Teardrop loop earrings with turquoise spiral copper charms

Long teardrop loop antiqued copper earrings with a round solid copper clay charm, impressed with spirals that have been infilled in turquoise and green patina colours.

The circle charms have been hand made from copper clay, impressed with a spiral texture, cut and hand formed and later highly polished and antiqued to form the pattern. The spirals have been further highlighted by filling the pattern with turquoise and metallic green Gilders Paste. The copper discs move fluidly at the bottom of deep teardrop loops that have been hammered and antiqued.

The earrings drop 69m (2¾") overall from the top of the large classic earwires and hang 17mm (0.7") at their widest in wear.


What is copper clay / precious metal clay?

Copper clay is a clay like medium made from tiny particles of copper (other metals are available too), combined with an organic binder and made into a pliable clay or paste with water. After working with the clay-like medium to form the article, it is thoroughly dried to remove all of the water, the shape is then further refined and then fired at high temperature to both burn off the binders and to cause the copper particles to fuse together as solid metal. Whilst the medium makes it possible to achieve things not possible with other metal forms, it is still quite time-consuming and there are several stages to achieving a nice finish.

Please see this blog post for more on my methods for making such pieces.