Harvest Moon October Inspiration for Earrings Everyday

As soon as I saw the Harvest Moon inspiration for this month at Earrings Everyday, I was indeed inspired. The challenge came to my attention several days after it was posted and thus several days since the Harvest Moon had made its appearance. I had the pleasure of getting to see that moon in all its October glory. Simply recalling its beauty was all I needed to envision this design.

I first considered what material would best represent the moon itself. Almost immediately I was struck with the image of mother-of-pearl buttons. Their holes and sometimes rough texture would be perfect to epitomize the moon. But, I didn't want them to hang loosely in the earrings, they called out to be set in the sky.

Since I've been playing around with tin on and off for a few months, it seemed to be just the thing to use as the backdrop. And, utilizing a technique I picked up in a jewelry class, I was sure I could attach the buttons to the tin by folding the tin over on the buttons. 

At a local thrift store, I found a tin with a black lid. The base was a snowy city scene that I used to practice the design. It was good that I decided to practice as I had originally intended to only use one layer of tin. But, the propeller-like shape (middle) of the single layer made me change my plans to add the second layer.

My initial plans changed again when I added the patina to the tin. See, the backside of the black tin was a brassy-gold that I was able to sand off for the most part. In order give the earrings an "aged" feel, I left some of the original color. When the dark patina was added, the brassy-gold really stood out and sparkled like stars in the sky. Since the fold-overs had this effect on them, I decided to flip the second layer so some of the sparkles would show up in the background too. Even the rivets went well with the bit of metallic poking through. 

  

I see myself making many other pairs of earrings like these, combining tin and buttons - two found object materials I really enjoy working with. And, I see how I can improve upon this design and the process. For now, though, I'm totally smitten with my own pair of Harvest Moon Earrings.

I'm linking up on the Earrings Everyday reveal post. I do hope you head over there and see how other artists were inspired by this month's theme. I know I'm looking forward to it.