It's a real challenge getting me to blog. But here I am to share with you the results of Malin's Stacked Earrings Challenge!
For those of you who don't know Malin de Koning, she is an incredibly generous and talented Swedish designer. She selected a very lucky few of us and sent us all the same beads from her enormous stash.
What an eclectic selection! We were allowed to use as many of our own beads as we wished, so long as we used at least 3 of hers in each pair. The number of pairs we made was entirely up to us. I think I have the least of all, with a measly four pairs. But I've had a ton going on lately. Crazy busy at work, a root canal (ugh), and organizing a trunk show for myself and a friend - who's another brilliant designer.
So I'm actually pretty proud of myself for getting these done!
In the order they were created...
I really like these. I included some lampwork beads from bluhealer and copper findings, with my own ear wires.
These aren't really a far cry from a style I've made before. These little wooden beads just lend themselves to this sort of Asian, zen style design.
Last but not least, the wildcard. (aka, the Punky Brewster earrings) I spent entirely too long stacking these and many other beads in numerous iterations. I never could figure it out. Until I did. If you look at the original beads photo, you'll see Malin only provided us with one of those little yellow metal flowery beadcaps, and one in purple. However! She had sent me a few in a long ago trade, so I pulled the other one out and used it here! I'm pretty sure the purple color of the other one inspired the purple bead on top though. And for bonus fun, those yellow flowers at the bottom came from the amazing Rebecca's bead shop. She's amazing for many reasons, not least of which is that she whipped up 5 pairs of earrings at the last minute for this challenge. I'm sure they're fabulous though, as everything she creates is!
Claire & Leah are also brilliantly creative and constantly make the most inspirational pieces. Everyone loves Leah's chubby birdies, roses, and other adorable critters. And Claire! She's the queen of stacked earrings. Every time she blogs, I drool over her earrings. I was rather intimidated to be in such an exclusive challenge with her when Malin first asked us!
But here we are, we've all made our pieces. I can't even wait to see what everyone else did! Be sure to check them out too. And thank you Malin for this fun challenge!
Claire Lockwood - SomethingToDoWithYourHands - www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com
Leah Curtis - BeadyEyedBunny - www.beadyeyedbunny.blogspot.com
Rebecca Anderson - SongBead - www.songbeads.blogspot.com
Heidi Post - ExPostFacto - www.expostfactojewelry.blogspot.com
Malin de Koning - BeadingByMalindeKoning - www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.se