(Note – If you’re new to my page, this is how it works: At the beginning of each week I randomly draw a new project from my Challenge Bucket, then see what I can create before the week is over. You can read all about the Challenge here.)
A new week brings a new adventure! I was so excited to learn what my new challenge would be, that I quickly pulled it Sunday morning before church.
I reached in, mixed up the slips with my hand, and pulled out… earrings! (this photo is brought to you by the Lego cherry blossoms my son gave me for Mother’s Day! Aww…)
I knew this challenge was going to be fun, but would require some extra thought since there are no material parameters. I could use whatever I wanted to make them. This also meant nearly endless possibilities!
To begin to narrow down the possibilities, I started to think about what addition I’d like in my own jewelry collection. Truth be told, while I wear earrings all the time, there are very few that I rotate between. There was definitely room for something new and different! I also was limited by the materials I had on hand. As with all challenges, I love to spend as little cash as possible.
Since Sunday was Mother’s Day, we spent the afternoon out at my mom’s place. When I told her about this week’s earring challenge, she pulled out her own collection of broken down jewelry and beads. The very first thing that caught my eye was a necklace – it was made of wooden beads and pearls. I loved the juxtaposition of warm, natural wood with smooth, classy pearls. I immediately remembered that I had a bunch of wooden beads leftover from a camp craft in my own stash. Mom offered her small bag of pearl beads and I was fully inspired with a vision already forming in my head.
Entering the week, I opened my craft drawers and pulled out everything that I thought could be useful for this new project. (The inspiration necklace is at the bottom of the first picture.)
After watching some quick tutorials on earring making, I roughly came up with three different designs. Scavenging the hooks from some earrings I already owned (but rarely wore) I attached them to my new creations.
When I held them up to my ear in the mirror, I decided the twisty one was my favorite. However, though you can’t see in the picture, the wire peeked through in lots of places because of the tight curves. I didn’t like that at all. I tried maneuvering it to cover the wire, but it just wouldn’t work. Right design, wrong bead size. So I let go of that design and turned my focus to the other two.
Try as I might to decide which I liked better, I really liked elements of both. But I didn’t have enough earring hooks to make both… so it was off to Michaels with a coupon in hand to find the best deal on earring supplies that I could!
$4.40 later I had a small pack of earring hooks, jump rings, and eye pins (I would need to learn what those were for).
I discovered that making the second earring for each pair was much easier than the first, since I already knew the length of the wire, which beads would go on in which order, and how to attach it all together. Soon I had two lovely new pairs!
Now about those eye pins! After a quick internet search I learned that they were useful for dangling beads. Well, I do love me a dangly bead!
I pulled out the bag of glass beads I bought ages ago because “they’re so pretty I’ll find a use for them”, and found a couple lovely sea-glass colored ones. Utilizing my new eye pins, I fit them together with a wooden bead and attached a hook. They were so cute, they made me smile. Now all I needed was a pretty picture of my new creations to share with you!
This was a fun project. I learned that I wasn’t limited by just a few simple tools and materials – there was still an abundance of possibilities! It just required a little creativity *wink*.
