Handmade Thursday

I love earrings but have always shied away from making my own hooks until recently when I bought a book* offering a myriad of wire earring ideas. I own a beautiful pair of sterling silver earrings that I bought in Sweden several years ago that consist of a single wire bent in half with a loop at one end from which dangles a tiny silver ball. Inspired by them and guided by the book here are my first entirely-made-by-me earrings!

Take ten centimetres of wire, turn a tiny loop at one end, add some beads, bend the wire at right angles in the middle above the beads then use your fingers to smooth one or both sides into a pleasing curve. Finish off by carefully filing the tip of the wire smooth so it won't tear or scratch your ear.  Also ensure that the loops face the same way on each earring, I noticed when photographing this pair that mine don't quite match!

These wires are silver plate as I didn't want to waste any expensive sterling wire but I am so pleased with the result I think I now trust my self to remake them in sterling silver.




For more Handmade Thursday ideas click on the image to the right

* The book is called 101 Wire Earrings by Denise Peck and is published by Interweave ISBN: 9781596681415

A Small Disaster Averted

It's been a while since I made any earrings at all but recently when working on an as yet unfinished silver clay project I had a scrap of rolled out clay left. Having impressed it with a swirly texture I hand cut two tiny squares and pierced each piece of damp clay close to one corner.

Once dry the result was a bit of a disaster. Sadly I realised that the texture was somewhat marred by my pawprints! The two disappointing squares sat on my workbench accusing and challenging me everytime I sat down to work for several weeks. Silver clay is expensive and I really felt I'd wasted these particular pieces. Then inspiration struck, I could cover up the fingerprints with more clay...

Holding both dangles together I sanded their edges to ensure both pieces were a similar shape and size. Next I brushed the fronts with a little thin paste to dampen them before using a syringe to add some random squiggles to each. Once dry, torch fired and brushed, a little burnishing picked out the top layers of squiggles so they gleam when worn.

There was another small hiccup when I realised that the hole on one of the resulting dangles wasn't quite large enough all the way through for a jump ring. Twenty minutes patient work with a needle file and a beadreamer and this was soon rectified. So all in all my beginner mistakes were overcome, lessons were learnt and a potential disaster averted. And as a bonus I now have a shiney new pair of earrings to wear! I just need to practise my photography...

Musings on Dangly Earrings

Why do you like your favourite earrings? Thinking about why I wear some pairs more than others I realised that, apart from a favourite pair of crsytal and silver studs that look like expensive diamonds, most of my frequently worn ones are articulated in some way. They don't have to be long, just have movement. Olive green drops that have two silver set cabochons linked by a single jump ring or the pair of plain silver wire inverted V's with a silver ball strung from  one end of each V that I found in a gallery in Sweden.

So how to make my own earrings that dangle satisfyingly? The red pair on the left are simply too long and catch in clothing though I love wearing them.

Then I hit on the idea of incorporating a short length of chain into the design. Two or three head pins threaded with tiny seed beads or bugle beads in colours to match a necklace or outfit. Make them different lengths and finish each of the longest ones with a wrapped loop. Join the shortest one to a few links of fine chain using another wrapped loop. Gather all of the pieces together on a jump ring and attach the earring hook. The picture rightt shows some summery pairs.

Shorter but still with movement are these hoops which are seed beads on tiger tail with a crimp on either side of a focal bead to hold the circle in place. They swing just enough when attached to the earing hook by an oversized jump ring. Simple and fast to make, I now have several sets.

Other prefences for earrings anyone?