Re-purposing

These frog beads were part of a jewellery set a friend had bought some time ago. The larger bead - pendant, really - hung from a simple rubber cord while the other two were earrings. My friend, who has loved all things frog-like since she was a teen, found the jewellery difficult to wear - she said the froggies seemed to be too big for their hooks and cord - but wanted to keep the lil critters. So she gave them to me with a plea to re-use them in a way that would make it easier for her to wear them. So this is what I made.

Re-working

So, that necklace I was feeling iffy about? I went through my beads and tried a couple of things. It eventually turned out something like this:

I'm not ecstatic. But it looks a little more balanced. So I'm going to leave it alone. What do you think - right decision, or not? 

I also whipped up a quick pair of earrings using lampwork glass beads by Paul Spencer (aka Paulbeads, another talented glass artist on Etsy). This will go to my shops - I need to start selling my work or I'm never going to be able to buy new beads.

Replicas

Remember the bellflower earrings I made and sold some weeks back? The photo's a couple of posts down. I liked how the wire frames I made mirrored the bell shape of the flower beads so much that I made replicas of the earrings yesterday - using 3 different colours of artistic wire. I paired silver-plated wire with some navy blue flower beads, gold-plated wire with purple flower beads and finally, brass-plated wire with green flower beads. All 3 pairs are listed in my Artfire shop. I think they're quite girly and romantic, which considering Valentine's Day is coming up, is rather apt really.

What do you think? Do you like them as much as I do? They're not perfect I know but I'm secretly quite proud of myself since it's the first time I've bothered to make a component - ie. the spirally wire frames - myself. I'd love to hear what you think.