100 Pairs in 100 Days - Week One

One of my New Year's resolutions was to join Amy Freeland of the Copper Diem blog in her 100 Pairs in 100 Days Challenge. This is Amy's second year to sponsor the challenge and she is very generously donating her designs to Ears to You. I love earrings but rarely take the time to make them, so this is a real challenge. I'm disciplining myself to make each pair first thing in the morning. And my plan is to sell mine and donate the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders.

It's January 7th, so time to reveal my first week's efforts! For this week, I decided I would go thematic, and use the color black in each pair. (Is black a color?) If your winter wardrobe has you in a downward spiral, this first pair will perk up anything drab you pull from your closet.

Tribal lampwork beads by Studio Juls. Enamel & lampwork beads by Elizabeth Girod

When the occasion calls for something a little dressier:

Sterling handformed earwires. At left, Black spinel faceted squares and mixed gemstones.
At right, Mossy Tourmalinated Quartz drops and black gold plated wavy discs

Faceted onyx and freshwater pearls;
Jet silver-foiled textured Czech lampwork, tiny sterling drops and Swarovski pearls

Lampwork beads by StudioJuls, Saki Silver leaf charms

 

Beaded Disco Beads (from a tutorial by Sharri Moroshok) and Czech glass

Amy has created a 100 Pairs/100 Days Pinterest board for everyone to post their progress. Lots of fun designs to explore! And stop by next week when my theme will be Winter Gardens. No more black!

AJE Earring Challenge - Plum Yummy

Who doesn’t look good in purple? I’ve chosen the shades on either side of violet for my Week 7 and 8 designs for the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge.

 

Starting with the warmer hue, I’ve framed red-violet enamel discs by Elizabeth Gerod with large bronze hoops from Saki Silver. They’re topped by a small stack of ceramic, firepolish and bronze discs. Gold-filled earwires and jump rings are by me.

 

Perfect for these late-winter, early-spring days, my second design pairs blue-violet charms from THEAtoo with my own wire-wrapped beads (from a tutorial by Deryn Mentock.) The pewter posts echo the design on the charms and allow these earrings to sit close to the ear.

Great earring designs await, so click over to the AJE reveal post and Pinterest board for lots of inspiration.

Gratitude and a Giveaway

This Saki focal necklace with its simple quad stitch chain is on its way to my sister.  Despite a very trying year, she inspired us all by taking the month of November to post everything she was grateful for on Facebook. This is going to her to let her know how grateful I am that she’s part of my life.

I fell in love with the modern Asian design aesthetic of Saki Silver when I came upon one of their pendants at my local bead store. When I saw they were exhibiting at an Atlanta bead show last month, I was there when the doors opened, meeting and chatting with co-founder, Liz Chumtong, and learning about their company and products. The toggle that serves as the focal in my sister’s necklace is made of shibuichi, a copper/silver alloy.  Having happily spent my entire show budget at Saki, I stopped by only one other booth, manned by the Atlanta Bead Society, where I saw a very simple necklace made of quad stitch and learned it was from Beth Stone’s Seed Bead Stitching.

The palette for my neckstrap began with a tube of café au lait seed beads from Beverly Ash Gilbert. I added some bright accents with 3 and 4mm pacific opal crystals, and lots of silver beads, including 2mm sterling rounds, 3mm cubes, and 8/0 3-cuts for sparkle. To add more depth and echo the undertones in the toggle, I added some rich burgundy pearls and jet crystals.

And now for the fun part. I am so grateful to those of you who take the time to stop by my blog and share in my beading adventures. So I’m sharing some of my favorite things with you!

 

Just be a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post. I will be sending one follower a generous portion of my bead soup recipe and two Saki toggles – a 34mm shibuichi like the one in my sister’s necklace, and because I think this soup would be fantastic with silver, a 36mm sterling silver sunburst design. And a copy of Beth Stone’s Seed Bead Stitching, where you’ll find some interesting variations on traditional stitches. I’ll choose the winner on Sunday, December 9th. Good luck! (Note: If you don’t have e-mail turned on in your profile, please leave a way to contact you in your comment.)