Art Bead Earring Swap

Welcome to the Art Bead Earring Swap!  I came across the swap on Facebook and it is hosted by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio.


Our Task:
Create a pair of earrings that include at least one Art Bead in the design and we were to use sterling silver earwires (due to allergies) unless we cleared  it with our partners first.  We were assigned two partners and we had to create a pair of earrings for each partner and in return we would also receive two pair of earrings.


My Designs:

Hummingbird Gardens were created for my partner Cheryl Brown (who is from Canada).  Chris made the lampwork focals and I added Czech glass flowers, large violet Swarovski rounds, fern green Swarovski dangles, and small Chinese crystals in mystic green.  The hummingbird charms are from Tierracast and are some of my favorites to design with.  I love violets and pansies and that is what these lovely earrings reminded me of.


For my partner Gail Barnett (who lives not too far away in Missouri), I created these earrings, Summer's Evening.

For Gail's earrings I used Art Beads from Heather Powers.  I really loved the lightning bug beads when I saw them a while back.  Living in Kansas and Nebraska, summer evenings are often filled with lightning bugs.  I caught them in the jars as a child, and watched Mina do it when she was little (though she still on occasion catches some).  Not until a visit from my older brother Robin, who lives in southern California, did I know that lightning bugs do not live west of the Rocky Mountains!  I wasn't sure if lightning bugs live in Canada either, so I sent these to Gail knowing she would know what they are!  The polymer round at the top is also from Heather Powers and the tiny jar charms at the bottom are also handmade by Heather.  I added some Swarovski 2xAB crystal bicones and a tiny gold bug to finish the design.  I cleared with Gail that gold plate earrings would work.

These are the earrings I received:

From Gail, I received these fun handmade ceramic earrings in my favorite bumblebee colors!  Not only did they make me happy for the bee collecting thing, but they also had a lovely tinkling chime to them!  I love jewelry that moves and makes noise!  Sadly, I put the earrings on as soon as I unwrapped them, and one "flew" out of my ear and shattered on the office floor!  I could have cried!  So I took a picture of the one I have left, and Gail kindly consented to make replacements for me.

I received these lovely boro disc earrings from Cheryl on Monday, and have worn them several days this week!  The colors really blend nicely with whatever I happen to be wearing and I love the texture on the sterling dangle wires.  Cheryl and I actually received our earrings on the same day so that was fun!  Never know how long mailing will take when it heads to another country.  Cheryl also sent me a "fun" extra bead, the black exploding bird from the Angry Birds game!  He is really cute and I haven't decided what to do with him yet.

From Cheryl's blog, I received the middle bird.

I had a wonderful time trading earrings with Gail and Cheryl and hope they did too!  Here is a list of the other participants, please hop over to their blogs to check out what they have designed!  Thanks to my partners and to Diana for hosting the Hop!

YOU ARE HERE!

Stephanie Haussler       http://www.pixybugdesigns.blogspot.com

MY PARTNERS!

Gail Barnett http://www.atlastanewyearsresolution.blogspot.com/

Cheryl Brown    www.dragonflybeads.ca

OUR HOST!

Diana Ptaszynski     http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com

 Other Bloggers:

Jan Onipenco    http://moltenmayhem.typepad.com/

Patti Vanderbloemen        http://myaddictionshandcrafted.blogspot.com

Mary Harding   http://www.maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com

Diane Hawkey    http://www.dianehawkey.blogspot.com/

Lesley Watt        http://www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies Reazor      http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Melinda Orr      http://www.orrtec.blogspot.com

Cilla Watkins      http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com

Sally Russick     http://www.thestudiosublime.com

Susan Kennedy       http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Amy Freeland  http://www.copperdiem.blogspot.com/

Marla James     http://marlasmudmoments.blogspot.com/

Pam Sears http://crazycreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Tania Spivey http://www.moobiegracedesigns.blogspot.com/

Kathleen Lange Klik http://www.modernnaturestudio.blogspot.com/

Lori Bowring Michaud  http://artfullyornamental.blogspot.com/

Erin Prais-Hintz  http://www.treasures-found.blogspot.com/

Linda Landig  http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/

Sharleen Newland http://www.shaterraclaystudio.blogspot.com/

Dee Elgie  http://cherryobsidia.blogspot.co.uk/

Mary Shannon Hicks  http://uptwnsh-fallingintothesky.blogspot.com/

Lisa Johnson  http://whimsyswonders.blogspot.com/

Shelby Foxwell  http://sundownbeaddesigns.blogspot.com/

Keri Lee Sereika  http://www.pinklemonade.typepad.com/

Linda Younkman http://www.lindysdesigns.blogspot.com/

Kari Asbury http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com/

Fay Wolfenden http://www.torchfairy.blogspot.com/