The chosen theme for the We’re All Ears earring design challenge this month is “frozen” as in, that’s how folks were feeling when the “Polar Vortex” swooped down from the Arctic and brought record-breaking cold weather to much of the United States.  The challenge is to design earrings inspired by the freezing cold.

I happen to love freezing cold weather, partly because it’s the only time I don’t suffer from pollen allergies.  Also, I love snow, and boots, and sweaters, and scarves, and winter hats. The winters where I live have been getting shorter and milder over the past decade, and as I write this, we’ve already had one day above 70F. The tree pollen is already affecting me. But, we did have a week or so of frozen weather, and a decent snowfall this year, though not at the same time.  I was much more excited about these things than most of my friends and co-workers.  Which is a very long way of saying, I have no trouble being inspired by the idea of being cold.

Frosty Blue snowflake charms paired with fluted Czech glass melons, faceted glass rondelles, and Swarovski bicones on antiqued brass wire.  The snowflake charms are polymer clay with a faux ceramic glaze effect.  They’re available in my shop on etsy.

Being inspired by frozen landscapes is easy. At first glance, you might think ice and snow are white and stark. But when you look closer, you see colors of the sky and surrounding landscape reflected in the frozen water, especially in the shadows they cast.  Everything from blues and greens to pinks and purples make an appearance in frozen scenes.

Cool Wintergreen snowflake charms with stacks of coordinating teal green glass beads on antiqued brass wire.  You can find this pair of earrings in my shop on etsy.

If you’d like to make some Frozen earrings of your own, I have sets of these glazed snowflake charms in the “Bead Shop” section of my shop on etsy. They’re available in blue, wintergreen, and lavender, as shown in the first photo above.

These snowflake earrings happen to have coordinating necklaces.  I know, I know.  This challenge is about making earrings not necklaces.  But I really wanted to share the necklaces with you because I’m rather pleased with how they turned out.

Spearmint and Wintergreen snowflake necklaces. The snowflake connectors and crystal point dangles are made from polymer clay. Both are available in my shop on etsy.

I’m probably in the minority, but I’m hoping for at least a few more weeks of winter weather.  And one more substantial snowfall.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate spring blooms and greenery.  It’s just easier for me to love a season that doesn’t make me sneeze and itch.

Polymer clay icicle headpins on dark annealed steel wire with cracked glass beads. These earrings were actually made for a “white” theme challenge earlier this winter, but I wanted to share them because the “white” thing I had in mind when making them – icicles –  was also frozen.

Many thanks to Erin for the inspiring challenge theme. Be sure to hop over to the Earrings Every Day blog to see how she interpreted the theme.  And then follow the links at the end of her post to see more “frozen” inspired earring designs by other participating artists.