I have been pretty much neglecting my pompom earrings ever since I wrote about them in my blog last year. Three reasons: they are rather tricky to make, I have been unsuccessful in finding new exciting stones in the form of smooth-surfaced (i.e., not faceted) rondelles of the right size, and my general aversion to leverback earwires. The classic pompoms use leverback earwires, but nicely shaped leverbacks are rather hard to find, and I personally prefer fish-hook style earwires. The leverback requirement is due to the fact that the ball-shape is woven tightly with classic pompoms, so fish hooks won’t leave much room between them and the pompom clusters, making the earrings hard to put on and off.

OK, that’s enough technical details… The news today of course is that I managed to go back to my “roots” and have made a few new pompom designs with an array of colorful gemstones. Yay! This time around the stones are mostly faceted, and fish hooks have been used. The clusters are made looser than those in classic pompoms, so they are easy to put on and remove. Available in: Caribbean blue apatite, peacock blue apatite, pink tourmaline, sunstone and amethyst. Some of them are available in my Etsy store now; some of them will be listed in a bit, because I don’t want my shop’s first page totally plastered with pompoms. :-) Larger photos below.

Caribbean Blue Pompoms

Carribean blue colored apatite clusters. Beautiful colors of the sea on these stones.

Peacock Blue Pompoms

Another fantastic blue shade of apatite — peacock blue. These are quite attention grabbing.

Pink Pompoms

Pink tourmaline pompoms. Well I have been sitting on these pink tourmaline rondelles for quite some time. I was lucky enough to find all-pink tourmaline rondelles in this substantial size. Pompoms eat up quite a bit of stones, so I have been a bit hesitant to use these stones, but here they are. Beautiful!

Orange pompoms

Orange sunstones turned into pompoms. Beautiful red and orange fires on these stones!

Purple pompoms

Amethyst rondelled turned into pretty pompoms. I have been meaning to re-stock on my amethyst rondelles, but for some reason good-quality amethyst rondelles are actually pretty hard to find.

Yellow pompoms

Lastly, the pair that jump-started it all: heliodor pompoms in gold. I made them a few weeks back, listed them in my store, and the reception has been pretty good. That got me back into the pompom mood!