Week 2 - 52 Earrings a Year!

I was going to make a really bright, happy pair of earrings for the challenge this week as retaliation against the miserable weather we are having.  It feels as though it has rained forever and somewhere above those grey clouds is a hot, yellow sun basking in a brilliant blue sky....hopefully this week we will get to see it!

Despite the weather I had a fantastic day on Wednesday meeting with some lovely polmer clay artists ( The not so lonely life of a bead maker..) and was truely inspired by everything I had learnt.  The next day, rather than spend my time making glass beads, out came the pasta maker, clay and away I went.....

I started off with the intention of making a Mokume Gane pendant/earrings...bear with me... (a technique I learnt on Wednesday).  I prepared my sheets of different coloured clay and stacked them on top of one another put them through the pasta machine and repeated several times.  Then I imprinted the surface using my flower stamp...

Then I changed my mind....I couldn't help but think this would make a lovely pendant just as it is! I chopped the rough edges off and cured the pendant. 

The colours I had originally chosen (Alizarin and Gold) blended into a deep red/bronze colour which because of the gold, looked metallic.  I decided to cut thick slices of clay and wrap them around each other leaving the edges rough so that they would look rustic and slightly industrial.  You can just see them at the back of the tray. 

After making these 'industrial' beads I mixed yellow, turquoise and silver to make a silvery green colour.  I wanted to make some tiny leaves to compliment the flower prints on the pendant. To make them I cut out some small circles and gently pinched two sides together and using a cocktail stick I made veins on the leaves...

To finish the pendant I made two borders using the colours I had chosen for the beads and thread them all on green and olive silken thread.

Now all I needed was a pair of earrings! I know this is a very long-winded way of explaining how I reached this week's design for earrings but I needed to make a pair to match the pendant.  I used the rustic beads and strung them on brass headpins.  I was going to add some leaves to the top bead but it really didn't look right....

Sarah xx