We're All Ears :: April Reveal

This month's Earrings Everyday inspiration was architecture. Specifically, The City of Arts and Sciences, an impressive complex located in Valencia, Spain. Created as a way to honor the melding of science, technology, nature and art, the buildings were conceived and designed by renowned Spanish architects Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela. 

Let's take a virtual tour of the complex, and I'll share the earrings I created, inspired by these unusual architectural shapes. I wanted these earrings to be architectural, keeping the emphasis on form and maintaining a neutral color palette.  I also vowed that this time I would keep it simple. (See my recent post HERE of my habit of making everything more complicated that it needs to be.) We'll see how that goes.

ARCHITECTURE

L'Hemisferic (below) is meant to resemble a giant eye - "The Eye of Knowledge."

EARRINGS

Long ago I made these wrapped, curved, and antiqued copper links and have had them sitting in my "to do" basket, waiting for just the right project. When I saw this architectural eye shape, I knew that the time had come to use those links. Interestingly and very fitting to an architectural challenge, it took quite a bit of engineering to get them to "work" correctly. When simply joined by a jump ring, they kept flipping around. 

Finally, I decided to first wire wrap them together at the top to keep them steady and then add a jump ring. Voila, no more flipping!   For the eyeball, I wanted to capture the milky luminescence of the lighting in the photo, so I used a grooved, milky opalite bead for the center dangle. The wedge-shaped charm at the bottom seemed to capture the shape of the buildings to the right of the "eye" in the photo. I added another wrapped opalite bead to the antiqued copper earwire. Here are the finished earrings.

(The picture below was taken before I antiqued the earwires, but I like photo quality better that the previous one. Photography is always such a challenge for me.)

ARCHITECTURE

Notice how the following structures have arched shapes paired with parallel lines. That image kept circling in my head and demanding to be expressed somehow. Arches and parallel lines. 

El Museo de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (below) resembles the skeleton of a whale.

L'Umbracle, the Walkway of Sculptures, contains contemporary Spanish artwork amid a garden of indigenous plant life, chosen for the way it changes with the seasons.

L'Oceanogràfic is the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe and the third largest in the world.

EARRINGS

So earrings . . . arches and parallel lines. In keeping with my simplicity vow, I abandoned my jewelry studio and headed out on my porch with just a couple rolls of copper wire and some tools. These earrings just happened. I like how the coiled links capture all the arched shapes in the structures and the paddles echo the parallel lines of the walkway. Parallel lines occur again in the copper coils. 

There was something very freeing about just working with metal and not having to confront drawers and drawers of beads in my studio! (Don't get me wrong. Having an ungodly amount of beads - AKA hoarding - is pretty cool, but sometimes it intimidates me, and I just can't make decisions.)  As always, hammering metal is awesome and provides great therapy!

ARCHITECTURE (more arches and parallel lines)

Assut de l'Or Bridge, a suspension bridge that connects visitors to the City of Arts and Sciences.

EARRINGS

Again, the parallel lines and the rounded shapes yelled at me. I still had that roll of copper wire, and the next thing I knew, hoops evolved. I love making hoops and lashing stuff to them. Some parallel lines of lashed antiqued copper and peach-colored glass beads still kept the color palette neutral and monochromatic, emphasizing form and shape. Fun and . . . well, . . . hoopy. 

Fun challenge, Erin. Thank you! I had great fun creating these earrings and experimenting with taking jewelry photos outside on my porch in gorgeous spring weather. (You just can't beat the Oregon coast on those sunny, warm days.)

Click on the link below to view earrings created by other talented jewelry artists. Enjoy!

Earrings Everyday April Reveal