Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Vintaj December Challenge: Twinkling Lights

I used to enter the Vintaj blog monthly challenge every month. I had just "discovered " Vintaj back then, and was so enamored by the challenge, their idea gallery, anything and everything Vintaj. And I still love Vintaj, and work almost exclusively with it. But I grew tired of entering the monthly challenge (couldn't keep up with it), so, now I only enter sporadically.
This month's theme is "Twinkling Lights". Now, I know my earrings are simple, and my (lack of) photography skills can not capture the sparkle of the vintage rhinestones, but let me tell you - these are very sparkly. They are so much more sparkly than anything I've seen being made now. I picked up the rhinestones at an estate auction (in a box of loose stones - probably 1,000's of rhinestones in it!). I sorted these out of the box, and had several pair. They are heart shaped and rather large compared to the other stones in the box, so it wasn't too hard to pick them out.
In the meantime, I had seen a design on the Vintaj website where they bent a brass piece backwards, to trap a stone from behind. I decided to try it. and it worked. The stone is not glued in. It is trapped by the 2 side pieces, and the bottom loop, which I bent up and back.
I put them in my shop and they sold right away. So, I made another pair, and they sold right away, too. I am down to my last pair of rhinestones, so that will be the end of it.
If you feel like it, please go to the Vintaj blog and vote. I actually don't expect to win with such a simple design, but I thought maybe less will be more this month. You never know!