99earrings’s Weblog

Sometimes it’s all about the bead and not the fancy wire work. I like these because they have a retro feel to them and remind me of the “Planets, Moons, and Meteorites” aka “Rocks for Jocks” class they offered at my college.

These slightly oversharpened beauties use beads made out of the seeds of the tagua nut. The material resembles ivory before it is dyed. They are fairly light and actually remind me more of Lucite. You can find more information about tagua nuts at One World Projects.

For a brief moment in time and space there were two of us, but now after 72 hours I am alone. Why didn’t she secure us with some earring stoppers. Now I have to hang on this oversized martini glass surveying peoplekind without a mate. Great sadness.

As you can tell I’m in a wiry mood. I guess it makes sense. Once you learn how to string a bead you want to graduate to the lofty heights of wire work. It’s April and here is Number 10. Only 89 to go. Yikes!

I stumbled on this Pay It Forward Exchange on Sabrina’s blog Ranunkel and this is how it works:

The concept is based on the movie Pay It Forward where acts of kindness are performed without expecting anything in return in the hope that the recipients of these acts of kindness pass on the favor.
So, I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and exactly when you’ll receive it, but I promise I will send it. In return YOU have to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

I will now PAY IT FORWARD to you THREE, I wonder who you will be?!

Please, be a PIF! You will enjoy it just as much as we do!

By the way, these pretties are from the New York Whole Bead Spring Show. So many plans for this treasure and so little time.

Lisa from U-Handbag tagged me as amazing and weird (or was that amazingly weird? Let’s not go there.) So here are seven weird things about me:

1. I can wiggle my pinky toes independent from all my other toes.
2. I think my husband married me because I can whistle using my fingers and once hailed a cab for him when we were first dating.
3. I am compulsive about watching all episodes of a television series in one sitting. I just finished watching 34 episodes of Heroes on Netflix play-on-demand within a little over a week. Needless to say, absolutely nothing got done. (I have met the devil and this feature of Netflix is it!)
4. I worked at Starbuck’s when a small cup of coffee was still called ‘Small’ and you would get a free cup of coffee with every pound of coffee you bought.
5. My favorite task in law school was to edit footnotes.
6. I hide from my snail mail. I never open up the mailbox. That’s Joe’s job. I couldn’t finish the House of Sand and Fog because that described me to a tee. One day I too will end up in jail because I couldn’t get myself to open my mail.
7. I prefer a stick shift over an automatic. That’s generally not a problem except on family vacations when someone needs to borrow a car and no one knows how to drive ours.

So, that’s enough weirdness for today. And with this I tag Candace, Elizabeth, and Tamara.

Clasp Earrings

The centerpiece of these earrings are the two halves of a clasp. Just wear the clasps or pretty them up further with something dangley.

Here is my project for the year: I want to make 99 different pairs of earrings over the course of the next 12 months. That averages about 2 pairs a week. We’ll see how I fare with this resolution. This is the first pair of the year:

For Christmas my husband gave me a bunch of tools and a bag of potato beads. While browsing for a new technique to try out, I stumbled upon the idea of a wire cage. To make these pretties you need:

• Two 4 inch pieces of wire (22 gauge) for the cage
• Two 3 inch pieces of wire for the wrapped loops
• 2 beads you want to envelop in the cage
• 2 4mm crystal beads to dangle off the loop
• earring wire
• bits of fine chain
• 2 small split rings

To put them together:

The Cage

1. Make a small loop at the end of one 4 inch wire and then begin spiraling about 2 inches of the wire. Repeat from the other end.
2. Keep spiraling the two coils until they overlap and then pull the center of each spiral out to form the top.
3. Insert the bead in the cage and tweak the wire around it until you arrive at a shape to your liking.

The Loop

1. Begin creating a wrapped loop, but thread a crystal on the wire before you wrap the loop.
2. Move the bead around in the cage until the hole aligns with the top of the bead. Then thread the straight end of the wrapped loop through the top of the cage, the bead and the bottom of the cage.
3. Begin creating another wrapped loop at the other end of the wire, but thread the end of the chain onto the wire before wrapping it.

The Finale

1. Attach the other end of the chain to a split ring.
2. Attach the split ring to the earring wire
3. Repeat the whole process with the other earring.