We're All Ears-Earrings Everyday Monthly Creative Challenge Reveal

Damsel's In Love

While reading some great beading blogs earlier this month,  I found the Earrings Everyday blog.   I just love earrings.  No matter what you are wearing, you can find something fun to dangle from your ears.  That was why I found the daily dose of love for the ears exciting to read.  Back on the 7th, the blog's author announced that  she would be hosting a monthly creative challenge. Each month would have a new inspiration and based on that item (picture, poem, music) we had a few weeks to design a great pair of earrings.   How could I not say yes to this adventure?  You don't have to ask me twice to make earrings.

When I saw the inspiration for the first month, I wasn't very sure.  If you know anything about me, you know I hate bugs.  I think they are really icky.  But once I got past their heads, I focused on the beautiful colors of these damselflies in love.  And decided to give it a try.

Retrieved from Earrings Everyday 

I mostly design in pinks, purples and blues so when I decided to embrace this month's theme, I focused on using colors outside my palette.  Looking through my beads, I chose to focus on orange, green, yellow and bright blue.

The spots on the orange and yellow-green (the beads are more green than reflected in this picture) really matched the way the brown on the flies legs blended in with their bodies.  I couldn't resist the use of the glass seed beads.  The color was perfect and they remind me of the heads!

So, after all that bead searching through my stash...who knew I had so much orange in my collection...what did I end up with?  Well, without further ado...

Damsels in Love

I strove to create earrings that created a sense of flight.  It was one of the two themes that most inspired me from the picture.  I feel I accomplished this with the length of the earrings in general, and also by the generous dangle.  I also tried to segment the earrings with the different shaped beads to represent the way the bugs body is segmented.  Can you almost sense they are ready to fly away?

Notice how each earring is not exactly the same?  The beads are similar, but not quite identical.  Why? The answer is found in the other bit of inspiration I got from the picture.  The way the individual can come together with another and make a whole.  Humans best represent this when they meet and fall in love.  Each person retains their individuality, but what they build together is even better.    

I am a very symmetrical designer.  My eye finds comfort when every pendant ends up in the middle, or when all the beads match in exact count and pattern.  I have been wanting to try to work on some asymmetrical pieces. The work of other designers has captured my eye lately and I love how designs that surprise you add a lot of interest to the piece.  My use of slightly varying beads is a way for me to crack open the door to another style of design just a little.

It was a lot of fun to embrace this challenge.  I overcame my original response to the photo and also pushed myself to make bead choices I wouldn't normally do.  I am looking forward to see what everyone else has posted and to get started on next month's theme.