Tiny snakes coil around a pair of rose cut gray diamonds in these yellow gold earrings. I carved the snakes out of jeweler's wax, and gave them delicate scales and little, round eyes. I then fabricated a pair of bezels in 14 and 18k gold for the diamonds and soldered them inside the curves of a pair of 14k yellow gold snakes. I then set a pair of rose cut gray diamonds into the bezels. The diamonds are opaque, have large facets across their domed tops, and are a warm, cloudy gray. They are a great diamond choice for someone who claims to not like diamonds (like me!).
They are lightweight, yet are substantial-looking on the ear, and are a perfect everyday stud earring, but are also fancy enough for special occasions.
Details:
They are about 5/8" across, or just under 1 cm, with a pair of diamonds that are a bit more than 4mm across, and have a total carat weight of around a half a carat. One of a kind.
The snakes are 14 karat yellow gold, with 18k yellow gold bezels soldered to recycled 14k yellow sheet. I made the bezels individually for each diamond from 18k yellow gold sheet, and I recycled the 14k yellow gold for the back of the earrings myself. I melted down my 14k yellow gold scrap into a solid lump of 14k gold, and then used a rolling mill (a tool that is kind of a pasta machine for metals) to roll it out by hand into gold sheet. After I cut the bezels out of the gold sheet, I saved that scrap to repeat the process in the future. I save all of my gold and silver scrap to reclaim it in this fashion, resulting in jewelry and scrap for future jewelry, and very little gold is lost to waste in the process.
14k yellow gold posts and matching 14/20 gold filled earring backs.
