I've never been a fan of the color red, so when these deep ruby garnets called my name I was a bit surprised.
The design was originally part of a larger group of earrings all laid out on the bench together, with random bits and pieces organized just as a jumping off point.
The garnet layout in that photo seemed wrong. I've learned to listen to the artistic voice in my head and keep working when this happens. Somehow the design totally morphed. The original leaf and flower felt awkward, so it was replace by a more graceful version. As the garnets still felt a little dwarfed by the larger drop, I added halo rings to them to give more presence.
And finally, after a bout of experimenting with setting small stones into Argentium granules and jump rings, I added tiny faceted garnets to both the bottom of the drop and to the ear wires.
That's the beauty of one-of-a-kind jewelry: it's not optimized for speed of production...but it is optimized to speak with the artist's voice.
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