February Mini-Challenge: Hearts

I have a hard time designing with hearts.

There, I said it. 

I know that a lot of jewelry designers really enjoy working with hearts, but I'm not one of them. In fact, a couple years ago, one of my Wonder and Whimsy Monthly Challenges was to design with them. (The results of that challenge can be seen here.)

At the beginning of this month, I thought I would revisit that challenge. After all, it's the month of Valentine's Day, and I really really wanted to make a new line of jewelry to debut on my Etsy store. (Yep, I'm working on revitalizing my Etsy store, too.)

The two main criteria of this challenge: 

1. Include hearts

2. Make something that I actually like

To my surprise, I had some success! And thus my February Romance Collection was born.

I had more ideas than I had time, and I rushed to get these made and listed to my store before Valentine's Day. I was successful, though--these all went live last week. Hurray!

Truth be told, I really enjoyed tackling this challenge. I think keeping things on the daintier, less-elaborate side really helped me appreciate the heart's form, making it easier to keep them from getting gaudy or chintzy or over the top. Well, except for the giant brass heart. That one was just fun.

All right, time for me to go make lunch. Thanks, everyone, for stopping by. I enjoyed this little mini-challenge format... I might have to try this again sometime.

Happy February, everyone!