Thursday, 20 October 2016

Weather - We’re All Ears September Challenge

For the EarringsEveryday October edition of the monthly We’re All Ears challenge, Erin Prais-Hintz selected weather ... wind patterns, cloud formations, precipitation... whatever we would like to represent!

I remember studying all about weather when I was a child and being fascinated by clouds. I used to know all the different types, what causes them, what conditions were needed to sustain them, how gentle or fierce they could be. Memories came flooding back when I was reading the challenge blog so of course I chose to focus on clouds

This painting by American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt shows a fierce rainstorm about to start and was the kickoff to my design. I did find it a little too dark and chose to work with the lighter elements of the clouds


Storm in the Rocky Mountains by Albert Bierstadt

I couldn’t quite find the right beads, shapes or colours, to make my vision come to life and decided it was time to take out the polymer clay again and play. I made a free form mixture of a light blue, deep navy and pale creamy pearl colour and made these sets


The Storm Above Earrings


The studs at the top are silver plated and the drops up front are gunmetal. It took a bit of work to get a decent rounded shape and remove fingerprints and clay from the sides and backs but it’s all practice right?

The Storm Above Earrings

I tried to get the look of sky in flux, with churning clouds and bits of blue sky peaking through. Some much needed touch ups to remove divots will happen this weekend.

The Storm Above Earrings

Although I tried to keep a close eye, there were hot spots in my toaster oven and I didn’t take the tray out quickly enough. I wasn’t quite expecting the temperature to be so uneven. Some of the darkened beads were at the back on one side and some near the middle of the oven. I may leave the colours as is but haven't decided yet. They do bring out the stormy look more.

I had enough clay left to make 2 pendants too. Here’s one final photo, a group shot



Please visit the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

5 comments:

  1. Great interpretation of the theme! I actually like the earrings more with the dark spots as it makes it look more natural and more stormy

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  2. Very cool! I love the stormy palette (and that painting is dynamite!). One of my tricks to get the light to shine out is to mix in a layer of translucent clay, sometimes a very thin layer of white, and a little bit of metal leaf in your favorite metal tone (I like variegated ones the best). Then when you swirl it or carve into it you get such a great vein of light that just pops! Thanks for playing along with me! Enjoy the day! Erin

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  3. I think your earrings and pendant turned out great. I love the shades of blue in them. Well done!

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  4. The earrings are very pretty! Love the swirls of white and blue!

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  5. Those are so pretty! I really thought they were bezel set stones at first glance!

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