wire! bend it. twist, hammer, wrap it. put some beads on it, connect, coil it. wear it.
the wiry art of creating jewelry. the artful wire art of jewelry.
the art and soul of creating. wire entwines. art and wire soul...

12 November 2011

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?