Squirrels and Eggs

I had high hopes to get a LOT of jewelry designing tonight, but... we caught a squirrel in a trap on our roof (the squirrel was in our ceiling) so we had to take him on a road trip. Then in a not-so-rare of impulsive non-future planning kindness, I promised to make a cake for my friend's birthday tomorrow. I remembered to buy the cake mix and frosting, but I forgot the eggs. So another trip out. BUT ANYWAY,

I actually sat down afraid that I would have no idea of what to make. But that quickly passed. I've been wanting to try these for a while, and finally did:

These are self locking hoops with silver beads. They are not sterling silver, just in full disclosure, but they LOOK like it. In this picture, they look more black/gray, but in real life they are sparkly silver. These are not huge - a little over an inch in diameter and look very sophisticated. They actually sort of look like diamonds because they really reflect the light. In all honesty, I have two beefs with this design. One - I have to make them in 20 gauge wire because it really is the most comfortable gauge to put in your ear. I make all my earwires in 20 gauge. However, in this design, it makes the rest of the earring a little flimsy, in my opinion. It wont' start drooping or anything, but you have to be careful when you handle them or you can bend them out of shape. I mean, you would sort of have to try, but still. My other beef is that they are a little tricky to put in your ear. It's not my fault - it's just the nature of them (I guess). At any rate, I plan on fixing both of those problems. There has to be a way of "work hardening" the metal without hammering (I can't hammer these or the beads won't fit on). And I'm sure I can find a workaround for the "hard to fit in the ear" problem.

Anyway, the beads are fire polished czech silver beads. I can hear the question "can't you do them with sterling silver beads?" Yes, of course I can, but they would be very very pricey. Another alternative would be silver plated brass, but that would make them heavier (but probably not too heavy). In all honesty, I've put sterling silver, silver plated brass and the fire polished glass in a lineup and even I can't tell the difference (and I'm pretty darn smart).

Here's the first item in my new "mini" collection:

These are like teeny tiny versions of my "glass of pinot"s  but with gorgeous little saucer shaped apatite beads. They're miniature teardrops. My original idea was to do 3 of these on each side and hang them with different lengths of silver chain, so they look like raindrops. That is actually still my plan, but I only had time to do 2 and couldnt' resist putting them on earwires to see how they looked. I actually think they are adorable and wore them to work yesterday.

A note on the paperclip earrings. I do want to tweak these a bit, but I wore these to work today and nobody could believe that I actually made them! It's actually pretty ironic, because they are probably the simplest design out there. I mean, it's a piece of wire, bent, and hammered on one side. Granted, it's a little tricky to get the proportions exactly right and to make them easy to put in the ear (always a challenge!), but everyone thought they were totally too hard for me to make. So cool. : ) They actually did look pretty awesome BUT I have some work yet to do. I may still get to it tonight. You never know.

Tomorrow I hope to do more and Saturday. Sunday we are heading to Brattleboro Vermont for my birthday weekend ( a week early). We got a coupon for a hotel on Groupon. : ) Never been to Vermont before so it should be fun. Maybe I'll bring my wire and plyers and see if I get inspired (wow, that kind of rhymed!)