Hey friends, I've been getting a lot of questions lately about how my animal earrings are made. So I decided to make a whole blog post about it. Hope this answers all your questions!
I design all the animals on my computer and print out sheets of them.
I rubber cement the animals to sterling silver, and drill tiny holes for the eyes and ears.
I cut out the eyes and ears by hand with my jewelers saw.
It's way easier to cut out the tiny pieces when they're still in a big sheet.
It's also easier to stamp on noses when they're all on the same sheet.
Then I cut out all the critters.
It's easier to stamp on whiskers after I cut them all out.
Noses and whiskers are all stamped! (Also, I made all my own stamps for these critters, so bonus points for me)
Next I file all the edges so they're not sharp and won't snag on your clothes or hair. Sorry I don't have an action shot of filing, but I promise it's not that exciting.
I solder all the earring posts to the back of the animals. Sorry I don't have an action shot of soldering. It's actually pretty exciting and it's my favorite part.
Then I clean off all the oxidation and flux from soldering in an acid solution called "pickle."
I darken them with a patina called "liver of sulphur" that works really well on silver.
Then I sand off all the patina that's not recessed in the stamped parts.
I tumble all the animals in my magnetic pin finisher. It makes them shiny super fast.
Nice and shiny after the tumbler.
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I put them on my earring cards. And yes, I did design and make the earring cards myself too.
And there you go! Animal earrings!
Thanks for going on that journey with me. I love making animal jewelry so much. If you love it too, check out all my little friends here.