This Friday is the official launch of June's Earring Drop. I'm very excited to present these new earrings to you. I've created four new pairs of earrings, each with their own unique personalities. I thought I'd use this week to talk about each one individually to explain my process as well as the concept behind each piece.
The first pair I made this month were called Starry-Eyed and they were designed to convey that feeling of falling in love. I have always romanticized the past, but this time I wanted to dive into this idea of falling in love with the future. The idea was to make something look a little more contemporary, combine it with designs from the past, so that the overall look could take us into the future. The future, to me, has to learn from the past and present in order for good change to be made.
I was inspired to make earrings that came in both a draft form, and as a 'final' piece. Normally, most jewelers create their drafts in copper. The edges are left to be rough and the pieces aren't wearable. I decided it would be a cool idea to make my draft a wearable piece so I made it from bronze and then cleaned all the edges to make them polished and wearable.
The bronze draft version helped me to figure out how to recreate the design in silver more efficiently and with accuracy. I was able to figure out my flaws in terms of working. For the silver version, I reserved all the drama. I had purchased some high-quality diamonds in 2019, got very intimidated by them and never used them. I decided to try my hand at incorporating them into this design and I was actually able to flush set them into the pupils of the eyes. I was so thrilled because I hadn't set a faceted gemstone in a few years and I was afraid that I'd mess up the project, or somehow ruin the diamonds.
I also experimented with silver wire. The cube form that I made appears as if it's floating on the wire, but I made this design so that the cubes and the wires meet at very specific points. It was a challenge that was really intriguing and I've since tried to use wire work in my designs.
The reverse of the cubes is completely hollow so these earrings are lightweight and wearable for everyday. Even though they are more likely to be worn to a cocktail party or to a fancy soirée, I wanted to make sure that they were comfortable enough to be worn for the day-to-day activities as well.
Here's a gallery of the process, along with the finished result and how they look worn. The bronze version has already sold, but the silver version will become available this Friday, June 25th at 7am MST. I am offering my subscribers a 10% discount this time. If you're apprehensive about signing up, I only send out email once a month and of course you can unsubscribe easily whenever you wish.
Thanks so much for reading and take care,
Caitlin