Well, it is almost summer so break out the earrings!  Earrings are fun to wear when the weather gets warmer especially if you love happy colors!  Well, here's your chance to win some colorful tagua beads so you can make elephant friendly jewelry.



Tagua beads as many of you already know, are made from the nuts of the ivory palm which grow in Central and South America.  They are a great alternative to real ivory which can only come from the slaughter of elephants.  Last time I wrote about the terrible plight of the elephants due to increased poaching. This time, I created more fun earrings for my store - 100% of net proceeds from the sales of two of the pairs will go to the International Elephant Foundation.

The tagua beads I used included round discs with top drill holes, bead caps and discus like beads with off centered top drill holes :

As usual, I try and design differently.  I used findings which are typically for round beads and placed them on the top for the pink tagua earrings.  I also flattened some pretty bead caps with my nylon hammer and glued them onto the tagua beads!



The orange bead cap style tagua beads were made in simple dangles with antique copper filigree bead caps and copper balls and then framed with a patinated copper oval.


The most fun I had was with the dark blue "discus" tagua beads.  I used some Fire Line to attach a small cluster of seed beads and metal bead caps to the ball head pin (now hidden).  I made large wrapped loops at the upper part of the head pin so the wire just peeks up from behind.  Remember the holes for these beads are off center.


Last but not least, check out this fairly recent picture of wonderful tagua bead carvings sent to me by reader Wayne Wiley, who has made a couple of trips down south to tagua factories. It's easy to see why he loves the beautiful creations.  Thanks Wayne for sharing!


Giveaway
If you would like to make tagua bead jewelry and perhaps do your part and raise awareness of the plight of elephants, then  have a go at this Ecuadorian Hands giveaway for  $40 worth of tagua beads. Please make a comment below. Make sure you leave contact info if you do not have an online shop or blog.

Subscribers need to click on the post title to come to my actual blog. Scroll down and enter your comment. Pick Name/URL. If you don't have a store or blog, leave the URL blank. 

This giveaway is international.

Extra entries if you become or are a blog subscriber or follower etc. If you also do shout outs about this giveaway, those will count as additional entries too! Please say so in the comments.

It ends in a week's time at 6 pm EST Monday,  June 9, 2014 . I will pick the winner randomly and announce the results as soon as possible after. So be sure to leave a contact email if you don't have an online link or make sure you come back and check! Otherwise I will redraw in a week. Good luck!

Disclosure

Before You Go:

 My Earring Design Ideas has all kinds of inspirational creative variations for making earrings. More tagua bead jewelry ideas here :
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips