The 100 Day Project: Make 100 Earrings 1-20 and a GIVEAWAY!

I did say giveaway - details are at the bottom of the post.

I've been an earring-making fool!

I don't want to jinx myself, but I've gotten my earrings made for the first 20 days of The 100 Day Project.  The project takes place on Instagram and its purpose is to encourage creativity for 100 days. Each participant picks a creative endeavor: small, large, progressive, whatever and does it each day for 100 days, using #The100DayProject as well as their own unique hashtag. I announced my #Make100Earrings intent several weeks ago in a post about all the challenges ahead of me. As well, to make it easier on myself, I prepared a box of earring-making supplies that I can take with me wherever I go. 

Today is day 21. Before I work on the earrings for today, I thought I'd share here those first 20 pairs.

Days 1-4

1: Those large beads needed to come out of the box since they took up so much room. Tiny yellow Chinese crystals from Znetshows.com and copper spacers and beads were tied onto off-white waxed linen cord to make a little fringe and accent the large beads.

2: Really simple and more my "romantic-rustic" style, these earrings were made with crystal teardrop briolettes and salvaged gold-tone beads.

3: I wanted some bright & colorful beads for this pair. Turquoise, orange, and violet beads are stacked with black and white striped beads and a silver spacer. This single stack on a headpin hangs from a cultured sea glass ring from ZnetShows.com

4: These are my favorites in this set. The dangles are Vintaj blanks that I had altered. They're paired with bright teal beads and rhinestone spacers. Love!

Days 5-8

5: I hadn't used any of my art beads yet. Since I was home this day, I dug through my artist-made stash and found these polymer clay beauties from Heather Powers of Humblebeads. To accent them, antiqued brass spacers, a bead cap, and a little glass flower were added. These are another favorite.

6: Wanting to do something simple, I used some silvertone connector links and a smokey-gray bead to make these. Easy-peasy. Done!

7: It was a beautiful day and felt so very summery. This inspired me to make these bright, bold earrings. 

8: Again, I dipped into my stash of altered Vintaj blanks to make these earrings. They dangle from a stack of small, coordinating beads.

Days 9-12

9: I hadn't included any buttons so far, and those amazonite rectangles were calling to me. I paired those elements with a short length of antiqued brass chain and called it a day.

10: Working from my travel box this day, the copper rings caught my eye. Simple dangles of white & clear beads completed the earrings.

11: These were complete spur-of-the-moment earrings. All of the components came from the earring box, but I picked them out hurriedly to make the pair. I think it works.

12: I knew this was going to be another hectic day, so I grabbed these beautiful glass beads and simply let them dangle from balled head pins.

Days 13-16

13: It was Easter. I wanted a basket. Finding these brass stamped baskets, I colored them with layers of Vintaj Patinas before dangling them from a few ZnetShows.com glass beads.

14: Feeling inspired by all the growing things outside, I was compelled to make some green earrings. I dove into the green drawer of my bead cabinet. Silver chain and head pins completed them. 

15: Like the first pair of earrings I made, I just wanted to get these big pink beads out of the container. As well, I'd seen other designers use filigree bead caps as a base for chandelier earrings, so I let that inspire me. With matching seed beads, I worked these up as quick as possible. When my husband saw them, he thought they looked like octopi and suggested I add eyes. I did try, but the medium I used wiped right off even after hours and hours of dry time. I may try it again later, but wanted these done before the end of the day. So, I left them as they were.

16: This was a busy day of family visiting. As such, I picked out these beads and simply wired them together. Simple and pretty.

Days 17-20

17: I didn't have much time before we headed to the beach to make anything. Pat suggested I collect shells to make my daily earrings. As you can see, that's exactly what I did. I know from previous experience that I can find shells with a single hole in them. Here example #1 and example #2 of other jewelry I've made from found shells. I made sure to only collect tiny ones. At home, I evenly sorted then stacked them onto head pins (using a seed bead to start). However, while bending the wire to make the loop, several of the shells broke - hence the space at the top of the earring on the right. I got them made at least! They can't all be winners.

18: I picked through some of the pairs of beads I had from what Kari sent me for the Bead Peeps Swap N Hop and selected the purple leaves and cube. The spacer and other beads came from my own stash, but worked out nicely.

19: After a full day poolside, I realized I hadn't made any earrings yet. I picked up the mother of pearl buttons, tarnished silver beads, and hematite-colored wire that were on my desk for another project and whipped these up.

20: Yesterday was my oldest niece's birthday. With her in mind, I selected the blue lampwork beads that had been freebies from Mermaid Glass when I ordered something else (at least that how I had them marked!) She likes blue almost as much as I do, but also loves black. I've had these vintage black beads in my stash since the dawn of time (or sometime there abouts). Antiqued silver tone bead caps and findings finish the earrings. 

For the most part, I'm happy with the the earrings I've created. I know they're not all winners or something I'm going to try to sell (the shell earrings!!). However, I'm really pleased that I've been able to get a pair made every day despite a busy schedule and vacation. The 100 Day Project is working for me!

Oh, I did say something about a giveaway didn't I?

Which two pairs are your favorite? Let me know in the comments and leave your e-mail address by May 13th. I'll pick and announce a winner on May 14th (Mother's Day). You just might win your favorites. Oh, and this is open to only US residents. Sorry!!