Hey, geekchick!

[pat]

Remember those earrings I was working on designing Friday afternoon?




It only took me eight hours total to design, construct, rip apart, redesign, reconstruct, tweak, and yell at until finished.

It's still not perfect, but I've run out of silver headpins, and so this has to wait to be refined until my order from Fire Mountain Gems comes in.

If any one is interested, they were made using sterliing silver head and eyepins (with s/s earwires) and 4mm s/s jump rings, 3 mm freshwater pearls, 2mm silver plated balls, carnelian and lapis lazuli chips, and 4mm round sodalite beads.

I am not completely happy with the final result -- I like the design but the execution could use some work.

Comments

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I noticed them on the side table today when I was at your house, and I said to Jay, "Oh wow - did Pat make these?" I was impressed :-)

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Thank you. One of the issues I was struggling with when I saw you on Friday was how to "lighten" the earrings -- they were too dense looking. The silver spacers took care of that. Then the big issue on Saturday were simply construction issues having to do with me still being a novice wirewrapper, and that my original design, which had the sides being in two sections, gave more movement but were less structurally sound. Also, I tended to keep working long past the point where I was too tired to work efficiently anymore, and made some really stupid mistakes that had to be corrected. (Note to self: when working on earrings, DO NOT work on a checked tablecloth. It just makes the eyes tired.)

I already know how I'm going to change them when I redo them: I am going to use more complete wraps (rather than simple rosary loops) as they are sounder, I am going to use more jump rings to hold things together so I can get more movement, and I am going to replace the chips in the body of the chandelier with 4 mm lapis and carnelian beads, leaving the chips in the dangles. I discovered that while wire wrapping makes it a bit hard to standardize distances, since I am not experienced enough to make consistent wraps, chips make it even harder. I also think I am going to replace the "T" with a drop going straight down from the top of the loop.

All in all, making them was a learning experience.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh wow... *envisions beads on checkered tablecloth* ;-)

And yeah, chips are really hard for standardizing distances. They're pretty, but they vary so much in shape and hole-length. I think that's a good idea, to leave them in the dangles and have just the regular round ones in the body.

You're really learning how the wire *moves*, it sounds like. And I struggle to get my wrapped-ends uniform too.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Also, we need to figure a trip to General Beads. There are things I realized I left out of my FMG order -- such as 2mm silver spacer beads : ) It would make a fun day trip.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I'd like that. What are some generally open times in your schedule?