Bingeing on Earrings.....

When I began my "adventure in metalwork" last summer, I gravitated to pins and pendants because whenever I DID try to create earrings with this approach (to formed and forged wire), the results as earrings seemed clunky.  But I kept trying and about a month ago, I was finally creating some shapes and forms that seemed more promising....I was so excited!  I think it's just been taking a LOT of practice to get this approach to really work for the "precise" ends I want to achieve, so today, I'm so happy to show of few of these new pieces that I decided did work well enough to put into my shop on Etsy....happy day!

Black Pearl plant shapes.

I have resolved two different designs so far.  The "leaf" or "plant" shapes are like many of the pins that I made earlier, the materials are just finer and smaller.

I look forward to trying this dangle design with different beads, different materials, different colors and different colors of metal.

Digging through my stash of older pearls and stones to find ovals, which has been fun, and of course, round shaped stones and beads are plentiful.

White pearls and this pair has already sold, yay!

But I had another "break through" in forms that seem to work with my metalwork, too!  Yesterday, I wrote about my "hoop" obsession, and guess what?  Hoops don't HAVE to be round!

This idea took a lot of tries to get all the parts to be as they should and to land where they must, so I need to keep working with it.  But here are a couple of ideas that seem to be going in the right direction.  They aren't very heavy at all, they seem to be very sturdy, and, well, it's kind of exciting!

Silver gray peacock freshwater pearls on hoop earrings

So of course, I keep going back to pearls because pearls are right near the top of my favorite materials of all.

Feather dangle earrings with purple amethysts

And in honor of the "earrings" section in my Etsy shop, which today reached the 100 mark, I also added a new version of my very popular "feather earrings" for women to wear when they are feeling just a little bit hippie or bohemian (showing my age, I know.)  I did an earlier version of this design in shades of turquoise and greenish blues with all natural stones and they have been quite a hit....so I thought I'd try them in shades of purple--natural amethyst--highlighted by some pretty amazing labradorite marquis, which have some surprising "flash" to them.

Finally, it DID snow here all afternoon so I'm hoping to try some snow photos tomorrow, since the word is our temps will get a little bit warmer, perhaps as hot at 27F....everything is relative....

Thanks for dropping by!

Back track to Hoops

If you check in now and then, perhaps you have noticed that I often work in series. That is, I don't usually just make one version of an idea but often explore many variations on a theme. The past summer, while I was working and not writing much, I became enamored with hoop earrings. In fact, I did about 4 different series featuring different design approaches to this shape.

Below, a few examples from my more simple design with a focus on gemstones wrapped around a nice size of hoop. All sterling hoops and wires and all semiprecious stones in the roundel shape.

Chrysoprase Big Hoop Earrings Wrapped with Silver

Amethyst Hoop Earrings Sterling and Phlox Purple Wrapped with Silver

Tiny Peach Coral Beads Wrapped on Sterling Silver Hoop Earrings

Ruby Big Hoop Earrings Wrapped with Silver

Peridot, carnelian, and crystals in a chakra rainbow are also in my shop with this shape of hoop. Pearls, garnets and other stones are still on my "to do" list. I think of this design as a staple in the sense that monochromatic pieces like these can be easily and frequently used--and do not necessarily need to "match" the color of one's outfit--in fact, as a counterpoint, it can really be a lot of fun!

Later, I'll show other directions that hoops have taken in my recent work, from simple to wild and crazy.

Speaking of wild and crazy, best wishes for a nice weekend--here in the Midwest, we are getting our first taste of sustained cold weather. A bit too early for my tastes.....