Side 1
This was my first attempt at using my new metal working tools. I had some scraps of brass sheet laying around – they were meant for trophy plaques I believe. I don’t have a torch (yet) so I tried kiln annealing the metal. I’m not sure if it’s the right way to do it but 1000 degrees for about 10 minutes did the trick. I ended up with some color change and patination on the brass, and some nasty fire scale on the copper tubing I tried, but it worked.
I could have cleaned the brass but I rather liked the look and just banged on it a bit with a textured hammer to give it some interest. Then I cut out a brass rectangle with an attached vertical football type shape at the top for the bail. I only broke two saw blades doing it. 
I filed down the corners and edges to get rid of any burrs and sharp edges. Then I used a set of forming pliers to fold over the bail although I could have just used a set of regular pliers and bent it around some sort of mandrel.
I drilled a couple holes for the rivets (brass escutcheon pins – thanks for the idea, Libby) in both the metal and the two clay pieces I wanted to attach. Then I cut the pins to length (love that tube cutting jig). The great thing about the brass pins is that I only had to mushroom one side. I ended up using a bolt as a punch since I couldn’t get the hammer in to the pin without smashing the clay.
It all worked out though and I made two sets of earrings to go with each of the sides. I’m pretty pleased with it for a first project when I didn’t really know what I was doing 
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