Use What You Have Pt III/Fun With Earwires

I was musing in the car the other day about my strands and strands of tiny top-drilled gemstone teardrops which I have so far found mostly useless. I wondered if THIS might work:

Tangerine Dream

I played with it in the car, and I almost had it. Fiddled with it some more at home, and eventually figured out how to wrap it so it would stay put and look good. (Hopefully I'll remember how I did it later...) Tumbled this pair for hours and the design was solid.

These are carnelian teardrops with faceted red/black agate rounds.

I also did up a pair in amethyst:

Purpophilia extremesis

It was a bit of a challenge finding drops that were roughly the same size, but it's kind of a rustic design anyway so there's some leeway.

I have lots of glass drops too that are more uniform--looking forward to giving those a try too!

I love the immediate gratification of earrings.

Creative Bead Chat

Hey Everybody! Today is "Administrator Day" at Creative Bead Chat, a Facebook group designed for lovers of beads and makers of jewelry! In just a short time, it has grown to 1,091 members. The administrators are Melinda Orr, Karen Totten, Marla James, Marla Gibson, and myself. Giveaways and sales (me too! come join the group and get my coupon code, and enter one of the fabulous giveaways!) are happening today in honor of our fearless leaders--you can learn all about it at Creative Bead Chat! So come and join!

Use What You Have Part II

Still working my way through my stash. Nothing revolutionary here, just antiqued metal and pretty colors!

This first pair has a set of teal gear links from Karen Totten that I've been hoarding. Lampwork spacers in burnt pumpkin from The Spacer Shop, topped with little Hill Tribes sterling silver leafy caps.

Pumpkin Pie and Deep Blue Autumn Sky

I love violet with amber tones. These subdued beauties (that's how I like to think of my beauty, subdued) combine iolite, tiger eye, and Czech glass in "Alexandrite Fire", with some antiqued copper. 

Eye of the Violet Tiger (I know, it's a stretch)

I love these Czech wheel beads--they remind me of suns more than wheels. I adore this deep tangerine color. In fact, I adore them in many colors as you shall probably see. More iolite here, with dark garnet Czech glass.

That Wheel in the Sky Keeps On Turnin'

This pair sports a set of hoarded Karen Totten stoneware fabulousness--I LOVE those tiny charms! Perfect size for earrings, and they're featherlight which is also great. I've paired them here with more iolite--faceted this time--and Czech glass in "carnelian." Antiqued copper.

Pretend this has a great caption

I picked up a strand of these muted kelly green chubby crosses from Magpie Gemstones. I just love dyed howlite. There's something sort of medieval about the style of the cross--and of course they make me think of tic-tac-toe, Switzerland, and the Red Cross too! I paired them up with flat round peacock pearls, and Czech glass in a Picasso-teal finish. All in all, with the green, something vaguely Irish Monastery about them, if perhaps a little more cheerful.

Happy Hour at Inishmore

I began this pair below with silver filled earwires adorned with Czech glass in "light topaz." I love the delicate straw color. Like whiskey with way way WAY too much water in it. I wanted to keep it kind of tone on tone, and I had a little strand of orange tinted citrine I had never used, so that came next. Amber seemed too bright and nothing else was speaking to me, so I strayed from the straw hues and threw in some pale amethyst.

Sweet Nothings

More chubby crosses, southwest style (being a child of my times, and apparently not very deep, whenever I see southwest crosses I immediately think of the massacre scene in Kill Bill II where poor Beatrix Kiddo and her wedding party are decimated by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad):

Thinking of David Carradine

I started a lot of these with the beaded earwires in my hand, scrolling through Design Seeds palettes. Sometimes I riffed off what was on the screen, and other times I was inspired to go off on  a tangent. The ones below were me going off on a tangent. It seemed an unusual combination, so I just went with it. Dark amethyst Czech glass, followed by amber, ending with aquamarine.

Tangential Tendencies

Some of these beads are from the very first (and very large) batch of stuff I bought from Fire Mountain when I started this "hobby" back in 2008. I am darn proud of myself for using them, considering how stale they are. Haha.

I also made 12 more pairs of bead-wrapped earwires in brass, copper, and mixed metal over the weekend--on the boat! Turns out you can make a limited amount of jewelry on a boat; the boat just can't be moving, you have to be rather careful, and you have to choose something small and simple to work on because there's no room for crap on a boat. Fortunately the marina where we keep our boat is very, very calm and protected. Otherwise I would have barfed and there would be beads in every nook and cranny of the boat. Along with said barf.

So those 12 pair of earwires will be growing up soon and you'll probably have to look at those on here too. I also hope to do some simple bracelets soon with more of my stash (maybe using some of the same palettes here), and I am waiting for beads to come from Israel (I ordered those a long time ago so I'm not cheating) for a large custom order I am trying to finish. I will share some of those pieces with you after the customer has them in her hot little hands. I also have hopes to make a couple necklaces with some Duane Collins raku. And some Kristi Bowman buttons. Someday. I'm going to try not to hoard them.