D3 Gold Layer as Full Cover

Gold earrings by Julia Rai

Submitted to the Registry evaluators - February 2009

I puzzled for some time about how to make these earrings. The project calls for non-matching earrings but I knew they’d have to relate in some way. This boggled my brain a bit, what with all the design books I’d been reading and trying to figure out how to make something that relates but is not matching. I finally decided to make one earring a solid piece and the other in two parts. Squares cut out of the solid earring were reflected in the two parts of the other, although they were hung on the diagonal.

This project just scraped a pass.​

Design – 3.5 out of 5
Craftsmanship – 1.5 out of 2.5
Wearability – 2 out of 2.5

Total of 7 out of 10. There was not one positive comment for these earrings so this is another project that I’m surprised I passed. They didn’t like my earwires describing them as, “too sharp, too tight where they attach to the earrings, too plain and under polished.” One comment which I keep in mind always is this, “This would have been better made from sheet sterling. It fails to take advantage of metal clay.” This is something I’m constantly aware of now. Of course, some things are inherently better made in sterling – rings come to mind. They are much easier to make in sterling if you know how as the shrinkage factors with metal clay make rings tricky. But there are several projects in the Registry which specify rings.

The final comment does make me wonder why they allowed me to pass, “The gold color does not match.” Hmmm, maybe one day I’ll repeat this one.

Here is the project description from the Masters Registry website:-

​D3 Gold Layer as Full Cover

Design and create a pair of non-matching earrings that are made in silver metal clay and completely covered with Gold Paste or similar.

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