Indigoskye Bead Fashions

I took workshop with Connie Fox yesterday and I thought that I’d share a few of the earrings that I made via techniques inspired by her class. This is my second workshop with Connie. It is such a genuine pleasure to learn from a giving and gifted instructor. I’m grateful for the opportunity to study with her.

Education as an artist is something that I didn’t value during the first eight or nine years that I was in business. I felt that being self-taught was more important in order to develop your own unique style. While I still feel that it is important to have your own voice as an artist, I’m starting to realize the value in learning from others. I no longer reinvent the wheel when I attempt new techniques and at a class I’m able to meet with other like minded artists and gain more understanding of the medium.

The earrings on the far left are turquoise and bali spacers. The hammered sterling station is the “eyelet” pattern that I learned in the class. The earrings are hammered french hooks. The earrings at the top have a handmade cone earwires in sterling silver with african turquoise coin shaped beads dangling below. Finally, the all sterling earrings are a combination of the cone shape and coiled swans. Learning how to create a loose enough coil to hammer after coiling was very interesting. I love the little swan hooks too.

Earrings similar to these will be part of the new line of jewelry to be found in my booth this coming spring. I’ll have them in a wide assortment of stone choices. For those of you that request copper earwires, I will try and stock a few of the new earwire shapes in that metal. Please feel free to ask me about them while you visit my booth.

Despite being swamped with work due to the time of year, I decided to participate in a group necklace project slated to be sent in to the Belle Amorie contest that has a deadline in Feburary.  Our group decided to have an autumn theme to our work, with the ruddy hue of copper being one of the chosen colors.  The ladies of the group are all members of “Jewelryhaven” one of the many jewelry themes yahoogroups here on the net.

I was uncertain what to make as my contribution, but I decided to make up some leaf shaped frames in copper and then to embellish them with a thinner gauge of wire and a swirl to give them more substance.  Each charm is 1 1/2 inches long and about 1 inch wide.  The frame is made of 16g copper wire that has been either coiled or hammered and the interior is wirewrapped 24g copper wire.  Everything has been tumbled to work harden the wires and make them nice and shiny.