'What's taking you so long to release your earrings'
:D
Well, right now I'm sourcing earring backs that are made of sterling silver and come from reputable suppliers! The same for chains, clasps, wires and other bits that have to arrive before I can put everything together.
Next, backing cards and packaging :)
I also have to polish a hundred and fifty things by hand in my evenings, oh my.
I really wanted to get all this done by summer to have it in stock for cruise ship tourists locally so I hope it doesn't take too much longer!
Here is another reason it's taking me a while to source everything properly -- I'm not just ordering random bits of metal off the cheapest online suppliers, I want to know where my metals are coming from and what you're going to end up wearing!
The dark side of cheap jewellery
I care a lot about where metal comes from and what my customers will be putting in their ears, directly against very thin and sensitive skin.
Cheap metal jewellery, especially when it's described as 'silver' but it costs less than the current price of silver, is probably made of heavy metals you would never consider putting against your skin, like lead or cadmium -- which are also toxic if ingested (say by children accidentally putting things in their mouths!). Also high nickel contents which lead to the development of allergies.
I can't guarantee that my sterling silver jewellery is hypoallergenic as metal allergies are very varied, but I can guarantee I spend more money making sure my metal supplies originate from reputable sources (USA, Italy, Canada) and not from places where safety standards and quality control are questionable and potentially toxic to your health.
For example out of curiosity I've bought 'sterling silver' products off certain cheap online retail sites and by sanding it down I was able to see that under the thin silver plating there was a completely different coloured metal which definitely wasn't silver... Straight into the trash!
That's why I decided to price at a fair price for quality products as I'm not interested in supporting a race to the bottom with sketchy metals when it's something that's going to be worn.
I wanted to keep production in Canada or the USA, and I work with a workshop in the heart of Vancouver that casts my prototypes in sterling silver. I then take the castings and finish them off by hand, filing off the casting sprues and flashing and then polishing everything up.
With all this labour and quality control the costs are higher but I think the result is worth it, and you can buy my earrings with the knowledge that you really are supporting local artisans paid a fair wage!