Challenge Earrings 1/52

Not being much of an earring maker myself, the AJE Earring Challenge is definitely a challenge, but I'm pretty excited about it. I plan on writing up several tutorials during the year for all of our lovely AJE readers and some for my Glass Addictions readers as well.

When I ambled into the disaster I call my studio to make my first pair, I saw these adorable hedgie beads by Heather Powers sitting on the bench waiting patiently. I actually bought them to make earrings for my 11 year old daughter....and hadn't gotten around to it yet. Because the hedgies are a handmade art jewelry component, they were perfect for my first pair of challenge earrings.

Sorry for the picture quality. I'm "making due" with what's currently available to me.

As you can see, there's no amazing design involved on my part (only the component makers' part). I made a couple of simple Argentium silver ear wires by balling up one end of each wire using a butane torch and bending the wire to my will.

I wrapped each hedgie into a link, attached the top link to the ear wires. I wanted some dangly bits, so rummaged through the amazing handmade art jewelry component charms and gears I got from Karen Totten last year and decided an homage to Diana's mismatched earrings would be fun. This is about as mismatched as I can manage people....baby steps.

I gave my daughter the earrings. She loves them. Except she wants pink danglies. I don't currently have anything in pink. Sigh. Time to make some small pink glass beads...or perhaps "suffer" through some online shopping.

You can still join the AJE Earring Challenge! While we currently have the 50 "pinners" for the first 13 weeks of the year, you can still make earrings with handmade art jewelry components, post them online and post the link on the linky tool every other Sunday to show everyone what you made. Credit must be given to the artist who made the art component (even if it was you!). The first hop is January 20th. Read here for more details.

-Jen Cameron

Glass Addictions

 

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