Smelling Metal Flowers

For the past ten days or so I've been living with a nasty common cold. This time it is all about the nose and I think it's been the first time when I completely lost a sense of smell for almost three days (while still being able to breathe normally through my nose). It's so distressing! Eating became a frustrating experience. With no sense of smell, there's no flavor. We take it for granted.. but take the smell away and everything tastes the same. Even cooking became complicated - I've blissfully burned my lunch because I could not smell a damn thing..

Thankfully things seem to be back to normal - I can finally smell the sulfur in the oxidizing solution, so all is well.  

Tiny metal flowers was one of the projects that kept me busy during this long slow week spent with pots of hot tea amidst mountains of tissues.

Metal flowers that don't smell of anything :)

--- Picture: soldering silver flower outlines on a honeycomb ceramic block---

This deceptively simple minimalist flower shape takes many little steps to finish and every flower requires lots of attention and a number of little tweaks along the way. When finished, these silver blossoms will become small floral stud earrings. 

 --- Picture: Finished flower shapes - hammered and pre-polished. ---

This batch of flowers will make five pairs of studs. With every little wire petal outline being hand shaped and therefore slightly different, it takes extra care to make sure the flowers are more or less the same to form earring pairs. 

--- Picture: Ever wonder what's around the close up shots? Here is one of those rare "behind the scenes"  illustrations :) ---

I keep thinking that I need to make a matching pendant necklace in the same simple floral style. Maybe that's what I should do next :) Too many ideas, too little time..

--- Picture: Simple silver flower stud earrings are available in my shop --- 

I really love these dainty minimalist flower shapes - they are not too girly :) Super sweet is not my style. I see them as casual everyday earrings that are fun and easy to wear while at the same time they are subtle and refined, and they will add a touch of understated contemporary elegance to any outfit.