New Items up on Etsy...(because that's all I ever post about isn't it?): Butterflies

Look here! More pictures!

 

I have been remiss in writing my (at least) weekly post since I made that promise to myself. My bad. So maybe I'll do two this week to even things out. Yeah? 'Kay.



I decided to go artsy in these photos. You can't tell what they are, but they're my butterfly earrings. Here are some photos where you can actually see what they look like in real life, earring findings and chains included:

 

 

 

 

Yes, I know that was a lot of photographs in one go, but I have a whole variety of these, and each one is unique. This isn't even all of them. I ran out of natural light before I could photograph all of my pieces. I figure this is enough for now, though. Etsy wouldn't let me post all of them because there is a limit of five images per post. That makes sense, so I'm not complaining.

 

Funny story about these butterflies. The whole "hey, you should really sell your jewelry, like on Etsy and stuff!" thing that people keep telling me stemmed mostly from these butterflies. These are the first things I made "for commercial purposes," so to speak. I think they're pretty interesting - they at least make great conversation starters!

 

"Hey, are those butterflies? What are they made out of, paper?"

"Oh yeah. Look at this one. It's real book/music/whatever paper! It's recycled."

"Wow, that's pretty neat."

 

Anyway, speculation aside, I suppose I'd better tell you more about them. Each butterfly is hand-cut, varnished, hand-beaded, and attached to earring findings. For the most part, I upcycle/recycle paper, like book pages, music paper, or food packaging (e.g. Cup Noodles, Quaker Oatmeal, etc.). Sometimes, I use origami paper, but that's only because I found it in my paper stash at home and thought it was pretty. 

 

I can't throw anything away. Yes, *raises hand* I am a hoarder. Not the normal kind, but the crazy kind. But look! At least I use my hoardings, right? Right?

 

About these particular earrings (I also make hair clips and brooches, as you can see in other posts, but I haven't posted them on Etsy yet):

 

The first pair of butterfly earrings are made out of a playing card. This particular one is a face card (a Queen, I believe). I also have others made out of non-face cards that look slightly different. The pink flowery ones are made out of Japanese wrapping paper. It was pretty, so I saved it. (See above note about hoarding.) The third pair are made out of music paper. But look closely. They're photocopies of hand-written music. That's my piano teacher's writing from some kind of scale exercise sheet that I had when I took lessons as a kid. The red Hawaiian print butterflies are from a Christmas card that was in the shape of a Hawaiian shirt. It was pretty cute. So what did I do? I kept it. :P The pink and red striped ones are made out of Forever 21 gift card holder. Because yeah, I keep those, too. The next three pairs are from origami paper. Pretty, right? The last ones are made out of those little tags at the supermarket that say where something was grown, like "Grown in the United States" or a particular state.

 

I was going to post more, but I think that's enough for today, don't you?

 

Here's the link to purchase these butterfly earrings:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/167628985/paper-butterfly-earrings-shipping

 

Thanks for stopping by!