Ready, Set, Teach...

Or, in my case, ready, set...sit with one friend-turned-student and make earrings. Last night I had a class scheduled, with five folks signed up, and only one actually made it. We definitely had fun making earrings and gabbing, so it was worthwhile for that reason. And, some other buds showed up after a late night at class and an extra-long happy hour. Again, I love these girls, but how did this happen? haaaaaaaaaa

I guess I have to learn some lessons...even if I spend hours developing project ideas, preparing materials, and getting the house all cleaned up, it doesn't make a difference if I haven't marketed properly. :)

But, in the meantime, with that experience behind me...I want to share these cute little earrings:

I recently picked up "Bead & Wire Jewelry: Exposed" which is a design book featuring Beadalon & Swarovski products. I've never been a huge consumer of either, but I think Margot Potter is wonderful and she teamed up with Fernando DaSilva and Katie Hacker for this book. So, I figured there has to be something neat to learn. I was a bit surprised by all the exposed elements like crimps and wire, but then, uh, I read the title again....haaaaaaaaaa. Nice. Exposed.

One of the coolest little components I noticed while perusing these projects were the Beadalon crimp ends. I use big sterling silver crimp ends all the time to finish off leather, but they're usually expensive so I never would've thought about using them on plain old beading wire. These little non-sterling smaller (cheaper) options looked like a great idea! So, after a quick trip to Michael's (with a coupon, of course) I had two different sizes of these crimp-able ends in my hands. Since I was in prep mode for an earring class, that's what I went for...a little bit of shiny beading wire, some of my fave HMB Studios glass disks, a couple of little silver spacers all combined with the crimp end to make a sweet little earring. I can see endless possibilities with these considering all the fun colored and textured beading wire out there. Plus, just think of all those pretty beads that need to be showpieces all by themselves!! haaaaaaa

p.s. I'm not being paid to endorse any products. (Although I certainly wouldn't mind! haaaaaaaaa)