Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Grapevine Earrings--Inside & Out

I was hoping to include two pairs of earrings in this posting, both pairs showing off the beads from Gayle's "Kit and Caboodle Shop" destash collection, but while the spirit was willing, the eyes were weak.   


After working on jewelry all day yesterday, working at the computer at my "other job" all evening, my dry eyes were so blurry, I could barely see!   So, I limited myself to what was finished last night and what was finished was one pair of earrings.  I photographed them indoors last night and again outside today, so you have some comparison shots of them in different lighting.  (When there are 2, indoors is to the left.)




I think of them as my "grape vine" earrings. 



The bead caps and topaz green freshwater pearls are from "Kit and Caboodle."  The purple gemstones I already had.  Above the purple stones (which are a deeper color than they appear here), are green-ish crystals and  hanging alongside the pearls are small lime-green glass crystal dangles too.





When Beadbug recommended putting a patina finish on the bright copper wire in the last post, I immediately thought of these earrings, which were already in progress. I've already mixed oxidized brass bead caps with bright copper wire in this piece.  I think that toning down the copper with patina would be an improvement.  For anyone interested, I did some searching on this process and found there are several methods.  These same approaches are mentioned on various websites, but this one seems straightforward:


I'm just left wondering about timing.  Is now the right time in the process of making the piece to oxidize the copper?   Should it have been done earlier?  Can I do this without damaging the pearls?

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      Critique Time!   
  • Please tell me what you think.   How could I improve on these earrings?   
  • Did you prefer the indoor or outdoor photography?  Why?  Any tips on how to make either better?
Thanks and more thanks!  --Sharyl


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A special warm welcome to a follower who recently joined us!  You will recognize her name because she's been mentioned on these pages, contributed,  and her work has been shown here many times!   She is TracyBell, "Beadbug," from "Copper, Glass and Recycled Trash" fame!  She's the maker of the "Funky Rainbow Ribbon Beads" I keep referring to, and a doer of good deeds!  Welcome, Tracy, and thanks so much for participating!

5 comments:

Mary C said...

I liked reading Gayle's post and stopped here to see more of what you make. Wow, gorgeous earrings!
I love purple!
It's hard to photograph jewelry sometimes. Well, I think so anyway. I've played around indoor/outdoor shots. Recently, a friend got me a light box which I'm going to play around with and see what neat effects that will give.

Great job on the necklace you made below too.

Sharyl said...

Thank you, Mary! I'm glad you've come to visit. Feel free to "camp out" if you like--we'd love the company!

Another thank you goes to Gayle for highlighting my jewelry on her "This Artist's Journey" blog! Much appreciated!

G.Dowell said...

Hi Sharyl! I love your earrings and the contrast between the green and the purple. Also love the mixed metals. They do have a strong grape vine feel.

I wouldn't try to oxidize this pair of earrings as the pearls may not take well to the process. You may want to patina your metal before you assmble although you may get unwanted marks from your tools on the patina. I think the safest way would be to use the hard boiled egg method. I did a post on that using sterling. You didn't have to let the egg touch the metal. It may be the safest way to oxidize after assembly.

Here are the results I had:
http://thisartistsjourney.blogspot.com/2009/08/easy-and-safe-way-to-oxidize-sterling.html

I would love to feature these in the near future if you don't mind.

Thanks so much Sharyl!

Sharyl said...

I'd be honored to have these on your site, Gayle! And thank you for the helpful response to my patina questions. I'm heading straight to your blog entry next!

Sharyl said...

I read over your page on oxidizing metal, Gayle, and found it very helpful! Then I just kept on reading... (As a librarian, I can't help but appreciate the index you have going on the right side of your site! And it's making me rethink the "labels" I've applied to my own entries.)

I started hopping from one entry to another on topics I've been wanting to learn more about (metal clay, for example). I found so much helpful information there!

Then I wandered off and found more of your tutorials and other information on Squidoo. You can bet I'll be visiting again to learn more! I'd encourage others starting out to do the same!