by Carol Rucker

Created on: October 25, 2009

You have style and panache and everybody knows it; but what would your friends say if you showed up at an elegant dinner affair with earrings that don't match? A discrete friend might drag you aside to point out your faux pax. An envious acquaintance might rush to point out your mistake, embarrassing you in front of your friends. Those with true creative fashion sense will know your look is artsy/funky/fabulous. Just like you, mismatched earrings are artsy and funky indeed. And like you, they are truly fabulous because you create them following your own rules. Mismatched earrings are all about you.

Your Tools

If you are even a casual jewelry maker, you already have the basic tools: pliers, wire cutters and round-nosed pliers. You may also have a hammer and block to flatten your wire for a different look; but don't worry if you don't, hammering is optional.

Your Materials

An assortment of beads in the same color

Wire of your choice

Earwires

Your Bead Stash

If you've been creating beaded earrings for a while, you probably have a bead stash. Yours could be row upon row of neat, little stacked compartments with beads lined up by color or shape or translucency. It could be a big bag of beads mixed and mingling together in a colorful blur? What your bead stash says about your personal organizational skills is inconsequential. The important thing is its bead content, the colors, the shapes, the pairs, singles and strands, whether neat or messy, mixed or matched,

To create your perfect pair of mismatched but artsy/funky/fabulous earrings, first decide on your color. Try Black. It's neutral and goes with just about everything. It is as perfect a color as any. Choose your color then search your bead stash for every black bead you can find. You don't have to use every bead you select; but put them all in a little pile for design inspiration.

Your Wire Choice

You will need wire to create a mix of shapes for your earrings. If you are a precious metals person, choose Silver. It's shiny and bright and goes with just about anything. Or perhaps you'd prefer gold, with a deep sunshine color and an artisan tradition reaching back to ancient civilizations. Silver and gold are beautiful and also expensive; but for a pair of earrings that stands out in a crowd, they're worth the price.

For an economic alternative, copper is a popular choice these days. Its deep metallic-brown shade presents a perfect contrast against any skin color. Like a living thing, copper changes, darkening to an array

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