As time and interest allow, I enjoy participating in the “We’re all Ears” earring challenge hosted by Earrings Everyday. Erin does a fantastic job coming up with creative inspiration from a variety of sources and I always look forward to the start of the month to see what she has for us. This month she gave us a selection of intricate arabesque art featured in ancient architecture.
These mesmerizing mosaics rely heavily on tiny repeating geometric patterns and they kind of make my head spin. I love architecture so much and I was excited to try my hand at creating something influenced by these beautiful old buildings.
Coincidentally, this month I also watched Casablanca for the first time. And I’ve been watching it, and watching it, and watching it… you get the idea. I loved everything about it. There isn’t anything as stunning as these pictures in the sets of Casablanca, but I saw glimpses of mosaics that were not dissimilar from our given inspiration. While the storyline was great, what I was really taken with was the feeling of aged nostalgia the movie managed to conjure. There was a beautifully decayed sensibility to it and an awareness of how fleeting time can be. I wanted to capture something of that feeling in my earrings. The featured song, As Time Goes By, was meant to illustrate the relationship between Richard and Ilsa, but I thought it also perfectly epitomized the paradox of the world changing within a city of static agelessness.
For the earrings, I patinated hand embossed copper sheet as the focal point. I found this piece of metal in the scrap bin at the studio during my metalsmithing class and it reminded me of the intricate patterning in our inspiration. It was too pretty to be thrown away. I cut the piece in two and lightly dapped them into a domed shape. I wire-wrapped fancy loops and dangled a bit of czech glass with vintage finish before attaching to hand-formed earwires. I added a wire-wrapped leaf dangle to finish off the design because.. you know, I love leaves. I’m enchanted by decrepit buildings enveloped in tangles of vines; and it seemed an appropriate reminder that time goes by… and every moment is an ordinary miracle.
Blessings to you,
Sarah
anordinarymiracleday 
It’s great that you managed to turn something rescued from the scrap bin into a beautiful pair of earrings! Recycling at it’s very best x
These are fabulous. Great repurposing of “scrap” into something beautiful.
What a find in the scrap bin! You did such a lovely job turning them into objects of beauty! I enjoyed your writing too!
Your recycling is awesome, luv your earrings.
These are so very pretty! They do have that age that time can only bring. I love that you rescued these scraps from the trash bin and re-envisioned them into something very special! I also love that first dangle within the wire. Very intriguing! Thank you for playing along with me in the March We’re All Ears Challenge. Check back on April 1st for our next inspiration! Enjoy the day! Erin
I’m so glad that you saved that embossed sheet metal from the scrap pile… too pretty to toss! Great work turning trash into something gorgeous.
I really like the use of different shapes in your design; well balanced and very pretty.