You say your earrings don't match?

Neither do mine! :) 

Awhile back, I signed up to participate in the Mismatched Art Bead Earrings Swap over on the Art Jewelry Elements blog. We were all matched up with a partner, made a pair of mismatched earrings, and sent them off to our partner.  

My partner is the wonderful Kay Hand, of the Creative Tangent blog (and you can find her here and here--she has the coolest shawl pins here!!!--on Etsy). I'll show you the GORGEOUSNESS that Kay made for me in a few minutes. :) 

One of my stumbling points as a jewelry designer is that I'm very concerned with things matching. Both sides of a necklace must be even... a bracelet MUST be symmetrical... and earrings HAVE TO MATCH!  In fact, I get downright annoyed with myself when things don't match up.  

I've tried before to break the habit, and I've even bought lampwork beads SPECIFICALLY for the purpose of making mismatched things. Those beads?  Yeah, they're still in the box...

Don't they look so sad?  Non-made dino earrings...  :(  Soon! 

Now, for the awesome!

From Kay, I received the niftiest pair of shoulder-sweep earrings.  These babies are LOOOONG.  I love them.  She used gorgeous lampwork beads, fun charms, chains, bead caps, and quite possbily the prettiest earwires I've ever seen! They're bright, and colorful, and will go with so many different things! 
Here, look! 

Pretty!  Lookit how pretty!  I love them!

And, they're fidgety! I love fidget earrings.  

Kay also sent me the matching bead to the red lampwork in the earrings.  And it has an eyeball!!!

Creepily awesome. :)  I'm sensing mismatched Halloween earrings! 

Now, just before I began making the earrings to send to Kay, I received a bead swap package from one of my bead groups. My partner in that swap, Kelli, sent me the coolest polymer clay skull beads (she made them herself!!  They are AWESOME!!!)  And it had been awhile since I wrapped any wire, so I thought it might be fun to play with that, too.  Plus, Halloween is coming, and it IS my 2nd favorite holiday ever! So, I ended up creating a rather over-the-top (and kinda largish) pair of wrapped hoop earrings for Kay.  

For an idea on size, my form was a pill bottle...   Yes, they are BIG.

And now, the blog list!  Go check out the awesome earrings created in this hop! :) 

• Diana Ptaszynski  http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com
• Lisa Liddy http://www.lisaliddy.wordpress.com
• Kari Asbury  http://www.hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com
• Jayne Capps  http://mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com/
• Rebecca Anderson  http://www.songbeads.blogspot.com
• Lesley Watt  http://www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com
• Lori Bowring Michaud  http://www.artfullyornamental.blogspot.com
• Renetha Stanziano  http://www.lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com
• Holly Westfall   http://www.silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com/
• Theresa Fosdick  http://www.thoughtful-notions.blogspot.com/
• Ali McCarthy  http://www.northwoodscreativestudio.blogspot.com
• Shai Williams  http://shaihasramblings.blogspot.com/
• Iveth Caruso  http://www.creativeatelier.net/blog.html
• Carolyn Collins  http://www.sparklingwaterstudio.com
• Elaine Ray  http://www.elaineray.blogspot.com
• Kristen Stevens  http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/
• Charlene Jacka  http://clay-space.com/blog
• Jan Onipenco  http://www.MoltenMayhem.typepad.com
• Stephanie Woods  http://www.rainydaysdesigns.com
• Eleanor Burian-Mohr  http://www.cornerstoregoddessjewelry.blogspot.com
• Shelby Foxwell  http://www.sundownbeaddesigns.blogspot.com
• Pam Sears  http://www.crazycreativecorner.blogspot.com
• Mary Harding  http://www.maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com
• Lisa Johnson  http://www.Whimsyswonders.blogspot.com
• Kashmira Patel  http://www.sadafulee.blogspot.com
• Penny Neville  http://www.copperpennydesigns.blogspot.com
• Dee Elgie  http://www.cherryobsidia.blogspot.co.uk
• Sarah Small  http://www.bysalla.blogspot.com
• Carolyn Lawson  http://www.Carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com
• Karin Slaton  http://www.backstorybeads.blogspot.com
• Ashleigh Becker  http://www.seladesignsjewelry.blogspot.com
• Kay Hand  http://www.creativetangent.blogspot.com <--My partner!!!  :)
• Rana L. Wilson  http://ranaleadesigns.blogspot.com <--Me! :)
• Sandra McGriff  http://www.skyescreativechaos.blogspot.com
• Dawn Pierro  http://www.turtlemoondesigns.me
• Shelley Graham Turner  http://www.shelleygrahamturner.blogspot.com
• Karen Mitchell  http://www.overthemoon-design.com
• Melissa Trudinger  http://www.beadrecipes.wordpress.com

Why jewelry?

So, I signed up for the Bead Soup Blog Party this past weekend, and Lori Anderson, the awesome lady who is organizing that blog party, gave us a blog prompt a few days ago that got me thinking...

She asked us to tell the story of why we became jewelry designers and what we like best about it... So, I got to thinking about it.... A few years ago, I bought a little jewelry design kit from Michael's in anticipation of summer boredom.  See, as an adjunct, I work really REALLY hard during Fall and Spring (usually 7 classes each, which is a LOT!!), and then in Summer, I only have 3 or 4 classes.  It's a nice reprieve from the work load, but sometimes I get a little bored.  And as a long time crafter, I'm always looking for new things to do.  So, I decided to try my hand at jewelry making.  I made a few things with the beads in the kit, but, since it was just a little cheapy thing, I quickly decided I wanted better supplies.  Thus began a love affair with Swarovski and czech glass, which quickly evolved into a passionate (and occasionally expensive) interlude with seed beads, lampwork beadies (LOVE!!), wire, and all things sparkly and awesome.  I can already see, this will be a lifelong relationship. :)

So, for part 2 of the question, what I like best about it...  hmmm....  what don't I like?  lol!  I mean, seriously, I get to play with GORGEOUS beads, learn all sorts of new techniques (wire wrapping has been the latest), and make pretties!  And if I'm very, very lucky, awesome people like my pretties and give me money for them!  lol!  Okay, yes, that last bit might seem a bit crass, but hey!  Adjunct on a VERY low salary here! lol!

Check out some of the pretties I get to play with:

This is part of my pretties stash (yes, I have a stash...) Beads by Flamekeeper, LampworkBeadsbyLinda, Bastille Bleu, NLCBeads, Maybeads, and Javabead.  Swarkies from FusionBeads. :)

And here's some pretties I made! :)

Wire, stringing, beadweaving, hammering, painting... FUN! 

So there you have it!  Why I make jewelry--because I can! lol!

(oh, and photo editing courtesy Picmonkey.com. Very easy to use!)