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

Looking at all this fun fabric this month makes me want to learn to sew. Except then I remember the disaster of a skirt that I made back in 1984 and I realize that if I got into fabric, I would only stack it and fondle it obsessively.

I love all the great colors and patterns that Spoonflower features. And I love that you can make your own fabric. I wanted to to use as many of the 10 fabrics in the inspiration. I ended up using 6 of them. But pretty good since I started pulling beads around 8:30 pm on Thursday! I put on a favorite pod and pulled all the beads that I could find that spoke to me of the color, shapes, patterns on the fabrics and pretty stoked about what I created.

I enjoyed trying to mimic the patterns on the fabric with the colors and shapes of my beads. Let's see what you did!

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

Some time ago I bought a gift certificate for a fabric-loving friend to Spoonflower. Do you know Spoonflower? They are a site that prints custom fabrics. You can get them in a variety of styles, from cotton to satin to chiffon, and you can even design your own fabric pattern! How cool is that?

Since I ordered that gift certificate online, I have been getting their quarterly magazine. It is chock full of color and pattern that is whimsical and fun. Great eye candy, even if I can't sew a lick! This time I am smitten with their Lagoon Love feature (and this pretty Mermaid Lagoon fabric, below!). You can even check out their interactive online version of the print magazine, with links that will take you right to the page of the fabric featured on each page. Pretty darn cool!

So I thought that it would make for a fun challenge, to interpret a favorite fabric into earrings! To narrow it down, I have selected the top 10 winners of one of their monthly contests from July: Circles are the New Triangles. These top 10 give you a wide range of colors and patterns and interpretations of circles for you to choose from...because everyone likes to have choices, am I right? 

Click here to see each of these patterns up close.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept, is to select at least one of these fabrics and design a pair of earrings inspired by it... the colors, the shapes, the patterns, etc. Then come back here on Friday, August 17th to share what fabric you chose and show us what you made! 

Oh! I almost forgot! I promised a giveaway to someone who guessed at my summer drink-inspired earrings from July! 

The answers were.... 1) Root Beer Float  2) Strawberry (or Pink) Lemonade   3) Blue Moon Beer with a twist of orange!

I decided that I would give away TWO prizes... one to someone who took up the challenge and participated and one to a commenter on the blog post. 

Congratulations to...

CRAFTY HOPE

+

ANITA of BEADSCHARMSANDWIRE 

Please send me an email with your name and address and I will send you a little goodie package to encourage you to keep making earrings!

Icy Spicy Blue

I love when pastels are set against earthy browns and greys - it just makes them all the more beautiful.

Although perfectly matched, the two components I've paired together couldn't be more different!  

The large ceramic focal charms called "Circle Of Water" and were made by Nadia Terra.  They are 35mm, bold, but still lightweight. So rustic and beautiful!  I love the brush strokes showing through.

The accent beads are vintage lampwork glass circa 1950's.  They are a combination of that same brownish-grey with a glossy organic ice blue pattern.  

 Thank you for popping in today!  Hope you found a little color inspiration :))

Loralee xo

You can find these earrings in my shop below:

loralee kolton ~ artful in beads

Stacked Earrings

Me and four of my beading friends have had a thing going on for a while. We call it The Stacked Earrings Challenge. The idea has been that we take turns in sending the others in the group the same small selection of beads, possibly suiting to make earrings in a stacked style from. So that we all have the same beads as a start point to work from. We make as many earrings as we want. At least three of the beads in each pair should come from the lot we were sent. Then we all blog about the earrings we made on the same day and compare what everyone came up with, and get very inspired of course :-).

It was I who introduced the idea about 1,5 years or so ago, at a time I just felt in need of some interacting inspiration from beading buddies around the world. I am so happy that they wanted to join in. And then we just continued taking turns. Yesterday was the fifth and last reveal for us. I am a little sad that it's over, but mostly so happy and grateful it's been such a great thing to do.

Anyway, so now I thought I'd share with you a couple of the earrings from my own last reveal from yesterday.

The three beads in the center come from this time's challenge lot put together by Heidi Post. The rest from my own stash. The two circles are made by MissFickleMedia.

All the beads including the bent copper tubes come from Heidi's lot. I added the handmade earring hooks and the head pins from Sacha Crow.


If you are interested to see more of the reveals from the Stacked Earrings Challenge I highly recommend it. A good starting point would be my own blog post:
http://beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.se/2016/11/stacked-earrings-challenge-reveal.html
And from there you can find the links to the other ladies in the group. Our own Claire Lockwood is one of them.

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All my best,
Malin
www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.se
www.etsy.com/shop/MalindeKoning

Azure Lake Ceramic Circle Earrings

Nature inspired color palette. 

Handcrafted ceramic circles 

by Cindy's Art & Soul. 

Wrapped in fine silver wire, 

dangling from sterling silver ear wires.

http://blog.bandagedear.com/2012/05/15-nature-inspired-color-palettes/

 

Earrings can be found at  

www.ArtAndSoulJewelry.com

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 And while I have your attention!

Please be sure to check out this months  

We're All Ears :: February Inspiration + Earring Love Fest!

 I am offering one of my sand-dollar pendant beads as one of the prizes along with a set of matching round beads that would be a great set for earrings (not shown with original post)

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Stop by and join in the fun with us! 

 

 

Aqua Ice

Please enjoy our Guest Blogger Nathalie Lesage!

Hello! I'm Nathalie Lesage, and this is my first submission for this fabulous blog. I'm a fan, and very happy to be here!

Spring!! Where is Spring?

Between the icy cool mornings and the promising blue skies, the month of March always keeps us guessing.
But I love March, as just like nature starts to wake up in anticipation of Summer, my imagination does the same :)

My inspiration for my design today is two-fold - I was participating in a challenge with my SRAJD group  and our challenge for the week was "Circles".
I wanted to incorporate Circles and March together - and thus, my choice of gemstone was a no-brainer: The birthstone for March... Aquamarine!

I mixed the two inspirations and ended up with these earrings :)

I soldered and textured the two sizes of hoops, and 'patiently' (very patiently!) wire wrapped 38 luscious top quality Aquamarine gemstones, including a pair of fancy "ring cut" (pointy back) pear shaped drops. I finished the look with a pair of my handcrafted circular shaped ear wires.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

Nathalie Lesage
Metalsmith Jewelry Artist
http://www.NathalieLesageJewelry.com