Challenge Week 11

The challenge this week was not finding a design but getting the earrings made. It seems like everything either got in my way or went wrong. Even taking the  pictures was daunting. May be it's the stress of worrying about starting a new job on Monday, I don't know.  I'm just glad that I didn't give up because I am so pleased at how these earrings came out.

The earrings that I made for Week 11 of my challenge are called Dew Drop earrings. They are made with a pretty blue tear drop glass bead that reminds me of the fresh morning dew of spring. The blue beads are highlighted with silver seed beads and hang from french hooks on stainless steel wire. They hang 3 inches from the ear.

You may be saying, "that's too long for earrings" but these are so light weight and airy that you won't even know they are on your ears until someone compliments you.

You can see more pictures of this earring by going to my website at McLachlan Design Studio.  Now I'm going to take a nap.

Thanks for reading, all comments are welcome. Please stop by next week to see what comes off the work room table. 

Challenge Week 10

On Tuesday morning I had an appointment in NY city, and after the appointment I decided to take a walk down to 6th avenue to search for a bead store that I found on the internet. This store had rave reviews, and many of the jewelry makers that I talk to say "You have to go to the city to buy beads, they have beautiful things there."  My little walk (22 blocks) took me to 3 bead stores. I thought I found something close to heaven.

As a result of my trip I found the materials for earrings for Jewelry Challenge Week 10.  These earrings are called Camelion Flowers. They are gold flowers that you can wear alone, or you can add the crystals that are hanging from a bar that goes through the center of the flower.

The crystals are by Swarovski, the colors are clear AB, Indicolite and capri blue, all 4 mm in size.

As a flower by itself the earrings hang 1 1/2 inches. With the crystals attached they are 2 inches long from the ear.

You can wear the crystals so they fall in front of the earring or in the back of the earrings.  They are very versatile and in future I may add extra bars with beads of other colors to make them even more camelion like.

Thanks for stopping by, please come back next week to see what comes off the workroom table. I would love to have your comments on these earrings if you would like to leave one.

Challenge Week 9

Wow, can you believe another week has gone by.  This week I wanted to use April-like stones to make a pair of earrings. I used a piece that I've never used before, the Swarovski crystal drop.

These earrings are the most delicate looking earrings that I've ever made. The drop is clear crystal and then I put a round turquoise and a round clear crystals above the drop, and they are separated by a silver flower spacer. The clear round crystal has an AB coating, so it reflects colors around it. When I was taking pictures of the earrings it was hard to get a picture where the clear crystal actually looked clear, it would look like it was light blue from the reflection of the bead below it.

These earrings are so delicate and spring like, I really want to keep them, but I'll put them in my shop so you can enjoy them.   
Thanks for stopping by, come back next week to see what comes off the work room table.

Challenge Week 8

Ok, I have to admit that it was a little tough this week to get inspired. The reason is, it's my birthday today and I'm a little distracted.  So I went searching through my jewelry supplies to get some inspiration and was getting a lot of ideas when I came across these turquoise beads that I bought at the bead show.  I recently made a necklace with them and thought earring to go with the necklace would be great.  So I made these Love 4 Turquoise earrings.

The beads have a little marbling in them, not too much and the length of the bead is about 3/4 inch. The caps are silver and delicate looking, just enough to finish the bead and give it a little feminine flair.

The overall length of the earring is 1 3/4  inches, a nice length - enough dangle but not too much.

As I mentioned, today is my birthday and in celebration I'm offering a 15% discount on all items in my shop, even this weeks earrings.  Check it out at McLachlan Design Studio

Have a great week and come back next week to see what comes off the work room table.