Earrings Galore!

Last Saturday, before the Relief Society General Broadcast, our stake had a get-together where the women displayed their talents and had dinner. I guess my jewelry making skills are making the rounds, because they called me up to see if I would demonstrate at a table. I agreed, and had a great time! I decided to only bring pearls and crystals and make earrings, since there was no way I could have brought enough stuff to do more. And- seriously- it was insane how much stuff I had to bring anyways! They gave me one of the banquet tables, and it was totally full of drawers of chain, findings, beads, other jewelry I brought to display (but a very small area. I brought a ton, but had no space to display it all...) and tools. It was crazy! Everyone seemed to really like the jewelry, and I really enjoyed seeing what jewelry caught people's attention. The one that got the most was one Julie helped me design- chain and blue and brown lampwork beads. (Julie- I wonder if you remember it?)
Anyway- here are the earrings I designed while I was at the thingie. I thought I would get more done, but I felt rude making jewelry while people were talking to me, so you only have like seven. I enjoyed the challenge of using pearls in different ways, and I hope you will enjoy them too!

This is the first pair I did, and it is simple, but cute. Or at least I think so! I liked the bright yellow, and thought they hung well on the square jump rings.

This pair made me step out of the box. I don't usually like using colored wire as well as silver, but I thought it made these barbie pink pearls less girly and a little more party-ish. The pearls really are Barbie pink. It's hard to tell because of the flash.

This shade of green really reminded me of a Granny Smith apple, so I decided to make wire leaves for them. As a side note- most of these earrings are very short, which is not at all the norm for me. Most are less than an inch long- including the fishwire!

These earrings are actually a very vivid purple weird shaped pearl, with sky blue pearls as spacers. Nothing fancy- but the purple really is incredible.

These earrings are the longest I made, and I liked the idea of repeating the circles. I tried to find perfectly round pearls, but I guess real pearls just don't come in shapes like that. So this is the best I got. I have worn them a few times since then.

This pair kept trying to get designed while I was working on the other cream colored set. I ended up making one earring for each set, and then the other one. I love the simple elegance of the gold and pearl combination.

This last pair is my favorite, and got a few comments- mostly because everyone was so surprised that those are pearls! I love the color, and I love stick pearls. And I love that they are asymmetrical. I am just drawn to that. One of the ladies said they have a very southwestern feel to them, and I agree- to a point. They look more Indian to me (India, not Native American.) But the stick pearls do kindof remind me of chiles.

Some Jewelry

I have been meaning to post some jewelry I made. All of this I made just a few days ago. Nothing too amazingly creative, but all cute, I thought!
These earrings are a really gorgeous shade of green with glitter. It's hard to tell in the photo.
I am not sure what the briolettes are, but the crystals are Swarovski. More delicate than I usually make things.
I LOVE these earrings! They are enormous! My first mixed metal project. It's hard to tell, but most of it is gold, with the larger hoops being silver. I asked Jason if he liked them, and he said " (awkward pause) They are really big." I laughed!
My finger for scale. Seriously- these earrings are huge! Also, I was wearing them in the cupcake post. If you noticed. Also, I think these may be the only RED earrings I have. Weird.

Jewelry and Roommates!

Tonight, I got together with two of my old roommates for dinner! It was lots of fun. Carrie Sheffield was here visiting family for Christmas, and Melanie Eichner lives up in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, I don't see her often, although I really should see her more, since she's not THAT far away. Anyway, we had a really great time. Carrie and I had lots of time to bond, since I gave her a ride. It was snowing like nobody's business. Honestly. The roads were sooooo slick! I actually slid right into somebody. We were on a hill, and there was nothing I could do about it. Luckily, she was super nice. She got out of her car, and came and gave me a hug and was just laughing. She said that she and the passenger had just been talking about a similar experience that she had (just sliding into someone) and also about how if they could just make it to the highway, they probably wouldn't get rear-ended. We were about 50 feet from the on-ramp, so she was so close! But she was very sweet, and said no harm done, since I only chipped her paint. I was so grateful that she wasn't mad!
Anyway, I decided to make my former roomies some jewelry, and I took some very poor photos of it with my phone, because both pieces turned out very beautiful. Hope you can kindof tell what they look like! Melanie's is the orange one, and Carrie's is the green one. (oh- and Melanie never wears matching earrings, so that's why the earrings are different.)