Hand Forged Earrings

Lately I'm obsessed with hammering.  I did some prototype earrings for my new "green" line.  They're green because upcycled parts are used.  In this case, the large rings started out as aluminum spacers in computer hard drives.  I textured them with my hammer. The aluminum makes the earrings ultra lightweight and easy to wear. 



They debuted at Red River Revel and sold well.  I'm going to keep making them as long as I can get the spacers. 

Next I moved on to some sterling silver wire.  These feature hand forged earwires, along with the hand forged earring drop.



I played around and made several different styles of drops as well as several styles of earwires.  Some were antiqued with liver of sulphur and some I left shiny.  These debuted at the Friends and Family show at the Calico Cat and happily sold well.




Above are some of the new forged wire earrings and findings.  The leverbacks and headpins at 1-2 o'clock are commercial.  Everything else was made by me.  These have been antiqued but not yet polished.

Here's a group of the earrings at the Friends and Family show at the Calico Cat.



These aren't hand forged but they do have some wire wrap.  I love making the wrapped donut earrings.  It's hard to find the small earring sized donuts that match, and so far the colors and type of stone I've been able to find is very limited.  The pea pod earrings were wrapped by me using a Hilltribe silver leaf as the pod.  I had to bend the leaf a little and file some notches in it to keep the wire from slipping. 



I'm working on my goals/resolutions post for 2010.  What are your goals?

It's almost time to turn on the TV and watch the ball drop.  Happy New Year everyone!

Happy Holidays & Thinking Ahead to Next Year

I'm back.  I hope everyone is having a merry Christmas, bright Yule, happy Hannukah, blessed Ashura, and joyous Kwanza. 

It's the day after Christmas and we're actually only partway through our Christmas celebration. 

It's been a weird season for me.  For one thing, I did a major amount of my shopping on the 23rd.  Usually I have it done much earlier.  Due to homeschooling this year I couldn't take off and go shopping as I did last year.  I've been feeling really unorganized and am just now beginning to feel relaxed. 

Stefan and I were out of town for a week and didn't get back until the 22nd.  Dad had some surgery and we went to my parents' to help out.  Dad's recovering quickly.

Christmas we went to my brother's for a get-together.  Five of his six kids made it, with the sixth coming later on (after we left). Luckily the snow on Christmas Eve melted at dawn or before.  We don't get much snow here.  Our relatives in Oklahoma City had 14 inches! Whoa!

We have a couple more day trips to make between now and the 1st so we can visit with family.

I've been thinking about my new year's resolutions and reviewing last year's.  I'm working on my list.  

 Thanks to The Graphics Fairy for the vintage illustration above.  Check out her awesome copyright free graphics.