These fiery earrings are made by Katalin Dudás, a member of the Storytelling Beading Club. Kata was playing with Erika’s Poppy earrings, and I’m pretty sure that everyone who knows her recognizes that this pair was made by her: Kata’s signature yellow, and daring to go bold and big make it obvious 🙂
Kata wrote a guest post for us about how exactly did she make these earrings!
For the original article and tutorial click here.
I got the idea to use different shades of silk, but I realized that by just threading them on the same headpin, the layers would cover each other too much. I had to separate them, like creating a ballerina skirt. So I added different sized and shaped beads between each layer. I will demonstrate how.
Pick your preferred silk layers, beads, and metal elements. This time I will work with yellow-red shades.
The effect will be different, depending on using the dark or the light shade on the top of the skirt. I will have the yellow layer on the top.
- I have chosen:
Poppy flowers,
bead caps,
6 mm round glass beads,
8 mm fire-polished beads,
UFO formed metal beads,
and size 11/0 seed beads.
You’ll also need headpins and earring hooks.
Because I need an extra long pin for my design, I used here a pin that has a too-small head, so in order not to destroy the silk, I added an 11/0 seed bead on the pin, before I pulled on the dark wine red silk.
As I wrote, I need to lift the 2nd silk, so the layer below is visible. I add two 11/0 seed beads and a 6mm round bead. The color does not really matter, you can work with leftovers or lightweight plastic beads. If you have a wide bead cup, it will also lift the layer above. Pull-on the second (bright red) silk layer.
I’m using the same beads here between the bright red and the yellow layers. I will add a bead cup over the yellow silk, so think about the size of the bead here: do you want it to fit in the bead cup or not?
I add one more 11/0 seed bead under the bead cup, this will stabilize and fill the space between its top and the glass bead under the yellow silk.
Now, time to play and use your fantasy! Add any beads on the pin, make the earring (or pendant) as long as you prefer – or you pin lets you do it.
Finish by adding the earring hook.
Enjoy your new jewelry! 🙂
Xxx Kata
Beautiful project! Thank you for your easy to follow steps. I love the colours you chose too!
Love these Kata! 🙂 I just realized it is great way of making pair of earrings if you have only single pieces of two colors in your stash 😉
Lovely project! The colors you used are fantastic. Thank you for sharing the project. I can’t wait to try making some! 😊
Katalin, Perfect pictures, and a great explanation of how you made them. Thank you
Brilliant use of materials! Darn you, now I have to buy some silk! 😂
Full of inspiration and bold colors, as always!!
I love it!!!