New Earring Designs

In between juggling other projects, I created 4 pairs of earrings over the last couple of weeks. These designs were developed to deal with an inventory problem: I had about 18 feet of gorgeous Vintaj Natural Brass chain whose links were too tiny for any matching jumprings I have or could make (without breaking down and ordering WIRE, which I didn't want to do, because then I would end up with a bunch of small gauge wire I didn't need!).

Adding fringe to the bottom of these earrings seemed like a perfect solution! And I have enough chain left over to make one more pair - just trying to decide which beads to use for the last pair!

All of these are available on Etsy.

 

Teal Blue Enameled Long Dangle Earrings with Vintaj Natural Brass Fringe 

 

Raku-colored Lampwork Long Dangle Earrings with Vintaj Natural Brass Fringe

Bright Flame Orange Enameled Long Dangle Earrings with Vintaj Natural Brass Fringe

 

Etched Raku-Colored Lampwork Long Dangle Earrings with Vintaj Natural Brass Fringe

Custom Earrings

I finally got my camera back (Yay!), and just finished creating these custom earrings for a friend I met on Facebook:

Sterling Silver and Copper Earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

I cut and pierced the sterling silver squares, then hammered and oxidized them. I added copper wire accents, and a champagne-colored Czech glass bead at the top.

I think she'll love them!

Custom Wedding Earrings

The granddaughter of one of my customers is getting married soon, so my customer wanted to gift her with some special earrings for her big day:

Custom Pearl, Swarovski Crystal, and Sterling Silver Bridal Earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

Custom Pearl, Swarovski Crystal, and Sterling Silver Bridal Earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

Custom Pearl, Swarovski Crystal, and Sterling Silver Bridal Earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

As usual, my pictures don't do these earrings justice: the iridescent white freshwater pearls, the shiny sterling silver, and the sparkling Swarovski AB crystals are so pretty!

My customer loved them, and I wish I could be there tomorrow when her granddaughter (the bride-to-be) sees them, because I had a hard time letting go of them! I love how they turned out!

New Beadwoven Earrings: Celtic Stars

I fell in love with this basketweave design when I saw it on Backstory Beads back in early February, and immediately dashed off to purchase the Gwen Fisher tutorial. When I finally had time to try the pattern last week, I purposely didn't go back and look at Karin's post again, because I didn't want to be influenced by her always fantastic color choices!

The earrings are almost entirely 15/0s, but also call for a few matching 11/0s in each color choice, as well as 8/0s in one of the colors, so my color combos were limited by which colors I had all 3 sizes in, that also went well together!

For the first pair, I tried to summon Spring (it was 38 degrees outside on the morning I decided to stitch this pair):

Pastel pink, green, and purple basketweave/Celtic Star beadwoven earrings

I am not really a pastel person, so while these earrings are pretty, they just didn't do it for me, so I tried again:

Black, red, and gray Celtic Star Earrings

Of course, I absolutely LOVE this pair!

The design is created by stitching each individual color strip, and then weaving the 3 strips together, basketweave-style, before closing them. The resulting design reminds me of a Celtic Star!

Both pairs are available in my Etsy Shop; the pastel pair is here, and the black and red pair is here.

Note: Gwen's tutorial gives me permission to sell pieces I create from her tutorial.

Copper Bracelet Set-back, or, Oops, I Made a Boo-boo

I was doing so well yesterday ... I had started off by deciding to go ahead and make an etched toggle to match the bracelet, so I cut some copper pieces and got them into the acid.

I began drilling holes, stopping off and on to help customers, etc. Then my pieces were ready to come out of the acid, so I stopped the hole-drilling (so tedious) and started on the toggle. I sawed out the center of the toggle ring, smoothed all the rough edges, and set out to solder a loop onto the back of the toggle bar. Naturally, that took way longer than expected. But here is my cute custom toggle (it still needs to be tumbled):

 etched copper toggle

etched copper toggle

Once the toggle was finished, I started drilling (and filing) holes again. There are a LOT of holes on this bracelet!

With 3 pieces remaining, I started drilling this piece:

copper connector before the drilling accident

and this happened:

oops - drilled too close to the edge!

I got too close to the edge, and there is just no working around this.

After some chosen words, I cut a new piece, prepped it and stamped it, and packed up for home.

This morning, I plopped the newly stamped piece in the acid, and I just hope it looks like the rest of the pieces when it is done (same degree of etching, same patina with the liver of sulfur, etc.) - it's nice to make all the components of a particular jewelry design at the same time, to try to control all these variables. Oh, well!

So, while my new connector is etching, I listed 2 pairs of the earrings I made last weekend on Etsy:

Copper heart earrings: available in my Etsy shop

Copper Zentangle Earrings: available in my Etsy shop

Stay tuned for further adventures in copper bracelet-making! And I'll also reveal more of the pieces I made last weekend!

Drop me a comment and tell me about some of your boo-boos!

Brass Byzantine Earrings and Bracelet: companion pieces

Remember the pretty chainmaille necklace I designed as part of the 5x5 challenge?

I had a few tourmaline nuggets left over, and quite a few brass jumprings, so what's a girl to do?

Make matching bracelet and earrings!

Brass Byzantine bracelet with tourmaline links and dangle

Brass Byzantine earrings with tourmaline dangles

The bracelet and earrings are available separately in my Etsy shop.

5x5 Metal Component Challenge Reveal, Chapter 4 (the filigree "diamond")

Welcome to Chapter 4 of my 5x5 Metal Component Design Challenge Reveal
(Chapter 1, the filigree ring, is here;
Chapter 2, the copper square and the "X", is here;
Chapter 3, the copper disc, is here)

Here's the component:

I have no idea what this really is; I put it off until last, because I was totally uninspired by my initial design ideas, which were:
1) bead it
2) wrap it around a mandrel, make it a ring, and then either bead it, or wire something onto it.
3) find a small flat bead or cabochon, and bend the filigree "diamond" around it to form a bezel

After finishing all the other challenge pieces, I kept fingering this remaining component, and eyeing all the little holes it had for inserting stuff, and dangling things from ... and subconciously I guess I was still hung up on wanting to make some earrings for this challenge, because it suddenly hit me - let's cut this sucker in half!!

This worried me a little - remember: I only have one of these, so there is no margin for error! I would have to carefully cut across the middle, never deviating, so that all my little spaces for dangling still remained after the cut!

Nailed it! This pic was taken after I had carefully filed all the rough edges with the Dremel.

Next, I used the roundnose pliers to turn under the tops of the halves, so they would more easily attach to earwires.

Now - on to the dangling!

I decided the center dangle needed to big enough to balance out the filigree chandelier I'd created, and I settled on some metal flowers that I have set aside for enameling. I fired up the torch and enameled 2 of them in mauve and purple, one of my current favorite color combos.

Next, I added some matching Swarovski crystal dangles on either side, and one hanging from some Vintaj Natural Brass chain in the center of the enameled flower (as a stamen).

bronze filigree earrings with Swarovski crystals and enameled flower dangles

After attaching all the dangles, I decided I needed to turn the edges of the filigree chandelier under just a bit, to balance the shape of the enameled flower.

bronze filigree earrings with Swarovski crystals and enameled flower dangles

Happy "accident": These earrings make the most beautiful wind chime sounds when they move! They are absolutely delightful; I think they are my favorite pair of earrings, ever.

These beauties are available on Etsy!

That does it for my 5x5 Design Challenge Reveal. Here are the previous installments, if you missed them:
Chapter 1 (the filigreed ring)
Chapter 2 ( the copper square and the "X")
Chapter 3 (the copper disc)

And don't forget to check out the May issue of Bead Chat Magazine - our feature is on page 21-26!

Kokopelli Pendant and Earrings

The texture you see surrounding Kokopelli on this pendant is all a result of the etching process - I love when this feathery detail appears on an etched piece - serendipity!

Here are the earrings:

The acid also gave them some interesting feather texture - not sure why the feathers have a different orientation on the two earrings!

These stamps were custom made for me, so that the Kokopellis would face left and right - I like when earrings have mirror orientations. Sometimes that's tough to achieve.

Abstract Textured Copper and Sterling Silver Earrings

I am crazy about the texture I achieved with these earrings - it has a brushed, matte effect that I just love. Hope I can duplicate it!

I used a piece of sterling silver sheet to craft the loop the earrings hang from, and carried it down onto the earring in a swirl design. The sterling silver is riveted to the earring, but the rivets are hidden by the curly copper "S" pieces I wire-wrapped on top of the silver.

Bali-style copper earwires complete the design.

Blue and Green Beaded Earrings

Just a little pair of earrings to go with Monday's bracelet:

I had 2 of those gorgeous blue and green lampwork glass bicones leftover after making the bracelet, so naturally I had to make some matching earrings!

I tried to get an extreme closeup to show the detail in the lampwork, and I think I got a little too close! It looks like there are 2 beadcaps under the lampwork bead on the left - but there aren't, it's just a photographic artifact. Photographing jewelry is hard!

I hope Santa was good to everyone!

Chainmaille Earrings

I call this pattern "Bullseye:"

I love patterns that call for rings inside of rings, like dragonscale, and the Off-Kilter Celtic, and this one. And, of course, I love mixing metals! These are sterling silver and copper, but they would look great with different colors of artistic wire, too .... hmmm - I think I need to cut some more rings!

Custom Orders: Beadwoven Earrings

It's been a banner week for custom orders - here's the first:

Remember the flat spiral necklace?

A customer loves it, and wants to send her husband in to get it for her for Christmas, but she wants matching earrings.

So this is what I made:

These circular peyote earrings use leftover beads from the necklace (which I never put away ... duh, and yay! I didn't have to go hunt for them!)

And they match the clasp on the necklace:

I think she'll like them.

Paddle Earrings with Lampwork Beads

I made these sterling silver paddle earrings during the cold connections class I taught Sunday:

I used 18 gauge sterling silver wire, hammering it flat and wide at one end to hold the handmade lampwork bead in place. After sliding the bead on, I continued to carefully hammer the wire above it to slightly flatten it, and then used round nose pliers to create a loop at the top for hanging.

Chandelier Earrings with Gemstones

These findings are neat - one side of the hoop unhooks at the top, so you can slide beads on it. And there's a ring, for dangling stuff - I chose magnesite and crazy lace agate (and some silver spacers and chain) for the dangles, and put some lavender chalcedony and Czech glass on the hoop portion.

Chandelier Earrings

I picked up these chandelier findings at a show; I love them because they have a contemporary look to them. I am not really into filigree, frou-frou, or big dangly earrings, but these were smallish, and modern looking.

The earring findings were so bold, I decided to go very simple with the dangles - a 4 and 6mm Swarovski crystal on either side, and plain chain in the center.

Wire Crochet Earrings

28g sterling silver wire, freshwater pearls, and Czech glass - these are fun and easy to make. You can make them as full as you like by simply adding more beads, This pair is lightweight, and at the upper limit of the size earring I like to wear.

Beads on a Wire

These earrings were so much fun to make - the trick was to get the wire the right length so that the beads were counterbalanced, so the wire moves like a pendulum!

I started with about a 6 inch length of square sterling silver wire. I twisted it with my pin vise, then bent it (I actually did each step side-by-side, if you will, for each earring, so that they would match as closely as possible). I put the gorgeous, handmade, raku-inspired lampwork beads on one end, and formed a loop to hold them. A Bali-style spacer went on the other end. Initially, I had left this end a little too long, and the earrings didn't hang correctly, so I shortened it, and got lucky the second time.

I love the way they swing when worn!

Metal and WireWork Earrings

For these earrings, I hammered and oxidized some copper discs, punched holes in them, and wired some teal glass seed beads to their fronts. I dangled a chrysocolla rondelle from the bottom of each.

Blue and Green Chainmaille Earrings

These earrings were made hundreds of very small jumprings, in the Turkish Round weave:

The peacock blue and seafoam green rings are artistic wire, and the silver ones are sterling. They hang from sterling silver posts.

They're available on Etsy!

Seashell Earrings

I have collected seashells my whole life - and I love all things "shell."

These earrings were so simple, but I just love them:

After cutting discs out of sheet copper, I stamped the discs with a scallop design and etched them. I love how the stamp has a very vintage, deeply textural appearance, and I also really like how the surrounding copper took on some very distressed-looking stripes in the acid. Every piece behaves differently in the acid, so it's always fun to see what you have when you take the pieces out and clean them up!

I drilled holes for the earwires, and that's it! Seashell earrings!