17 Mon Aug 2015
I couldn’t resist making several of my green polymer clay beads into earrings. Most of these earrings have now made it to my Etsy shop. Enjoy.
Dancing mobius bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
Green and gold bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
Tie dye pins and pearl stack earrings by Cate van Alphen
Green triangle and blue pearl earrings by Cate van Alphen
Long kaleidoscope pillow bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
Perfect for Mrs Wizard of Oz. 😉
13 Mon Jul 2015
Posted in My work
These earrings don’t allow you to travel through time, and they are not from the future. Instead I made them a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve only just got round to photographing them, so they are a bit out of sync with my 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge posts. So it’s not quite as exciting as it sounds, but I think they are nice earrings.
Water lilies bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
They feature my double-sided sequin beads, so the underside is a lighter blue.
Water lilies bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
I also made some earrings with just the sequin beads.
Sequin stack earrings by Cate van Alphen
It’s hard to convey in the photographs the way the colours change with the viewing angle.
Sequin stack earrings by Cate van Alphen
01 Sun Feb 2015
Posted in My work
Having made some polymer clay spacer beads to go with my retro beads, I couldn’t resist making a few pairs of earrings 😉
Red cord bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
Retro bead and wire earrings by Cate van Alphen
Retro bead ladder earrings by Cate van Alphen
23 Tue Dec 2014
Posted in Art Bead Scene, My work
Tags
art bead, bead earrings, Cate van Alphen, DEC ABS, earring, handmade beads, monthly challenge, polymer clay
The earrings I made for this month’s Art Bead Scene Challenge may seem a little abstract because I can’t share all the steps I took to get there (yet!). The beads I used are handmade by me from polymer clay (other than the gold seed beads in the last pair of earrings).
Choir of Sint-Bavokerk, Haarlem 1635 by Pieter Jansz Saenedam
Oil on Oak Panel, 37.1 x 48.2 cm
Rustic sequin stack earrings by Cate van Alphen
Monochrome earrings – inspired by the geometric structure of the painting.
White stack and glitter bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
Earrings with gold glitter beads (because it’s Christmas). I thought I could get away with these because of the gold chandelier in the painting.
Offset stack bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
The last pair is a bit of a tangent away from the painting. I was worried the stacks of flat disk beads looked a little like electric power line insulators so I tried a pair with the holes drilled off centre. I discovered that I needed to drill two holes to prevent the beads spinning around inelegantly. I was trying to achieve a look of an impossibly precarious cairn. The idea is pretty much the opposite of the order and structure of the painting, but don’t tell the muse!
10 Sat May 2014
Tags
art beads, bead earrings, Bead Soup Blog Party, beads, BSBP, embroidered pendant, floral necklace, giveaway, green and purple necklace, polymer clay, purple earrings
Welcome to my reveal for the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party. To continue the bead sharing, I’m giving away a set of handmade beads (keep reading to the bottom of this post for details). Here is the lovely bead soup sent to me sent to me by my partner Wendy Chamberlain.
My first thoughts when I saw the delicious mix of purple beads and silver caps was “Earrings!” (I LOVE making earrings.)
But I cried, “The point of the blog party is to use the focal and the clasp…”
“But look, the beads are all in pairs. Earrings!”
It was obvious to me that the pretty clasp and the pendant belonged together in the same necklace, so I decided to make some polymer clay beads inspired by the embroidery on the pendant. That way I could make the necklace and still have the mixed beads to play with for earrings. 🙂
I also used some green dyed lava cube beads that matched the colour of the leaves on the pendant and some silver seed beads.
I love the texture that the crochet beads give.
And then I made some earrings… 16 pairs in fact!
Thank you Wendy for the wonderful beads, and thank you Lori for all your hard work organising the party. Now have a look at what all the other participants have made, I know I will.
* EDIT – Giveaway is now closed. *
Luckily I was able to stop making earring before I used all the polymer clay beads I had made, so I am giving away a set of 8 ‘Embroidered Pearl’ beads. Just let me know in the comments that you would like to be included in the draw (join in even if you are international). I’ll announce the winner by 1st June 2014.
Fulgorine 