Straining fingers

In the last few days I got to thinking that I somewhat was avoiding doing the kind of earrings I just adore, mainly because these types of design require sacrificing your fingers and your eyes and a lifetime of hours. Well, I took a plunge and for a few days straight disciplined myself enough to sit down and get some of them done.
Each silver part is handcrafted, put together, wired together, oxidized etc by my own hands. Terribly time consuming, especially with all those tiny 2mm-can-hardly-see-them-going-blind beads. No nails left after all that metal-working, but I'm pretty satisfied with the result. Here they are:
PS. I must have enjoyed doing them - I'm working on similarly complex designs in gold now :)

Metal Crators

I don't know what is it about the flame and melting metals that completely hypnotizes me. I've long been making my own headpins, and soldering joints, but I also experimented with making metal 'things'. Every time I heat a bit of silver or copper or any other metal to a bright yellow-red, it moves so beautifully, reminds me of all that lava flowing down a slope after volcano erupted. Completely mesmerising. One thing I never felt comfortable with was that after all that movement and play of metal, heat and air, the end result many jewellers go for is far removed from what it looked like when you finish working on it with heat. Personally, I love when the piece that still shows off texture and oxidation, when it still looks like it's been created using hands rather than machines, when it still retains something from all processes that went into creating it - a trace, it's creation history.

Completely handmade posts with metal irregularities showing & Murano glass (lined with real silver)

Silver dot drop necklace with silver dot in warm silver colour (due to addition of copper when melted) and Swarovski tiniest crystals in Copper