We're All Ears :: 4th Annual Use Your Leftovers Challenge!

Make your own Keep Calm poster at http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk

Make your own Keep Calm poster at http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk

The We're All Ears::4th Annual Use Your Leftovers Challenge arose out of the furry of activity around Thanksgiving and Christmas for those of us who make jewelry. We are usually surrounded by lots of beads and baubles and bits that are cast-offs from our flurry of frenzied making leading up to the holidays.

It seems that I devote much less time to putting things away then I do to adding to the collection aka pile of beads. As a designer there is no way that I escape the curse of leftovers--mounds of beads in my case. And that is exactly what this month's challenge is all about.

Earring parts

There is only one thing to do with a bead crafter-math like mine: use my leftovers!

To give you an idea of the scope of my aftermath, I will just focus on my earrings. The picture above is just my selection of matched pairs of beads under my main focus for earring designs--not my entire collection.   Now, imagine the ear wire selections I need to have, the different gauges of wire and colors of wire. Then, there are the beads. This is the point at which the reality of my environment sets in.  How do I maintain the size of my bead collection in my environment? I have beads grouped by color, size, metals, fabrics etc. I think you can see that to maintain the organization that I have in place, I need to put things back into their defined category. I like this the least of all my creative processes. Truth be told if I were a hermit and left to my devices, I would just have piles everywhere.

I find that using something that has compartments for little bits and parts is wonderful to have. I picked this muffin tin up at the Dollar store and it is perfect. I had big plans to make 6 pairs of earrings. I got 3 done and 3 more planned.

                                                            Earrings by BayMoonDesign

I wanted to use a lovely pair of Susan Kennedy's lamp work beads and I also wanted to photograph them in a way that shows their beauty. I love the deep purple mauve swirls and the fact that the beads show through the light which reminds me of a purple haze. I spent a great deal of time and built a large pile of beads trying to decide what I had that would really show her beads off. I decided on some lavender and cream Czech leaf beads and some pretty crystals in a matching shade of purple mauve.

Earrings by BayMoonDesign

I am happy to report that I finally decided on how to use a pair of ladies in pewter by Inviciti that I have had on my table at least a year. I found the perfect beads to pair with the pewter. For awhile, I had planned to make a copper oval disk and use that as the background for the ladies. When I spotted these vintage white mother of pearl disk in my stash, I saw that they made a nice, bright background for the ladies.

Earrings by BayMoonDesign The third pair of earrings feature ceramic circles by Marsha Neal Studio and a pair of beads with gorgeous swirls of copper and brown. I love the subtle pop of blue in the brown glaze of the these ceramics. Personally, I love large, circle earrings. What makes these special are the ceramics. I hope you will visit the others in this challenge which is open until Dec. 31. I am looking forward to it after the holidays. Please feel free to leave comments.