{"id":10996,"date":"2011-06-06T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T04:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=10996"},"modified":"2011-06-06T11:18:50","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T15:18:50","slug":"jewel-of-the-month-cleves-swan-wing-earrings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/jewel-of-the-month-cleves-swan-wing-earrings\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewel of the Month: Cleves Swan-Wing Earrings"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2007, I proved that Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII, was a damn genius<\/a>. Geniuses are very inspiring, so I created an 18K gold and onyx necklace in Anne’s honor.<\/p>\n

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Cleves Swan Necklace. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

The necklace features a swan because Anne was born in Schwanenburg (Swan Castle). I was so taken with my Cleves swan that I created a ring to match. It started out as a wax model …<\/p>\n

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Click for original post.<\/p><\/div>\n

… and turned into an 18K yellow gold ring set with 140 diamonds. I later revised the design to use fewer stones, but this is a photo of the original sample.<\/p>\n

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Cleves ring in 18K yellow gold and diamonds. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

Whenever I can, I do lower-priced versions of my designs. In this case, I did a silver Cleves ring with just two diamond eyes.<\/p>\n

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The Cleves ring in silver. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

When Black Swan<\/em><\/a> came out, I simply had to go back to 18K gold to do a black-diamond version of the ring.<\/p>\n

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Cleves ring in 18K yellow gold and black diamonds. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

While I was working on the black-swan Cleves ring, I realized I still had some onyx ovals like the one I used in the original Cleves necklace.\u00a0 I figured it was time to do some earrings. My ideas generally start with rings and necklaces and sometimes extend to earrings. I find rings and necklaces more inspiring, because\u00a0 I can do much more with a design when I don’t have to worry about how much it weighs. Of course, some designers don’t care about the comfort of their clients and do very heavy earrings, but I want everyone to be comfortable.\u00a0 Oddly, I hadn’t really considered my reason for preferring rings and necklaces until last week when, while I was visiting my peeps at Broken English Jewelry<\/a>, the beauteous and charming CSI: Miami<\/em><\/a> actress Emily Procter<\/a> came into the store. I was listening to a conversation she was having with gorgeous store employee Kelly. When I heard Kelly mention another designer’s emphasis on rings and necklaces, I interrupted with my explanation. Then I thought, “Oh, that’s why I do it that way.” I got to meet an actress and have an epiphany in the same moment! Very efficient, no?<\/p>\n

Anyway, while I was considering a Cleves earring design, I decided that doing the gold swan over the onyx, the way I did on the necklace, was going to be too hard on the earlobes, especially because I was going to have to use more metal to attach the earrings to the ears. I decided to focus on that attachment part. I took the wings from the Cleves rings, made them a little bigger and used them as the swan element of the earrings. I livened up the wings with .41 carats of diamonds. Here is the result.<\/p>\n

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Cleves earrings in 18K yellow gold, onyx and diamonds. Click to shop. Photo by SquareMoose.<\/p><\/div>\n

These 2 1\/4″ earrings are definitely black-tie-worthy. That’s how I plan to wear them. Though you could also wear them to the supermarket. Who’s gonna stop you? Wear what you want<\/a>! <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2007, I proved that Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII, was a damn genius. Geniuses are very inspiring, so I created an 18K gold and onyx necklace in Anne’s honor. The necklace features a swan because Anne was born in Schwanenburg (Swan Castle). I was so taken with my Cleves swan…<\/p>\n

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