I'm Just Not Flashy

Earlier this week, I tried some new rolling mill textures.

An empty cereal box was removed from the recycling pile, and I cut out a collection of sort-of-flower shapes.

Sandwiched between two pieces of annealed copper, I cranked the flowers through my rolling mill and then cut out discs.

I like how my flowery discs look like a fun kind of currency, but since I want them to make real currency for me, I had to stop admiring these little coins and turn them into something else. 

I sell a lot of earrings during the holiday season, so earrings they shall become.

 

For a little dimension, I shaped the discs in my wooden dapping block.

I then took some of my sterling silver scrap and melted it into balls using my acetylene torch.

The sterling balls were soldered onto the formed discs and holes were drilled.

Because these discs are on the diminutive side, the drilling was not especially easy.

I probably should have done the drilling before the shaping, but I chose to wait until the sterling was soldered in place so that I could understand and complement the balance of each disc.  

Thinking that a simple design was the way to go, I made simple dangles with sterling wrapped freshwater pearls.

For a few seconds I thought the earrings were done, but then that bright copper spoke to me in an annoying way.

 

The discs were a little too bright for my liking, so out came the liver of sulfur.

A quick soaking turned both the copper and sterling black....

and cleaning with a fine grit sanding block followed by radial bristle discs highlights the metals in a much more appealing way.....

for me.

 

When I was at the Media Fine Arts & Crafts Festival in September, a woman stopped by my booth and spent a fair amount of time looking at the earrings in my display.

She told me that I really needed to make my earrings bigger and brighter...

"They need to be flashy!"

 

She would totally hate these earrings.