I often make earrings for everyone (who wears traditional earrings) at xmas gatherings. This year I was kind of behind owing to a graduation in the middle of my frantic last-minute holiday prepping, so they don't all match.

holiday earrings, gold fill, gold plate, niobium, hollow lampwork, December 2017. Shot with zuiko macro, Olympus E620.

The ones on the left were inspired by my latest semi-successful attempt to do Kristina Logan style twist-dot florals, and I can say that they came out nice and round, are the same size and I'm reasonably happy with the colour scheme. Technically, they're hollow as well.

I failed utterly to make beads for holiday bead exchange but a few people took pity on me and offered to swap for the promise of holiday themed beads; one of them, Cindi B., specifically requested these red and green filigrana raked hollows, so after making some at her house, I dug out my filigrana and made some more for my own amusement, two sets of which I paired out here.

As the recipient of one of my prior pairs of earrings managed to lose one within 24 hours^[1] I decided to put the ones for other family members on posts. I had a bag with 10 3mm gold fill posts with rings I purchased back in 1995, which at the start of this project still had 10 pieces—I really think I'd sat upon those findings long enough, seeing as they were now old enough to drink. I put my own on niobium hooks, which I prefer, which I scavenged off some earlier xmas earrings of candy canes that broke & which I really had no interest whatsoever in replacing/repairing.

Cindi was dubious about using the white cored filigrana for the green, but I think it actually looks better, adding more contrast to the design. As I typically do for these half-and-half raked designs, I flipped each side vertically, which again I think lends more interest.

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