Making Watercolor Paper Earrings – Simple and Beautiful!

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Ross Barbera

Watercolor Paper Earrings are simple to make, and because they are very light weight, you can freely experiment with their design and make them as large as you like. In my workshops, my students have lots of fun experimenting with designs and often make many different earring pairs during a three hour class.

Watercolor Paper Earrings

This is a great project that lets you ”get started” on the unique watercolor paper jewelry process.

What you’ll need to make the Watercolor Paper Earrings:

  • 1 sheet of watercolor paper, 8.5” x 11” or larger, cold pressed 140lb
  • Elmer’s Glue-All
  • Watercolor Paints
  • Watercolor Brush, #6 round is a good one to use
  • Nickel Silver Wire, 18 gauge, at least 12”
  • Surgical Steel Ear Wires
  • Optional Decorative Paper to cover the back layer, such as banana paper

In addition to the material supplies, you will also need the following tools:

  • Round Nose Jewelry Pliers
  • Wire Cutters
  • Flat Nose Jewelry Pliers

The watercolor paper earrings are similar in structure to the watercolor paper pendant. The earrings employ the same paper layering process, and the main form of the earring is built from three layers of 140lb watercolor paper. After the initial form is created, a top layer is glued in place that has been painted with watercolors to create a tiny watercolor painting. I usually cover the back of the earrings with a decorative paper. I particularly like to use banana paper.

Follow these simple steps to make earrings that have unlimited color possibilities!

Coming Soon! A video that explains this process in detail.

Step 1  

Step 1

Having settled on a design, cut three layers of paper for each earring. Eventually the layers will be glued together to create the earrings. You will also cut a fourth, top layer for each earring which you will keep separate for now. Apply your choice of watercolor paint to each top layer and allow to dry. Optionally, you may also cut out another layer of banana or other decorative paper for the back of the earrings.

Step 2 

Step 2

Before gluing the unpainted layers together, cut a channel into the middle layer where the loop will be inserted to hang the earring.

Step 3 

Step 3

Insert a small length of 18 gauge wire into this channel to prevent it from filling with glue during the building stage of creating the earrings.

Step 4  

Step 4

Glue the three unpainted layers together, and when the glue has dried thoroughly use 120 grit sandpaper to refine the shape, and smooth the side edges of the earrings.

Step 5  

Step 5

When you are satisfied with the basic shape, glue the top watercolor layer with your watercolor painting to each earring, and glue the decorative paper (if you are using it) to the back.

Front view with abstract watercolor paper glued in place.

Rear view with decorative banana paper glued in place. When I touch up the sides of the earrings, I like to permit the paint to run into the banana paper.

 

Step 6 

After this assemblage  – the front and back paper glued in place  –  has completely dried, sand the sides of the earrings to integrate the newly glued top layer and backing paper into what appears to be one homogeneous form.

Step 7  

Step 7

Remove the 18 gauge wire that you inserted in Step 3. Next add the wire loops. I form them using 22 gauge wire and thread them in place. After they are threaded in place, I add a drop of crazy glue. My forthcoming video – “Watercolor Paper Earrings” – demonstrates this process in detail.

Closeup view of earring with wire hoop attached.

Step 8 

Finally, to add an attractive finish and protect the earrings, varnish them. Here are the finished pair of earrings. I built up a few coats of varnish, and attached the ear wires.

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Have fun making these earrings in a variety of great colors! Please comment below or ask any questions you might have as you try the process. Coming soon, watch for my video - “Watercolor Paper Earrings,” which will show this entire process from start to finish.

 

For more tutorials on the watercolor paper process, check out my 3 part video series on You Tube:

Watercolor Paper Pendant, Part 1

Watercolor Paper Pendant, Part 2

Watercolor Paper Pendant, Part 3

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Posted in Basic watercolor jewelry construction, Watercolor earrings, Watercolor jewelry | 2 Comments

How to add beads to the classic Egyptian Link

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Ross Barbera

7 steps to add beads to the Egyptian Link

Beads can easily be incorporated into the beautiful Egyptian Link. The beads can be added to the center of the spirals that form the primary design element of the link. If you have watched my video, “How to Create the Egyptian Link,” you watched me pinch the center of the spiral tightly closed, using my flat nose pliers. To insert a bead into the center of the spiral, instead of pinching the center tightly closed using your flat nose pliers, begin the spiral with your round nose pliers.

So how do you do this? Grab the tip of the wire with your round nose pliers, position the wire at the appropriate width of the plier’s jaw that is slightly larger than the bead that you intend to insert. Holding the wire firmly with the pliers at this spot, wrap the wire around the jaw of the pliers. The resulting circle should be large enough to accommodate the placement of your bead. Having done this, you can continue to wind the wire around the center of the inner circle in the usual way with your flat nose pliers. Do not add the bead until you are finished forming the link.

Insert the bead after both spirals have been created. The spirals on this link will not be as tightly closed as they are in the traditional Egyptian Link. Instead of being tightly closed because you started the spiral with the round nose pliers to form the center of the spiral, the link is now more open in its center.

Next, using your flat nose pliers, grab the tip of the wire at the center of the spiral, and pull it away from the wall of the inner circular opening. Then bend the tip to an upright position (see the photographs).

If your inner circular opening is the correct size, you will be able to insert the bead onto the wire, and then pinch the bead down to fit snugly into the center of the link.

I’m very interested to hear from you when you try this new beaded Egyptian Link! Your feedback is important, so please don’t hesitate to comment below.

 

Coming soon on You Tube!  A new video demonstrating the above technique- ”How to Construct the Egyptian Link with Beads”

Another video you might like featuring the Egyptian Link:    How to Make Beautiful Egyptian Link Earrings

 

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Posted in Basic wire construction, Beads, Link necklaces, Wire earrings, Wire jewelry | 2 Comments

Inspiration arrives while you actively work on pieces

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Ross Barbera

The other day, while demonstrating how to construct the basic wire hoop earrings for my Jewelry Design Workshop, the idea of combining the traditional hoop with the spiral flashed into my mind. Inspiration for new ideas often comes while working on pieces. The same thing happens with my paintings, and I have always thought of the creative process as a type of dialogue that occurs between me and the work that I’m engaged with. Ideas that result in individual, fully realized pieces almost always become departure points for new directions. My process for creative work involves a never-ending series of variations on a theme. In fact, when I completely finished the pair of spiral hoop earrings that you see in this post and was studying the results, in my mind’s eye I saw the earrings interconnected in an interesting way to form a new necklace.

When an idea comes to me in a flash like this, I usually act on it immediately by either sketching the concept, or quickly making it in wire. It’s important to preserve the idea in material form before it fades like a disappearing dream. Keeping a bound sketch book handy, especially when actually working on the construction of pieces, will help you to record your thought process and extend your ideas. I do plan to develop a link based on the design that you see in these earrings and use the new link to make a unique necklace.

My video demonstration for the spiral hoop earrings that you see here will soon be available on YouTube.

Here are a few more videos of wire earrings you might like:

How to Make Beautiful Earrings Based on the Spiral and Figure Eight

How To Make Beautiful Silver Wire Earrings Designed with the Spiral and Coil

 

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Posted in Basic wire construction, Creative process, Wire earrings, Wire jewelry | Leave a comment

How to make a channel for your watercolor jewelry pendant

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Ross Barbera

I have received many questions regarding the “channel” that I build into my pendants which permit the pendant to float on its cord; I use a variety of construction approaches to create them. The idea of a channel is to create a conduit where the hanging method, whether you use a cord, chain or piece of fabric, can pass through the piece, thus eliminating the use of jump rings. Hanging becomes integrated into the jewelry object’s design, and the jewelry object floats on its cord.

Watercolor paper pendant that is hung using the "channel" method

In my work, I use at least three different methods to create channels, but all are based on the same basic principle. I create a hollow passage-way through the piece that will permit the cord to pass through. You have probably watched my videos on “How to Construct the Watercolor Paper Jewelry Pendant,”so I will not review the basic steps for creating a watercolor paper pendant in this discussion and jump right to the channel construction. I’ll also limit this discussion to what I consider to be the simplest method for creating a channel.

Compare with an example of a watercolor paper pendant that is hung using wire wrap rings.

To begin ► The channel is constructed before applying the top finished watercolor painting layer, and the channel is added to the unfinished back of the pendant.

How do I do this?

Let’s say that the “work in progress” is 3 layers thick. I will add 2 more layers to the back of the pendant that will eventually form the channel. The 2 additional layers will be glued over a piece of tube wax that has been ideally positioned to integrate with the jewelry object that is under construction. The wax is pressed into place, and the back paper is glued into position over the wax. The paper is then carefully pressed down around the wax to form the raised channel.

After this step is finished and everything is completely dry, I continue to sand and shape the piece until it is exactly what I want.

The final step is the application of the water color painting to the top surface of the pendant. To see how I create this top layer, view “How to Construct the Watercolor Paper Jewelry Pendant, Video 1.” After this top layer is glued in place and 100% dry, I continue to sand the pendant and integrate all layers into one single piece. With the wax and back layers glued in place, I can totally ignore the channel that I constructed in the earlier steps, and continue to safely sand and varnish the pendant without damaging the channel.

After the piece of jewelry is varnished, I simply melt out the wax in a toaster oven. I should mention that I use 10 gauge round jewelry wax wire that I purchase from Contenti in ½ pound spools.

Basically this is a “lost wax process,” and the wax is melted out of the pendant to create the channel. To do this I preheat the toaster oven to 200 degrees, and place the jewelry object on a paper towel to absorb the melting wax. The wax flows out of the jewelry object, leaving an open channel behind. You might need to scrape away some varnish from the wax surface, since the wax that will eventually form the channel probably has been sealed in with varnish. The wax needs to be exposed so it flows freely from the piece.

Important! ► Please note that you must pre-heat the toaster oven!

When some toaster ovens are initially turned on, they can spike to much higher temperatures and then settle down to the set temperature. This will burn your paper jewelry, so wait 5 minutes or so before you put your piece in the oven. Soon I’ll be adding “How to Construct the Watercolor Paper Jewelry Pendant: Building the Channel” to my YouTube videos. Please watch it for detailed instructions.

Posted in Pendants, Watercolor jewelry | 5 Comments

Why use salt?

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Ross Barbera

Why use salt? I’ve been asked this question a number of times – “why sprinkle salt on still wet, watercolor paint?” Sometimes people are surprised and puzzled as to why I would do this. What could be the purpose of applying salt to paint that has just been applied to the paper and is still wet? There is a simple answer, and if there are any watercolor artists out there who are reading this blog, you already know why I do this.

Watercolor artists often apply alternative ways to control and manipulate watercolor paint once it has been applied to watercolor paper. The application of salt is just one of the many different materials that can be used to create special effects that cannot be achieved with brushes alone.

Salt has the ability to absorb water; I believe the term is “hygroscopic.” When it is sprinkled on freshly applied paint, it sucks up some water. As the paint and paper start to dry, the salt begins to release some of the water that it had absorbed back into the painted area. As it does this, the water that is being released pushes the paint into unique patterns that cannot be obtained with brushes alone.

The result of course salt applied to wet watercolor paint

Effects created by the application of salt have a unique beauty that works well with watercolor paper pendants. No special type of salt is need. The normal dinner table variety works fine, but I do personally prefer a coarse grain to a fine grain salt.
The unusual effects seen in the left and right side of the following abstract watercolor painting were achieved by the application of salt to the paper while the paint was still wet.

Posted in Basic watercolor jewelry construction | Leave a comment

Thought-provoking question

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Ross Barbera

I found the following question to be very thoughtful and interesting, and the perfect way to begin my blog that will be devoted primarily to jewelry making. I received the question from someone who viewed one of my videos on YouTube:

“This is beautiful. I’m curious. You make jewelry and you paint. Does painting help you with your jewelry making skills? and could you tell me how? I wonder if doing something like drawing and or painting could help me with other creative ventures.
Thanks for reading my comment.”

Although I’ve painted ever since I can remember, I discovered jewelry making when I was in college, and minored in it on graduate level at Pratt Institute. Making jewelry provides me with a wonderfully satisfying alternative from my 2 dimensional work, and I’ve gone through many levels of involvement with it over the years. I would have to say that jewelry making helps me with my painting, and also many of my ideas for jewelry come from my paintings. They both seem to help each other.

From my personal experience, I definitely believe that drawing and painting can help with other creative ventures. Whatever those ventures are, these disciplines will enable you to think and respond in an alternative creative way. Drawing is also one of the most fundamental creative skills that can be developed, and I believe it will positively influence all other creative ventures. I highly recommend that you get involved with drawing and painting. If you haven’t already done this, take a look at my website to see my paintings www.rossbarbera.com .

Posted in General thoughts | 13 Comments