The Earring Style Book: Review Part 3

This will be my last post on The Earring Style Book: Making Designer Earrings, Capturing Celebrity Style, and Getting the Look for Less for a little while.  Although I have been thoroughly enjoying making the projects, I am feeling a little burnt out making only earrings.   I'll have to set the book aside for a little while and summarize my thoughts.

This past weekend I made the Marlene earrings - not one, but two pairs.  I really wanted to get a feel for how the same style of earrings can feel in gold vs. silver.  I changed the center stones slightly too - both the shape and the gemstone.  The silver earrings are an amazonite hexagon with labradorite.  The gold earrings use aqua chalcedony for the focal gemstone and the same labradorite beads.

From the instructions perspective, this project was very good.  The earrings were simple to make and the instructions were easy to follow.  They don't take 10-15 minutes per pair though.  The only other gripe I had was that the instructions called for "50 links of gold-filled common chain".  In Stephanie's defense, she does describe 'common chain' in the findings section as being 4.5 mm, but I think it would have been far more useful if she gave a tip describing how to get an accurate number of links using any chain that you might have on hand.  That was how I had to do it, and probably how most people following her instructions will need to do it.

If you decide to make these earrings, I would recommend you don't cut the chain until you have identified the proper length.  I did that by taking my long piece of chain and connecting one end to each side of the gemstone support.  Then, I put my dangle loop into the chain links that gave the appropriate look.  I had to try two different lengths each time before I decided which was right.     You need to do this before closing any of the loops locking the chain in place.