Art for art's sake?

For Week 4 of the Focus on Life blog hop, Sally's prompt to us was to "Create Art."  Oddly enough, this one has been the most difficult for me so far, not because I don't feel I'm artistic and creative (in fact, I sometimes think I have TOO MUCH creativity, and it can get very scattery!) but because I'm currently suffering from a severe lack of time and, oddly, space...

You see, I've just started classes again (I teach College English) and in true Crazy-Rana form, I'm teaching 7 classes across 2 colleges.  oi....  We're three weeks into the semester, which essentially means all my fun time is getting ready to go down the drain in deference to essay reading, grading, and emails.  For the most part, this is okay, as I really do like my job.  I would just like to like a little LESS of my job.  If that makes any sense.  So there's the time aspect...

I am also in the middle of a very, VERY slow move.  Eventually, I'll be all settled in back in my parents' house (it's okay--they've retired and are traveling a bit, so I mostly have it to myself) but at the moment, I'm actually living in 2 places.  So, half of my things are in one house, half are in the other.  I have the art supplies in one house, but the good places to DO the art are in the other house.  It's very odd...  

So, I decided, that instead of DOING art this week, I would work on preparing to do art.  Since my art takes the form of so many different things--jewelry, painting, card-making, crocheting, cross-stitch, maybe (one day) knitting--I decided I would take care of the things you need to do to get to the actual art.  For me, right now, that means earwires... 

See, I'm also participating in Art Jewelry Elements Earring challenge--trying to make at least one pair of earrings every week.  And yes, sometimes I use premade earwires, but ever since I discovered the fun of pounding on wire with a hammer, I actually prefer to make my own earwires.  It's a bit of an involved process for me, since I don't have a tumbler (yet), so I have to file and hammer every single one, after all the shaping. 

Brass, Sterling, and copper wire, coiled and ready for cutting! 

The brass, cut and shaped.  Working on filing the ends here...

my bench block!  Top five fave purchases of 2012.  lol!  This is when the wire gets "work hardened" so it holds its shape...

Copper earwires all ready to go! :) 

RanaLea :)

AJE Earring Challenge, 1st Reveal

Hi there!  As part of my effort to blog more (and because it sounded like fun... lol!) I'm participating in Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge.

So here goes!

First up, the earrings I made with beads I bought from my favorite local bead shop, Sparkle Spot, which were hand delivered to Kelley from Hungary!  And now, they're in my earrings!  Beads by Reka, of CheekyBeads. The pic doesn't really do these beads justice--they are such a beautiful buttery-tan shade, and the dots are FABULOUSly fun! :)  I've got the beads dangling on lengths of chain, for a fun fidget earring. 

These might possibly be my favorites of all time.  The components were made especially for me in an Artist swap on the Bead Swap-USA page.  Diana Keever, of Diana Keever Jewelry, made the happy cat charm (I have two kitties...) and wire wrapped the key and pen nib for me ("writing is the key!").  I just added the earwire to the key and nib charm, and added some coordinating danglies to the happy cat to tie it all together in some fabulous "self-portrait" mis-matched earrings. 

And these are double-art bead earrings!  lol!  The lampwork rounds were made by Lampwork Beads by Linda, and I made the netted pearl beads.  These go with my Goddess set that you can see here. 

So there you have it!  I had fun creating these, and hope to have lots more to share with you soon!

You can check out the other participants here, and there's a Pinterest page here.

Thanks!

RanaLea