A new Year - a New Goal

I can't believe that a whole year has gone by since I started my blog.  Last year I treated myself to the Tuscon bead show for my birthday. A repeat is not in the cards this year, so instead I paid a visit to Shipwreck beads.  The advertisements for this bead store are not an exaggeration - it is HUGE.  The size of a storehouse, and I could have spent hours wandering the aisles.

I tried very hard to not buy any beads and just concentrate on items I needed to make jewelery - chain, head pins, O-rings, clasps, etc.  My resolve, however, did not last when I came across some glass beads with dicro inlays.  I did only buy a few of each for earrings.

And speaking of earrings.  In an effort to give myself a good reason to blog at least once per week, I have just joined the flickr group 52 earrings in a year.  It is the brain child of Anke Humpert.  I read about it on Polymer Clay Daily and thought it was a great idea.  After all, I love earrings and they are something that does not take a huge amount of time to make.  Since I just joined in the 4th week of January I am a bit behind.

Here is my catch up:

Week 1

These beads were made after a demo at our guild meeting by Julia Sober.  I love the pearly color.

Week 2

The addition of a sprocket to the clay was an attempt to do a kinda steampunky bead.  But I chose the wrong color of ink - I still like it though. Stream is my favorite color of ink.

Week 3

I had previous made a pair of these earrings in green stripes. This is the same technique only using a purple base. The principle of the design is from the pivot bead idea, a layered cane made from white, black and grey is thinned out and placed over a colored base. I twisted the ends a little to make them more unique.

Week 4

Trying to be a bit more ambitious.  I made these beads several years ago and they really don't lend themselves too many designs.  Not sure I like them and may rework them later.