Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge

Happy (belated) New Year! I hope you’ve enjoyed the holidays. I have had so much fun hanging out with my kids (and husband when he wasn’t working). While my daughter starts back to school today, my son has one more week at home before he had to head back. This means I will probably be a bit scarce for another week. Then it’s back to work. However, even while taking a break, my team and I at Art Jewelry Elements have been scheming for some fun new things for the brand new year.

We will continue with the Component of the Month design challenge because it’s been so much fun. However, we’ve come up with a new design challenge that everyone can be involved in: the AJE Earring Challenge (click the link for full details)

The basics: make (an average) of 1 pair of earrings a week for the entire year using handmade components. Every other Sunday (starting January 20th) you will be able to link up the earrings you’ve made for the challenge to the AJE blog We have also started a Pinterest board specifically for this challenge that is being limited to the first 50 interested participants committed to pinning their earrings. Before you freak out that you are too late, we will open it up to new pinners every 13 weeks. However, I don’t think all the slots have been filled as of the time I’m writing this. Even if you don’t want to commit to 13 solid weeks of making 1 pair of earrings, certainly follow the board for inspiration and link up every other Sunday when we show off what we’ve accomplished in the last 2 weeks towards the challenge.

I have to tell you…this will be a huge challenge for me. Earrings stress me out because I cannot tolerate it if they aren’t EXACTLY the same. I’m working on this issue…especially because I know so many people prefer to wear earrings over most other types of jewelry. After years of working in surgery and not being allowed to wear earrings at work, then having kids that wanted to pull on them, I didn’t wear them for 15 years. Now when I try to wear them, it feels like my earlobes are being pulled down to my shoulders.

With this challenge, I am dedicated to finally making beads for earring pairs. This is something I’ve avoided like the plague. For the same reason I don’t make earrings…my perfectionism. It’s time to get over that.

Have a great week!

Jen