Sculptural Mexican Fire Opal Earrings

These are one of my newer hand-sculpted pieces. The earrings have wonderful color flashing faceted Mexican Fire Opal gemstones. The earrings measures 1.25 inches in length. This design also has 22K gold highlights added around the stones. The earrings are hand sculpted by me. I use a Precious Metal Clay blend that allows the earrings to have the strength of Sterling, but not the tarnishing. I then hand-carve the designs in the metal and when happy with the design, fire it at high temperatures in a kiln. This burns out the clay binders and leaves behind pure silver or gold. The 22K gold added into this design is created with Aura 22. It is a 22K gold slip I paint on the piece and when it is fired in the kiln the gold molecularly bonds with the Silver to create a 22K plating that will never be able to come off. I then add a patina to the piece that will darken it, turn it a copper color in places, or may even turn the silver rainbow-ish. I will then seal the silver to keep it from ever turning another color.