New Earrings

Thanks to the rain this weekend, I got some much needed downtime and was able to clear the decks with various projects. I had three repair jobs that I'd been dragging my feet on forever because who wants to do repairs when you can make new stuff instead, right? Anyway, got those done and out of the way. The result was that I had some time to make a few pairs of earrings.

Yay!





These...are probably a mistake. I thought they'd be so much fun with the brightly colored poly clay charms from Floridity, but the more I look at them, I'm not happy with the final design. I love the charms and the colors in them and my original thought was to have a bright pink bead as the upper section, but every time I put one with it, the pink color on the charms just went blech. So, I had to give up on the bright pink idea. I also wanted a very casual, beachy-boho kind of vibe and when I saw the pale pink stick pearls I thought "aha!" They'll give me the right vibe and they won't fight with the brighter pink of the flowers. The only problem with the stick pearls is the holes are so tiny that I can't use my normal gauge of wire or head pins...even my pearl reamer won't fit very far in and would take me HOURS of time to enlarge the holes. Not something I relished doing. So, I grabbed some very thin brass wire and wire-wrapped everything to make it sturdier and then I added the apatite round at the top to tie in the teal color.

I really liked them in the moment, but when I looked at them the next day and was taking the pictures, naaahh...not lovin' it any more. Am I the only one that happens to? Does anyone else "wake up" and have designer's remorse?

So, these are headed to the re-do pile - I really want to fix them because I love the daisy charms so much. They deserve a good design.





This pair I'm much happier with. These cute little red ceramic heart charms are from Slate Studios Supply. I added some dark navy blue Chinese crystals and gold Bali vermeil spacers. Simple and sweet.






This pair started with some pretty enameled hearts from Gardanne to which I added some faceted smoky quartz and tiny rondelles of rose quartz.





I really need to stop hoarding all the gorgeous copper pieces I've gotten from Kristin Bowman's shop. I thought I'd ease into that plan with these textured rings and they just seemed to cry out for some lampwork beads. I had a new set I'd just picked up from Radiant Mind that made a great match.







That set of lampwork beads had six beads in it. I used 4 in the previous pair of earrings and so I had just enough left for one more pair. I really liked the mix with copper so I grabbed some Patricia Healey bird charms and made this pair.

I'm just getting back into designing after quite a long hiatus (other than my Bead Soup pieces) so I wanted to keep things pretty simple. I definitely noticed a degradation in both my eyesight (getting old SUCKS!) and my wire-wrapping skills. Those bounced back...just took me a few more attempts that it normally does. Of course, about the time I was really getting on a hot streak and wanted to start laying out a bracelet or a necklace, it was time to get groceries, then get dinner on the table, review the kid's homework for the week and get his backpack ready to go for Monday, run the dishwasher, run a load of laundry (everybody needed clean underwear), get showers done and go to bed.

I get so frustrated when I run out of time like that. Thought I'd be able to pick back up last night when I got home, but the photos needed to get done and the Etsy site needed to be updated and there were new resin pieces to prep. Oh, and I had to fling some food at the kid before he started gnawing on the table.

Speaking of which...would you believe he ended up in the nurse's office AGAIN yesterday? Some other kid was goofing around acting all crazy and throwing pretend punches and guess whose nose he managed to connect with? Yep. Ryan ended up with a bloody nose bad enough that they changed his shirt in the office and sent him home wearing a loaner shirt (which I assume I have to wash and send back? what's the protocol on that?) I had a nice conversation with the nurse where she told me how delightful Ryan is and that he's intelligent and that they love having him in the office. How many other kids get to know the school nurse THAT well? Sheesh!

Oh well, maybe more design time tonight. Assuming there are no further accidents...

KJ