Friday 18 April 2014

My Take – We’re All Ears, April Challenge

In my last post I mentioned Earrings Everyday.  This is a blog site I found a month ago, managed by a group of interesting artisan editors with different types of styles.  Their mandate:

“Earrings Everyday hopes to inspire those who make earrings
and adorn those who love to wear them!”

On the first Friday of the month an inspiration photo is posted and everyone is invited to design some earrings using the photo as inspiration for the design, colours, shapes and materials.  The reveal in on the third Friday of the month.


Here is the inspiration photo for April:




The sweet little skylark is so special.  Unfortunately I did not have the right colours on hand to do it justice.  The earrings for this blog hop are made of gemstones and copper; gemstones because they are what first pulled me into the world of jewellery design, and copper because it just went so well with the colours in the inspiration photo.

And here are my designs:


Skylark Inspired


This first pair, Skylark Inspired, started with the square Serpentine beads.  I thought the colour matched the mint leaves.  I paired the Serpentine with Yellow Jade, honoring the colour in the bottom of the glasses.  As a finishing touch I encircled the Yellow Jade with woven links of antique copper, which bring in the texture and colour from the twisted rope placemats.


Skylark Dreams


I call the second pair SkylarkDreams.  This pair also has Yellow Jade, this time large carved ovals.  I matched Turtle Jasper beads to the colour of the napkin at the top of the photo and the olives nestled in the bowl on top of it.  The Turtle Jasper beads looked a little wimpy beside the larger Jade beads.  I decided to make some copper domes with open centres to surround the Jasper.  I gave the copper a very slight brushed texture and left it natural so that it will patina over time.  And then I accidentally removed most of the brushed texture while making the domed shape.  Oh well, a skill to work on…

13 comments:

  1. Beautiful earrings.My favorite is the second pair with the lovely yellow jade. Like you, I stared making jewelry with gemstones.

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  2. I love the twisted rope of those links in the first one, they remind me of the placemats. So glad you found us! We look forward to seeing you in the future challenges as well! Thanks for joining in the We're All Ears challenge! Enjoy the day. Erin

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  3. I love both pair but am really drawn to the first pair. The yellow jade and serpentine are perfect rich colors for the photo and look gorgeous together. What really pulls everything together are the twisted copper links that mimic the placemats.

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  4. Both pairs are simple wonderful! A terrific interpretation of the colors in the image.

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  5. Lovely earrings, specially the yellow jade ones. really nice designs.

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  6. Gorgeous earrings, my favourites are the little cubes xx

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  7. I love the colors and designs. Well done!

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  8. Thank you all for your comments. I'm glad I took the plunge and joined the challenge.

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  9. Gorgeous designs ..love both the earrings :)

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  10. love the use of copper esp the twisted rings. I love yellow jade .

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  11. Very pretty earrings! Well done! I hope we will see you next month again :)

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  12. Thanks! Everyone is very generous with encouragement and it is really helpful for motivation. I'm looking forward to seeing the next inspiration photo.

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