(Almost) Everyday Earrings

Like that pair of jeans or sandals that fit and feel just right, we all have a favorite pair of earrings. A pair that seems to have adapted itself to our lifestyle. They're always right where we left them, never put away, always within easy reach, waiting to be put on just before we walk out the door. And if we forget them, it's ... What am I missing? My purse? My keys? Phone? Oh ... I didn't finish dressing! I don't have my earrings on! My ears are naked!

Enamel Black Bar Earrings

 Like lost puppies that arrive uninvited and unannounced; they insinuate themselves into our lives, only to become indispensable identifiers of our mood and style and personality.

So I began thinking about how a piece of jewelry could assume such a role in one's persona. It's not just one thing. Like all good things in life, music, art ... wine, earrings must appeal to a variety of pleasurable and virtuous instincts.

1)  Color. They had to be neutral - but with the ability to accent and stand out. Only black can do that for me; against any shade or color of fabric, under any tone and style of hair.

2) Shape. They must fit my facial shape and offer balance and proportion to my neck.

3) Comfort. So comfortable ... like a ring, remembered only in its absence.

4) Style. Ambiguity is the magical ingredient here: both casual and dressy. Or maybe they'll look dressy with a casual top and vise versa. Never ostentatious, never like we're trying too hard. Simplicity, like that favorite pair of jeans or sandals.

Long Black Bar Earrings

My go-to pair of earrings are these (enamel black bar earrings) elegant and unassuming, sleek and slender bolts of black lightning that accompany me (almost) everywhere I go. They are my trademark, my signature earrings when I am in public ....

Shimmery Spring Jewelry in Enamel Lusters

Enamel Cross Earrings in Shimmering Blue

Jewelry makers naturally keep an eye on the latest styles and color trends. So I've noticed that this year's spring fashions have been dominated by iridescent fabrics and high-wattage metallics. These lovely shimmering pastel textiles reminded me of a group of unique mica based pigments - Carefree Lusters - that I had purchased from Thompson Enamel a few years ago. After seeing the samples in the middle of a Thompson's catalogue I just couldn't resist ordering them, knowing that someday they would be ideal for a special project.

Metallic Aqua Enamel Teardrop Earrings

Back then, I had played with the lusters for a few days, but never had that "Ah ha!" moment...  until I saw this spring's fashions begin to appear on travel shows, commercials and in fashion magazines. So I retrieved the lusters from storage and began to experiment anew, making samples and recording the results at different firing times and temperatures. Soon, I felt comfortable enough to fire the lusters on actual enameled components and was ready to begin creating some new jewelry pieces to complement this spring's styles and colors.

Tiny Metallic Rose Gold Enamel Earrings

For those of you who may be interested in the techniques involved in working with Thompson Luster Enamels, I will offer a few of the discoveries that I made through trial and error in developing my own procedures.

• Firing temperature is calculated according to the base enamel.
• I had success firing at approximately 60 degrees below the normal firing temperature of the base enamel.
• More is better. Any excess of unfused luster can easily be wiped or washed away after firing; but using an insufficient amount of luster can result in a rough surface.
• Always start with a smooth, level surface that extends completely to the edges.

As with any new enameling technique, one should experiment, make samples, and become comfortable before using it on something special. Enjoy! I did!

Artistic Inspiration

Enamel earrings inspired by the color of Bradford Pear leaves.

In “Colorful Colorado” nature imposes herself on our senses throughout the year. We are blessed with a kaleidoscope of continuous change and vitality. We watch nearly in awe as our mountains and our prairie transition from season to season, from arid to lush, lifeless to effervescent, in an endless story of birth and resurrection. But for those of us lucky enough to possess one in our yard, of all of nature’s showpieces and specimens, none surpasses the majestic Bradford Pear in her display of colors and natural hues.

In the spring our Bradford Pear explodes into a massive tuft of cotton candy, urgently demanding our attention before an errant breeze can scatter her blossoms across the lawn like driven snow. Summer’s warmth brings forth her foliage, so dense that it conceals the space it occupies, affording a canopy of shade to the lawn, nesting spaces for birds, and refuge for squirrels.  When fall arrives, the pear expends the energy that she has hoarded throughout the summer. It is as if her leaves attempt to re-bloom, as she becomes a palette for a thousand shades of yellow, burning into orange, then crimson, then copper. Then finally, exhausted and spent, her leaves take flight with the first winter blast, to reveal the silhouette of her limbs in a pointillist sea of tiny sugar pears that remain to sustain her resident birds and squirrels throughout the winter.

The Bradford Pear leaves us not only with memories of her grandeur, but also with artistic inspiration. If only to capture one single moment of her glorious transition - into jewelry! I waited breathlessly for the radiance of the kiln to subside, and for the glow of the enamel to “fit” itself into its final glaze, to know if I had been able to replicate that instant when she “bloomed” her final golden farewell to this season. 

This pair of dangle earrings holds true to the promise of enamel jewelry for its beautiful color and gorgeous, glossy finish.