Celtic Earrings -- Mixed Metal

The new creation on the Dalkullan block, Celtic Earrings, are completely hand fabricated. I used my trusty shears to rough out the brass triangle shapes, and then trued up the edges starting with a coarse file, then finer files, and finally with sand paper.

The next step was doming the metal with a wooden punch and dap set. I didn't want to use my metal daps, because I only wanted a slight doming. My wooden dap set is made for watchmakers to smooth out the dents in watch backs, and has a gentle curve, Having a bit of a curve in the metal gives the earrings a
pretty look, don't you think?

Next I moved on to making the center motif, which I constructed from 20 gauge sterling wire, carefully coiling up 3 swirls for each earring. I soldered them together to form the motif, then hammered them on my bench block, and finally dapped them in the same dap I used on the brass triangles, so that the two curves would match exactly.

A final soldering mated the sterling motif to the brass triangles. I used a hand drill to pierce the holes for the earwires, which I'd made earlier, and then popped the earrings into my well loved tumbler for a few hours of polishing.

I'm planning on doing more Celtic designs, they're certainly classic, and I like the flowing lines and beauty of them. Hope you do to!