czech glass beads to the clasp side of the bracelet to finish things off.

I remembered that I had some Twinkiedinky charms that I bought a while back.  They have a quote on them from Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers...  "You can't expect two stars to drop in the same field in the same lifetime."  So the star theme plays out here in words instead of shapes or images, but I've been waiting for an excuse to play with these!

Lastly, I ended up making one Christmas ornament with a star pattern across a heart shape.  I used a borrowed rubber stamped image as the resist for this salt water etched copper.  I added the little dots around the border by hand with a Sharpie.  That one sold at last Sunday's Holiday Market but the other 4 are still available.  :)  I plan to work on another round of these ornaments this week.

This is a blog hop!  Take some time to see what starry creations that everyone else created!

Guest Artists

Jill

Divya

Alysen 

Kathy 

Tammy 

Cat 

Samantha

Anita

Karin

Sarajo - you are here

Rosantia

Kimberly

Art Elements Team

Jen 

Jenny  

Niky 

Laney 

Claire 

Cathy 

Marsha 

Caroline

Susan

Lesley

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.

We're All Ears: March 2015

This month's inspiration for the We're All Ears challenge is simply AMAZING!  Erin found some awe inspiring macro photos by German photographer Martin Amm.  Can you believe these extreme close ups of dew covered dragonflies and damselflies??

The way the water droplets are beaded up all over these little creatures immediately made me think of a certain type of lampwork glass.  I thought I might just have something like that in my stash, but no luck.  But then I started unpacking all my new treasures from the Bead Cruise and I found just the perfect beads!  I won these cute little beaded beads from Kristen Stevens (of Beadwork by KAS) as part of the Art Jewelry Elements prize package and I realized that the texture from the seed beads echoed the beads of moisture.  I added some brass bead caps, Czech glass rondelles, and some sweet little teardrop beads from Unicorn Beads.  

I couldn't stop at just one pair of earrings this month!  For my second pair I did a variation on theme.  I grabbed some left over spacer beads that came with a gorgeous luna moth focal from the talented Kerri Fuhr.  I thought the clear pale green color worked nicely for this challenge paired with some little Czech glass beads and some more teardrops from Unicorn Beads.

Both these pairs will be headed to Unearthed Arts next week.  Check out what everyone else was inspired to make over on the Earrings Everyday blog HERE!

Northern Lights Winnings

Back in February I was the lucky winner of a nice little prize package from Vintaj Natural Brass and Unicorn Beads through the Vintaj Blog.  You can see the post announcing my win here, or just check out my spoils in the picture below.

This past weekend I finally dug in and started making some jewelry with my goodies.  I don't know when I'll get around to using the rest of my winnings, so I thought I'd do a little mini post with what I've done so far.

I'm really happy with these two pairs of earrings using the amethyst duplex beads.  These beads are a really odd shape and I wasn't sure at first how to incorporate them into a design.  While I'm not going to run out and buy more of this shape, I'm pleased with how these turned out... and happy to have made use of free beads!

Next up, I had a couple of cool square-ish tile beads in a funky pale blue/purple with a great sparkly purple inside.  Two matching beads = a great set of earrings!  I added in some of the little teardrop beads in a pinky purple and some light purple Swarovski crystals to round things out and give them a little more sparkle.

I obviously still have lots of goodies left to play with... You'll see two more creations with items from my prize package later this month with the reveal of the Art of Science Creative Challenge.  Stay tuned!