This was another project from the bin of random items for my friend. I thought that the wings and hearts would go together nicely for a simple but elegant look. Let's face it, Swarovski anything tends to look elegant and beautiful. Most of the findings here were silver plated to be more economical, but the earwires are sterling silver filled as my friend can have issues with earwires that are plated or finished.
All in all these earrings were easy to make, but I think they are still lovely and would go with any type of look.
Ever just want to make a simple pair of earrings? That's what happened here. I had a night where I was going through the bin of products my friend had bought for me to have fun with. I love making pieces for her because she really lets me run with my creativity and will randomly bring me a bag of stuff and just say "Have fun!"
Sidenote: I have been playing with the settings on my camera and trying to learn how to fine tune my pictures so that they come out better, so you may be seeing more high quality pictures in my posts such as the ones here. I spent a night simply looking up tutorials and instructions for my specific camera and am really happy with the pictures I am now taking. You may still see some posts with the old style of pictures as I am working through what I have, but I hope to keep improving them.
These earrings feature a charm with the word love on it as well as a chain drop with a Swarovski wild heart on it. I believe the color is antique pink, but am not 100% sure on that. Still it was a nice dusky pink that I thought worked well with the piece. A great statement piece without losing how fun the earrings feel.
This is another in the series of animal shrinky dinks I made. Line art works really well on shrinky dinks and once shrunk can really intensify how it looks. You really have to be careful though to ensure that the piece doesn't lose too much detail when it shrinks. It's really easy to forget the ratio of how much it shrinks, believe me there are some I have had to re-do because of this.
I paired these with blue Swarovski crystals and rivolis to add to the sea theme. I know that a lot of these that I make will be more whimsical, but what is jewelry if you are not having a little fun with it, right? I'm loving this particular style and will probably make many more.
I haven't talked about it a ton on here, but my father battled cancer for five years before losing that battle. I recently started making shrinky dinks with the O in hope replaced by an awareness ribbon. The ribbon can be a different color depending on the cause, but the design can stay the same.
I decided to make earrings out of these accented by Swarovski crystals. I thought this would be a great way for those battling a disease or those who are supporting them to convey the message that they should always have hope. My father fought til the very end because he said that every day he was alive was another day that they might learn something new that leads to a cure for cancer.
He never gave up hope, even when he knew that he only had days left to live and knew that his body was failing from the damage cancer had done. Every pair of these hope earrings that I make, even those not associated with what he battled, are a tribute to him and the message that he tried to convey. He always greeted every nurse and doctor with a smile, telling them he felt fine, even when he was in pain. I can only hope that everyone with a condition or disease that they are fighting, no matter how dire it may feel, can find a way to have a little hope...even if that hope is just that what doctors learn from them may lead to a cure for someone else.
Let's talk shrinky dinks. I have become addicted to this medium. It allows me to create a custom charm or focal. I prefer to hand draw them when I can, but you can also trace images, just make sure that if you are making them for sale that you are using copyright free images.
Also, always make sure to coat the shrinky dinks with some kind of sealant or top coat after baking, otherwise the color can become smudged or be scratched off, and you don't want that to happen.
I recently did a number of shrinky dinks in different images of animals, and one of the ones I was most happy with were these happy little owls. They came out very whimsical and fun. With the addition of some sparkling Swarovski crystals the tone was set for these little guys. While the owl picture itself is very carefree and fun, the crystals add more of a sophisticated look. I used some of those rivoli earrings I created as the base.
Be sure to head over to my Etsy store to check them out!
These earrings started out as a Christmas present for my mom, but I liked them so much I made a second pair to sell in my Etsy shop. I got these beautiful green onyx briolettes and just thought they would be perfect for this style. I started by making some briolette wrapped loops on them as this would be the easiest way to attach them. I'm not that good at this technique yet, but I was happy with the improvement I've been making in learning it.
To add a little sparkle to the earrings I decided to make beaded links with some Swarovski bicones. These just added a little sparkle and shine to the earrings and accent the briolettes well.
While they may appear to be pretty simple in concept, they add to any look and can be very formal depending on what they are paired with. I just love the deep green in these briolettes and couldn't pass up doing something fun with them.
This started out as a custom piece that was requested as a single necklace. After making the first one, I quickly had two more orders for it. After making three of them, I will not be making anymore. As awesome as this Captain America necklace came out, it was super labor intensive and took me forever to get right. Still, I really love how it came out, everything just aligned.
It features of mix of comic images as well as vintage poster like images. I added Swarovski crystal pearls in their gemstone colors as they were the perfect red, white and blue.
You know, you never realize how many different shades of blue there are in Sharpie's until you are trying to match them to shades in an image that you want to really get right. I think in one of the poster like images I used four different shades of blue. Still, worth it.
Again, this was a limited run and I will not be making any more (you would have to offer a really good sum of money to compensate me for the time it takes) but man it sure came out looking pretty cool.
