The pattern for these earrings came from
The Art of Beadwork, a wonderful book that shows traditional beadwork from all over the world, along with modern projects inspired by the different techniques and styles. The earrings I made were by Robin Bergman, and were inspired by the shapes and designs in
Huichol beadwork from Mexico.
The first step was to make several different components using square stitch -- two flowers, two ribbons with bugs on them, and an arrow:
I go back and forth on the colors. I had a very specific palette in mind, inspired partly by the jewelry highlighted in
Beyond Buckskin's
pinterest, but despite the dozens if not hundreds of Delica shades available, I couldn't get quite the right colors. In the picture you can also see an aborted half-flower; the instructions called for doubling the thread, which got tangled with pretty much every stitch. Using a single thread worked much better, and the results aren't noticeably floppier.
The different components are then sewn together into earrings (I omitted the third earring, which consisted of several flower shapes):
These earrings are quite a bit longer than I expected; they brush my shoulders. But I'd been looking to make them for years, so I'm glad I finally got it done.
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