Rosewood Ribbon Earrings with Silver Wire Lines Terminating

Rosewood and silver wire meet in these ribbon earrings, the wood furled into a ribbon shape and the silver drawn out into lines that terminate in small beads.

Those tiny beads were made the old way. Morrill records the workshop method of cutting thin wire into rings, laying them on asbestos, and melting them so the heat drew each ring into a ball (Morrill, p. 36). The same handwork that produced beads on a necklace finishes these wire terminals.

The pairing of rosewood with silver is characteristic of Spratling's use of exotic woods as a foil for metal, the warmth of the grain set against the brightness of the line. The earrings are recorded in Davis and Pack's Mexican Jewelry.