Making Earrings into Earrings?

[FranOnTheEdge]

Hi,
I've got these earrings baked now but as you can see - when you look at the backs there's nothing to attach an ear wire to.
So, how am I going to do this?  Will I need to add more clay to the back to set something in there to attach the ear wire to?  and if yes, then what?


And here is the original spiral earring that I had all the trouble making:


I managed to make a half a jig to bake it on, I'm amazed that it didn't fall over.  And of course now that the damn earring is baked it's stopped falling over!

Stupid thing! (mutter mutter mutter)

By the way I'm immensely pleased that all the 'skirts' of the spirals stayed sticking out like I wanted them to. And very relieved.

[MelMcG]

They're all lovely, Fran. 

You could either drill a hole in the petal or add a piece of clay to the back and put a hole in that or insert a jump ring into it.  It would depend on how you want to hang them.

Mel 

[FranOnTheEdge]

They're all lovely, Fran. 

You could either drill a hole in the petal or add a piece of clay to the back and put a hole in that or insert a jump ring into it.  It would depend on how you want to hang them.

Mel 

Well thank you Mel.
Yes I was thinking slap a chunk on the back and embed a jump ring into that, but I wondered if that was too simplistic... would look too messy? I know it's only the back of the earring, but people will still see it...
Oh oh oh!  I just had an idea!!!
what if I make 2 more of these, then I can stick 2 together with more clay and then the back will look just like the front and I can embed the earwire in between two flowers!!!

[MilleD]

I can't really tell how big they are but you might make them unnecessarily heavy doing that.

[Bonipie]

Here are a couple of things on the back you might consider.  I made a coil with a short wire sticking out on each end just a little.  I put a small hole the size of the wire in the clay where the wire would fit.  I put the wires into the holes and put a tiny bit of glue (I used super glue (we call it CA)) in each hole and a little bead of CA along the coil where you could not see the glue.  On the earring, the holes may need to be very shallow because they don't want to be all the way through the clay.  And, the coil would be very short since this is an earring.

The other photo has the coil of wire inside a very thin clay bail.  This stiffens the bail so the clay doesn't break.

Hugs, Boni  in Wonderful Yuma, Arizona

[ejralph]

Nothing to add on how to make the earrings - other than to second the great ideas you've already been given.

I just wanted to say well done on the spiral and your baking rig. Love how you've put the coppery metallic edge to the spiral - it is really effective and makes the shape really stand out.

It is great to see you experimenting and pushing the ideas further and further.

Emma