an earring a day

Would it be fun to have a different pair of earrings for each and every day of the year? This was a thought one day. And then I wondered, what would it be like to actually design an earring a day for a year? I had to think about that.  

Maybe a little wacky, and somewhat of a time committment, but, on the other hand a year-long opportunity to play with wire techniques and designs to make little pieces of art (I sometimes think of an earring design as sculpture in miniature). Irresistable, as creative opportunities usually are for me. An idea too good to waste. I decided to go with it.

This is a leap year. Because of that i'll be designing all of 366 earrings this year; one a day, and each one different. 366 unique earring designs. I’ve already sketched some ideas into my notebook and have worked up a few designs. It’s looking good- so far! 

Join me for some earring fun! Sign up to get your earring-a-day post in email (see the column over on the right) or subscribe to use your blog reader.

designer notes: necklace backs

Designing the front of a necklace or a pendant is all about creating a focal point; a small piece of art that will draw the viewers eye or make the wearer feel special. Or both. More often than not, the focal point is where the necklace begins. Next comes designing a strand and a clasp that will compliment the focal point and really make it shine.

There are plenty of choices for the necklace strand! Probably the most obvious is a strand of beads, and this is the one I turn to most often. So many, many choices in the world of beads! My favorites are semi-precious stones. Natural (undyed) ones present an incredible range of subtle shades in all the hues of the rainbow. When bead shopping I scarf them up by the handful in 4mm and 6mm rounds. These exit my stash quicker than anything else, which says how useful they are.

Necklace backs include a plain neck ring,
a bead strand, dowel knitted rope,
and a Peyote tube bead

There are plenty of other beads I love also like freshwater and glass pearls. Cloisonné, assorted styles of glass beads, etcetera, etcetera. I also collect crystal, pewter, silver and gold beads in rounds and flat shapes. They're good for spacers or accents within a strand, and for bead links, drops, and ear wires if I’m making matching earrings.

A plain wire neck ring is the quickest and easiest hanger for a pendant. You can work out a variety of shapes for making one, although a plain round shape might be considered a basic style.

Since learning to knit on a dowel (see chapter 5 in The Art of Wire), this technique has become a special favorite of mine for making sleek and sophisticated-looking neck ropes. Put an arty wire-worked pendant on one and the whole piece looks upscale in a hurry. It takes time to make one and some would consider that a drawback- it’s not exactly a money-maker craft fair item.

There are a few other, and simple, solutions to creating a neckpiece including using a fabric ribbon, or cordings of leather, rubber, fiber or other material, or purchased chain.

The final, finishing touch is a clasp. This can be positioned at the center back of a strand, or at the side. If you take the time to plan this and echo some part of the focal point in the design of the clasp, you get to bypass the final exam. Seriously, its worth doing; your necklace will be a piece of art from focal point to finish.

jewelry display

On display at the public library here in Limerick, Maine is the jewelry featured in The Art of Wire. The exhibit will be there until the end of December. Jennifer did a beautiful job of setting up the display (thanks, Jen!), with colorful turquoise-y fabric and black velvety jewelry stands.

I’m very pleased to be following an exhibit of the drawings of Michael Chute, husband of author, Carolyn Chute (she wrote “The Beans of Egypt, Maine," among other novels). I love Michael’s drawings, they are full of character!

Our library, in addition to its many literary services is our local art gallery. The talent that has been displayed there is awe-inspiring. For this small village out here in the boonies, the amount of creativity that is happening all around us is amazing.

If you happen to be in the area (and I know that is a stretch), do stop in and put your name in the jar for the free book drawing. Yes! You heard that right; a free book for one lucky person!

earring stands

earring stand

I had gotten near the end of a reel of 16 gauge brass wire and it had been hanging out on my workbench for some time with its ends sticking out and getting in the way of things. I was starting to get tired of looking at it. It’s the yellow-y kind of brass, not the warmer merlin's gold, so it seemed to be calling for a non-jewelry type of project.

Our local public library is graciously offering to put my jewelry on display alongside the book, The Art of Wire. The pieces will be arranged inside a glass display case. As I haven’t any type of display for the earrings to hang on, an idea hit me that would be perfect for using up the 16 gauge wire. Earring stands! Creative-looking wiry stands for displaying original wire jewelry. Why not? The stands might add a unique touch. 

So, after a few sketches, and some tries that were scrapped, (designing is like that- it can take a few tries to get the brain cells to sort out the rubbish and land on something good), what you see here is what transpired. 

earring stand detail

There are two stands; one has six hanging wires, and the other four. Each consists of individual lengths of 16 gauge wire bundled together and wrapped with 24 gauge wire. The "feet" are the wires shaped into curves and wired together with wraps. All wires begin and end with a small loop to finish the ends. For decoration, lengths of 20 gauge wire were hammered, then entwined along the stems.

...and the reel of 16 gauge wire? Entirely used up. Fait accompli!

How would you make a wire earring stand? What would your design look like?

were you a beginner once?

How well i remember getting started with jewelry designing! That historical event took place maybe ten years ago. Initial experiments involved stringing bracelets and necklaces, and an accumulating collection of interesting beads and findings. i’ve observed that that is where many jewelry makers get their start. It’s a great place to begin! Fall in love with beads! What could be better?! 

Spools of wire

Soon after, wanting to make matching earrings, i found i had to learn how to make bead drops. Those required wire. And that seemed to be when wire started to edge its way into my creative consciousness. Wire bending led to the discovery that ear wires were simple to make. Then i began to replace other bought findings with those of my own design. It all came together when i grasped that handmade findings could complete a piece of jewelry, where bought ones in the same place seemed like foreign objects. A piece then had a creative totality that had not existed before. 

After a lifelong experience with fiber arts; mostly embroidery, crazy quilting, and knitting; working with wire was a little different. For awhile i could only think about what it would NOT do. It would not relax and sew itself into the contortions i tried to consign to it. Instead of becoming pliable as i bent, wrapped, and coiled, it got more resistant. Until i learned to be a neat-freak about filing off burs, band-aids were constantly on the shopping list. And i ran through so many twenty-foot spools of wire i don’t know why it took so long to figure out the stuff has to be bought in quantity. In pounds, that is, not feet.

The whole experience with wire seemed at times dysfunctional. But new ideas kept coming into my head. There was no stopping the ideas! Falling asleep at night with jewelry ideas roaming through my head seemed to lead to waking up in the morning with variations on those ideas plus some new ideas.  

Proudly, i can now say that me and wire have worked through our differences. Learning is a process. It has its curves, ins, and outs; and sometimes you just have to assign it some down-time. Do something else. Rethink. And then jump back on the old apple cart and go for the next challenge of working out a new design idea. But, after even a short time away, picking up the chain nose feels like taking hold of an old friend.

the many textures of wire

Three pieces, three textures

One thing i really love about working with wire is the variety of textures that can be gotten by using different techniques. This idea was a big part of the thinking behind The Art of Wire.

These three pieces show three different results because of the techniques used to make them. The cuff at the left is rustic-looking with loosely twisted wires and uneven wraps. It's an early piece and was an experiment in working with twisted wire and wrapping. It seems to have an innocent kind of rustic appeal. The other two pieces are in the book- they show the textures gotten from hammering wire and using fine wire in dowel knitting.  

heartstones bracelet

Heartstones bracelet with Autumn Jasper beads

The Heartstones bracelet is one of the freebies mentioned in the column over to the side of this page. There were too many projects for the book so f+w media graciously offered to present them as free bonuses to readers. A welcome idea as some of us might like free stuff...!  

Do you like the Autumn Jasper stones in this? This stone has the gorgeous colors of fall: mossy greens, appley reds, and there's some beigey-ness going on in there too. Semi-precious beads are natural stones (unless they have been dyed). There are a very many types, and some very beautiful ones. Wonderful to put into jewelry because they seem to go with anything. I love working with them. 

Earring of heart beads links

Will you make some earrings to go with the bracelet? Maybe a simple wrapped drop with a coil underneath? Or a loop and a heart and another loop and another heart and another... oh, you get it. And maybe add an apple-red bead to highlight the reds. Or two. Mmm, so many options...