Bloom Wire Earrings

To prepare your wire, make sure the wire is not covered with lacquer. Patina won't stick to lacquered wire. How to check? Wear gloves,
protect your hands and arms! Run the piece of wire through a flame. If it smokes, flames, and it smells unpleasant, it means there is some lacquer.
To remove this lacquer, run the thin wire through the fire very fast, so it will not burn. The wiire will become black. The rest of the lacquer I'll remove with sandpaper. Or sometimes I boil burned pieces in citric acid solution. After citric acid I wash the wire in the water very carefully.

Sketch out the design. You can follow my sketch. Start bending the 16g wire. Don't hurry, work in small steps and compare it to the sketch frequently.

For the second earring we bend the wire in mirror image. Use the first earring to follow along. Just turn over the first earring form and compare accurately.

Flatten the earrings with a hammer. Strike carefully. It's better to strike 3 times than cause damage. Don't hammer where the wire cross each other, as that weakens the wire. Flattening some areas and not others creates visual interest.

Cut two pieces of 18-gauge wire, 4" each. On the ends of these pieces we need to draw beads. We need butane torch and borax powder or flux. Borax powder makes the ends ball up smoothly and greatly hastens the process. Bend the forms, dip the ends into the borax powder and direct the flame from the bottom upwards. Be attentive, the process takes only a few seconds. Clean the wires in a borax solution. (1 spoonful of borax to 1 cup of water)

Use the 28g wire to weave the two pieces together. Bend the 18g pieces according to the sketch. Leaving a 6" tail, start the weaving by coiling a few times around the earring frame wire.

Place the 18g wire atop the earring frame and weave them together. I like to do it in the following way: 4 wraps on the 16g wire, 2 on the
18g.

Keep your weaving wire tight and snug, and use bent-nose pliers to help push them together if they're not.

Trim the 28g wire on the inside the construction, so it does not stick out to the front side. Tighten it against the frame with bent-nose pliers.

Use the 6" tail at the beginning to attach the bead. String on the bead and coil the frame 4 times next to it. Add second bead and coil the frame next to that one. Trim wire.

Make a pretty spiral with the end of the 18g wire. Weave the second earring in the mirror reflection.

Now we need to patinate the earrings, along with two pieces of 28-gauge wire, 6 inches each. You can use liver of sulfur, or, for this project I choose ammonia 10% solution because of a special shade of green brown patina it creates on copper. I take a glass jar with a tight lid, pour some ammonia solution into the bottom on the jar, and hang the pendant on the thread over the liquid. Then I close the lid tightly and wrap it with cling film to prevent the smell of ammonia from spreading around. It usually takes about an hour or two to get a dark patina. You can watch the process through the glass and speed it up if you put the jar in a warm place.

Wait 1-2 hours till cooper becomes dark. Polish the pieces in your preferred way. Then wash the pieces carefully with some dishwashing soap, and dry.

I used the patinated pieces of 28g wire to add a flower bead at the top of the earrings. You can choose to add any bead you like, or none at all! Add ear wires, and lacquer with matte or shiny finish spray if desired.