Day Two of Artist Showcase

First off I want to say that there must be something wrong with me.  I went to bed around 4am last night or morning, whichever you'd like to say.  It's not that I'm not tired because I am.  But I seem to find so much to do on the internet around that time.  Why?  Is that part of the day any better than the morning?  No so I should just make myself go to bed at like 11pm every day so I'm able to get up at 7am to get Lauren off to school without fussing at everyone.  So today I might be a little slow and grumpy so please excuse me if I am.  My cup of joy will hopefully soon wash all that grump away.  On to business!

We are at day two of these talented artists and their wonderful earring designs.  Please take a look!

We will start with the extremely sweet and talented LeAnn from Summer Studios.

"When I saw Lisa's name as the recipient of my pair of earings the simple design of these literally flew into my mind. You see I know a little about Lisa without even having to read what she liked in earrings. I already knew she has a fondness for dragonflies, blue, and silver. When I read that she also liked mixed metals, combining copper with sterling was an easy choice.

So what I've done is combine my porcelain beads and copper dragonfly charms with sterling silver heads pins and ear wires and copper bead caps. The copper charms and bead caps were given a patina to provide more contrast with the bright silver. They were all simply linked together to create a pair of earings that are a little over 2" from the top of the earwire to the bottom of the charm. Hope Lisa likes them!"

Our next artist is Shelby from Sundown Studios.  "Beautiful work, Shelby!"

  

"I designed earrings for Renate Starke-Krammer, she prefers copper and her favorite color is green or a green/blue mix. Right away I knew that I wanted to try a new technique that I have been trying to perfect for some time. Fusing copper...sometimes I have great success and others...well lets just say I fail miserably. As luck would have it...the day that wanted to create the rings for the earrings I had great success and not only twice but many times. So it seemed meant to be. 

These beautiful lampwork beads were the chosen focus because of the dominate green color with the subtle blue mixed in. Scrolled copper wire acts as bead caps on both the bottom and top of the lampwork bead. The fused copper rings are hammered for texture and two dangles were added to play on the colors in the lampwork beads. Then the earrings were oxidized and polished. These earrings are different than anything I have ever made because the lampwork dangle and the ring component are not attached, they each swing independent of one another on the earwire. Of course, had I been thinking at the time...I should have used a ball tipped ear wire so that the dangles could be removed easily, then Renate could have worn one or the other, or both together, as shown in the picture."

 

 Talented ceramic artist Erin Siegel is next and she is from  Every Heart Crafts. 

"When I received the information on my exchange friend and I read her list of favorites, I immediately thought of a colorful design with multiple gemstones. I took elements from her given info. and combined it with my own earthy style to create my earrings for her.

Wood & Stone Stack Earrings
These earrings are colorful, earthy and just a little funky! I started with red coral rounds, added some wooden bar beads, then I stacked on my own handmade Porcelain Pebble Beads and topped them off with some Lapis and Turquoise chip beads. I made custom sterling silver ear wires with wood bead accents." 

And our last artist of the day is the marvelous Jeanette from Fundametals.

"These earrings were created especially for Erin Siegel for the Thanksgiving Treasure Exchange.  I call these earrings, Pendulum Riveted Earrings.  I textured copper and sterling silver discs and then riveted them to 14 gauge copper wire that has been hammered. The earrings were attached to sterling silver earwires and then oxidized and tumbled to add contrast and shine."

Stick around for more artists tomorrow!  

*Guess Who I Met*

The past couple of days have seemed like a blur.  Some much to do and so little time to do it in.  Dr. appts, eye appt, parent teacher conferences, book fair, bead show, Halloween, hair cut, planting 70 bulbs for spring time.  And this is just what I can remember.  Plus, I'm only on chapter two of a book for my book club and I have so many projects staring me in the face.  I'm ready to dedicate a few days to the blog.  I am so behind.

Ok, I'm so stoked.  I went to the Bead Mercantile Show here in Pittsburgh on Saturday and guess who I found there.  Andrew Thorton!  This was such a cool meeting.  I looked through the new Enchanted Adornments book by his sis Cynthia Thorton.  I usually won't tell people to go out and buy books but this one is a must.  It's not your average boring beading book.  Each design has it's own story and drawings to compliment it.  And Cynthia's drawings are so mystical, so sweet.  While I was checking out the book, Andrew pulled out Cynthia's original project for the book complete with the original drawings.  This was such a treat!  He explained to me how some projects basically stayed as they were originally created by Cynthia while others went through more drastic changes.  You could see the pride in Andrew's eyes as he talked about his sister's work and how he helped with some of the ideas for the book.  Oh, and as if this wasn't enough excitement, Andrew showed me a picture of baby Max born that morning.  You have to check out the pictures on his blog.  How is a baby born looking so perfect?

 Poor Andrew!  He was quite tired from traveling so many hours on the road and then sitting in on a bead show.  What a trooper!  You'd figure he would be cranky from lack of sleep but he was extremely nice and enlightening.  Oh, and it looks like he is now gracing the state of Pennsylvania with his presence on a full time basis.  I found out he's only about an hours drive away.  "Welcome to PA, Andrew!"

Ok, now I will give you a dose of Bead Porn.  Here's the goodies from the show complete with Green Girl Studios goodies.

And Little Miss Lauren was with me so she has her own stash of beads complete with glass ducks.  Here's her pretties!

I also received several art bead packages in the mail recently.  Can you guess who all of these are from? 

Hm, well I see some enameled ball beads so that's gotta be from Barbara Lewis at Painting with Fire, a sweet little sand dollar ceramic pendant from Erin at Every Heart Crafts, gorgeous floral and snowflake pendants from LeAnn at Summer Studios, and a white patina seahorse from Heather Michelle at Patina Queen.  Gotta love those art beads!  They are the best!

I also got my Thanksgiving Treasures Earring Exchange pretties in the mail and I absolutely adore them.  I won't give away any information just yet.  I don't want to spoil any surprises for those that haven't gotten theirs.  Night, night, blogging buddies!