Tiny Triangle Earrings

Regular readers will know how much I love and am inspired by the works of Jean Power, especially her triangles.  They're so simple and yet so versatile.  Recently I needed to make a small thank you gift for someone and Jean came to the rescue again!

Tiny little triangle earrings were perfect!  

I bead around the post rather than glue the post to the finished triangle, mainly because you never know what people are allergic too, and the glue could dry prickly - never good!

I ended up making these for all my friends in all sorts of colours:

They are available for only £5 in my Etsy shop here

A wedding!

On Halloween, Chris and I got married.  It was the most wonderful day of my life:

He looked utterly spiffing in his 3 piece tweed suit, and I felt like a princess in my Georgette wedding dress. It could not have been more perfect. I wore pearls in my hair, made by Mummy:

 

 

My bridesmaids wore red satin and I made them a simple necklace and matching earrings using Swarovski Elements in Siam paired with Silver Duracoat Delicas:

My flower girls had silver bracelets with matching Swarovski Hearts dangling, but I forgot to take a photo of them because I'm an idiot!!!

Mummy's necklace was spectacular!  She bought a pattern from BeAdInfinitum called Starburst Galaxy and made it in Swarovski Pearls and made a few adaptations to make it perfectly perfect for the wedding:

How gorgeous is that??!!  She wore it with petrol blue silk and looked amazing!

All in all, we had a wonderful day and it was glorious bringing our craft into it - not least because it saved us plenty of pennies!

Mummy's Makes: Earrings Galore!

Mummy has been on a bit of an earring frenzy recently.  We wanted some cheaper, smaller items available in our Etsy shop because we both felt that we want to be more accessible to all purse sizes.  No matter what price we sell things for though, only sterling silver or gold fill ear hooks will suffice because who wants earrings that turn your ears green or itch like crazy by the end of the day?!

I had some Swarovski Heliotrope rivolis left over from my Necklace & Earrings Set so I gave them to Mummy and she concocted these gorgeously simple earrings adapting Jean Power's 3D Geometric Triangles to bezel the rivolis using silver duracoat seed beads!  Gorgeous!

These are some simple 14mm Swarovski emerald rivolis simply bezelled (again using silver duracoat seed beads), to let that rich green sing.

She also made a pair using gold seed beads and those delightful green AB 15s to add some interest to the rivolis.

Some gorgeous 16mm Swarovski Heliotrope rivolis simply bezelled using gunmetal seed beads.  I honestly can't believe the difference between these and the first ones in this post.  The heliotrope is really darkened and more indigo, whereas the ones at the top seem much more purple.

These cute little earrings were made using Swarovski Cosmic Squares in Crystal and some Swarovski pearls.  I love them and may have something similar for my wedding in October!

Again, Swarovski Cosmic Squares in Crystal but the Aqua AB delicas look almost denim coloured in daylight and make these earrings seem much more 'everyday war'.  I really love these for their chic simplicity.

A simplified version of her Crystal Triangle Earrings, I love these for the addition of the 2AB bicones at the corners of the triangles.  

And then finally this bad boy!  Rather than make a pendant for a necklace, Mummy decided that this Swarovski Golden Shadow stepped rectangle would make a perfect medal style brooch/lapel pin.  Of all the items she has made recently, I love this the most.  It is so unusual and so stylish that I almost wished I wore suits to work so I could make me one of these!

All of the above are available in our etsy shop.

Mummy's Crystal Triangle Earrings

Once again, Mummy is the creator behind the pieces in this post (I really need to get more beading time in!).

Inspired by the most marvellous Jean Power and the triangles she is famous for, Mummy decided that she wanted to see if she could use the triangles as a bezel in which to hide some delicious little Swarovski rivolis.  Of course, she couldn't stop at the making of one pair of earrings, so made three!

How sweet are these gorgeous little earrings?!  Unfortunately, the light was rubbish (blooming England in Winter) so you can't get the full delight that these earrings are.  The back side is a simple triangle and then decreased around the front, using 3mm rounds at each point, which helps stop the rivoli wriggling about in it's triangular cocoon, and then sparklied up with a picot edge in 15s.  I love this set in gunmetal and steel with the smoky grey rivoli.  Very me!

Isn't it strange how a different colour can change the whole look of a piece?!  The exact same pattern as above, just with shades of pink yet they look so delicate and girly and definitely not something that I'd wear (sorry Mummy!).

And then again, with black and dark red.   These look quite gothy compared with the more industrial gunmetals and the girly pinks.  I love them!

 like how the rivoli is completely encapsulated at the back, reducing the risk of the point being knocked off and ruining the whole earring. Also, how different these earrings look just with a change of colour.  It always astonishes me that colour plays such a huge part in the whole feel of a piece, even something as small as a pair of earrings.  I shouldn't be so surprised but because I'm rubbish and generally have my go to colours, I always am!  If Mummy had just shown me the pink set, I would have been impressed with the construction, but never in a million years thought they were my bag, yet the exact same earring in the gunmetal and steel may simply have to find their way into my jewellery box!

More of Mummy's Stars!

A couple of weeks ago I showed you the astonishing Stars Necklace Mummy made.  Well she couldn't just stop at a necklace now, could she?! 

Below are two sets of earrings she made using the very same pattern, just with very different looks due to the colour choices, construction and the bead choices.

These grey mismatched earrings are fantastic.  Although this photo doesn't quite capture their full glory, the dark insides and light outsides really does stand out against the pale matte grey of the rest of the stars.  I love mismatched earrings and these are just brilliantly fun.

Below you can see how very different the stars look when made of delicas.  To me they become much more angular and rigid looking (and are a lot more difficult to bead!).  They look much more striking in this medium sized star and have definitely lost the dreaminess that the 15s lend.  Where the earrings above are bigger and crazier, they are also more ethereal than the smaller, simpler single stars made from delicas.

Both are beautiful, both make me so proud of Mummy for thinking up such a fantabulous pattern, I just think I prefer the dreamy and less angular look that 15s give.  Quite a shock, considering that I usually prefer quite vicious and angular looking jewellery!

My Sister's 40th

Last year my big sister turned 40 (although she looks in her 20s, the cow!).  I decided to make her a little something special for her birthday present.  Something that she could wear to posh parties as a set or earrings for when she wanted to sparkle only a little.

Unfortunately I don't have a better picture than this so I'll have to talk you through what I did.

First of all, my sister is a gorgeous brunette with the most dazzling brown eyes that range from almost amber in some lights, to deep chocolate it others.  She loves gold so I decided that the base colour should be Metallic Earth Batik Gold Iris (DB1010), using purple iris Charlottes as the detail and the stones are Swarovski in Amethyst. 

First I bezelled the stones with the delicas and the charlottes.  Around the large stone I "stitched in the ditch" to add an extra round of peyote and then a simple picot edge with the charlottes before adding a very simple bail and suspending it on what has to be my most perfect herringbone rope ever!

The earrings were simply bezelled and then hung on solid gold ear wires.  No frills around the edge so that she could wear the earrings with anything and so that they didn't distract too much from the large oval stone necklace.


It's simple and understated but I like it and I know she does too.