Arabian Nights

A Lantern in the Desert

I've been thinking about this design for a few weeks now. I'm loving the idea of folded, "3D" shapes, especially for earrings, where the back of the earring is often visible--I like the idea that it would be beautiful from the back, too (they look virtually identical from the back). I sketched out these shapes and cut them from raw sheet using my snips, jewelry saw and disc cutter:

Then I etched them, antiqued them, and when I folded them into their final shape, I added hanging loops and closed them at the top with tube rivets. I spent all day trying to decide on the colors for these earrings!

Here is the back of these earrings--as you can see, they look just like the front:

All the beads are Czech glass, in mossy green and "alexandrite." I've been enjoying looking for inspiration lately in Moorish architecture, and in particular the tile work in traditional Iranian buildings (oh the colors! you must check out this page), and was excited when these turned out looking exotically Middle-Eastern. Jewels for Scheherazade! Or Jeannie in her bottle.

This second pair is more of an onion dome shape, and I created the central holes with my disc cutter. I again etched and antiqued them, and then added the hanging loops when I folded it up and riveted it closed at the top.

Taj Mahal

The little roundels on the earwires are Czech glass in a wonderful Grand Marnier color; the rounds inside the windows are red agate; and the drops at the bottom are garnet.

I like how they are softly pillowed. The sheet is 26 gauge, and etched aggressively, so these are quite light. Like the first pair, they are virtually identical from the back. As with the earrings in my last post, I used digital patterns from Aesthetic Addiction on Etsy, applied with Press n Peel blue sheets using a household clothes iron, and then etched with ferric chloride.

Stay tuned for more shapes from the East!