Snake Stud Earrings with Garnets

Delicate black snakes wrapped around a rich, wine red cabochon garnet.

I fabricated the prong settings out of sterling silver, then sculpted two snakes out of jeweler's wax, and cast them in sterling silver. Then I soldered the snakes into place, cleaned them up, and cast them in sterling silver. I then cleaned up the casting, set the garnets and oxidized the earrings. I then rubbed away some of the oxidization to bring out the details of the snakes, and brushed the whole earring to a glowing satin finish.

Details:

1/2" across, with a rich red 8mm cabochon garnet.

Deeply oxidized sterling silver, with sterling silver posts and extra large earring backs.

The earring has an open back behind the stone, which makes for a lightweight earring for it's size.