Anyway, that kind of brings me to these earrings... :)
I don't often use gemstones in my work, even though I love them, and I don't do a lot of wire-wrapping these days either, though I also enjoy doing that as well. So these earrings use techniques I haven't made use of in a while.
My starting point was Cathleen Zaring's beautiful white-and-blue enameled copper crescents, a shape I love. To suspend components like these, I often knot tiny beads into thread instead of wrapping beads on metal. But a week or so ago I'd been digging around in my little trove of gemstones looking for some garnets and found a small bag of tiny, GORGEOUS blue neon apatite beads--and they looked great with the crescents. I also had a feeling that these rustic-cut little beads would look best wire-wrapped onto metal.
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So I made four copper connectors, darkened them with liver of sulfur, and then tumbled them for hours to give them a gorgeous gleaming chestnut brown color. Before I put all the parts together, I wrapped the apatite beads to the connectors with raw 26-gauge copper, and then attached the crescents to the connectors and to copper jump rings (which had also received the liver of sulfur and tumbling treatment). The teal blue niobium ear wires were the perfect final touch.
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| "Bon Apatite" can be found in my shop, Two Trees Studio. |
I really enjoyed making these blue beauties and sharing them with you. I also wonder how many of us might be feeling that pull of restlessness that I identify as the urge to grow and expand on a creative path. My love and best wishes go out to you all as we share our paths together!
xoxo
Meridy
