Metal...and Rainbows

Hi, everyone!  

My latest pair of earrings, below, is the fourth in a series of similar earrings I've made over the years.   

When I created this style in 2015, I was playing with several pewter charms by Inviciti that all had open spaces in them that could be filled with a stack of little beads.  The earrings were designed to be whimsical and eccentric.  Interestingly, what I discovered while working on this post is that my newest design in this style is probably the least eccentric of all of them. 

These earrings, below right, were the first of the three pairs I made in 2015.  I was learning how to wrap the red linen thread around the top of the "shoulders" of the component and to bring both ends of the thread down on each side, stringing my beads on the front, then threading both ends through the bottom hole and tying them together at the bottom.  I trimmed the linen thread to a nice spiky length.

These little ones below were more overtly whimsical, I think, because of the shape of the charm:  a fish!  So when I put these earrings together I made sure to wing the thread out in the same plane as the "fish tail" of the charm.  💗

These, below, also from later in 2015, are just a little over the top, with two strands of beads, in front and back.  I don't think I would do that again, because it doesn't look particularly tidy.  I do love the stripy beads and the orange-red discs and just the "go-for-it" sort of vibe these earrings carry.

So back to this year's model. 😉 These earrings are more polished, with their threads pulled tight to their backs and tucked under some nice--and carefully glued--red handmade paper.  They're also sporting a beautiful pair of small red and cornflower lampwork glass beads by Beth Mellor of Beeboo. 💗

Thanks so much for reading!  I will be back in two weeks' time.  💗

xoxo
Meridy

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Jewel Tones (with Caramel)

Hey, everyone! It's good to be here.  I'm still alive...still coughing, but feeling almost normal.  My husband (who caught bronchitis when I did, the lucky man) and I have been babysitting our almost-3-year-old grandson this week, but even so I managed to get a pair of earrings made.  YAY!  ❤

I've been wanting to use these wonderful textury pewter components by Vincent and Nooma Cav of Inviciti for a while, and once I got my hands on these beautifully color-dappled lampwork beads by Terry Turner of Silverfish Designs I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.

I hadn't made bead-wrapped earrings like these in a long time (and none exactly like these), so choosing the tiny beads was a treat.  I had the tops of the earrings finished, with just the wrapping of the beads around the pewter triangles to go (using the cords left from wrapping the top part of the earrings together).

I picked out a couple of seed bead colorways and tried them out; one wasn't quite right, so I slid the beads off the cords and put them to one side.  The other set was almost right, but again, not quite.  I ended up combining parts of each seed bead group to get the colorway I finally used:  15/0 3-cuts in Rusty Orange Gold Luster, 15/0 Transparent Dark Lilac, 15/0 3-Cut Cranberry Gold Luster, 15/0 Magenta-Lined Gray, and 15/0 Transparent Dark Magenta AB.

The rondelles in the little silver caps at the tops of the lampwork beads are rosy-gold Czech glass, and the tiny rondelles at the neck of the charms are 4mm Swarovski crystals in Crystal Copper.

I really love the richness of all the colors in Terry's lampwork beads and the tiny glass beads

that echo the colors.  I hope you enjoyed them all too. ❤

Thank you so much for reading--I'd love to hear what you think!  

I'll be back on June 14.  

xoxo

Meridy

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