Playing around with Spoons: Antique Silver Spoon Earrings

These used to be spoons!

Earrings I made from antique spoon handles

I'll admit it, I have a hard time throwing pretty things away, even if it is something that is considered "scrap." 

After making a spoon bracelet out of a pair of orphaned antique silver plated spoons I found myself left with the cut off bowl-ends of the spoons - and they had such a pretty filigree design on the neck (the thin part of the spoon that connects the handle to the bowl) that I just had to make something out of them...

...so I removed the bowl of the spoon and kept the thin, ornate necks and transformed them into these one of a kind earrings! (click photos for larger images)

(total measurement 1/4" wide by 2 & 1/4" long including sterling ear-wires and Swarovksi crystal drops)



I added sterling wires and pearls to this pair



Antique silver spoon earrings with pearl drops

What do you think of them?

Silver or Black Jewelry Finish? Which Do You Prefer?

Silver or Black jewelry finish? Which do you prefer? 


I recently posted this question on my Facebook page. 


So far, silver is in the lead...

Shiny silver finish?

When I first began making jewelry from broken china (and we're talking nearly 20 years now - yikes!) I would occasionally dabble with the black/vintage/antiqued finishes, but for some reason I always seemed to come back to silver.

Silver is traditional, it's easy to wear, it's shiny....as for the darker, vintage finishes - I believe they tend to be more trendy, coming into style right along with the whole "new vintage" era that you see everywhere you turn - in clothes, home furnishings, fabrics...what's old is new again, and so it goes.

I like the way a dark finish against a bright floral china pattern makes the colors pop, and how it lends to the "old" feeling of a piece of china. I equally like the feeling of luxury a shiny, silver finish affords. For me personally, I guess it all comes down to what kind of mood I'm in.

Which do you prefer?

Silver that has been given a black finish

What do you think?

Love This Etsy Treasury!

Pin Brooch crafted from vintage English scenic transferware, antique silver finish

I'm always happy to wake up to find that a kind artist has featured my work in their treasury. I found the colors of this one to be quite attractive!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bf617ddafe66d9169686bdb/sunset-over-butterfly-gardens

Update: Happy to find this treasury on the front page of Etsy on 5/22/10!

I'm On Etsy's Front Page!

I was thrilled to find my items included in five different Etsy treasuries last week, and even more thrilled to find that one of the treasuries was featured on Etsy's front page...

...of course I'm never home when these things happen, but got a capture of the screen shot :-)