Earrings, earrings, earrings

....3 pairs of earrings. Yes, you might have imagined from the title that I would have oodles of new pairs for you, but I'm being strictly accurate, and so I have three pairs to share here today.

I know I've written about my love for earrings before, but in case you missed the memo, I absolutely LOVE earrings. Can't get enough of them. I've even got my ears pierced a total of 14 times (I think some of those holes have closed up now - sad face), although I would only wear teeny studs in most of those holes, you'll be pleased to know. I actually have tiny ears, and attached lobes, so it's quite a feat having quite so many holes punched in them!

And so of course, it follows that I really enjoy wearing earrings. However, my artistic earring creating sensibilities bend towards the very simple - when on creative autopilot, I do tend to make earrings containing only one or two beads. Which are, of course, perfect for every day! I love a simple drop earrings. 

Sugar Plum

But you want to know what I really love? Long, elegant, multi-faceted, many-part-filled earrings. I have quite a collection from other jewellery artists - not least Claire Lockwood, and the beginnings of a collection from Lindsay Philipson too - and I am almost always drawn to long, complicated, exuberant earrings. Oh, and usually with tons of colour too. I'm not sure why I struggle to compose that which I love to wear, but they don't seem to flow quite so naturally from my hands. Maybe 'automatically' is a more apt word - and perhaps that's a clue there; I need to be more intentional when making earrings. It could be it's a time thing - because they are 'only' earrings i.e. on the small side compared with a necklace for instance, I don't feel I should be spending a lot of time on one single pair. I'm not sure - probably a bit of all of those reasons. 

And so this week, I decided to try to intentionally build some more complex pairs of earrings. Ok, they are not as exuberant as some in my own collection, but I think it's important to give people a choice - you want a Songbead stud? I've got it. You want a simple drop? Got that too. You want something a bit more fancy-pants? Yep, I've got that three. 

Verdant Cairns

I'm also enjoying mixing my handwoven {song}beads in with other handmade beads and other elements - freshwater pearls, oxidised silver etc - they bring such a visually textural quality to my jewellery, I love it. All of the {song}beads in the earrings below have been stitched with silver-lined 1mm beads, which means that (along with being incredibly detailed!) they have a wonderful glow and glimmer to them. One of my favourite types of glass seed beads to stitch with, for sure.

Sugar Spun

Another thing that has happened this week is that I decided to invest in an Etsy shop review from this lovely lady. Gosh, but she knows what she's talking about! I'm am immensely grateful that I had the good sense to hop onto her listing and click 'purchase'.  I have lots of areas to build on and tweak (the good news was that I'm doing most of the right things, I just need to do them more, if you know what I mean), and you'll hopefully see me develop and expand my shop over the coming weeks and months. But one of the main things that came out of the review was the clarification that really what I want my jewellery to do is tell stories. Not necessarily my stories - I am of the belief that something I create can mean something entirely different to the wearer than it did/does to me - but stories. My jewellery is not merely figurative (in many cases) but narrative too. And so this is something I am already starting to work on - making my listings and descriptions more personal, explaining the connections between the jewellery I make and the titles I give each piece, particularly with my OOAK (one-of-a-kind) items, which these earrings all are.

And so, when you click on any of these listings - Sugar Plum, Verdant Cairns or Sugar Spun, you can read a little bit more of the story behind each pair. Sometimes I don't see the connections myself until I have completed a piece and named it, but I think that's the nature of creating, and it's good to think about a design's story - to take a minute to reflect on what you have just made. Sometimes you have to take a step back to really see what's in front of you, even when you're the one who created it.