We're All Ears October Reveal

I'm late!  I'm late!! And I don't have a cute pocket watch!  Friday was the reveal date for this month's We're All Ears October Reveal over at Earrings Everyday  I couldn't get the right photograph for my earrings,  and then time got caught up with me and this was the first moment I had to update my blog.  

This month, Erin motivated us with marbleizing.   I haven't really thought much of this as an artistic technique, but it does remind me of when I was younger and loved to drag different shades of paint through each other to create those watery, wavy designs.   I wasn't quite sure what to focus on this time around and was just going to work with color when I had an idea.  

I took some paper strips I had from an old magazine cover and rolled my own paper beads.  I love making paper beads.  They are a great way to relax and you can make them almost anywhere.  I hand glue then though, so I do tend to get a bit sticky, but if you used a brush that wouldn't happen to you.   I love how the colors from the magazine cover remind me of the inspiration photo.   Lines of color intersperse through each other, just like dragging a paint brush through a pool of paint.  

I added some peacock shaded crystal bicones, aqua seed beads and drum spacer beads to complete my design.   I Love how they have a bohemian look and the sparkle of those crystals is just wonderful!

Make sure to check in at this month's reveal to see what everyone else has created!

September We're All Ears Challenge Reveal

Hello!  Welcome to the September reveal of the We're All Ears challenge hosted by Earrings Everyday  Every month, Erin is our hostess and she chooses a great inspiration photo for all those who participate to create from.   This month,  the inspiration was macro photography.   Check out her post here to learn more about this type of photography and why she chose it to work with this month.

I  wiggled for joy when I saw this month's photos.   Trees!  Bark!  Lichen!!  How could Forest of Jewels not love those pictures?  I was excited to take my favorite design themes and work with them this month.   I decided to focus on the trees and the colors in the photographs to design my earrings.

I wanted the earrings to be linear to reflect the main photo in the collage above.   Brown was a focus color, but I also wanted to bring in the soft green and beige from the other photos.   The rod shaped beads are fossil stone and I highlighted those with small green aventurine rounds,  and small round sesame and red jasper beads.   The top half of the earrings are larger green aventurine lentils and the sesame and red jasper beads.

I am so in love with the delicate fluidity of these earrings.  The colors really reflect what the forest looks like outside my window.   It was a pleasure to work with different types of natural gemstones.   My love of stones are what got me into designing my own jewelry in the first place.

Thanks again to Erin,  it was a great challenge and I look forward to next month.   Make sure you stop by the challenge page to see what everyone else has designed!

August We're All Ears Challenge Reveal

www.gabrieldawe.com

First, I want to say how much I look forward to the We're All Ears challenge every month over at Earrings Everyday.  When Erin started it, I was happy to participate and even when it took me some time to figure out what to make I was excited to finish and get my piece posted.   I still love the challenge and can't wait to participate.  But boy this month was hard on me!  The modern art chosen for inspiration, is just that, very modern and is usually not something I enjoy.   Since I am not a fiber artist, I really struggled to come up with a game plan.

Next, I spent some time focusing on the artist's color choices.  I love the color choices and the way the primary colors blend into each other and combine in just the perfect way.   From my color study I decided that I would pick one of my favorite colors and then see where I could go from there.  

Even though pink is my favorite color, I design more in blue than any other.  It is such a comforting shade to me and I just love the way it looks in jewelry.  Taking a peek around my stash,  I found the perfect blue beads that I had gotten in a bead swap recently.  Of course, no matter what I tried, the beads just didn't look right on earrings.   They are uneven, and every spacer or bead I put next to them made the earrings look so wonky they were visually displeasing.  I was so ready to give up, to just say I would skip this month.   But that made me sad.   I love this challenge,  have enjoyed stretching my design skills every month and so love the results.  So after about a good 10 minute pout,  I looked at those beads a bit differently and came up with this:

Those seed beaded beads are what gave me all the trouble.  But, I loved the way the lines of teeny tiny little blue beads made me think of the lines in the inspiration piece and I just couldn't let them go!  From the bottom of each bead,  I have continued the line elements of this month's theme, using crystals in clear and two shades of blue.  Personally I feel that they all work really well together.

So what did I learn from it all???  That I love the monthly challenge and as an artist I have to keep going.  If something doesn't work, put it aside for awhile and then return.   In the end, I really like my earrings and even more, I am enjoying the personal satisfaction I get from completing an event I so looked forward to.

Do you want to see what everyone has made?  Check out the link below:
*Until I can get the link thingy to work (don't you love my technical terms??)  Here is the link to the blog post* 

We're All Ears Reveal






 

We're All Ears July Reveal

source

Hello again and welcome to July's reveal for the We're All Ears challenge.  If this is your first visit to this monthly post, let me give you a quick update to what this challenge is.   Every month, Erin over at Earrings Everyday posts an inspiration photo and the participating jewelry designers are to use that photo to create earrings.  We all gather together on the third Friday of the month to post our creations.

This month, Erin's inspiration post was on the 4th of July, so I think she really got into the spirit of the Holiday with these red, white and blue sail boats.  I loved the way the sails filled with air and the movement you could feel in both of the boats.   That movement is what I focused on when I created my design.

I ordered some brass from Vintaj earlier this month and they included a goody bag full of samples of their new designs.  The minute I pulled out these earring findings I new I had to use them for this month's design (they are called Perfect Paisley, but I like calling them swooshes.)  They remind me of the full sails, straining with the wind as the boats move across the sea.  Also, they could represent the waves that are displaced as the boats move along the water.   

To honor the colors in the photo,  I wrapped cathedral shaped crystals to the bottom of each piece of brass with a soft red shaped wire.  It adds just the right touch of red to the design without overpowering the brass.  I just love the blue hue in the cathedral shaped glass beads!  When I got done wrapping them,  they made me think of the water the boats were sailing on.   The little bit of copper colored finish on the ends of each bead really complimented the larger metal piece and brought the whole design together.  

As always, I had a great time participating in this challenge.  Would you like to see what others designed?   Check them out below:

An InLinkz Link-up

June We're All Ears Challenge Reveal

Guggenheim Museum

Hello again and welcome to the June reveal for the We're All Ears Challenge. I would again like to thank Erin over at Earrings Everyday for hosting us each month.  On the first Friday of a new month she posts an inspiration object and then we return on the third Friday to blog about what we created from that inspiration.  

This month Erin chose this view looking up to the top of the rotunda.  I have never been to the Guggenheim (it would be on my list if I ever got to NY) but I had the luck of growing up in the suburbs of Chicago.  This exposed me at a very young age to the architectural wonders of Frank Lloyd Wright.  We would often take trips to Oak Park to look at the buildings he designed there.  

Because of my love of Frank Lloyd Wright, I was really excited about designing something that took the spirals of the photograph and brought them to life.  

City Circles

I used Vintaj brass rings to symbolize the levels of the floors that are represented in the picture.  The larger crystals are in a melon opal shade and they remind me of the white that is in between each brown layer in the photograph.   Finally, I used crystal bicones in greige.  Those little bit of sparkle remind me of the city lights.  

As I worked on my design, I remembered a shopping trip my sister and I took to Oak Park right before Christmas.  It was night time and the city was covered in holiday decorations.   Those little bicones sparkling against the ivory colored ones remind me of the twinkling lights against the snow.  

I had a lot of fun working on this month's design.   I got to take a look back at some of the favorite buildings of my childhood.  And, as my creation came together I was able to re-visit special memories I made with my sister.  

Please check out the Earrings Everyday blog here to see the other submissions this month.   And thank you for stopping by!

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

April We're All Ears Challenge

It is the third Friday of the month,  so that means it is time to reveal the April We're All Ears design!  Each month over at Earrings Everyday, a new inspiration photo is posted.  Those participating then have 3 weeks to design earrings from some aspect of the inspiration piece.  Today is reveal day!  

Here was this month's inspiration:

www.potterybarn.com

This month, Erin felt called to the great collection at Pottery Barn and asked us to design something from this table setting.  She was inspired by the colors, shapes and textures in the picture, and I agree, it makes for a wonderful place setting.  Since the main colors in my dining room are that exact same green, I felt that this setting would be at home in my own dining room (that is if I cleared all the jewelry supplies off the dining room table).  

I found my inspiration not in the colors or even that sweet little bird, however.  I originally wanted to create something that reminded me of the olives or the little golden berries so I went looking through my bead stash for just the right beads.  But when I got there, my mind went off in a completely different direction.  I started thinking about the dinner party the table was set for, who would be there and what the host would be serving.  While creating the party in my mind, I decided to create earrings that I would wear to this special evening.  

I am so in love with my design.  Dangling from the floral connectors are tiny bicone crystals in citrine and they are my homage to those little golden berries in the picture.  The larger crystal rondelles are actually two different shades.  The top beads are half-tone silver and the  bottom ones are smoky quartz.  

I find these earrings have a great vintage feel and would look beautiful with an ivory silk blouse.  Picture that dinner party with me; good food, good friends...an evening to make memories. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have enjoyed my creation.  Make sure to check out the Earrings Everyday blog to see everyone else's designs from this month's inspiration.  

We're All Ears March Project

Beatrix Potter

Earlier this month,  I revealed the March inspiration for the We're All Ears Challenge.  I loved Ms. Potter's books as a child, the artwork always enchanted me.   While I don't like mice...eeeek.... there is enough in this print to capture my interest and inspire a design.  I focused on the colors and floral designs on the fabric the little creature is sitting on.   When I peeked inside my bead box,  lilac and blue beads in all kinds of delicate shapes and sizes called to me.   

Nestled between two lilac faceted glass beads are two glass flower beads in a soft blue.  Dangling at the end of each earring is a wonderful bit of sea glass in a soft lilac shade.   I think that I not only captured a bit of our inspirational picture, but I designed sweet earrings just perfect for the arrival of spring.   Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to the next month's challenge!