Having New Eyes

I Wonder if I'll wear these now?

I've finished up a few more earrings.  The farther I get in the process, the wilder some of these babies become!  Again I find that I have earrings with absolutely delicious, vintage beads in them that I can't bear to not wear, yet find that I don't.  These greenies are what I think is carved bone, or else one of those vintage plastics that have no seams and are super great quality.  I pulled out the brass finding again, and some bits of my many bits of chain.

Gosh - how do I get anything done around here?

Renew, restore, rejuvenate!

I have a friend who gets ansty about dust bunnies.

At the mere hint of a dust bunny crouching anywhere on the premises, and my friend will begin to clean and not finish until, well, you could eat off her floor!

I, on the other hand, get antsy when there are earrings in my collection that I haven't worn in at least 6 months.  Why haven't I worn those?  Don't I like them?  What, I don't have any outfits that color?

As a result, about every year or so, I pull out my earrings (some bracelets and necklaces), my beads and bangles, my tool box, and my treasure chest (collection of "junk" from childhood on) and review those earrings I haven't worn.  What don't I like?  Does it need more ___? Should I give these away, or take them apart and forget about them forever?  I used to try and sell some of my creations on etsy, and was moderately successful, but the relist fees were bigger than my income, and let's not get into what my time is worth!!

Here are some of my recent RENEW, RESTORE , REJUVENATE efforts...

 

I'd originally put large titanium triangles under the square cobalt, and decided that I must not like the triangles, but really need to have some blue earrings, so this resulted.

 

The dangles on these had been too busy, so I'm trying a little less cluttered, to see if I'll wear these.

 

I bought these fimo clay earrings at the Paducah quilt show, years ago.  Without the dangles, I was bored.  LOL

 

The original was just the beautiful, vintage cut glass bead, with colors that are mostly green but hinted at irridescent/peacock colors, with the irridescent seed beads above it.  I think the earrings were too small, so I pulled out some of my "vintaj" brass findings (love the dragonfly)! and made them a little bigger.

I have many more to do over - more later!

Crazy for Jewelry!

I have always been earring crazy, and to a slightly lesser extent, bracelet crazy. (slightly lesser means that I wore the sterling bracelet my friends gave me many years ago so much that the links wore out and had to be replaced, twice!)

Everywhere we go, we buy a Christmas tree ornament and I buy a pair of earrings, IF they are unique and will help me remember the visit.  For example, many years ago my Mom and I spent some time learning to like each other as friends while on a road trip to Cheyenne.  We lived in Cheyenne for nearly 8 years when I was a girl, during one of the most remarkable decades in U.S. history, the 60's. On our road trip, I purchased an American Indian made ring.  Can you discern the hummingbird?

Just a few weeks ago, I revisited Cheyenne, on a camping trip with Chuck.  Frontier Days is billed as the "Daddy of 'em all" rodeo/carnival/fair.  I've wanted to return to Cheyenne Frontier Days for decades, and to commemorate the occasion, I wanted to find earrings made in the shape of the rodeo cowboy on the WY license plate...

 
Alas, there were none like that, but I did fall in love with some sterling, turquoise and opal horses:

You might be wondering why I said turquoise, when these are purple.  There's a chemical process that is used on lower quality turquoise that changes the color.  They also chemically harden the changed turquoise.  While it isn't as valuable as natural turquoise, wow, what a pretty purple!

On the same trip to Cheyenne, I visited the Indian Village in Frontier Park, where the side walls of the "fort" are lined with Native American vendors.  These feather earrings are carved bone, made by Silver Hawk Studio in Colorado.  I loved these right away, and though I could have chosen from m any different colors, I really liked this pair...

As you can see, jewelry speaks to me.  I get so many ideas from the jewelry and images while I'm on the road!