October 12, 2007

• A Lot of Experimenting, A Few More Pairs of Earrings....

  I'm doing something very different from what I've done before.  Trial and error, process - this post is a window on the process.

  It's taken a while to get back in the swing of things - lot of not perfectly wrapped wire cut and wrapped again and again, a lot of redoing  till I am satisfied with balance, of form, color, a  lot of improvising, and a lot of fun.  I think I had grown lazy designing for Chicago art fairs. 

  That happened several years ago when I returned to sell at Eastern Market on Capital Hill in DC for a weekend and artists who had watched me develop asked what had happened to me.  Next trip I took everything that didn't sell in Chicago and sold out.   Certainly, the internet will offer me a wider world to sing to.

  These are all still in draft -

  The pair of earrings above right?  A vintage Mexican wire-wrapped filagree earring, from which hang Swarovski crystals and sterling chain (awaiting ornament, haven't decided exactly what will go in the chain, certainly a minimal  something...) and a Czech hand made bead worked with sterling silver leaf ("silver foiled") in the  glass, hence the glow.  On the other side is a vintage silver foiled bead, green and blue, with lots of Bali silver, another little Czech foiled bead and more Bali silver, and a contemporary Czech briolette.     

  On the left, a handpainted victorian porcelain brooch, suspended from a blue hand made vintage glass bead (I don't like the beadcaps) and vintage brass chain.  The dangles from the brooch are blue and white opal glass, as is the one above the brooch.  There is a tiny Victorian rhinestone drop that currently has its back to the camera hanging from the blue bead at the top.  Light blue and white opal crystals are missing as well.  

  On the other side the feature is the Victorian lavilere hanging at the bottom of the chain.  The top bead is a Swavorski filagree rhinestone ball with vintage brass bead caps.  Suspended from that are tiny white opal crystals, light blue crystals and a vintage blue and white opal glass drop.

  The drop, the little rectangle, I acquired recently off ebay on a whim because I liked the colors, before I found the brooch, also on ebay.  It was impossible from the pic of the brooch to tell it was painted on white opal glass.  I love it when that sort of match happens, I truly do.

  On this one, the passage of light through the vintage glass oval doesn't really show, and it's beautiful.  This side is still waiting for some sort of  crystal cluster to fall just below the drop (the chain is fastened below it too far down, the cluster will be where the little crystal is now).   And the hanging crystals aren't right yet - my stash failed me on this one, will have to dig for others.

  On the left is a vintage rhinestone earring of wonderfully soft colors.  The vintage crystal bead and drop work well on this one.  The crystal bead I've had for years, the long narrow oval navette drop I found on ebay long before I knew I had a pair going here.  I liked the color and the form and find that if I buy without a project in mind and only buy colors and forms that make me want to sing, it almost all eventually goes together.  Whew.   

  At 65, I continue to push myself to grow, drumming, loving, making beauty.  My hair is longer.  I could do worse....

   

  May this autumn bring each of you exactly what you need.

   

  pearlbamboo

  pictures/text copyright e.p. hodges

  • 1:37 am
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