Butterfly Wing Earrings Fine Silver Pink Sapphire Handmade Sterling Artisan Ear Wires
You will love wearing these fun, romantic earrings. I made them out of fine silver using metal clay. They are large, oval shaped and feature a pair of butterfly wings with lab created pink sapphires on a background of foliage. They are my own original design and hang from sterling artisan ear wires that are also my own design. I wanted to make some oval earrings, and I wanted to put one layer of texture on another layer with a different texture. So I made the bottom layer a large oval with a foliage background, but it's not quite a normal foliage background because the leaves are cute little hearts. On top of the foliage background, I added a butterfly wing with a floral texture. Each butterfly wing is set with a round pink sapphire cabochon. There is a hole behind each stone to let the light show through giving it almost a glowing appearance. I finished these off with a pair of Argentium sterling silver ear wires that I made just for these. I wanted to match the round, ethereal quality of the earring components. I balled up one end of each of the wires and then sort of wrapped them around. This design will not allow the silver ovals to fall off the ear wire. Of course I smoothed the other end of the wires so they will be comfortable to put in your ear. Lab created pink sapphires are created by man, but they have the same chemical composition as natural sapphires. They are a 9 on the MOS hardness scale, just one step below a diamond. A professional can tell the difference between a lab created stone and a natural stone, but the lab created will never have the imperfections and inclusions that a natural stone will. Also a lab created stone is far more affordable. Metal clay is a clay that has microscopic bits of metal in it mixed with a binder. After making a component, it is fired in the kiln at high temperatures. All the material in the clay except for the metal, burns away. The metal fuses together and is the only thing that is left. In this case, I used fine silver metal clay, so the oval components are fine silver, or 99.9% silver (.999) as opposed to sterling silver which is 92.5% silver. I left these earrings a shiny silver rather than adding a patina, because I think the shiny silver looks better with the pink stones. It is hard to see, but on the back I initialed each one along with the .999 mark Argentium sterling silver is also 92.5% silver, but the other 7.5% is a different composition, including Germanium and less copper. It is more hypo-allergenic than regular sterling silver and also doesn't tarnish as easily. The pair in the photograph have been sold, but I can make you one. They will be essentially the same but placement of the floral background won't be exactly the same. There will be slight variations due to the fact that each pair is individually handmade. Please allow 2-4 weeks for me to make your earrings just for you. Important Info: Length: almost 2" (5 cm) from top of ear wire Oval size: almost 2" (25 mm) long by 3/4" (19 mm) wide sapphire size: 6 mm diameter Weight: 4 to 5 grams per earring Shanghai Tai Unique Artisan Jewelry Handmade in the U.S.A. Stock #E0308