Did you read my last post? Do you remember how I had two spare lozenge links? What’s a girl to do but to make matching earrings? Now, there were no original earrings that went with the necklace. However, the Louvre has a pair of Hercules knot earrings, where a single knot motif is suspended from a ring, with a teardrop bead hanging from it.
I am extrapolating from that example and using a single lozenge motif with a bead suspended from it. I’m also doing an ear hook based on a different period example (that’s almost identical to a certain modern French hook), because that Hercules knot earring pair has the sort of loop that’s been wired closed.
So I’m doing something holy unlike my style and mishmashing period examples with my own extrapolated idea.
But here’s the (dead simple) process. Start with two 2″ lengths of 20 gauge wire.
Melt one end such that it balls up and forms a bead on the end.
Don’t do what I did and hold your phone in one hand and the torch in the other. I wouldn’t do that with anything more complicated and higher stakes as this, and I shouldn’t have done it here. But I wanted to show what I meant with the melting.
Straighten the beads if you need to, and trim the wires so they’re the same length.
The next several steps are easiest if you hold both wires at the same time, touching each other.
Slide the link on from the back. I don’t have a photo of this step, so sorry! Then pinch the bead back the rest of the way so that it touches the ear wire.
For the bead “cap” make a tiny spiral, as small as you can get it, but larger than your bead hole.
Bend the wire so that the spiral is at a right angle to the rest.
Slide on your bead. Press the spiral down so that it lays flat against the bead.
The top end of the bead wire gets attached to the link the same way all the links in the necklace were formed.
And here are the finished earrings! Roman-ish.
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