Emerald Leaf Earrings

This past weekend, I took my first ever class on precious metal clay. If you’re unfamiliar, PMC, as it’s known, is a finely-ground Sterling silver dust suspended in a binder which burns off when fired, and the heat causes the metal particles to fuse together, leaving only the silver. More porous than sheet or other work-hardened metals, like a casting, but Sterling, all the same.

The particular class I took was on organics in pmc, so I pasted up a couple of hydrangea leaves, and when fired, they became super-slim, textured back plates for the emeralds. So that my 14K prongs would be sturdy enough, I framed the leaves in sheet metal, which worked beautifully.

I am so proud of these, so happy to have found a new method in metalsmithing, and so thrilled that I get to share them with you.

2 3/8” total length, and a wearable 8g each. 14Knyellow gold ear wires with an 18K yellow gold freeform accent on each ear wire