Have you signed up for our earrings challenge yet? I'm really excited about it. I can sometimes get so caught up with the day to day running of my business and teaching that I don't make enough time for just having fun and playing with the beautiful beads sitting in dishes on my desk, so making a commitment to make a pair of earrings each week will most definitely be good for me!
If you missed Linda's post yesterday (where were you?!) then you can read the full (but easy) rules for the challenge and find out how to sign up here. In a nutshell, though, all you need to do is make a pair of earrings a week, use a pair of art beads or art components, show your creations off and let us know who made the beads you've used, and yes, you can use beads or components you have made yourself. Please do, we would love to see them!
Top left to bottom right:
suburbangirlbeads, daisychainextra, jdaviesreazor, suebeads
KristiBowmanDesign, TreeWingsStudio, ktotten, THEAtoo
The AJE team are looking forward to discovering some new (well, new to us!) bead artists as the challenge progresses, but for now, to hopefully help get some ideas flowing I thought that I'd show you some of the beads and components I've been thinking of using. I've tried to pick some of my favourites that you wouldn't necessarily think of using in earrings at first glance. Rebekah's beautiful turquoise horse beads are a perfect example of this - they would make a great pair of earrings but if it wasn't for this challenge my first thought would be to use them in a necklace or a bracelet instead. I've included beads and charms of all materials in the Etsy treasury below, and even some buttons too.
'AJE Earrings Challenge - art bead inspiration!' by daisychainjewellery
Do you need a kick start for your creativity in 2013? Art Jewelry Elements is sponsoring a year-long Earring Challenge in 2013, broken up into quarterly sections so you can try it out for 13 weeks at a time. Visit www.artjewelryelements.blogspot.com
 Handmade Ceramic Textur... $7.50 |  Easter Day Fiber Art Be... $11.25 |  Set of 2 Scattered Rose... $8.00 |  Lampwork Beads - SueBea... $8.00 |
 Ceramic charm pair euca... $10.00 |  Aqua Porcelain Square C... $10.00 |  Rustic Tapestry Discs -... $15.00 |  Tweety Bird Handmade Po... $3.00 |
 Polymer Clay Lovebird B... $6.00 |  Handmade Ceramic Discs ... $10.00 |  Copper Vines and Leaves... $8.50 |  Copper Heart Charms lin... $3.50 |
 Lampwork head pins - Wa... $5.70 |  Buttons / Raspberry Whi... $15.00 |  Lemon and Lime - polyme... $7.00 |  Blue earring charms, te... $10.00 |
We will be taking it in turns to post pictures of some of the earrings you have created every other Sunday. I hope that, whether you are able to join us this time round or not, that you will enjoy seeing the new designs!
Jo Tinley
Daisychain Designs
Those turquoise birds are now MINE!! :-)
ReplyDeleteExcellent! I should have realised they'd be perfect for you Rebecca!
DeleteWhat great inspirations, Joanne! I can hardly wait to get started!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jo! I'm excited to make a year's worth of earrings too!
ReplyDeleteWonderful earrings items Jo, I'm excited about this new challenge.
ReplyDeleteWhen does this start?
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be fun!!!
ReplyDeleteKashmira, we'll be doing the first feature on Sunday 20th January, and you are more than welcome to join us! Have a look at Linda's post (link in my post above) for the full details.
ReplyDelete