Flower earrings by Van Craeynest. The settings are 18K and platinum featuring bezel-set ceylon sapphires and bead-set diamonds nessled in the petals. Thse earrings are saw-pierced too, but the design is mostly chased.
A note on chasing from the VC website:
Chasing is a technique of modeling and moving gold and platinum in the same way that clay is modeled. No metal is removed during chasing. The craftsman uses a small chasing hammer and tiny hardened steel punches in order to squeeze, move, mold and shape the metal. The hammer handle is about the same length as a carpenter’s hammer, but very thin and the head is only 3/4" long. These steel chasing punches are about half the size of a pencil and each artist owns about 200 different ones. Chasing is used in conjunction with carving to make patterns and deep texture in the metal. Carving and chasing requires a very high skill level and an enormous amount of patience.
