Some new earrings ...

I had fun demonstrating the technique of 'beehive' quilling at the Quilling Guild's recent Shared Ideas Day, although I found it quite a nerve-wracking experience performing in front of celebrated quillers such as Jane Jenkins and Diane Boden Crane! Fortunately my hands did not tremble too much, and afterwards several Guild members found that they, too, had caught the 'beehive bug'!

I needed to stock up again on earrings for the market this week, so I've spent a couple of happy afternoons creating a few new designs - beehive style!

Here are the first ones I made - and I have to admit, I like them so much that I've decided to keep them for myself!

I created the external squares for each earring by winding a red strip four times around the wooden handle of a rubber stamp (I managed to find one that is just the right shape and size!). Then I made a pair of tiny red vortex coils (wheatear method) to fit inside one angle of each square. The beehive coils were created using pairs of conjoined black and white strips. I like to make random twists with my slotted tool when I use the beehive technique, and I am happy for the coils to form their own individual patterns when I insert the twisted strips into the retaining ring (or square, in this case!). The result is a unique design every single time, and I think the black and white combination is really striking.

I also experimented with some different shaped retaining rings (a circle and a teardrop) as you can see below. The teardrop version is filled with beehive twists made from conjoined pairs of graduated strips (an idea suggested to me by one of the many talented quillers at the Guild workshop), and I think it works quite well.