Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Simply Divine


Toward the end of last year, Artbeads.com gave its blogger team the opportunity to select from its beautiful collection of cubic zirconia beads and pendants. I had never worked with cz beads before, and I decided it would be fun to highlight their beautiful sparkle by creating a pair of simple dangle earrings. Thus, I chose this beautiful peridot geometric fan shape and paired it with simple garnet links.

Why it took me over a month to make them when the actual assembly time for the projects is less than five minutes is one of the mysteries of the universe. However, I finally sat down and put them together last night, and, oh, how I do love them. I had a tough time photographing the earrings - my lens simply can't capture the depth and sparkle of the cubic zirconia. I think these would make excellent evening wear for that special dinner out - perhaps on Valentine's Day? Just a thought.

Artbeads.com was also generous enough to send me a fistful of stars:


Obviously, I haven't strung these cubic zirconia beads yet, but given my recent penchant for things celestial, you can probably guess where these are headed.

As usual, thank you to Artbeads.com for giving me the opportunity to try out your wonderful products. I'm a fan (no pun intended)!

Please note: the products mentioned in this post were promotional gifts from Artbeads.com for review and/or design partnership purposes.

13 comments:

sandi m said...

You can tell that they DO have sparkle.
I really like that elongated fan shape.
Nice!

SueBeads said...

Very pretty earrings!

Silver Parrot said...

Love the earrings and those star beads look like they will be very fun to play with!

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

I love them!!! wowzers!

jean xox

Rose said...

Gorgeous earrings. My birthstone is peridot and I just love those fans there! Question- in the link, the fans look like fans (triangular fans...)... but in your earrings, they look like bent dog-tags. Did you use two of them? Did you glue them? Maybe my eyes are seeing them differently. Hmm...

Melissa J. Lee said...

Thanks, everyone!

Rose, they are not really a flat fan shape. Imagine a fan made by turning a rectangle on its side and flattening one end so it's lying 90 degrees to the original shape- so basically, either way you turn it, it looks like a fan. That's the best description that comes to mind (at midnight at least)... I didn't do anything to alter the pendant - it's made that way. A super-easy project, for sure.

PaintYourLife said...

This are some brilliant pieces of art. Especially like the star shaped ones.

Shai Williams said...

Those earrings are incredible!

Jeannie said...

The earrings are "divine" What an unusal combo and the colors spot on.
Can't wait to see what you do with the stars.
I'm a artbead team blogger and I hope to receive my package tomorrow. Keep my fingers crossed.

Regina said...

Beautiful! love the fans, makes great earrings. I too have the problem where I put off projects for days, weeks, and months, usually saying to myself "I do not have the time now to deal with it" and then when I sit down to it, it all seems so easy and fast. Its all mental!

Melissa J. Lee said...

Thanks, all (but I can hardly take credit myself - they are just such spectacular beads)!

Regina, I'm sure you are right. I'm one of those people that needs deadlines to keep focused on projects - sad, but true!

Michelle Mach said...

I love the part about it being a mystery why you took so long to put the earrings together. Those quiet bead voices are so hard to hear over the din of everyday life!

littlebluecrow said...

These are beautiful things. Making it even more memorable for me is the combination of birthstones - one is mine and one is my younger sister's, whom I've been missing lately. Now I get to send her this link!