Friday, April 6, 2012

Lorelei's Headpin Challenge-Blog Hop


When I was young my father took us arrowhead hunting with him. He knew the best time to look according to when the fields were plowed or disked.  He could tell if a field was good hunting ground based on the slope of the land and the proximity to water.  Even when we went on vacation he could spot a good field from the highway, and we would stop to check it out (though mom did not always appreciate this interruption).It was so exciting to us kids to find even the smallest piece of flint and pull it out of the just-turned earth, and we thought we were in heaven when we actually found an arrowhead or knife. 

Dad is 82 now, and still hunts the fields on occasion.  His basement is filled with thousands of arrowheads, tomahawks, knifes, pottery shards, grinding stones, and many other Native American artifacts that he has found over the years.  And he instilled in us kids a love for the land and the Native Americans that once roamed here.

I played around with copper practice wire trying to find the right design. I was leaning towards something summery, but somehow it turned into earrings that reminded me of Native American colors and design. 

'Southern Plains' Earrings


'Southern Plains' ~ Made with Red Jasper beads, tiny lampwork spacers, and Vintaj components. The lovely headpins are from  Gardanne Beads



The blog hop is Thursday April 7th.  Please visit the other participants to see what they created.


19 comments:

Jo said...

Your earrings are lovely! I would definitely wear those!

Lesley said...

Alice this is one of my favourite colour palettes and I love how you've used symbolic shapes - very striking. Lovely background story too.

Lorelei Eurto said...

Oooh great story Alice! The earrings are fabulous! I love how you attached the glass headpins onto the jump rings! SO creative and great color palette. Thank you so much for playing along with us in this challenge!

Raida said...

Those are beautiful!

Linda Younkman said...

Beautiful earrings. Love the color combination.

Patti Vanderbloemen said...

Beautiful earrings - and I love story behind them, too! Really love that color combination!

Cilla said...

Cute design. I would be wearing those too!
Cilla
www.tellyourgirlfriends.com

re-maker said...

I agree, your chose of accent beads really bring out the colors in the headpins. Nice work and great back story!

Anonymous said...

Great story, Alice! I love the color palette of these earrings. Very creative!

Rebecca said...

Love the colours - the bold simplicity of your design - and the history behind it. Thanks for sharing Alice!

Tanya said...

Beautiful earrings. The colors work so well together. I love the story behind them. Also, as Lorelei said, I love how you attached the headpins to the jumpring.

TesoriTrovati said...

Miss Alice! This is such an inspired design! I love that you have this wonderful memory of your dad incorporated in these earrings. I know that those little balls on the ends would have really thrown me for a loop. I am having fun hopping around and this is truly one of my favorites!
Enjoy the day!
Erin

Baking Beads in the Keys said...

Love the story and the wonderful harmony and simplicity of the earrings!!

Lisa Cone - Inspired Adornments said...

Your earrings are simple and classic yet modern and beautiful. Great colors and wonderful story as well.

Lori Anderson said...

I love those colors and they are VERY cool!

Marianna said...

Beautiful work! I love those colors and great style!

Gardanne said...

Alice thank you so much for participating in Lorelei's challenge, I am blown away with all the different ways the participants are using the headpins.
I can relate to your story, I grew up in a part of upstate NY that is rich with fossils, and I found an arrowhead as a child that I still treasure today. My Dad was always curious, and later in his life he learned how to make his own arrowheads.

I love how you used the wire to add some length to your earrings, its nice how the balled headpin makes a clean finish to the wire.

Deserae said...

My brother and I spent hours hunting for arrowheads as kids...it was great fun and kept us out of trouble :o) Love those earrings....gorgeous!
~Des

jessememan said...

Alice - these are truly lovely!!