Spring Break EBW Challenge

I had to temporarily abandon the beaded collar (Sunflowers)... I just need a break, a change of pace... I left all my beads as they were on my beading table and moved with a new palette of colours to my dining table.... only temporarily!!!

I thought I would tackle the new EBW challenge.... Spring Break!!!

Well... all I can think of is loud, drunk, semi-naked college students.... or ... flowers... guess which one is easier to portray.... yes flowers!!! I love flowers, even though most people wouldn't make me for a flowery type of gal.... maybe it's the twenty tattoos that throw people off :-) although 3 are flowers, 9 are butterflies and my Japanese koi carp on my leg has flowers all around it!!! :-) I also used to work in a flower shop (I've done a lot of things in the last 20 years, searching for myself) which I loved to death.... but not as much as beading, although a very close second!!!

So I took a couple of books, I decided to try a new technique... brick stitch... although I have used it in my bead embroidery to attach the back suede to the beading, I've never used it to build on.... I had a little bit of a mental block over this stitch, am not sure why, it's not any more complicated than any of the others, but that's how I felt....

Armed with books, cream pearl seed beads, some purple ones, my Swarovsky crystals boxes and these great 2-toned green and purple glass pearls I moved (much to my son's delight, as he was drawing at the dining table) and I started messing around with the stitch.... and after a few hours of not really getting anywhere I finally got something I liked and as I've never made a pair of bead-woven earrings, decided to make some! I've been meaning to make some earrings for a while, but to be honest I like working on big pieces... the bigger the better!!! :-)

So here are my first bead-woven earrings... and I'm really pleased with how they turned out! They are elegant, cute, funky and I absolutely LOVE the colour combination!!!!

The photo is not brilliant, it's been pissing down with rain here all day, so I had to take them inside under my dining table light, not ideal, but I really wanted to share :-) will post better pictures as soon as the sun comes back out!!! :-)

Now I have to go and deal with my huge pile of overflowing unwashed dishes!!! at least I caught up with all my clothes washing for the week!!! well... a choice between chores or beading, which one would you go for?!?!?! :-)