These slave earrings were simple, but fun to make. I haven’t made any slave earrings in a while, so I started digging through my component container for ideas, as I often do. The hoops stood out straight away to me. Similar to the idea behind the citrine silver slave earrings, I thought that having a more conventional earring with a slave earring attachment might be quite striking. I grabbed the sterling hoops and started laying out chain to get ideas for the overall shape.

I love this chain – it’s a standard in my jewelry-making arsenal. It hangs well, is very adaptable, and has such a simply beautiful shape that it adds to almost any design.

I’d figure out how to wrap onto the hoops after making the ruby hoop earrings, so attaching the chain was much easier this time around. I spent a long time looking in the mirror, trying to figure out the best way to segway into the slave earrings and whether to go for a more intricate criss-cross pattern in the chain, and finally settled on this wearable design.

Once the chain was in place, I started looking at beads, A friend had given me a mix of carnelian and I decided it was finally time to try some of it out. The large coin drops worked really well as center pieces to the hoops, while the smaller carnelian rondelles provided an excellent accent to the earrings.

What I love about these is, even if slave earrings aren’t your thing, they’ll easily convert to a pair of regular hoop earrings. Remember, slave earrings are also great of ladies with multiple piercings -  a second stud can replace the non-piercing ear cuff at the top to create unique multiple-piercing earrings.

Expect lots more slave earrings soon. In the meantime, see the carnelian sterling silver slave earrings here and check out the black agate and amethyst slave earrings.