Silver wire ribbon bow earrings

I saw a pair of pretty earrings in a jewellery shop last week of little ribbon bows in silver and thought rather than pay £25 for them I' might have a go at making some myself.
Needless to say that was easier said than done but I played around with some 0.8mm sterling wire and tried knotting it into 2 symmetrical bows. Getting the symmetry was very nearly the hardest part of the exercise but getting the bows small enough for earrings was beyond me.
I hammered them for a flattened ribbon effect and a bit of texture, then made some ear pins (my first) and soldered a small disk to the back of the ribbons for the earpins to be soldered to.
I'm afraid I got a bit carried away with the flame and ended up melting the "ribbons" just as the solder ran which was a bummer but I hammered them again and polished them up and this is the result.
They're a bit too big and a bit too thin I think and they look sharp but they're not as bad as they look.
Anyone got any ideas on how to get a smaller fatter bow? Is casting the only sure fire way do you think?



Silver ribbon earring (1) by Odonata Studios, on Flickr

they look very smart, well done. as to making them smaller etc hmm have got a clue to be honest, unless you do the bow in parts and solder but that could be fiddly.

I like them that size - I'm one for earrings that can be noticed!

They do look sweet! My initial thoughts would be either use a wire jig where it's easier to keep it all in place - or pierce out of sheet? You could build yourself probably something jig-like by putting two equal sized round thingies in your bench vise perhaps?

Aw they're really sweet. Yes I thought like Tinker, using wire and a jig would be easiest.
Lisa x

Hmm, I thought about making it in bits and soldering it together but felt it might be really fiddly. In hindsight I don't think it'll be any more fiddly than tying the wire.
I'm going to have a go at some point with thicker wire and make it in sections. See how it goes.

Thanks guys.

Or make it in .999 silver and just fuse the centre part of it? If youve got a good aim that is lol