Earring Challenge, Reveal 17, Weeks 35&36

It's that time again! For another Art Jewelry Elements earring challenge reveal. This pair is a tribute to autumn, but with a girly flair! Lots of rose, mauve and lilac, with a splash of cinnamon to prove I'm serious about the whole autumn thing:

The lovely enameled oak leaf charms are from Gardanne Beads, and provided the color inspiration for these earrings. I had lots of delicious moukaite ovals from Lima Beads to pick up the colors in the leaves, and had the perfect pair of peachy pink lampwork spacers from Michelle at The Spacer Bead Shop. I recently bought some whiskey-colored Czech glass roundels from BobbiThisnThat that picked up the cinnamon-colored moukaite nicely (it was all fate!):

You can see a little better in this picture on the enameled leaves how there are splashes of almost terra cotta on a lilac background. Anne's enamel is always a two-fer, at least!--A base color with little sprinkles of complimentary colors that can inspire a whole color palette.

Check out the other participants' creations below!

A Small Explosion

I had a little accident today. I just couldn't hold it. I was idly fondling my beads, wondering what to do with the day, when a sneeze caught me off guard and the next thing I knew there were EARRINGS EVERYWHERE!! Instead of cleaning up the mess, I photographed it. See below.

Denim lapis, crazy agate (I think), and amber with antiqued copper.

Blue Jeans with Whiskey AND Kahlua and Cream

Czech mirror glass with antiqued copper.

 Ice Blue Earrings

Raku lampwork in mustard by Kelley Wenzel, with charoite and amethyst.

"I say, do you have any Grey Poupon? Or boysenberry jam?"

More lampwork by Kelley Wenzel--called "Lily Pad." Aren't they gorgeous? With turquoise lampwork spacers by Meital.

Lily Pads

Big microfaceted opalite roundels with tiny opalite roundels and antiqued copper. I got this long graduated strand of giant opalite from a seller in China or Hong Kong or somewhere. Very pleased! A mix of commercial beadcaps, and some I did with brass texture sheets and a hammer. Worked really nicely.

Like skim milk with the sun shining through it. (Pretty, but milk should not be transparent.)

 Lastly, Czech glass again, druk this time with a "lumi" finish--I love these beads. More textured beadcaps.

Magic Icy Orbs

Well, that's all I got. I think I'm going to WalMart tomorrow. I'm going to try to get there before the scooters come. God help me.

So Impressed I Have to Blog It

Whenever I discover a shop or site that goes above and beyond with customer service, I have to talk about it! Ambition, energy and excellence are so invigorating, and I think it should be rewarded with more business. It naturally creates word of mouth!

This Etsy seller from Singapore knocked my socks off! If you need buttons, head on over to Shop4craft!! I posted a while back about my haul of wooden buttons--I got them the other day and was so impressed with my experience with this shop I wanted to tell you about it.

First, I ordered my buttons on a Friday afternoon. Shortly after that (like a few hours), I got a cheerful and friendly convo from Shop4craft letting me know it was currently the weekend in Singapore, so my buttons would ship on Monday. (Wow!) I then got a shipping notification (cheerful and friendly!) on Monday. My buttons came earlier this week. I was utterly charmed!

First, each set was carefully packaged in darling little individual padded envelopes (9 of them!), each tied with jute string and carefully wrapped in bubble wrap:

Not only that, there was a little thank you note inside with my name on the envelope!

The ninth envelope contained a set of thank-you-gift buttons (the butterfly ones below), and the buttons were all absolutely lovely!

The shop itself is very professional--great photos, perfect English, careful descriptions. My items were just as pictured (better even!). They also have metal, acrylic/plastic and coconut shell buttons, along with some mixed sets, and a small assortment of printed ribbons. The coconut shell buttons are especially lovely--look at this!:

I think I'll have to order from them again soon....(It's also a great reminder of how that extra effort in customer service creates loyalty and word of mouth business.)

On top of all that, the prices are amazingly affordable--but it was the customer service that really knocked me out. Of course shipping takes a bit longer because of the distance and customs, but it was worth the short wait! If you need some unusual buttons for your jewelry or other projects, check them out!!!

Little Fishies

Water, water, water, everywhere water! That must be why I'm thinking of fish. And bright fish in tropical colors at that! It's a bit dreary here in the mountains right now, so this must be a spot of self-help therapy. I'm dreaming of warm tropical waters and sunny colors...

Here I've entertained myself with a cheerful little tableau of three whimsical glazed ceramic fish buttons (by MuddyMuse on Etsy), navigating their way through a sea of glass and gemstone "bubbles" in fresh, summery (I'm guessing here, "summer" exists for me on a purely theoretical plane) greens and blues. I've attached them all to a solid copper base via hand-forged headpins in a random pattern, and used short lengths of silk ribbon in "faded denim" by Flamekissedartglass to attach the focal to copper rollo chain.

Happy Little Fishies

The wonderful little sage green lampwork spacers are by Pinocean, and the larger spacer in periwinkle blue is by Studiorent. (I also recently found another lampwork spacer shop on Etsy, TheSpacerQueen --loads of colors, both opaque and transparent, all about 5x8mm each, perfectly freakishly uniform. Quick shipping and great prices. Check her out!). Other beads here include denim lapis, some seed beads in matte powder blue and lime green, little matte blue glass discs from Happy Mango, fancy jasper and one lonely moss agate.

OK, time for me to go take some Vitamin D and sit under a light bulb. I'm starting to look like Gollum.

Button Fever

And I am Patient Zero. It is spread visually, so look at the following pictures at your own risk.

The fever was at its peak on Friday afternoon, and I was delirious. In an idle moment I did a search for "wooden buttons" on Etsy and the following things ended up in my cart:

Owl Eye Buttons

Round "hump" button

Small wood button

Flower buttons

(Yes there's more.)

Square in circle buttons

Monkey eye buttons (a propos, no?)

Double curve buttons

Funny eye buttons (I didn't name these).

All of the above from Shop4Craft on Etsy.

Shall we continue?

Rosewood Color Flowers

Stacked squares

Wavy Japanese style buttons

Plain buttons

The last four are from Lyanwood on Etsy.

As far as I can tell, more of all of these buttons are available in these shops. I tried to put links on all the captions for you but halfway through that process Blogger decided that the URL for the photo was the caption link and I could not, in fact, have any other link. POS.

I think I've hit my picture limit so I won't show you the mother of pearl buttons I got (later). These buttons above were all fantastically affordable so I bought LOTS. (You want to spread around the shipping costs you know.) (But now I'm seeing I should have got more lighter color buttons--good thing they have those). Unfortunately one of the sellers is from Hong Kong and the other is from Singapore, so I have to WAIT to get them. Shop4craft even convoed me to let me know that when I ordered them on Friday it was currently the weekend there so they wouldn't ship until the following Monday. How's THAT for on-top-of-it customer service? Most excellent.

Twilight

No, not sappy teen vampire love, ACTUAL twilight. You know, crepuscule. Eventide. Gloaming. Dusk. (Sorry, been hitting thesaurus.com a little too hard). That's what this bracelet makes me think of--those very last moments of a summer day, when only a molten thread of crimson sunlight remains, and the sky above goes smoky violet and plum. Only lasts a moment. I could live in that moment for a long, long time.

Deep Twilight

These little earrings sort of go with it:

Deep Twilight Earrings

 On another note, I added these to the shop the other day:

The Land of the Rising Sun Meets the Emerald Isle

And these, a variation on my "Mexican Food Earrings":

South of the Border

And a slightly different pair of "lantern" earrings:

Garden Lanterns

My right leg has fallen asleep so I think I'll call it good. Good night!

My Favorite Things

I love this stoneware button by Beadfreaky--I have three more and can't wait to use them! LOVE the colors--cinnamon and oatmeal! I went crazy and combined it with beads in my other favorite colors--cayenne, cafe au lait, nutmeg, pumpkin pie, saffron, mustard, persimmon...And a little bit of cinnamon silk ribbon.

Tree of Life

Makes me want to be a readhead.

Circling

I'm working myself up for a couple of projects. Unfortunately I couldn't just dive in because I was out of everything--beadcaps, headpins, connector rings, etc.

So while all that stuff went round and round in the tumbler, I toyed with the random stuff on my bead table. And some of the components destined for other projects seemed to work nicely with some of the other stuff on my table. (Most of the "other stuff" on my table were things I really wanted to use in something, but just didn't have the right "thing" for them yet).

This piece below came about because I got a bug up my ass to find out RIGHT NOW if those donut bails I started in the car (and finished at home) would fit any of the stone donut pendants I had. Turned out one of the bails fit this "golden horse" jasper donut perfectly. I put the bail on there and left in on the table and it was so big I couldn't help but look at it day after day. When the germ of an idea came into my head I had to jump on it. Repeatedly for a couple days. (Tired now). This is what eventually came out of the hopper:

I like the main portion with the leather, but I can't decide if I like the shorter section with it. I just seemed sort of bare with all that length so I put that in there. What do you think? Leave it or take it out? (Beach stones from Stonestudiostoo on Etsy).

Of course I had to make earrings to go with it.

Earrings To Go With It

(Gray lampwork spacers by Beingbeads; earwires, headpins and beadcaps by moi; also with faceted moukaite and brecciated jasper).

These earrings below happened when I took some of the big beadcaps I was doing for my button pieces (stamped on the inside to be used upside down) and popped them on top of a smaller bead. They looked more like a big floppy hat then than a little watch cap. I put a little bead up inside there to make them sit up a little higher. I like the Japanese straw hat effect. Like you're digging weeds in your garden in Kyoto on a hot sunny day and you don't want to get brown spots. Or like a fuchsia blossom. Vaguely. So I did some more but stamped them on the outside, like a traditional beadcap.

Japanese Garden earrings

I was trying to think of a more interesting way to fasten a decorative seed bead to earwires, and I thought these itty bitty beadcaps I've been making might work. They're like a little nest for the bead to sit in. I wrapped some wire right above them to keep them in place.

I had these nifty cylinder beads with the cutouts sitting on my table because I thought I might use them in the jasper pendant, but that didn't look right and I was too lazy to put them away. But then I put a big beadcap on top of those and I liked that too! So this is what eventually became of them:

Japanese Lantern Earrings

With tiny turquoise heishi, moukaite again wearing tiny beadcaps, and ivory bone spacers.

Now I can't decide whether I should start on that other project now or take a nap. I'm leaning towards the nap. Like literally leaning in my chair. I'm really tired.

The Necklace

OK, I made a necklace today with my remaining Alisha White copper green discs. Here it is:

The Necklace

Alas, I had to use them all so no pendant in the offing. Large iceberg blue lampwork spacers by StudioRent.

Alisha White is a Genius

I snapped up these lampwork discs a few weeks ago from Alisha White's shop--couldn't resist that verdigris/copper combo! I've been contemplating this bracelet ever since. Finished it up this evening.

Copper and Verdigris Bracelet

With amazonite, moukaite, fancy jasper, opalite, copper and leather. (Can't believe how that cord from LeathercordUSA in "Splash" exactly matched the lampwork! That leather is like crack.) Had some great, murky light through the heavy cloud cover when I got home from work--love these longer days already! This is my favorite light to photograph in. Wan and gray, because it doesn't distort colors and there's just enough crispness without it being harsh.

I'm feeling more comfortable with my metal stamps. The BF gave me a really, really big hammer. Now I need more stamps.

I still have four of these discs left. I'm not quite done nibbling on them (I just want to gobble them up!) but when I am I think they will go into a necklace. I might end up with one left over and that might end up in a pendant. Or lodged in my throat.

Exercises in [Relative] Simplicity

I was ultra tired of looking at the same old crap in my shop (every time I put something new and cool in there someone buys it--HMPH!!!), so I thought this weekend I would just do a bunch of old fashioned "quick" stringing projects that would go together "fast." The first one took me all day. (What in the hell was I doing? Oh yeah, the crimp wouldn't cooperate and that goofed up the wire and I had to start over. And oh yeah, I didn't have the right size coil ends to I had to make those. And then I guess I had to make some chain because I didn't have that either...Then the photos wouldn't turn out. And then I guess I was fooling around with a few other projects at the same time and got sidetracked...)

Anyway, here are my "simple[er]" pieces from the weekend, just so there would be something new to look at in my shop. I used my first Artisan Clay charm for this one. With some leather and some nifty matte seed beads in a semi-metallic, subtly variegated denim blue from Fusion Beads.

Blue Jean Baby (there, now you'll be hearing Tiny Dancer all night! LOVE Elton).

I started wiring up the ceramic focal on this one below last night, from Macarroll. I am proud to say I had the whole thing finished this morning before the clock went to double digits (that is meaningful for me--if it's single digits it's still "early"). But then I wanted Mexican food all day. Bad. I couldn't stop thinking about guacamole, tortillas, queso dip and enchilada sauce.

South of the Border ("Yo quiero Taco Bell!!!")--See what I mean?

With poppy jasper, faceted moukaite, handmade olive green glass beads from Indonesia (via Happy Mango Beads), and fabulous wide leather lace from LeatherCordUSA. Cute little gingko charm from Fusion Beads (or was it ArtBeads?)

Oh, did I mention it's reversible?

 I was too lazy to go the store for tortillas so I made earrings to go with it instead:

Mexican food earrings

Then I sort of cheated and photographed and listed earrings I made the other day. So that didn't really count.

Mr. Blue Sky Jasper Earrings (HA! Now you have ELO in your head. LOVE ELO. Almost as much as Elton.)

But then someone bought them a few minutes after I listed them and I had to make them again. That DID count.

(In the midst of all this I was making another custom "Button Magic" (that's what I'm calling it) necklace from the remaining turquoise discs it turns out I DID have enough of after making the last one (but now I don't), so I was multi-tasking. Or at least bi-tasking.) I just happened to be thinking about lime and teal while I was working on this custom piece (which just happens to be olive green and turquoise--not so much of a stretch), and reflecting on the giant tub of Indonesian lime green and teal beads I had from Happy Mango Beads when I suddenly wondered what the little lime green spacers in the tub would look like on a jump ring. I had to find out RIGHT AWAY. So I took a little detour and ended up making these:

Lime and Blue Raspberry Beret Margaritas (HA!! Now you've got past-his-prime Prince in your head. It all went downhill after Purple Rain. )

 

I had other BIG plans for other "simple" and less "simple" pieces but I ran out of time. I didn't even waste any time bathing or going to the gym or eating (one must obey the Mojo) and I STILL ran out of time. DANG.