Spring Garland Earrings

Not quite the first completed project of 2018, but the first one ready to show off:

 

Spring Garland Earrings!

2″ long asymmetrical tendrils of beaded vines make up these lightweight, dramatic earrings.

Findings: .925 sterling silver leverback ear wires from Plazko.com.

Beads from Creative Destination, Drumbeat Indian Arts, Fire Mountain Gems, Bead World, Bead Garden of Sedona, ArtBeads, and other sources.  (I’ve only been collecting beads since 1985, so I’m getting a bit fuzzy on where and when I scored some of them.)

Beads: Czech pressed glass accent beads. Size 11 seed beads in peacock green iridescent matte finish. Size 14 and 15 glass seed beads in various shades and finishes of green, gold, and iridescent black.

#14 and #15 seed beads are around 1mm in diameter, give or take a hairsbreadth, so they are finicky little beasts to wrangle on nylon beading thread and a size 12 quilting needle.

Super-tiny seed beads are always useful in bead embroidery. I just had to buy more for a beaded hatband project coming up, so now I have about 25 colors. I love Creative Destination and Drumbeat, because they’re local to me, and both have a *vast* selection of #14 and #15 beads in hundreds of colors and finishes…and small vials for smaller projects. Fire Mountain and Artbeads stock larger packages of thousands of colors.

I recently re-used a bunch of beaded vines from this old 1999 folding screen project, and decided it would be fun to make new vines.

I might possibly be insane enough to make a matching necklace sometime.