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Written by Dara Spiotto
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Monday, 10 December 2007 |
FESTIVE BEADED EARRINGS
Let’s do an exercise! Oh, stop complaining. I know you hate exercise. But this one is easy and will help you relax instead of sweat. Ok, sit comfy on the floor with your legs crossed, or lay on the floor if you wish. Now imagine you’re a Christmas tree. Say, a semi-tall white scotch pine that gracefully tapers into a nice well rounded bottom. Hm. I’m actually shaped like that so this will be easy! Ok now, focus on tiny little white lights that are being draped and wound on your arms. I mean limbs. You’ve got a cozy skirt around your ankles all tucked in, snug as a bug. So now here’s the big question: What do your ornaments look like?
Adorning your Inner Tree
 Let me tell you about mine. Well, first I’d hang some big snowflakes from the bottom, like a skirt, since I have two cats and I know they’re going to be batting them around. Snowflakes with clear AB Swarovski crystals in them so they’d glint as they swayed. Then I’d have a lot of metallic seed beaded balls in festive colors hanging all over. Some would have patterns and some would be solid or striped. I love the pointillism of seed beads. Grouped together they can move mountains. Randomly I’d put some of those Double Mint Spiral Candy Canes that I saw on page 13 of the Dec. ’07 / Jan. ’08 issue of BeadWork Magazine. Designed by Dustin Wedekind, they’re done in spiral rope and are adorable. Ok, then at about eye level I’d have a few zingers, like big and chunky Swarovski crystal ornaments that will light up and glow with the tiny lights. Then, on top, I’d have a GI-HUNGUS Swarovski crystal star in blazing topaz, jonquil, fire opal. Spectacular!
Are you getting a vision of yourself adorned? Don’t tell me you have little plaid fabric bows all over you. If so, you’re a quilter and you’re on the wrong site. Go to www.I’minthewrongplacepleasefindmeafabricsite.com. If you’ve got metallic holiday balls hanging from you with drippy seed bead netting and crystal drops on the ends, then HOORAY! You did good.
 Back to Reality
Now let's get real. We’re not trees. (Like I had to tell you that.) But naturally as beaders we do want to adorn ourselves. I’ve discovered two fun ways to do that. Mind you, I stumbled across them at bead stores near where I live in Southern California, and I don’t necessarily know if these designs originated from these stores. If the original designer is out there reading this, please e-mail me and I’ll give you credit for the design that’s yours.
These spectacular Swarovski Christmas tree earrings I saw at a store that I was doing a bead show at in Orange, CA. They were making kits up as fast as they could and they were blowing out of the store. And they’re really simple to do. You’ll need 4 sizes of Swarovski crystal marguerites. I think that vitrail, crystal AB, comet or, and emerald work the best. I guess tourmaline would be awesome, too. Or, comet argent light. Oh, hell. They’d be awesome in probably any color. For Christmas trees specifically I happen to like the vitrail. Begin with a headpin. You’ll need a 4 mm cube in red on first, then stack the marguerites from biggest to smallest. Next a tiny gold flower spacer goes on, then finish with a 4 mm light topaz bicone. Now just turn a loop and you’re done. A single one would make a great pendant.
 So you don’t get to be an actual Christmas tree, but you can be as sparkly & twinklie as one. :-)
Frosty on your Ears
These snowman earrings came from a store in Upland, CA. Irene, the owner, noticed I didn’t have any earrings one day while I was holiday shopping, and she put them on my ears. I totally love snowmen and snow. So many times I’ve been told by native Californians that the weather back east is terrible and anyone who lives there is nuts. I would take a nice quiet snow storm over an earthquake any day. I’m just more of a winter girl than a summer girl. I don’t particularly care for the blazing hot temps here. And I miss the rain back east. There’s nothing like a New England autumn. And I love the snow. I never really liked getting into my car when it was sub-zero and trying to thaw out enough to drive across a frozen tundra wasteland of ice and slush to go to work. But that still beats the smog and heat. I guess you have to take the good with the bad!
Anyway, back to Frosty. These earrings are made with two simple sizes of Swarovski round crystals, then a black sequin and a small crystal in black to make up the hat. Then a small piece of red floss is tied around the neck like a scarf. Simple and sweet.
Today I was driving in the car with my mother-in-law, a So. Cal. native. We passed a section of road that had tumble weeds blowing and resting along the side of the freeway, and I commented on them. Tumble weeds are not just in the old west Sunday matinee. They’re real bushes full of prickers that die when the  western summer lasts into November and there isn’t any rain. So those babies dry up and snap off at ground level and go blowing away in the wind, collecting grass and debris (probably animals and small children, too) as they go zooming past. Well, my mother-in-law told me that she once got 3 tumble weeds and brought them home. She sprayed them with that chunky snow that you flock Christmas trees with, and then stacked them like a snowman. After adding a hat, scarf and a carrot, it was pretty convincing.
These earrings would make great gifts, or wear them yourself to help stay in a holiday mood. It helps when you live in an area that’s sunny and warm. All you east-coasters: enjoy your snow and remember us out here in LA. We’ll be trying to build a smog-man this year. Somehow it's just not the same. |
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