Use Your Own Stash Challenge

This month I’m playing along with the Art Elements‘ monthly challenge blog hop. January’s challenge was to create jewelry using components in our own stash. All of us have accumulated sooooo many beads. I know that my beading table has mounds of beads on it.

Work Table Januarary 2018

With the New Year beginning, it would be nice to clean this mess up and work on reducing my stash and putting it to good use in some finished jewelry! To that end, here’s what I have made so far.

Several years ago, I helped Genea Civello teach her first class at Bead Fest in Philadelphia. She taught several projects using Wooly Wire in combination with her gorgeous lampwork glass. As reimbursement for my assistance, I got to choose a number of her lampwork beads, including the pair I used in these earrings. The copper headpins are by Handmade by JGL.

Eye Of The Storm earrings 2

I used some head pins from my stash to make the next pair of earrings. I’m not certain whose heads pins these are. Maybe Havana Beads, but I can’t say for sure. These earrings are now living in Oaxaca, Mexico, with a friend of ours who is an anthropologist there.

Turquoise Drop Earrings

I made the following pair for my monthly blog post on Earrings Everyday. They feature lampwork by Paradise Beads and OutWest Glass that I’ve had in my stash forever. Jenelle and Daniel (of Paradise Beads) used to live in the same town I do. The little orange beads date way back to that time. They’ve lived in Todos Santos, Mexico for at least 3-4 years now, so that’s how long those beads have hung out in my stash!

Sunset In The Tropics earrings 3

Admittedly, this final pair of earrings only partially fits into this challenge. The polymer clay components by Heather Powers of Humble Beads are brand new, but the beads I stacked above them have all hung out in my stash for a long time.

Teal Earrings 2