Pink Tourmaline in Silver Circle Earrings with Silver Balls on Sleeper Hoops

Made using traditional silversithing methods. Fine silver bezel was cut to size to fit around the tourmaline stones and the ends soldered to make little hoops of silver for the stone settings. The circles of silver were made from silver wire. The balls were made by melting small pieces of silver. These pieces were arranged and then soldered onto a sheet of silver, and then cut around using a piercing saw. The two pieces were filed and sanded before jump rings were soldered to the tops. They were then placed in a warm pickle bath to remove the fire scale caused by the blow torch. After this they were cleaned and polished. A patina was added to darken the backplate to give a lovely contrast with the shiny silver inbetween the border and the stone setting. And finally the beautiful gemstones were placed in the settings and the bezel pushed over the edges to hold them in place, and finished off by burnishing.