Art Nouveau Freeform Earring (No Soldering!)

In a bind for a last-minute V-day gift (for yourself or someone else)? This earring requires no soldering and is made with plain copper electrical wire, plus an RGB LED and coin cell battery. I used a CR1220, but the more common CR2032 size would also work.

I made a couple of small tweaks after ending the video, so of course, it already looks janky to me! Check out the main photo above for the end product.

I looked at pictures of peacock feathers on Google Image Search as reference for this. It's quite light and fairly sturdy.

The Circuit

This is really just a glorified LED throwie! It uses an RGB LED, which by nature has four legs (one for each color, plus power or ground). Either type will work – common anode or common cathode. The middle color is used (in this case, it's red) and the outer legs form the base of the completely gratuitous copper sculpture. Everything is twisted together with fingers and pliers; see the video above for the full process, minus a couple of extra tweaks I did after ending the stream.

The Technique

During the video intro, I mentioned some early twisted-wire "drawings" I did and how you can incorporate different materials, such as nylon or deconstructed metal guitar strings. Check out these examples, which I f in 2009 or so:

More Where This Came From

Like this piece? You might also enjoy the first freeform circuit earring I did (more Art Deco), and/or my Luminary Leaf Pendant. If you're inspired to create something similar, I'd love to see it! Post a link in the comments ^_^