Sunday, June 26, 2011

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.  :)

14 comments:

  1. Wow - you did rock this challenge! Love each and every design you came up with!!!

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  2. Your earrings all turned out beautifully!!
    I love your idea of keeping the mini tin near you for compiling ideas/collecting color combos. I might have to break mine out of the cabinet and do the same. My husband's not a fan of the MINI sized muffins anyway! ;)

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  3. No kidding, that's awesome. I was feeling pretty good that I got 8 done. Will I get 4 more done by tomorrow evening, not sure. Great job Jen! Kristi
    http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/

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  4. Incredible earrings - all of them!

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  5. You must certainly did rock this! I did the first two right away, and two more last night, but with the baseball tourney we were in (we won all the games, by A LOT and took 1st place. Woot!) I just didn't have the time, but I do plan to keep going with this! I love the mini muffin tin idea, and think that I will try that for earring combos! It's not like I bake much anymore ;-)
    Enjoy the day!
    Erin

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  6. Gorgeous! I really should have jumped in on this one. All the earrings are beautiful!

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  7. I love them all! If I had to choose a favorite, it would be number 8 with that dangle of pyrite. Your blog is a treat!

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  8. What gorgeous earrings! I'm thinking that the 10th pair are my favorite, but it's really close! This was a really fun challenge, wasn't it?

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  9. those earrings are awesome!!

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  10. omg, these are absolutely gorgeous! I really love the bubbly finding in the first pair. I made a dozen earrings too- just not enough time for full-fledged necklaces. I think I use your idea of keeping a muffin tin in my studio for combos that inspire me.

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  11. Love them all but 1 and 12 I think are my "favs" by a smidgen. Way to go, Miss Rockstar!

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  12. You did rock! I love the purple bubbly earrings (#1), but they are all great designs! I too am refilling my muffin tin, and will also be taking longer this time!

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  13. THey are all gorgeous. I seriously want No 1! Please let me know if it is available, or you will be listing it. wa dot sighed at gmail dot com

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Bedford, PA, United States
I'm a retiree/artist/student who makes things. It's a nice kind of lifestyle!

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