Less Is More...Right?

Welcome!

I feel like the past few weeks have just flown by!  I am starting off the New Year a bit behind... I haven't had much spare time at all! I am so behind on my favorite blogs, I haven't been on Pinterest or Instagram in such a long time and even haven't had much of a chance to post on Facebook...I feel a bit out of the loop!  Not to mention I haven't had much time for beading, until today...

So I mentioned that I had an online class I was wanting to get to, I finally did, last night!  The lady leaching it is Aga Kruk and I have to admit I really liked how detailed she was with her instruction.  The wire wrapping isn't totally foreign to me but I wanted to see if there was a better way to achieve the results I was looking for.  She did have some good tips that I hadn't heard before so I'm really glad I learned something new!

I have wire wrapped some hoops in the past but very delicately along the outside, her class was for more of a clustered look, like disorganized-organization....which pretty much describes my beading table....so I gave it a try...with my own modifications...

 Really cool... but it weighed like a million pounds, not realistically something you can wear for more than 5 minutes, so I tried again...

I was so pleased with the second try, I made the other hoop to match and I think they look awesome!  This pair was created with freshwater pearls and Czech seed beads using gold-plated wire and hoops.  Of course I couldn't stop there...

 
 I wanted to try using gemstone chips, these are Citrine with a base of Czech seed beads, a totally different look and I like them, but what if I used more chips with seed beads scattered randomly within them....

 These are Amethyst chips with silver-lined purple seed beads....I like these even more!  I then realized I had only made gold hoops...on to the silver ones....

 I know they look similar but these are Iolite chips with silver-lined crystal seed beads, Iolite has more of a blue-violet tone and I thought they would look great with silver, it's official, I'm now hooked!

Next I used Peridot chips with silver-lined green seed beads sprinkled in, the chips look heavy but I promise they are a comfortable weight and don't pull on the ear at all! 

Lastly I used freshwater pearls with two colors of seed beads and I just think they are beautiful!  

I can't decide which style I like better, the pearls or the gemstone chips...so I will continue to make both! 

So that's what I did today!  Even though these little pretties are quite busy looking, I am really happy with my version that I came up with. I am looking forward to making more of these new beauties tomorrow and will try not to get carried away...I think in this case less is more, what do you think?