Wire Wrap Jewelry Design: Proportion

From all those handmade earring findings I made last week, so far I have only completed one pair of earrings! I used the simple wire wrapped Czech glass bead ear wires and added some very nicely faceted whiskey quartz drop beads.

I used a simple, but slightly messy wire wrap to attach the quartz briolettes.

The reason for the messy wrap is not because I can't do it neatly - but because the finer gemstones have very small holes, and I had to use much thinner wire for the gems than I did for the ear wires.  The earring findings use 20g wire and the drops only fit 26g wire.  If I did a simple neat wrap, the ear wires would feel much heavier than the drops - which would appear to hang on a spindly thread of wire.  

Not that I haven't done that a gazillion times in the past!  But as I get more experience, I realize that considering the proportion of each element is one of the details that can make a big difference in the finished piece.  It's also something that I'm still learning, so I post it here for your benefit and my own.

The color combination of these earrings is very pretty in person - since the amethyst glass beads have a subtle gold sheen and it is picked up by the sparkle of the whiskey quartz.

One of the things that may have slowed my jewelry making progress is that I have been working on a new photography setup (again!).  The difference is subtle, but it uses more light and diffuses the shadows more than my current setup.  I'm going to play with it a little more and then I will write a post about it over Christmas holiday.