A Little Gift for Boxing Day - Acorn Earrings Tutorial

I created these little acorn earrings earlier this Fall for the Creative Spark, an online magazine produced by Hope Smitherman and Znetshows.  I thought I'd share the tutorial here as well as a little something special for boxing day. 

Download the PDF tutorial now.

The download link will only be active through January 2nd, 2015.  You may share the link with friends and/or on social media through the 2nd.

After that, the tutorial will still be available in the Fall issue of  Creative Spark magazine. 

Happy Boxing Day!

Karen

Finally Posted Some Earrings to Etsy

Infinity Spirals, freeform peyote earrings

I finally posted a number of my earrings to my Etsy shop, some from last summer and some from the January challenge.

The real key has been figuring out how to take better photos.  It's funny, but I've had more far trouble photographing earrings than any of my other jewelry, especially for Etsy.

To make it worse, the stone backgrounds which look fine for photos here on my blog just didn't look right in my Etsy store, where most of the more polished photos seem to have white-on-white backgrounds.  Something I've had terrible trouble with.

So here a few of my new shots that I took yesterday; what do you think?

Leaf Fringe earrings

I really like how the background dissappears in this shot.  You can just make out the white goblet from which they're hanging.  I took it as a partial side shot to show their dimensionality.

Quinacridone Rose, this is one of my favorite shots

Night Lanterns, freeform peyote beading

The backgrounds for the last two are hand crocheted doilies from my husband's grandmother, one made by her grandmother.  I don't bring them out very often, so it felt really good to use them here.

And here's a screenshot of my updated Etsy store.  I love how all of the backgrounds (except my two tutorials) match - a much cleaner look than I've had previously.  And the earrings actually show up reasonably well in the thumbnails!  I consider that in itself a breakthrough.  What do you think?

30 Pairs of Earrings in 31 days, plus 2 pendants

So that's my final total for my January Earring Challenge.  I thought I had made 31 pairs, but when I counted yesterday morning, I discovered that either a set had disappeared over night, or I'd miscounted.  I'd love to think that it was the former, but I'm guessing it was actually the later.

First two weeks of the Earring Challenge

I've posted an number of the pieces to Facebook, but I'll do a recap here.  The collage above includes pretty much all of the earrings I created in the first two weeks of January.  I stuck with freeform peyote and random right angle weave for all of these. 

I found myself working in series as often as not, creating a couple of pairs of earrings from the same basic design.  The flames to the lower right were the start of my largest series.   I couldn't seem to stop stitching them.  I think it had something to do with their warmth and the snow falling outside during that particular point.  A friend wondered what they'd look like if I reversed the colors, so I made one of those too, with an orange heart instead of the ultramarine blue.

I love the warmth of these!

In the second half of the month, I branched out, with a little tassle-making and some wire working.  I made two pairs of oak leaves - one with green stone hearts, the other with smoky crystals - as well as the more abstracted oak leaf pendant.   The heart beads came from the Seedbeaders' meeting and there's a definite valentine's flair to a number of these (valentines a la me - no pinks here!)

Second half of January

But at the very end, I went created two more pairs of earrings combining peyote stitch and random right angle weave.

These remind me of green pinecones

So there you have it - I think that's the lot of them!  In case it isn't, here's a photo of them sitting in their tray. 

And if you'd like to see more earrings, go check out Backstory Beads, who's also participating in the challenge; her work is gorgeous!  And of course, there's the Bead Along gallery at Beading Daily.

Trusting the Process (when inspiration does not strike)

My travel box this time around

Right about now I'm wondering what I was thinking when I decided to create thirty one pairs of earrings in thirty one days.  Each day that I manage to sit down at the beading table, I find my mind a blank.  Reading through many of my fellow artists' recent blog posts, I know I'm not alone.  In fact, Sarah over at Saturday Sequins just finished a two-part post on her solutions to this problem

I started the month in another state, with grand plans and a very compact travel box stocked with a small selection of beads.  Working with what I had while trying to come up with designs, I could console myself that it would get easier when I got home. 

Once home, I lost that excuse.  Plenty of others I could use - trying to get the house back in order after the trip, year end accounting, the cold that has plagued my husband for nearly a month and seems to be revisiting me.  However I want to couch it, inspiration keeps slipping out the door and around the corner.  I can catch glimpses out of the corners of my eyes, but as soon as I turn to look at it face on, I lose it.

One of my favorite complimentary combinations

So I'm having to relearn to trust the process.  I'm good with color; that's one of my strengths.  I'm not afraid of it, and have always been willing to take chances.  And if I'm truly at a loss, like I have been lately, I can always refer back to my book of painted pages.  Hours and hours of work, painting out tints and shades, analogous and complimentary colors using acrylic paints - another one of those projects I used to fill time while waiting for inspiration.  An amazing resource for days like these.   

My hands know what to do, once I settle on a stitch.  Perhaps we'll use peyote stitch this time I tell myself (yes, I talk to myself - too many hours alone in the studio ;-)  ).  We'll work around a couple of larger beads, with graduated sizes of seed beads.  That could work.   I thread the needle, pick up my first line of beads.  Doesn't look like much.  But I keep stitching, employing technique where inspiration fails.  But the interesting thing is, inspiration seems to back flow in as I work. Maybe, just a little.  Time to keep stitching. 

Process photos - mix of freeform peyote and right angle weave

More process photos - freeform peyote stitch from Day 10

I wonder what will appear tomorrow....

Lots of Possibilities for January

The new year is positively brimming with opportunities, including an earring challenge and the next Bead Soup Party.

Earring Challenge

The idea here is to make a new pair of earrings every day for an entire month. That's 31 different designs which will definitely be a challenge! Beading Daily has a Bead-Along page with a gallery especially for this, but I'll be chronicling my work on my blog as well.

My plan is to upload a photo of each day's design to Facebook and Twitter, and post weekly updates on my progress along with links to friends' blogs who are doing the same. If you're interested in joining in, let me know so I can be sure to include you in my blog rolls. I'd love to have enough people to have a blog hop celebration at the end! JJ over at Coming Abstractions has suggested an earring exchange as well, so I'll organize towards the middle of next month.

Almost Time for Bead Soup

Sign-ups for the next Bead Soup Blog Party are just around the corner, January 7-9th. I almost hesitate to share the dates, because if too many people sign-up, then Lori's going to choose participants by lottery.

Lori carefully pairs all of the participants, and then the partners swap 'bead soup' mixes, which are used to create new pieces, which we share in the blog hop reveal. I've participated twice - last winter and this past fall.

I've had such fun both times, I'll be quite sad if I don't make it in. But at the same time, I'd love for others to have a chance to play as well.

A Fresh Crop of Freeform Peyote Earrings

 

 

Just photographed this morning.