Bedazzled

I've been examining my me-mades/refashions in preparation for Me-Made May '13, in particular my earring collection, and I realized that I could wear a different pair of earrings, without repeating myself, for nearly three months! That's not counting the fancy-pants sparkly stuff, either.

They say the first step is admitting you may have a problem.

It doesn't help that I've started making my own earrings. In fact, I've just made four pairs and have several more planned. Um.

Now to be fair, quite a number of those are definitely seasonal, but it's still a lot of earrings. I think I'm going to have to do a tracking system like I do for my clothes to see what I have and haven't worn. For the challenge, I think I will limit myself in May to me-made/refashioned earrings or those picked up on my travels (in keeping with the spirit of the blog).

The scary thing is I might be able to do it without repeats. Every day.

I made the first pair as a gift for A for Christmas, and I liked them so much I made another pair for myself. Pretty straightfoward. The design comes from 101 Bracelets, Necklaces, and Earrings and is called Candy Apple earrings, because they did them in red beads. Since these have purple, green, blue, and clear beads, perhaps I could call them bruised candy apples?

The next pair come from a library book called Making Vintage Jewellery. It has organized the projects (mostly necklaces) into decades, from the 1910s to the 1950s. These earrings are called Eva and are inspired by the 1910s. I foolishly free-handed the wire design, and now I know why a Wigjig^* is an awesome thing. Comparing it to the original, I think it's a bit on the long side. And matching those loops up? Oy. The beads came from what fell off my key lariat and fortunately I had just enough loose seed pearls to make a third dangler because I wore them to school a week ago and discovered that one of the danglers had fallen off en route. Lesson learned: do a shake test!

The third pair are the Cherry Blossom Earrings from Beading Daily, another in the Interweave Empire.^**. Mine look quite a bit different from the original because the bead store I went to didn't have bell flower beads. I used mauve teardrops instead. The leaves are too big. Also, they only had pale pearl star caps, which is a good thing after all because I'm not sure I really want that many dark red star caps around as I'm not sure what I'm even going to do with all the extra pearl ones. But I agree with the designer that it needs a red cap; it anchors all that pale pink. What to do? I got a wonderful idea. I painted two of them with nail polish. Problem solved - and I may use that idea in the future!

I have far too many of the beads from this project left over -- several somebodies might be getting presents.

And last, but certainly not least because oh my god they were fiddly to make, but I love the way they turned out: the boringly-named Chunky Chandelier Earrings from Beading Daily^***. The metal is all sterling silver, and I used fluorite chips and aquamarine rounds because the bead store didn't have fluorite rounds. Before I made these, I thought I was pretty good at making wrapped loops, but apparently I need work on doing it with a preset amount of wire. Fortunately I learned from the Eva earrings experience to do a shake test to see what was not as attached as I thought it was. I had a lot of reattaching to do.

I think they're a bit long. If I make them again, I'd only use 1/2" chains on top. And I'd make that top dangle a little longer. But overall I'm really happy with them.

I have a lot of fluorite chips and quite a few aquamarine rounds left over. I have plans for some of them, but maybe I'll make another Eva with just the white rounds and clear chips. But not until I get that Wigjig!

^*If anyone is looking to get me a prezzie, I'll take the Centaur Lite. Thanks!

^**Yes, yes, I fell down the Interweave rabbit hole.

^***Why, I don't know, since there is no beading in this project. They should have put them in the Jewelry Daily section. But mine is not to wonder why. Wait, of course it is. Why?