Did you find the face yet?

Today we welcome innovative designer, prolific author and charming instructor Nealay Patel. Nealay is an artist who crafts in beads and fiber to produce jewelry designs that are striking, colorful and textured. He is a problem-solver who sees his designs as solving a puzzle. His intricate jewelry is always highly textural and full of life, using a mix of metal and fiber and beads and wire. He has authored three books: Jewelry for the New Romantic, Jewelry Designs with Knitted Wire, and his most recent, Jewelry Made with Wire & Fiber. Recently, Nealay has started doing monthly Live Facebook videos (so much fun!) featuring a kit that he sells on his Etsy site to go with it. It is called Beads & Bubbles, because there is always a glass of champagne at the ready! Nealay was kind enough to share an earring project with us from his new book.

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Picasso Earrings

Wire is something that I’m very uncomfortable working with, but that won’t really stop me. In fact, it fuels me to try harder to try to find new ways to use it, where if I screw it up, it’s okay!

I would hardly call anything of Picasso a screw up. He found ways to reinterpret what was considered normal or standard at the time. This lead me to think how wire can interact with another material to create something with interest and movement.

So, I started with a scrap of flat fiber cord and looked at it for a long time, thinking “how I can apply wire to it?” I thought the pattern on the fiber cord was gorgeous and didn’t want to cover it up.

So, after twisting and turning the wire I placed in on my table over the fiber cord by accident and took another look. There an idea was born! So after tweaking the design format a little bit, I came up with some Picasso art of my own!

This pattern is available in my book Jewelry Made with Wire & Fiber, available on Amazon.

Nealay is inviting you to come and join him at his Facebook page where he says all the action is happening!

@beadsandbubbles

Try Love One Another Right Now

Do you remember that old (mid 60's) Youngbloods tune, whose refrain goes -

Get Together

The Youngbloods

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now.

I was feeling burdened, after Charlottesville, to find a concrete way to "Try to love one another right now".  It is easy to sink into despair, and despair leads to inaction.  I thought about what talents or skills I have and how they might be used to combat hatred and promote respect and compassion among us.

Designing jewelry, in and of itself, didn't seem to be the answer.  But after some reflection, I realized that I could donate all the proceeds from my heart themed jewelry to a good cause.  I chose the Southern Poverty Law Center, which works promote tolerance and seeks justice for the most vulnerable among us. 

I only had 3 heart themed items in my shop when I first got this idea, last week.  But I've been adding new pieces nearly every day since then.  I've already sold one heart bracelet and have sent that check off to the Southern Poverty Law Center!

I wanted to continue adding to the heart section of my shop, so I designed today's earrings to fit the bill.  I've been playing around with the idea of combining Wooly Wire with ball chain for awhile.  I had several false starts at first, but I'm pretty happy with these.  You can find these earrings in my shop  along with 8 other heart themed earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

- For a great article from the Southern Poverty Law Center, I recommend reading: Ten Ways To Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Ms. Glam!

Hello All!

I had a completely different post in mind but then I lost my USB camera cord. I took it to charge in my vehicle on our way to view the eclipse and now can't find it!

Wish me luck finding it. So today I am sharing a glam pair of earrings that I photographed earlier.

I am dedicating them to a fabulous older lady that recently pasted away at age 91. Feisty, sweet, bossy, independent- lived by herself and still drove, elegant in dress, and manners. Ms. Tennie would have rocked these earrings.

 

 

Rose gold ear wires have lush rustic pearls from Smitten Beads UK and Champagne luster druzy slices. Simple materials, but so elegant and feminine.

 

 

 

Enjoy your day...give a hug to someone you love. 

 

Jetta

The Silk Route

I have a HUGE stash of sari silk and I suspect this is true of most of us?! So a couple of weeks ago I dug them out (literally) and had a play.  I made several pairs of earrings.

Porcelain drops by Melissa Gabelle and the wrapped bundle (as one of my customers called it) consists of a brass tube wrapped in sari silk and cup chain.  If you squint your eyes long enough you should be able to see the sari silk peeking out from under the cup chain. I added some Czech glass flowers in blue and dark orange to match the colours on the drops.

Porcelain caps by Melissa Gabelle.  Stacked up on top are Swarovski rondelles, lampwork beads, Czech glass and some teeny porcelain rounds.  Hanging from underneath are my sari silk and chain wrapped 'bundles' and flower drops.

Top 2 pairs are new but I had to share a 3rd pair I made a couple of weeks ago.  Again they feature porcelain drops by Melissa Gabelle, stacked on top are brass caps and tubes followed by hoops and topped with wrapped sari silk. 

Then there are these:

Here I have incorporated sari silk in one of my signature designs. Petra Carpreau Frida drops, wrapped with sari silk and chain and topped with Czech glass rondelles.

Lastly, Petra Carpreau Vermeer drops, slightly asymmetrical.

Now that I have unearthed my sari silk stash - there might a flood of designs featuring the same ;).

I hope you like this week's offerings.  Top 2 pairs will be available in my next online Trunk show and the bottom 2 pairs are currently listed in my Etsy shop. 

Have a lovely weekend.

See you in a couple of weeks time.

Suhana 💜💜💜 

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Faerie Grove

My inspiration for my EE earrings this week came from something I'd stashed away in the past.  😊

Faerie Grove

I'd had most of the elements for these tucked away together in a baggie for a long time--at least a year, probably longer.  I knew the pretty spotted tanzanite lampies by Terry Turner and the silvery leaf charms would make cute earrings; I just didn't know exactly HOW.  So I stashed them in the bag with a few other beads and put them away...and this week, I decided to sit down with them and figure out what they would be.

I took some of the beads in the bag out of the running.  I loved the Thai silver beads that were in there, but they just weren't quite right, and neither were a couple of other things that were in the bag.  I decided to make the tanzanite color a focus, as I love the color, and the little Swarovski and Czech rondelles were perfect, in hue and in size, keeping the earrings sleek and simple and lightweight. The pretty little Nunn Design antiqued silver bead caps added just the right touch too without adding bulk to a slim, light earring. 

   

It was fun finally seeing these earrings come into form.  I hope you like them.  💗

Thanks for reading!  I'll be back in a few weeks with more.  

xoxo

Meridy

My shop

My FB page

A Grand Day Out

 

Last Sunday but one I took a trip over to Yorkshire, to the Harrogate Rock, Gem and Bead show. It's only a couple of hours drive and it was a lovely sunny day.  The show is twice a year and there is a lady there who doesn't sell on line whose wares are always top quality. 

 

Even though I know he'll be bored  after 10 minutes,  I'm not going to refuse an offer to drive me (then I can gloat over my goodies all the way home!) so along comes him indoors.  Sure enough, after a late lunch in the café and 10  minutes around the show, off he goes to listen to football on the radio outside. I proceed to cram a basket with fantastic gemstones with gay abandon. An hour later, I'm almost ready to go,  and back he trots looking decidedly sheepish. 'Er, don't be mad' he says ' but I fell asleep in the car with the radio on, and there might have been a door open.......anyway, the battery's flat. '

Where are our jump leads? Lent to our son. Cue sitting on the grass outside waiting over an hour for Green Flag to come and start it. Show's closed, café shut. Hmmmm. It's a good job it was worth it.

 

So here are this weeks earrings, with some fabulous slab larimar, the pink picked out with etched rose quartz, and aquamarine above. Those ice blue enamelled copper earwires  are from Lucy Haslam's new range.  

 

 

I also had a little foray into making a pair to echo one of Vogue's predictions for AW 2017; pink and deep green. These are malachite and rose quartz with gold, and Lucy's emerald earwires. Wasn't too sure about them, but they sold instantly from an Instagram pic, so maybe Vogue do know what they are about!  Do you study fashion predictions when designing, or just follow your heart? Or maybe both?

 

 

See you in two weeks

 

Lindsay

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook page

 

Pretty insect wings

Hello!
I am Sue from Utterly Lovely Stuff and I'm so happy to contribute to this rather fabulous blog :-)

I've been making jewellery for several years now, and love making earrings most of all. I have an enormous stash of Petra Carpreau's gorgeous ceramic pieces (ScorchedEarthonEtsy ) so turned to this when I was looking for inspiration for this blog. Petra's work is inspired by nature -shells, leaves, flowers etc and her pieces never fail to inspire. These gorgeous insect wing decal droppers leapt out at me. Wings of all descriptions seem to be very popular in earring designs at the moment (see Erin's previous post and beautiful moth inspired earrings). I love Petra's take on this current trend. The colours in both of these pairs are beautiful, they're like little impressionist paintings -gorgeous!

I wanted a slightly different design for both pairs. For this first pair, I added some czech glass roller beads, some layers of pretty black chain for contrast (and to give them a layered look) and some picasso seed beads to finish them off. Love the yellow and pink in this pair.

For the second pair, I used another pair of czech glass roller beads (these are great because of the wide holes) and added some pretty purple seed beads in loops (this was a fiddly business!) and finished these off with some delicate silver plated leaf chain for contrast

Hope you like them. These pretties are available in my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/utterlylovelystuff

See you in a couple of weeks

We're All Ears :: August Reveal :: Moths

Did you know that National Moth Week is at the end of July? Me, neither!

I have never seen moths that were so colorful until I embarked on this challenge. Since I posted this two weeks ago, I have been seeking out moths - live - but have not seen a one. I suppose just leaving my one porch light on wasn't the best option. So when I came across the National Moth Week activities I figured there would be some suggestions. Just three simple things will have you mothing, or seeking out moths, in no time.

1. Any type of light will attract moths. Just leave a porch light on and wait and see what is attracted to it. If you are in a field or forest, you can use battery-operated lights or even a flashlight. Entomologists use black lights and mercury vapor lights, which emit light in a color spectrum that moths find irresistible. These types of lights can be ordered online at relatively low cost.

1. Moths need a surface to rest on. White sheets are often used. Hang a sheet over clothes line or between two trees, and shine the light on it. An outside wall also works well if your light is set up near a house or a building.

1. Wait for the moths to come to your light so you can observe and photograph them.

You can also do a process called "sugaring" where you make an irresistible snack for the moths out of sugar, overripe fruit and beer! They love it and flock to it!

Since I didn't manage to find any moths myself, I guess it is time to conjure up my own!

I recently discovered these pretty little polymer clay wings from Gabrielle Buchanan of BStrung and thought that they needed no other embellishment than some wire wrapping and some pretty beads to bling it up.

These gorgeous faceted ruby moonstone AB nuggets are some of my favorite stones. The AB finish gives them some flash, which is hard to photograph. I love the shape of these wings and the very graphic punch that the painting has. I am smitten with all of them!

It reminds me a bit of this Cecropia Moth in pattern instead of colors. But wouldn't it be marvelous if they were in those neon colors?

Were you inspired to create some moth earrings this month? I hope so! Let's share!

Fall Sunshine

Since I last wrote on this blog, my dear tiny yorkie fur baby girl passed away. It's been really difficult for me, as both her and her brother were my partners in crime in my studio and my babies for almost a 1/3 of my entire life. I've lost them both now, 7 months apart :(

My little fur-baby girl. I'll see you at the Rainbow Bridge xxx

Trix was 14 years old, and had lived a good and full life full of adventures with her brother Diesel (he passed away in January at the age of 13)... One of the things they loved most was jumping in the van and go out for a ride and a walk in the forest.

Fall was the best time as it wasn't too hot, or too cold. It was just perfect. Gorgeous colors in the trees, and the sunshine adding to the joy of being out in the fresh cool Fall air... so in their homage, I've designed these Fall Sunshine earrings:

Warm Fall colors in Polymer Clay, Glass and Copper

Using fold-formed textured copper components that I made a long time ago (I keep all sorts of parts, I'm a hoarder!), and some copper wire and tiny seed beads in rich Fall colors, I wire wrapped my handmade polymer clay drops together with the copper elements - If you've never tried Fold-Forming metal before, I highly recommend it - it's fun, although it takes a long time to go through the process of heating/forming/cooling and repeating until you're done, the resulting raised edges and textures are worth it in my opinion:

Fall Sunshine Earrings by Nathalie Lesage

When I designed my polymer clay drops, I embedded some small super sparkling orange artisan glass cabochons. It's like a ray of sunshine when you look at these. I only had this one pair of orange glass cabs (I don't even remember where I grabbed these, it was a long time ago), and I wanted to use them for something special.

These earrings, along with a few other pairs are listed in my Etsy shop HERE.

I've also uploaded a series of one of a kind new clay components to my shop, check it out when you have time, it may trigger some design ideas for your creations!

It's been a rough 10 days since Trixie passed. I was expecting it given her age, of course. Her ashes should be ready for pick up by Friday. I have a special urn in my studio where her brother is waiting to be with her again... I know they're both waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge, but I just wish they could have stayed with me here on Earth.

I'm too ill to look after another pet or a new pet, but now we have a grandson who's growing fast, and we're going to focus on him. He's very snuggly and fun, and he's helping to heal my saddened heart.

I want to give a big HUG to everyone who has a pet waiting for them at the Rainbow Bridge too....

For those who still have their pets...Please hug and kiss your fur-baby for me today xoxo

Nathalie
Visit my shops: My Garden Of Love on Etsy & The Craft Tribe on Etsy

Gingham Style

Fabric Wrapped Beads!

Hey there!  It's Loralee and I'm back for my second posting here at Earrings Everyday!  I'll be here the first and third Weds. of each month! Woot!

Gingham makes my heart swell with warm memories of my grandmother.  It's just is one of those patterns that instantly makes me feel happy and safe.  Many years ago, after my grandmother passed away, my mother gave me a box of ribbons that my grandmother had saved.  I removed a roll of red gingham and made some laminated bookmarks from it just so I would always have a piece of her near.

So recently, my dear beady friend Anna Pierson of Sagahus Components, who makes these lovely fabric wrapped cocoon beads showed me some gingham ones....oh, you know I went a little crazy and ordered some in each color!

Blue:  with art beads by Melissa Gabelle of The Clay Hen.

Red:  with art beads by Jade Scott (now retired..*sobs softly)  Some vintage crystals and handmade faceted polymer clay beads by Marina Rios of Fancifuldevices.

Orange:  Tea cup charms by Melissa Gabelle of The Clay Hen.  


Resources:  SagaHus Facebook Group  Fabric wrapped beads or Sagahus on Etsy

                   The Clay Hen  Artbeads and ceramic charms

                   Fancifuldevices   Polymer clay beads



Thank you so much for stopping by!  It's so much fun to be apart of the Earrings Everyday team!

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton Jewelry


                   

oh yeah. . . here it comes

Hello! I do hope this day finds everyone healthy and well and simply enjoying the day.

When I sat down on Sunday to make a pair of earrings for today, it had been a rough few days out there in the world, for all of us. As much as I say that creating is the time I am able to shut off my mind from the world and simply let myself "be," I don't always sit down and flick the switch and the thoughts stop. This was definitely one of those times. . . . . so much running through my mind. And it all felt so dark. . .

I didn't have a plan; I often have at least a vague idea, or I have them made in advance. I have different ways I use to inspire myself. Sometimes I don't need any; other times absolutely nothing will spark me. This day I decided to pull out, or bring closer, pieces from all of my favorite artisans. . . well, most of them, and only one pair each. I know that often simply going through my treasures will lighten my mood. After I lined up a whole lotta pairs, I realized I had selected all colorful pieces. It was a great assortment of styles and materials, ceramics, lampwork, pewter, copper, etc., but all of them colorful. It was an interesting exercise because it was not at all planned. The other interesting thing is that most of them were -- oh yeah. . . here it comes. . . . Autumn like! 😁

I don't mean to bring it up too early! At least I hope it doesn't offend. I know that summer is all too short in so many places, including here in Michigan, but these years, I don't at all feel sad that summer is ending. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I won't go into another whole slew of emotional things but in a nutshell I find it soothing, invigorating, melancholic, joyful, peaceful, all those things and more rolled into one.

And the winner of my rows of Artisan Beads were these gorgeous ceramic leaves by Petra Carpreau, ScorchedEarthOnEtsy. In person they have a beautiful glossy shine.

Earrings Available Here

I realized late last night as I was uploading the photos here that I had not photographed these to reveal their best. There are lovely areas of metallic coppery pink on the leaves, not revealed due to angle, light and the placement of the "berries." They were made so that they are situated more to the yellow/green side of the leaves when hanging. They aren't real floppy either so as I was handling them, I must've pushed them over a bit and ruined the pictures! lol I apologize. heavy sigh. . . it's always something. 😉

I used Czech glass beads of Gilded Whiskey, Coral Picasso, and Turquoise Picasso Tube Beads on waxed Irish linen, oxidized copper wire, 6mm flat, square Turquoise stones, a beautiful shade of Green Turquoise Picasso glass and the same coral, no metal except for the wire. 

As always, I sincerely thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoy the remainder of the summer. I'll be back just after Labor Day. 

Tomorrow you will be meeting and totally enjoying, I'm sure, another new regular contributor to the Earrings Everyday Blog. I know you will love her!

Norbel

She Flies Again                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

My Precious, My Own...

Hello! Happy Monday to you all. This is Norbel speaking (writing :) ). I'm sure many of you have noticed the number of changes there have been in our Artisan Contributors over the last several months. One thing I know for sure about life is that nothing stays the same. Things change; lives change. And that is simply how it is. Our wonderful, talented friends that have moved on are really missed. . . . by us and I'm sure by our readers. . . but there is always a silver lining. 😁 And of course, that is that we are able to welcome in wonderfully talented, new-to-Earrings Everyday artisan jewelry designers. You will be meeting three! We are very happy to welcome today Rejetta Sellers, who sells from her shop on Etsy, Jettabug Jewelry. We call her Jetta. We are sure you will enjoy both Jetta herself and her earrings. Here she is! Welcome, Jetta!

***

I love using artisan beads in my jewelry. I don't seem to have a favorite material: lampwork, ceramic polymer clay, enamel, patina, leather, painted wood. You name it and I will probably have some of it!

One thing I find myself doing is hoarding pieces from a favorite artist and only letting some go if I am able to buy more of their beads. Umm....I wonder if I am the only person to do this?

You see, for me, those little works of art are like collecting paintings for some people. Or having a favorite vase maker that you spend hours tracking down online. Going to an artisan bead makers shop is like going to a gallery for me. Being able to buy their work is thrilling and I display my pieces in clear boxes. My most prized pieces I display on my work desk to see them every time I create.

I made these earrings to sell in my shop, photographed them, and even wrote up my description. Then I found out Elaine Ray was retiring from making her unique ceramic pieces like these denim blue flowers.

A week or two later Teresa Hulley of Bo Hulley Beads announced she was taking a hiatus from bead making to pursue another dream. These amazing ceramic cream heart headpins had been in my collection for a while and look so perfect with Elaine Ray's flowers.

So these earrings never became available in my shop. They hang with my other favorite earrings and I wear them often. I love showing off my wearable art.

More artists have retired from bead making since the day these two ladies retired. And my bead hording has hit a new level of will-never-let-it-go. Do you have beads you can't let go of for one reason or another? I would love to hear about them. I might have some in my collection, too!

Jetta
JettabugJewelry

Gone Industrial....

Hi everyone.  I have been making lots of new earrings for my upcoming earrings only FB show.  I always make several pairs of the same design with slight variations....I keep making the same design until I'm either bored or I run out of supply.  In this case, I ran out of the Petra connectors.

A group shot, just because 😄

1. with a pair of vintage raw brass filigree beads.

2. With little chunks of tanzanite

3. with little druzy geode chunks

4. and with peace beads

These plus many more will be available in my FB show on Wednesday the 16th from 9pm BST/4PM EST in The Earrings Show group.  Hope you can pop over.

See you again soon.

Suhana 💜💜💜

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

Second Guessing

I guessing that I'm not the only jewelry designer who holds on to components for long periods of time before making something (beautiful!) with them.  I mean, there are always good reasons for not immediately making something as soon as a gorgeous bead or headpin comes into my eager hands.  Maybe I have a bunch of other designs stacked up on the runway.  Or perhaps I can't find the perfect components to complete what I envision.  Or--and I confess this does happen from time to time--I may not have the vaguest notion what to do with my beloved purchase...and the lovely little piece of art has to sit with me for a spell while I figure it out.  :)

In this case, the lovely pieces of art were Pati Walton's amazing headpins.  I at least knew what I wanted my earrings to be:  long, lean stackers with a ceremonial tribal atmosphere.  Since Pati's headpins were so beautifully decorated already, I thought that I should probably keep the rest of the components fairly neutral.  But nothing "neutral" I tried worked.  Black beads, pink beads, even purple beads on top were just kind of...there.  They were too neutral.

I HAD considered a pair of beads, cute little things by Deborah Crow Roesly that I'd been saving for just the right thing...

...and I kept taking them out of the drawer where they lived and looking at them, then putting them back.  No, I thought each time, they're just too busy paired with those headpins.  So more time went by.  

Then one day I picked up the headpins and pulled Deborah's dotted purple beads out of the drawer again and started putting them together with some of my favorite copper beads.   When I was finished, they looked pretty much the way they do in these photos, minus the little pale pink Swarovskis at the top.  And I set those prototypes aside again.

But by the time I pulled the nearly finished earrings out to look at them the next time, weeks later, I realized that I couldn't really imagine them any other way.  The dotted purple beads looked like they'd always belonged with the amazing, colorful dotted headpins.  I'd finally stopped second-guessing myself, so then I finished the earrings...my kind-of-amazing ceremonial tribal stackers.  :)   

Thanks so much for reading!  

I'll see you all in a couple of weeks!  

xoxo

Meridy

My Etsy shop

My Facebook page

   

Shoreline

Back from 41 celsius near Thessalonika to the cool rain of the north of England! Holidays can't last forever, but photos do - thank goodness.

One of my photos has inspired this week's earrings. I have tried to replicate the colours and textures of the beach here on the Aegean coastline. Clear green/blue waters, creamy sand, and lots and lots of beautiful stones (a few of which may have found their way into my suitcase!). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used rustic glowy sea glass, creamy stoneware discs from Earthbutter Studio - Desiree and her team run a fair trade group in South Africa, and sales from the beads support single mums -  and perfect lampwork again from Patricia Ritchie. Look how they mimic the sea/shoreline. Some little stone beads and Mykonos ceramics for the rocks. Those lovely dark copper earwires are of course by Lucy Haslam who is re-opening her Etsy shop at the end of this month. Hurray!

 

Off to do more unpacking and washing. Groan. See you on the other side.

 

 

Lindsay xx

 

My Etsy shop

My Facebook page

 

 

 

There she is again - couldn't stay away

Hello lovely peeps,

Remember my last – goodbye – post….. It was a very short goodbye, cause here I am again, remaining a regular EE blogger, albeit now once a month. Well, I did say “ goodbye for now” LOL. I will not go into details but I like to thank my friends and colleagues of EE and you peeps for your support, sweet words and for putting up with my silliness.

My share for today are earrings I made last year (time flies), forgot to list on Etsy and which are still part of my pile of “still to be photographed-still to be listed-jewellery”. Which seems to grow. I think I will have to start doing something about that.

 For now:

Beautiful enamelled charms made by the amazingly talented and sweet Cathleen Zaring from Blue Hare Art Wear, combined with rose quartz, Czech glass and mixed metals.

Wishing you all a wonderful day, full of joy, happiness, laughter and hopefully not to high temperatures. Yesterday we passed the 42 degrees Celsius mark. 

Thanks for looking!

 Janine

Esfera Jewelry

My etsy shop

My website/blog

My facebook page

We're All Ears :: August Inspiration :: Moths

When I was a kid I was not such a big fan of winged insects. I liked butterflies, and bees were cute (if not slightly terrifying), but moths were another matter. They almost seemed a bit sinister, these drab brown-spotted, ugly-duckling cousins to the more showy butterflies, hovering near the lightbulb over our front porch or found, immovable, clinging to the siding as if they would leap off on me at any moment. Of course, I still don't care for things like mosquitoes or flies or wasps, but I do have a greater appreciation for the more fuzzy, somewhat overlooked member of the Lepidoptera family: the moth.

I am struck by just how diverse moths are. I swear the only moths I saw growing up were of the drab variety, but do a little search online and you can find all manner of colors, patterns, shapes and sizes. In fact, there are more than 11,000 species of moths in the U.S. alone, vastly outnumbering butterfly species 10 to 1! Varieties of moths found around the world can be as small as the tip of a pencil or as large as a one foot wingspan.

Moths are one of the world's great mimics. Some have adapted to look like other more harmful insects, like a wasp or a bee or a tarantula. I have learned that they do a lot of really good things, too, like pollinating plants with their hairy bodies and legs. Yea, pollination!

Most importantly, since there are far more moth species in the U.S. than birds (914 bird species to be exact), they provide a very abundant food source for bats, birds and other animals, including people in some parts of the world. While my appreciation of them has evolved since I was a kid, I am not sure that I will ever get to the point where I will add them to my diet. I will just marvel at them from afar.

So let's just admire their beautiful variety and consider how we can be inspired by them...the colors, the patterns, the shapes. You can use the inspiration below, or feel free to find your own moth inspiration!

See you on August 18th!