Earring adventures in polymer

Whoa, these last few weeks just flew by! I’ve been sewing but haven’t had much time to blog or take pictures. I finally have time to write now and I took a bunch of pictures earlier this afternoon so there will be more posts following this one.

So, I promised to show you some earrings I made back in February. Here they are:

I was playing with this rounded triangular shape, trying to figure out how to make it work best for my needs. I don’t like it as a stud because it’s too large for how stiff it is. But it’s perfect as a drop. Now the question was how to attach it to the earring finding. I started out with an interchangeable style – by making a hole large enough to accommodate a small hoop. This works well because I have some metal allergies and earrings that I can wear comfortably have been few and far between. Then I thought, what about a small stud with an attached drop? I had some titanium findings that would work for this style so I gave it a try – it’s the pair on the right. Now that I’ve been wearing both styles for a while, I have a slight preference for the interchangeable style, for no reason I can actually articulate.

It’s not really obvious from the picture above but the green pair on the left is flat and the black/green pair in the middle is shaped on a curve. I prefer this 3-D effect so all subsequent pairs are also curved. (I prefer it not just visually but also because it makes the drops easier to pick up.)

Another earring style I tried is the fishhook – several pairs above, including the teal ones, are made like this. The findings are titanium again – comfortable for my ears. This style requires a second curing to get the eyepin incorporated into the drop. That’s a bit of extra work but totally worth it, I think.

The red earrings in the bottom row have a necklace to go with them. Like this:

I made these pieces following Martina Burianova’s tutorial. Her gorgeous photography and easy-to-follow instructions made it a breeze. Her technique requires a lot of waiting for things to dry and/or cure between steps and I apparently don’t have quite enough patience, hehe. Do check out her work – it is breathtakingly gorgeous.

And that’s all I have tonight. This weekend, I’ll tell you about my recent sewing projects.

See you soon!