I’ve been at my workbench dismantling the three pairs of heart-themed earrings I had recently made and reworking their designs. They are a bit too heavy to wear for an extended period of time. The silver and bronze sheet I used is 22 gauge, but the set stones add additional weight as do the brass spacer beads I used to connect the front and back hearts together.

Metal Work - Narrow Hearts - Earring - Dismantled

The solution?  I sawed out a heart shape from the backside of each bronze heart and replaced the heavy brass spacer beads with smaller metal beads that are lighter in weight. There is now less space separating the silver front and bronze back, but I’m still very pleased with the dimension and relief it provides and because the rivets are shorter, they help to lighten the weight of each earring a bit as well.

Metal Work - Narrow Hearts - Earrings- Backside

Each earring now weighs a half gram less, which may not seem like a lot, but in earring weight it makes the difference between being comfortable to wear or not. Although I’d rather be working on something new, I consider the tweaking of a design flaw a lesson learned and I’ve discovered that I prefer the new design to the original. So…one pair finished and two to go! Eventually, I want to amass a cohesive collection of jewelry to sell and earrings that are too heavy will definitely never sell!