Silver wire wrapped double amethyst earrings with spiral design

I was so inspired by that customer who sent me a photo of my amethyst earrings matching the necklace that her late husband gave her that I decided to make a different type of wire wrapped amethyst piece. These earrings use smaller amethyst chunks and have a much more intricate series of spirals:

For each earring, I used two pieces of amethyst. Though these are faceted gemstones, they still have a very "raw," organic look in the way they're cut. They're also a very striking shade of purple. I know that most people associate amethyst with purple, but this stone can actually take on a pinkish or even green hue. But for this particular creation, I wanted a deep purple, which is what I got.

Doing a wire wrapped pattern on an odd-shape stone can be a challenge, but my wraps came out pretty even. I think you have enough of the wrap for the design to take center stage, but it doesn't completely cover the amethyst. The elements work well together, which is how jewelry should be. I need to try this with a different type of stone -- maybe quartz? What do you think?

Check out the rest of my jewelry at Naomi's Designs or MayaGirl Creations.

Thanks for the memories

I make my jewelry because I enjoy the process of designing and love to create beautiful pieces. However, sometimes a piece will "speak" to a person for whatever reason beyond it simply being attractive. This happened recently with my silver wire wrapped amethyst earrings.

Amethyst is my favorite stone because it's my birthstone and these are one of the first earrings I made when I got into jewelry. I purchased large, natural-looking chunks of amethyst and then wire wrapped them. The photo is terrible, but you get the idea.

To be honest, these earrings haven't gotten that many views. They hadn't really gotten a lot of notice at craft fairs, either, as people tended to gravitate toward my colorful geometric jewelry. I kind of forgot I even had them. That said, I was kind of surprised when they were purchased last week.

I wasn't thrilled with my initial wire wrap design so I removed the wire and redid the earrings from scratch. I've become much more skilled at wire wrapping so I was able to create much better-looking earrings -- and I wanted this woman to get her money's worth. I then sent them out, hoping, as always, that she'd like the final product.

A few days later, I heard from her. She not only liked the earrings, but explained that she'd purchased them because they matched an amethyst necklace that her late husband had given her. She'd been looking for a way to complete the set and my earrings worked. She sent me a photo of the pieces and she was right; my earrings were a perfect match for her husband's gift.

I'm always pleased when my customers like their purchases and, of course, enjoy getting compliments on my work, but her note moved me to tears. I feel as if she were meant to have these earrings and this was the reason why it took so long for me to sell them. I'm honored that she'll be wearing my jewelry along with this precious, sentimental reminder of her loved one.

I don't have any delusions that my jewelry will change the world. My earrings and bracelets won't bring world peace or fix the environment, or cure cancer -- but I'm glad that I can bring at least a little bit of happiness to my customers and can help them create some new memories.

Check out my jewelry at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

Silver Abstract Earrings With Purple Stones

Often, when I'm making jewelry my pieces kind of "make themselves." Sometimes I have a very clear idea in mind for a piece, but other times, I'll just kind of bend the wire and the design will surprise me. This is the case with these silver earrings.

I had some leftover silver wire -- not enough to make a necklace or bracelet and I didn't want to waste it. So I began playing around with it and ended up with this weird, envelope-looking shape. When I showed it to my friend who was visiting, she liked it and suggested that I add a stone. She chose purple, her favorite.

The biggest challenge in this was getting the second earring to match the first. It's one thing to randomly bend wire and come up with something cool. But it becomes more challenging when you have to copy that randomness and make it look even! It took a few tries, but I finally got it and these earrings were born.

To purchase my jewelry, head to Naomi's Designs.

Triple heart silver chandelier earrings with amethyst Swarovski crystal hearts

Purple is onw of my favorite colosr, especially since my birthday is in February and my birthstone is the amethyst. I still love this stone and think that an amethyst looks beautiful in any form.

I really like heart-shaped things, though, so it's no surprise that I adore these amethyst Swarovski crystal hearts. I wanted to do something special with them, something that would show off their beauty.

I finally decided to build a chandelier earring around them. I wanted to make an interestinf spiral design with the silver wire, but something different than what I've done before. I've used the lattice design many times and while it's beautiful, I felt that I needed to branch out. I eventually came up with this curly-cue pattern that's slightly askew, but has interesting angles. I then hung three crystal hearts -- two amethyst and one lavender -- on each earring. It ended up looking really cool, especially when I tried on the earrings. Though my hair was a mess and I wasn't wearing any makeup, I looked fancy. Let's just call them miracle earrings!

As you'll see from my upcoming posts, I went on a bit of a Swarovski crystl heart "bender" this weekend, but you have to love the materials that you're working with. Part of the reason why these pieces turned out so well was because I believed from the start that they'd look good. And they do!

To see or purchase more of my jewelry, head to Naomi's Designs or Naomi's Studio.