This blog is now hosted on my website at mcfarlanddesigns.com/blog-posts; please update your bookmarks to follow the latest posts. Thanks!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

A little burst of creativity

It's funny how I go for stretches of time without feeling inspired to create much - I'll just be content to play with my beads and work on the business side of things for days or even weeks at a time, but then all of a sudden that creative itch strikes and it must be satisfied! Late last night I got this image in my head of long, swingy, gemmy earrings. I tried a few more casual versions...

dangly tourmaline earrings

long, swingy tourmaline earrings

vegan pearl earringslong, swingy Swarovski pearl earrings (vegan)

They were fun, but not exactly what I had in mind. So I tore through my bead stash until I found the perfect stones - gorgeous little faceted hessonite garnet rondelles - then I encased them with a delicate herringbone wrap of sterling silver wire - and I love them. I really want to make a pair for myself but I think they would be way too tempting for Carlos and I would end up having them painfully removed from my earlobes.

dangly gemstone earrings

long, swingy hessonite garnet earrings

I also finished work on about two dozen rings yesterday. The ring project started innocently enough... about a month ago I fell in love with this ring from RaesCreations and bought it on Etsy. Once it arrived, I decided I wanted a vegan pearl version as well, so I experimented until I had the technique figured out and made one for myself, and a couple of extras. I gave one to my mom as a thank you gift for hosting a jewelry party recently, and the few extras I had sold as soon as I set them out, two at my mom's party and one at Arts Alive.

Now, this style of ring (which I've often heard called 'nest' rings), is pretty common and popular on Etsy; however, I couldn't find anyone making them with Swarovski pearls, which was what I really wanted.

vegan pearl rings
(The middle one is my favorite color.)

swarovski pearl rings

antiqued (top) and shiny sterling silver (below)

wire wrapped rings

playing around with different stones

wire knot ring

a sweet little knot ring

* Here are a few other Etsy sellers I like who make this style of ring:

raescreations
starrydesigns
piddix
moonchildjewelry
farafield
andromedii

9 comments:

Sandra Eileen said...

So nice of you to put names of others that sell similarly styled rings.

I love the earrings, and have made a pair similar to the hessonite ones that sold last year. Though I'm sure the wire work on mine was not quite as neat.

Tamara said...

Thanks Sandra. :-)

Sandra Eileen said...

BTW, Tamara, I just tagged you , please visit my blog for the instructions. I hope you play along.

Thanks

http://artisan-jewelry.blogspot.com/
http://artisan-jewelry.blogspot.com/2007/05/whats-in-your-pockets.html

Mamacita said...

Girl! How much are the long, swing earrings?

Wan said...

Those hessonite earrings are lovely! Visited your blog for some time now and thought I should say hi! :)

Wan
mygreenvespa

Tamara said...

Hi Wan! Glad you stopped by. :-) I actually sold the hessonite garnet earrings today to Mamacita! Yay!!! I love it when one of my pieces that I'm particularly proud of sells.

Rach said...

Love the pearl earrings and the wire work on the rings.

Anonymous said...

Love everything I see here... especially drawn to the long, swingy tourmaline earrings. I didn't see them in your shop do you plan to list them? How much?

~Katie
http://katiediddesigns.blogspot.com

Tamara said...

Katie, I'm going to go list them now for $24. I'll try to track you down on your blog in case you don't check back. :-)

Tamara