Earrings for Women

I have been traveling, designing, and buying earrings in different countries and because they are relatively quick to make compared to bracelets and necklaces, they are very readily available in many parts of many countries. Especially those with the tradition of handmade textiles and accessories. This blog is about earrings made with a more natural organic type of materials. Or with those types of themes. To get a sense of how popular earrings are just sit on a bench in a busy shopping mall on a busy weekend and count the number of women wearing them. One of my best friends says that if she does not go out with her earrings, she feels naked.

The country of Peru is currently producing some of the most intriguing and exquisite earrings. Here there is a long tradition of skilled handmade wire wrapping craftsmanship amongst the indigenous population. There are all kinds of trippy wire-wrapped items in any tourist market you go to, but the earrings have a distinct dangling look to them. A free-spirited hippie look. (As I have traveled around the world, I have noticed that different cultures and subcultures have different specializations and this stems to a certain degree from simply what kind of components are available to use. But separate from this, it's harder to put my finger on why, for example, Peruvians are so good at wire wrapping, and Balinesians are so good at carving, and Guatemalans are so good at creating unique stunning colorful textiles).  in Peru some components that are readily available and do not have to be imported or gemstones, silver, and alpaca silver (an alloy of copper and tin). other locally accessible components our coffee beans, bone, feathers, leather, seashells, bamboo, and wood. Tagua wood is famous in Peru. being situated right along the Amazon rainforest accounts for an abundance of interesting natural materials to work with

Worry doll earrings are one interesting variation.

(Peruvian Worry dolls are mini dolls that are usually crafted from thread and wood. There is a whole back-story about these dolls and their mystical ability to take away your worries The folklore about this makes for interesting reading)

As the Peruvian artisans have experienced a lot of demand for their products, they have partially met it by Importing non-local components from overseas and branching out into other themes to reflect western fashion trends. Examples would be mushrooms, trees of life, and pet animals. Some use resin beads to create a slick surface image of all kinds of things from images of the renowned artists Frida to the currently crazy popular mushroom image.

Dream catcher earrings are a common choice for purveyors of cool-looking earrings. The most common dream catcher is made of a web woven onto a hoop. Native American indigenous and First Nations societies are known for their use of dream catchers. They are typically placed over a bed or cradle as a kind of protection, and they are meant to resemble a spider web. According to the dream catcher tradition, good dreams and ideas move through the center and down the feathers to the sleeping person. Negative dreams become entangled in the web and disappear before dawn. Indeed, the dreamcatcher earring is a clever way to embrace this idea. When you are not wearing them, you can hang them in a bedroom or a bathroom to help protect against bad dreams.

This traditional symbol has also become adopted into the new age movement. It became a big fashion trend 10 years ago. Everyone was into dream catchers then, as is the case with many trends. Everything with a dream catcher was in high demand. Although they are popular now, they lack that craziness from back then