{"id":46748,"date":"2021-12-19T21:02:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T02:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=46748"},"modified":"2021-12-30T15:43:15","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T20:43:15","slug":"jewel-of-the-month-holiday-earrings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/jewel-of-the-month-holiday-earrings\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewel of the Month: Holiday Earrings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s not too late to get someone — or yourself — the perfect pair of holiday earrings. These platinum and rose gold diamond danglers have “Happy New Year” written all over them. Not literally, of course. I feel like I need to clarify that, because I do write on some of my jewelry<\/a>. But these aren’t the earring version of a Christmas sweater; I promise you can wear them all year round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click to shop on 1stdibs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

These brand-new earrings have an interesting history. My original inspiration was a lariat necklace that I made for myself by attaching a rose gold bar to a white gold pendant I bought elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My necklace isn’t for sale but I can something like it.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I was enthused about this necklace and wanted to make something similar to sell, but with platinum, which is my white metal of choice.<\/a> Did I do the easy and reasonable thing and remake my personal necklace? No, I did not. I designed a delicate choker instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Platinum and rose gold choker.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pretty, right? Too bad that it spent most of its time like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Definitely knot what I was looking for!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I couldn’t sell a misbehaving choker, so I was now the owner of many short strands of expensive, hard-to-find platinum chain and custom-made 18K rose gold bars that needed a new life. I thought about making earrings from for years, but I knew it would be a big project, requiring more metal and diamonds. So I put it off, and put it off, and put it off. Then, during this bizarre year — while I slacked off on absolutely everything else — this unfinished jewelry business became more than I could tolerate. I guess I needed to be in control of something, and that something was chandelier earrings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Modeled by my gorgeous friend Debra Lewis.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This redesign turned out to be an even bigger project than I anticipated. I had to buy additional, larger diamonds; create new platinum settings for those diamonds; make a sixth rose gold bar; make changes to the existing five rose gold bars; trim some of the platinum chains; and then tinker with the design repeatedly to make sure the earrings hung perfectly. Frankly, it would have been easier to start from scratch, but I am just that<\/em> stubborn when it comes to reusing what I already have. At least I’m happy with the result!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Earrings are available on 1stdibs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The earrings are 3 1\/2″ long but as light as a large feather. (I have a lot of large feather earrings<\/a> to compare these to.) There are more than two carats of diamonds in the pair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click to purchase.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you buy these (or any of my other designs) on 1stdibs.com<\/a>, you get free shipping and lightning-fast turnaround on my end. I’m proud to say I recently got an order at 5:30 p.m.. and dropped off the package at UPS by 6:30 p.m! These days, shipping companies aren’t as reliable as I am, so I can’t make any promises on their behalf, but I can assure you that if you order now, your jewelry will start its journey from me to you almost immediately. So, if you’re feeling bold enough to be with other people in a festive environment on New Year’s Eve, these earrings will add some dazzle to your masked visage. If you’re ringing in 2022 at home, like I said, these earrings are comfortable to wear. Get fancy in your living room! Switch out your sweats for a pair of hard pants<\/a>; add a black top, red lipstick, and your new earrings; and pop open a bottle of bubbly. (The three diamonds swinging from the bottom of each earring have always made me think of Champagne bubbles.) And let’s all hope that the next year will be kinder to us than the past couple have been. Maybe if we all<\/em> do something we’ve never done before, we’ll create an atmosphere of change. I’ll give you two suggestions: Dive into local and national politics by joining Indivisible<\/a>, and up your exercise game by trying pole dancing<\/a>. I’m already doing both of those (the pole dancing is definitely harder), so if you have any ideas for my “new thing for 2022,” let me know! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not too late to get someone — or yourself — the perfect pair of holiday earrings. These platinum and rose gold diamond danglers have “Happy New Year” written all over them. Not literally, of course. I feel like I need to clarify that, because I do write on some of my jewelry. But these…<\/p>\n

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