We're All Ears :: April Challenge :: Paradise Calling

I am leaving today on a jet plane for a very important trip!

I am headed down to Fort Lauderdale, FL today as the first leg on a once-in-a-lifetime journey. I am excited to be joining my best friend Heather Powers of Humblebeads on her BEAD CRUISE! This is the 13th sailing of that cruise and I have always, ALWAYS, wanted to go, but it was never the right time nor circumstance. Well, at the end of last year there was a cancellation, and I knew that this would be my year!

I can't wait to put my {freshly pedicured} toes in the sand, sip a tropical drink or two and gaze out at the bluest blue as we bob around in the Caribbean Sea for a week. We will have ports of call in Labadee, Haiti and Falmouth, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico including shore excursions ranging from a tropical paradise cove, the Dunn's River Falls and cooking with tequila and chocolate on the beach. In between those ports, we will be beading up a storm on the high seas! I am taking two metals classes with Tracy Stanley (whom I adore and is the most awesome teacher ever) and one polymer clay class with Heather. I am sure that I will have a marvelous time, make a ton of new friends, learn something new and come home with all sorts of inspiration!

To that end, you will have to excuse me if I indulge my tropical fever in selecting this month's challenge. And it makes me even happier to see these pictures since we just got dumped by about a foot of snow the last two days! So throw on some island music, whip up a frothy drink and pull out all your seashells, sand dollars, ocean and hothouse flowers for a little beading escapism! Even if you can't join me on this trip of a lifetime, you can still dream in tropical colors, right?

[Photo Credit :: via Unsplash :: clockwise from top left :: Gaddafi Rusli :: Ren Ran :: Pedro Lastra :: David Straight]

Here's to sunny days and sandy toes!
See you back here on April 20th for the reveal!

"Esnorkeling"

Caribbean Copper Enamel Earrings

I can't help it! Those of us who haven't already been on a winter getaway are yearning for warm sunny beaches and clear blue green waters where we can play and forget for a time that winter is not yet over. My husband and I like the Riviera Maya, south of Cancun, where there are so many old Mayan ruins and beautiful places to go snorkeling, or as the natives tend to say "esnorkeling".

My earring design captures the colors of the Caribbean with tropical blue recycled glass, rugged turquoise and gorgeous enameled copper drops by Cathleen Zaring of BlueHareArtWear on Etsy. I used bronze accents and copper wire to wrap the stacked beads and blend the textures together.

Gloria Ewing
Chrysalis Too on Etsy
Chrysalis Tribal Jewelry