May We're All Ears Challenge Reveal

Zigzag Nerite shells - Neritina Communis -
Atlantis Shell Company

A few month's ago, the Earrings Everyday blog started a monthly challenge where at the beginning of the month, they would post an inspiration object and then the participants had three weeks to create earrings based on that inspiration.  This month's piece were these beautiful Nerite shells.

When I first looked at them I thought I would create something sea or shell based.  However, I have been doing that a lot lately in my regular designs, and the main reason why I joined this series of challenges was to push myself outside my design box.  Using inspiration photos that I don't choose has really helped me to do that.  So,  I decided to focus on the colors in the picture and use those as my inspiration.  Here is my design:

Focusing on the red, white and tan colors in the shell I picked beads that reminded me of those colors.   I have very few red beads in my stash because I don't often work with that color, but I just love these crystal rondelles in velvet red (is that not a great color name?)  To add a bit of contrast the center crystal rondelle is slightly larger and is in a melon opal color ( I so love the color names!!)  I used a Vintaj brass connector because the lines on the shells inspired me to add something vertical to my design.  In the end, they came out very Art Deco looking and I really like them.   The ear wires aren't in the pictures but they are brass fish hook wires.

Here is another couple of looks:

Thank you so much for stopping by and please make sure to check out the others participating over at May We're All Ears