I made these last night! So, I went to the mall for something yesterday, and through the window of a little gift store I saw the most spectacularly gorgeous earrings I'd ever seen. I went in for a closer look with hopes of finding them with a post-Christmas sale price. They were $26, not on sale. The tag said 'handmade'. Still, the price seemed quite high since they were just made with simple base-metal wire and glass beads, no real silver or expensive gemstones. Since I make jewelry, I could not justify spending that amount of money on buying a pair of earrings (especially right after Christmas and Chanukah). So I tried to memorize them. I started counting the beads and the loops of wire, and the salesclerk at the counter started giving me suspicious looks. So I left, and when I got outside the store I stood out there in the mall trying to doodle them from memory on a little pad in my purse. I felt like a crime scene artist.
Last night I set out to re-create the earrings, but boy were they a challenge. In the end, my pair is a very simplified version of what I saw in the store, and I think the first earring took me about 3 hours to figure out. The second one was done in about 1/3 of the time. But even though they are not the gorgeous paisley of the store earrings, I'm pretty pleased with them!
Here's another view of my creations.And now for something completely different:
Meanwhile, we had the TV on, and needed to find something fun to watch while I worked with my beads and wire. Have you seen the movie Zombieland? I'm not usually the sort to watch zombie movies, and my husband is even less likely to, but this was a spoof, and had us laughing hysterically throughout the movie. Once you get past the initial zombie gore, it is really funny, with a great cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin (no, they are not zombies), and a fun celebrity cameo. Hey, if you can make it through the brutality of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Zombieland will be a walk in the park! I highly recommend it.
I like the earrings, Phyl. Nice work. I too, laughed my way through Zombieland! Too funny! I went to the movies tonight to see the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-EXCELLENT! Rarely does a movie show what I pictured when I was reading the book. Yes, the brutality was rough but it was integral to the plot so I only covered my eyes when the cat was killed.......I had to come home and hug my kitties! I', glad you have the energy to make jewelry. I am such a slug! I don't have to go back to school til the 5th and all I do is eat, sleep, read and surf my bloggie buddies. I guess that's why they call it a "staycation"?
ReplyDeleteThey look great Phyl! Gotta ask though...why make all those tiney twists to have the bead come off the main structure? Couldn't you put a silver bead between to separate them out?? That seems like it would have taken the bulk of your time. Love them though...don't make jewelry myself, but appreciate it much!!!
ReplyDeleteI love your earrings, they're amazing. I also love Zombieland :)
ReplyDeleteCute earrings. Zombieland is an absolute riot!
ReplyDeleteHa! Glad to hear we aren't alone about enjoying Zombieland!!!
ReplyDeleteMr. E, spoken like a man who doesn't make jewelry. Yes I could put a silver bead in between the glass beads, BUT what looks so cool about these is that the glass beads are not ON the wire teardrop but are protruding OFF the edge of the wire since they have been wrapped, which gives them a completely different look. Anyhow, that's my opinion. Good night, all!
Love your earring design. Looks like a LOT of wrapping work!!
ReplyDeletebeautiful earrings, time well spent!
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha...Phyl..thank you for the explanation and understanding my issues(being a man that doesn't make jewelry!)
ReplyDeleteThink they turned out great Phyl! I'm the same way-I guess it's the curse an artist. I see something handmade that's cute and I always think "I could make that". At least you made it-I usually never get around to it ;)
ReplyDeletethe earring look great.. but zombieland is so funny... I hear they might be making a TV show base off the movies.. i guess time will tell...
ReplyDeleteOh and just remember all the rules to survive a zombie apocalypse :)
oh..speaking of zombie... I think they are so much fun.. I take people i work with and do portraits of them but make them into zombie...
ReplyDeleteanyways... you know that halloween time.. everyone is doing the cute pumking, ghost, skeleton projects.. Well poor little zombie is getting left out. I was trying to come up a really good zombie project.. but time got away from me... but their is alway next year.. right.. So who is with me on giving the poor little zombie a chance???
Mr. R, you crack me up!!! Just a couple of days ago, someone showed me a phone app that they have that turns a photo of someone into a zombie. They made their dog into a zombie with it - too funny!
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure about the movie as a TV show. Part of why it was so good was the stellar cast, and the joke of it all. On TV they won't have that great cast, and I don't know if they could sustain the humor. But maybe I'm wrong and it will be great.
And yes, I will remember all those rules - you never know, the zombie apocalypse could be upon us any time now. Watch out when using public restrooms!