{"id":46103,"date":"2021-02-25T23:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T04:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=46103"},"modified":"2021-02-26T00:42:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T05:42:29","slug":"happy-new-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/happy-new-ears\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy New Ears!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My big self-care moments during the shitshow of 2020 involved new ear piercings by my favorite piercer, Cassi Lopez-March of So Gold Studios in Brooklyn<\/a>. Cassi has been piercing my ears since 2015 — she’s done 11 piercings out of the 15 that I have. Believe it or not, I have small ears, but Cassi has such a good sense of anatomy that she keeps finding space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A tragus piercing underway in 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For decades, I’d had just three lobe piercings that I got as a teenager. But a few years ago, I started designing a lot of stud earrings for my fine jewelry line<\/a>. That motivated me to add a (pre-Cassi) lobe piercing in 2014.<\/a> But there’s only so much room on an earlobe, so I graduated to cartilage piercings. Earrings for those piercings often require special parts like flat backs, internally threaded posts (the post and back screw together), and barbell-shaped posts. I was psyched to create lots of piercing-appropriate jewelry for me and all the other midlife rebels<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out that making that kind of jewelry is easier said than done. The special parts (called “findings” in the business) aren’t available from my usual wholesale suppliers. Companies that specialize in the right kind of findings sell in quantity, directly to piercing salons or to designers who are partnered with a piercer. Looking for a way around the problem, I had one of my regular manufacturers hand-make a dozen threaded-post diamond studs for me<\/a>. After, I realized it was a ridiculous amount of labor for a single style. I was reinventing the wheel, except the wheel was an earring post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
I still have some left! Click to purchase my platinum micro studs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I was also suffering from piercing envy. I kept poring over Cassi’s Instagram, <\/a>admiring her aesthetic and the surprisingly delicate “earscapes” she created with carefully placed and curated earrings. Last year — looking for a lift in the face of fascism and a pandemic — I finally said, “Fuck it, I’m going to have to wear Other People’s Jewelry.” It was hard on my ego, because I’ve avoided wearing Other People’s Jewelry since starting the predecessor of Wendy Brandes Jewelry in 2005. I mean, why model someone else’s work when I had my own to sell? But I set that aside and, last August, I told Cassi to design an ear for me with new piercings and<\/em> new jewelry. Behold the before and after of my right ear!<\/p>\n\n\n\n