I was so excited to make these drop earrings because they are my favourite design from the collection and contain agate stones! After playing around with different compositions I decided to have the domes all facing the same way. I wanted to face them “upside down” so I could create a matte finish on the inside of the domes and a shiny finish on the edges of the domes. I think these finishes really compliment each other and make the earrings more interesting and contemporary.
Initially, I was going to buy a spherical stone which would be trapped between two units and be visible at the back and the front (image three). Unfortunately this concept didn’t work in practice! when I went to look for beads, a 6mm bead was too big because the domes were too shallow. I decided to buy a 6mm cabochon instead, which wasn’t tall enough to be sandwich in between the two units. To solve this problem, I made a jumpring to sit inside the dome which would sit the cabochon higher up. I soon realised that if I used a jumpring, it wouldn’t fulfil the brief because the second unit wouldn’t actually be required. I therefore decided to solder a thick piece of round wire onto the bottom of the dome for the stone to sit on. This gave the stone some height and therefore could be trapped between two units. I was happy with this solution because the stone is quite dark and semi opaque so the wire behind it wouldn’t show anyway. I think if I were to use different stones in the future that were clearer and lighter, a different solution would have to be made. The moral of the story is buy the stones BEFORE making the unit to make life easier!
After assembling, soldering and polishing the drop earrings, I took them to be gold plated. what a disaster that was! I collected the earrings on friday morning, only to realise the welded area of the earrings had come apart, releasing the stones. I started panicking at this point because the welding took me a whole day previously and I thought the weld was really strong! After calming down, the man at andra said I could bring them in first thing on monday morning after I’d re-welded them, to get this area re-plated. I decided to give it my best shot to rectify the problem- I refused to hand in my earrings in pieces! Luckily, re-welding was a lot quicker this time because I was much more confident and efficient at using the laser welders. To hold the two units together whilst welding, I used binding wire which kept it secure and tight. Once the top section of the dome was welded, I took off the binding wire and focused on the corners of the dome. I think I was very unlucky for the earrings to come apart and apparently it’s never happened at Andra’s before- just my luck! However, I’m very pleased that I’ve fixed the problem and managed to get them replated.
Advanced production processes 