Long Exotic Earrings Inspired by Marina Rios.....

Recently Marina Rios a/k/a Fancifuldevices issued her invitation to other jewelry designers to copy her designs.  Well, knowing that I could never copy her unique design I just looked on at what others created - in awe - of course.  Her work is amazing.  But, her attitude on sharing is even more amazing.  If you are not familiar, you really need to read her Art Theft Manifesto.  I really don't have words to describe her work.  You know that drawer that you all have where you just throw stuff because you don't want to throw it away, but you don't know what else to do with it, and in the back of your mind you think "well, I might need it someday?"  Well, she can take things from that drawer and make beautiful jewelry with them. 

She recently started using Ingrid Mueller's beads in her work too.  Ingrid has a couple of bead designs that are truly her own -- the two I'm thinking of are her stonies, that actually contain bits of gravel to give them texture, and her beads done in very matte finishes.  I have known for a couple of years now that Ingrid's work was wonderful, but now it seems as if other designers are figuring that out too.  But, I digress.

I received some beads from Natalie Pappas a week ago and even though they are not matte or stonies, they are magnificent.  They have swirls around them and not where you would expect them to be either.  I began playing with them and while I was doing so, I kept thinking of Marina's style and soon, voila!

Now, these are long - 3-1/4" long.  Ingrid would love that.  I like them and I really like the fact that I got to play with my wire.  I left the copper very dark, like Marina would have done. 

Now, Marti Conrad makes a bead that she calls a knuckle bead.  It is truly her own.  I am playing with them today in this same design to see what happens.  See I'm now starting to talk like Marti and Natalie -- they say things like "look what came out of the kiln today."  Well, I am just going to see what comes off my table today......stay tuned for the next installment of this experiment in Marina.

Thank you all - Ingrid, Marti, Natalie and Marina.  Knowing your work makes me a better designer.  I appreciate you all.
Disclaimer:  There are many more of you that have remained unnamed in this post.  Your day is coming.....

Well, I finished these using Marti Conrad's "knuckle" beads.  They have African copper heishi in the center row and faceted Czech beads in a variety of earthy colors with picasso finish in the bottom row.  They are also a bit longer....

I want to maybe try one more set if I can find some of Ingrid's beads that are begging to be made up like this and I can find the appropriate coordinating beads, etc.  And, also, I would like to try making a pair out of the annealed steal wire I have rather than copper.  We'll see.