Sculpted copper wire earrings

I've been on vacation in Los Angeles for the last few days and not had a chance to post earring designs. But now I'm back on line and will be posting a bunch of new styles in the next few days.

I made this pair last month, for Mother's Day. The red beads are pressed glass hearts, hung on fine copper chain. The "free form" wire dangle with the large copper bead was harder than I expected. I was inspired by a pair in a book -- where the author made it sound effortless to sculpt a pleasing wire shape. But it's actually tricky to come up with something that doesn't just look like a mistake, like you were trying to make something else and this is what you got. In the end, I think, the key was thinking about the center of gravity of the earring, so that although the dangle isn't symmetric, it is balanced and hangs straight. It was also tricky to make two "free form" shapes that matched, for a pair of earrings, but that was a technical challenge, not a design challenge. Anyway, I was rather pleased with how these came out in the end. The shape of the curve is the reverse of the curve of an ear, so it complements the ear well. The big copper beads are hollow, so the earrings aren't too heavy, either.