Nine Ladies Dancing Earrings

by Judy Larson

Category: Holiday Designs
Technique(s): Texturing, Butane Torch Techniques
Skill Level: Beginner

Can you imagine the balls during the time this song came about? How excited would a young woman be going to her first ball in a beautiful new dress. Can't you just see her being swept around the dance floor by a handsome "Lord a Leaping"?

Materials

24 Gauge Dead Soft Argentium Silver Sheet - 6 Inches

H19-24SM6

Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 1.00 1 Inch
Price: $51.80
Gold Club Price: $38.85

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Sterling Silver Earwires 14.5mm w/2mm Bead - Pack of 2

K19-46

Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 1.00 each
Price: $2.22
Gold Club Price: $1.67

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20 gauge 2.5mm jump ring

Lesson Quantity: 2.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 2.00 each

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Tools

7 Piece Mini TruStrike Hammer Set with Stand

HAM-520.70

HAM-520.70
Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 1.00 each
Price: $140.54
Gold Club Price: $105.40

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Euro Tool Metal Hole Punch Pliers, 1.8 Millimeters

PLR-133.50

PLR-133.50
Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 1.00 each
Price: $11.98
Gold Club Price: $8.98

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WET/DRY PAPER 9 X 11 ASST- 20PC- 2EA GRIT 180-3000

ABR-500.90

ABR-500.90
Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 1.00 each
Price: $24.95
Gold Club Price: $18.71

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GROBET FILE - BARRETTE CUT 4, 6"

FIL-31.031

FIL-31.031
Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 1.00 each
Price: $35.10
Gold Club Price: $26.33

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Instructions

Step 1

Template Designs

The first template, 2½" x 6", contains the designs that are to be cut out and assembled. The second template, also 2½" x 6", contains size and shape approximations for those designs requiring a backing, except for number 4, which is a charm disc that could be cut out and number 3, an alternate French Hens design. The numbers on the designs in both templates refer to the day in the song and in the tutorials.

Because any texturing will distort the metal design, it is best to texture the 24 gauge Argentium sheet metal before cutting out the design. Any texture will work, simple or fancy, so long as you like it. Textured sheet metal is available and is a great alternative to doing the texturing yourself. Anneal and flatten metal you texture before continuing.

Judy Larson's Nine Ladies Dancing Earrings - , Holiday Designs, Texturing, Butane Torch, Soldering, Solder, templates

Judy Larson's Nine Ladies Dancing Earrings - , Holiday Designs, Texturing, Butane Torch, Soldering, Solder, nine ladies dancing earrings

Step 2

Once the metal is flattened, glue the templates to it. Cut out the designs. Remove the paper templates. File and refine the edges of each piece.

Step 3

Optional: 1.5mm or 1.8mm holes can be punched in each piece where they connect at the "waist" as well as the top of each "bodice" where the dresses will be attached to ear wires. If the look of eyelets is desired, do not punch the holes yet. Place the textured pieces right side up on a soldering block. Place a dot of medium paste where holes would be punched. Press a closed 22 gauge 2mm ID jump ring into each dot of paste solder.

Step 4

Heat the dress pieces with a butane torch until the solder flows. Pickle, rinse, and dry the pieces. Punch holes inside the jump rings with a 1.5mm or 1.8mm hole punch.
Connect a bodice to each skirt with a 20 gauge 2.5mm ID jump ring.

Step 5

If a bit of extra dimension is desired, use a bracelet bending pliers to gently curve the skirt.
Tumble the assemblies for several hours.
Patina the pieces if desired. The earrings shown have added patina.
Attach ear wires.

ANOTHER IDEA: Do you have fine chain scraps? Hang as many pieces of chain as possible at the bottom of a rectangle. The chains will shimmy when the earrings are worn, as the fringe on a flapper dress might have when dancing!

Reviews

Judy Larson

My philosophy has always been "I will never live long enough to learn everything I want to learn, go everywhere I want to go and see everything I want to see!" So, what I make and how I create it is always changing and evolving. I was born shortly after WWII to parents who grew up during the Depression. They always had a "we can do it, we can make it" attitude which rubbed off on my two younger brothers and me. My brothers are amazing and can make and do ANYTHING! When I was a little girl, my mother gave me an old carved cigar box, which I cherish, filled with pop beads, wooden beads and yarn for stringing. That was the beginning of my jewelry making journey.

On a visit to the Grand Canyon when I was a young woman, I was fortunate enough to help a Native American silversmith sand cast my first silver bracelet and bezel set a large turquoise nugget on top. I was in love, hook, line and sinker! While working full time and having a family here in northern Minnesota, my artistic endeavors slowed down but never stopped. I am an artist, scrapbooker, seamstress, woodworker and jewelry artisan. Now that I am retired, I am able to indulge in all my hobbies. However, there just never seems to be enough time in the day to do it all, but I try!

I have been teaching community education beginner and intermediate jewelry making classes since my retirement. Many of my students have been bitten so hard by the jewelry making bug that they say I have turned them into monsters-they just can't get enough. Making jewelry, seeing something take shape from small bits and pieces, is so rewarding that I hope it brings out the "monster" in you, too!

Nine Ladies Dancing Earrings

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