Of Muffins & Earrings

Humblebead-y Heather threw out a challenge this week on the Art Bead Scene that required planning, creativity, and a muffin tin.  I decided to go with my mini-muffin pan because I always have it on my bead table to collect good bead combos.  When I start working on something I like to see if beads fit together or coordinate and sometimes there are happy accidents that I don't want to focus on right that moment but eventually want to purse--I put a couple of those beads into one of the muffin cups for inspiration later.  I actually had some earring pairs started in this pan so I filled out the rest of the cups with little earring "recipes."  I decided to start with artisan beads for each of them and round them out with pieces and parts from my stash--nothing new allowed!  I rocked this challenge, if I do say so myself...I have 12 lovely pairs of earrings that are little works of art plus a couple of extra pairs that feature wood and stones that were leftover from a few of the cups.

Here's the layout of my muffin tin results!  I numbered them so I could highlight the artists behind the handmade beads in each pair.

1.  Gardanne - enameled oval beads in a yummy purple along with some bubbly findings by Ezel that I picked up back in April at Bead Fest Wire in Philly

2.  Suebeads - long enameled beads in a pretty turquoise-ish green finish and a couple of vintage silver circles that I'm "upcycling" from an old necklace.

3.  Cherie Ranfranz - purple & yellow etched lampwork glass combined with some vintage lucite flowers and copper

4.  Julsbeads - lampworked glass with awesome raku & texture combined with a big copper ring

5.  Donna Millard - clear blue lampworked disks and vintage tin bead caps are the highlight

6.  Julsbeads - more yummy lampwork from Juls in a rich chartreuse surrounded by a bit of copper

7.  Suebeads - loooovely rounds in blues with a slight green and black accent that I paired with some "Roman" glass, lava rock and vintage Czech glass.

8.  Brendan Blake - lampwork glass in a bubbling boro finish featured in a long dangling arrangement with a silver oval and a chunk of pyrite

9. HMB Studios - lampwork glass "wacky chunky" disks combined with some bright blue pearls I picked up in Hawaii and some clear resin dangling loops

10.  Brendan Blake - a green tone of lampwork glass with brown lava rock rounds and a sweet bit of silk sari ribbon that I just got from Darn Good Yarn.

11.  JEN JUDD! - I dyed these wooden rings myself with a mix of turquoise and blue Indian ink.

12.  Barbara Lewis - pretty blue enameled flowers along with vintage copper floral pieces and a pretty copper spikey dangle


My muffin tin is empty so I guess I should go start over!  This time I'm going to take a little more than a week.  :)