Skip to main content

Wire Wrapped Hoop Earrings in Silver and Copper


Circles are a definite theme in my life. It started when I was old enough to grab a crayon and scribble on a neighbour's wall. My Mum said they always knew when it was me because the circles gave me away. I still love circles and sometimes have to tell myself to NOT make another pair of disc earrings! Hoops are also a favourite and something I come back to often. I finished three pairs of hoop earrings this week, one pair in silver and two in copper.

I started with soldered hoops made with 2mm copper and silver wire and teamed them with some wire wrapping. I love coils of wire especially when it's oxidized and the contrast of dark and polished areas of metal really shows up.


 I normally like to make at least one pair in copper as it's useful for working out how much wire I'm going to need and I always find copper is easier than silver. I don't really know why other than maybe as it's much cheaper I'm not afraid to make a mistake ( I think that probably is the reason!) I actually made two pairs in copper. This pair has 4mm green grass turquoise beads added to the earwires for a bit of colour. The second copper pair has unakite beads threaded onto the earwires which is a beautiful coloured stone - a mix of olive green and brick red and looks fab with oxidized copper.



I then made a silver pair because you just have to..... I added some turquoise jasper beads to the earwires which is a favourite coloured stone of mine. It's a bright sea-green turquoise colour and as I've had the beads for so long I can't remember where I bought them but I think it was maybe Lima Beads.



I really enjoyed making these earrings. I started out making wirework jewellery several years ago with a bit of basic wire wrapping before I moved onto more metalwork type stuff so it was nice to do something relatively easy.
I went a bit coil-tastic this week and have also made a silver and copper bangle both with soldered coil decorations. I love the addition of coils to bangles and I'm planning to make myself three silver coil bangles as a belated birthday treat to myself. 

As soon as I have photographed the copper version of the coil bangle (Tuesday is looking good weather-wise) I will write a post about them 

Comments

  1. I'm so relieved to learn that there is someone else who is truly drawn to making circular/disc jewelry. I love the shape and the comfort of no sharp protrusions but I have been told that my frequent use of discs is laziness on my part. I love my jeweler's saw as much as the next person but sometimes, a circle is what I *want*!

    ReplyDelete
  2. These designs are beautiful! Isn't it funny how we all have a style we keep going back to?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your comments.
    I think we need to start a circle club!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those are some seriously gorgeous earrings - look forward to seeing the bangle. The weather was stunning yesterday - was in the UK - back in Switz. now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice earings ! This will also look good in bracelet or anklet. It can be wear on every outfit. Like it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your comments and questions are very welcome!
If you would prefer to contact me directly please use the contact form on my "get in touch" page.

Popular posts from this blog

Combining Soldering And Enamel

The need to make cute, brightly coloured enamel studs propelled me into the world of combining soldering with enamel a couple of years ago. I knew from reading up on it that it was possible to enamel and solder on the same piece but wasn't too confident I was able to do it back then. It was a slightly embarrassing occurance that made me just get on with - I'd made some enamel studs with glued on stud posts. I'd used 2 part epoxy resin which was a job in itself as it set hard after 5 minutes so I had to keep mixing more up. The finished studs looked ok but that little voice in my head kept asking "are you sure you want to use glue?" I wasn't but didn't think I had any other way to do it so I used glue. I sold my first pair and merrily sent them on their way to Canada. A couple of week later the buyer got in touch to say the stud post had come off one of the earrings and the other was hanging off. I was mortified, apologized profusely and refunded her m...

Torch Enamelling - What I've been Up To Recently!

I've admired enamelled jewellery for a while now and not too long ago did a blog post about Etsy seller tekaandzoe  and her wonderful kiln enamelled creations. I didn't think at the time that it was something I would ever be able to do as the cost of kilns plus lack of space would be a problem for me. That wasn't until I saw an advert for a torch enamelling tutorial from US jewellery supplies website Beaducation  by Steven James . It's a great tutorial showing the basics on how to torch enamel on copper. Of course I bought it! I then spent hours scouring the internet for more information on torch enamelling, where to buy the tools I'd need and of course the enamel powders. There are quite a few UK sites selling enamelling supplies and tools but as usual I found the US sites had more choice (why do we always lag behind?) I bought some enamel powders from a couple of UK sites to begin with - Cookson Gold have a good selection but bear in mind th...

Etching Silver Using Nail Art Stamps

So my love/hate relationship with etching sterling silver continues. I've tried a few times now and always end up with different results most of them not that great to be honest. I've tried connecting the silver and a piece of copper to a 9v battery and also heating the ferric nitrate. Sometimes the results are good sometimes not so good. I currently have an etched piece of silver sheet waiting to be reticulated and rid it of the mess that is the etched "pattern".  I now know that using stamps and Stayz On ink just doesn't work with silver - the time needed to etch using ferric nitrate is much longer than etching copper and the ink starts to wear away after about an hour. This results in the pattern being patchy as the resist is eaten away and the silver ends up quite lumpy and course looking. I have yet to try using pnp paper. I don't know why but it all seems a bit of a faff to do. I don't have a laser printer so would need to find somewhere or...