Wired up earrings

On August 3rd I did a post about playing around with wire bending.  Wire is something I haven't done much because I'm basically all thumbs and I have no desire to do detailed wire wrapping.  (Although I have to admire people who can do that.)

Since then my college roommate I did some during her visit and yesterday I got around to finishing some of the test pieces by making them into earrings.

Just thought I'd share......

They're finished

The copper slip trailed earrings are all done.  Mine were finished several days ago and Deb finished hers yesterday. 

The pictures don't do them justice.

Deb chose to add swan neck ear wires which add length to the earrings.

And, since I had drilled holes at the bottom of mine (remember I had no faith on how they were going to turn out) I added some blue/copper glass beads.

All wired up

Metal clay is a medium that makes use of so many different techniques, materials and tools.  As I've said before I think that is one of the reasons I am drawn to it.

Wire is used in jewelry for wrapping stones, stringing beads, and creating bent wire creations among other things.  (I'm not really a wire person..... all thumbs!)   It can be used for those purposes in metal clay also, but it can be used as a tool.

My last couple pair of earrings were made by bending 14 Ga. copper wire into a design, flattening it with the chasing hammer and rolling clay over it to make an impression.  (This technique can also be used to create a design for the copper/bronze inlay technique which I wrote about in an earlier post.)  It's great for earrings as the wire can be flipped for the second earring to create a mirror image.

Another technique involves bending the wire into a three dimensional form and draping the clay over it.  After drying, the wire is removed and the open side is inclosed with a slab of clay.  It's a little difficult to control what the finished form will look like.  (At least I found it difficult.)  

The two pieces shown here are both in the greenware state (dried but not fired.)  They also haven't told me yet what they want to look like when they're done.  (Remember my jewelry talks to me!)  That's why they look a little strange yet.   I drilled three holes into the bigger piece, intending to put copper, bronze and silver rods through it.    As usual, it's an organic form.