how to choose comfortable earrings

 

In today's post I'm writing about how to choose earrings that will be comfortable for you. Over the years I've talked to many people about earrings, especially at markets and in person events, and its no surprise that comfort is a very individual thing - however there are factors you can consider that will help make buying and wearing earrings a much more enjoyable experience for you.

On any day at market I'll have people ask me a tonne of questions about earrings, and they will also remark on what is and is not comfortable for them. One lady will enjoy wearing large statement earrings and another will sigh and say they wish they could wear such a gorgeous design but they can't stand long or bulky earrings. Others are very sensitive to earring weight, and others sensitive to the material of the ear wire. And there are other lesser known factors - but I'll cover everything I have learned in my years of designing, making, and wearing earrings in this post. So please, read on...

A couple of housekeeping issues first - this article discusses earrings for ear lobe piercings only, not other types of earrings that I don't create and have less expertise in, and the information is about earring preferences that relate to comfort not personal taste for example its about how the earring makes you physically feel not whether you prefer the look of it.

I'm going to break this down into whether you feel uncomfortable with the size, shape, and length of an earring regardless of its weight and how it makes your ear feel, versus whether you are fine with those factors as long as the way it makes your ear lobe feel is good and comfortable.

For many people I have met, comfort of the earring size, shape, and length has nothing to do with the other attributes of the earring besides those very things. By this I mean regardless of its weight or pull, or the material it is made with they are irritated by having something hanging from their lobes - perhaps they don't like it tickling their neck, or tangling in their hair, or simply don't like the distraction of it swinging, moving, or making small sounds. I have met women who love long earrings if they are streamlined and not too chunky, others are fine with a chunky or bulky earring if it is not too long. This is very personal, and over time you will have a fair idea of what size and shape of earring bothers you.

On length I will say, it is best to be aware of the length of your earrings, if they are long enough to skim your shoulders you are going to want to be careful they don't catch under your bag straps if you use a shoulder bag or backpack, and the same thing with seatbelts. One great thing about long earrings is they accentuate your neck, great if you want to draw attention to how long or lean your lovely neck is.

Its also important to wear an earring that is appropriate for the activity you are undertaking - like sport and physical exercise, working in occupations where dangly earrings may be dangerous, even sleeping in some earrings will be uncomfortable or unsafe. Wearing a stud earring for sports and certain working conditions is the most appropriate option, and I recommend removal of most earrings for sleep.

Once you know how you feel about the dimensions of an earring - its length, its width or shape, you can move onto considering the factors that will separate one pair of earrings from another in terms of comfort for you, within the range of designs you are considering.

The weight of earrings is one of the most important considerations for choosing earrings, and deciding how often and for how long a period of time you will wear them. The weight of an earring, and how it hangs, can contribute to stretching your ear lobe, as well as stretching the size of your piercing, and in some people it will contribute to headache. It is fine to occasionally wear statement earrings, especially if it is for special occasions or short periods of time - a night out for example - and give your ears a break with small and light weight earrings on other days. Earring free time is also a good idea and I routinely have "earring free" time from my evening shower and overnight.

In general most people who are happy with the size and shape of an earring won't be bothered by weights up to and around 4 grams each. From there it tends to differ, some people will be uncomfortable with a 6 gram earring, and others are fine with 8 grams  or even 10 grams. It varies from person to person, so here is my best advice when considering whether or not a pair of earrings will be comfortable for you:

Compare the weight of the earring to earrings you already own. I list the weight for earrings I make and design for my brand, Starzyia. You can weigh earrings very easily and accurately on a digital kitchen scale. The two most important comparisons you can make are

• between a pair of earrings the same size and shape that you wear comfortably. If they are the same weight or less, this will be a fairly good indication that you will be comfortable with the weight of the earrings you want to buy.
• The other comparison is to weigh a pair of earrings you know are too heavy or uncomfortable for you - this can help you rule out a pair of earrings before you buy them.

The way that weight is carried (or distributed) as it hangs is another factor worth considering. Hook style ear wires will carry the weight more forwardly - especially if you don't wear an earring stopper on the back. That's right, those little clear rubber stoppers I put on every pair of earrings I sell is not just there to keep the earrings on my branded cards, they are there to help keep your earrings from pitching forward in your ear or even falling out. Other types of earwires like lever back and kidney style can potentially help balance the way that weight is carried - think of it as one of your arms carrying a shopping bag or using both arms to carry it. 

I also have to state that you can't necessarily tell how heavy an earring is by looking at its size alone. Many larger or longer earring designs are purposefully designed with light weight materials, for example filigrees that are a fine stamping rather than a thick, large chunk of solid metal. Avoiding heavier beads like tiger iron in favour of lighter or a more typically weighted bead is another way to keep earrings light enough for comfortable use. The earrings below are a design that many people would consider large or even oversized but is incredibly light weight due to the fine or thin brass material, weighing in at 4 grams each.

Finally, we come to the ear wire material and its condition, this is vitally important because it literally passes through your body - and the comfort of your ear lobe plays a large role in how much you enjoy wearing your earrings. Discomfort due to ear wire material ranges from feeling irritation, burning, and stinging within your piercing only, to a spreading discomfort including redness, itchiness or infection that involves your lobe. Some people are simply sensitive to certain metals, others may be truly allergic, others are fine with ear wires in general until they deteriorate and need replacing - when plating erodes, materials tarnish, or interactions between the ear wire and the cells inside your piercing  become hostile it can be time to replace the ear wires. Never forget an earring is a foreign body.

The gauge (or thickness) of the wire used to create ear wires has a role in earring comfort. Generally ear wires are created with 20 gauge wire, most people are wearing this gauge without ever choosing to, only people who experience discomfort venture into requesting a smaller gauge wire ,21 gauge, as a substitute. For the record all my earrings are offered on 20 gauge ear wires, though I usually have a small amount of 21 gauge Argentium silver wire on hand if someone makes a special request for it.

The length of the ear wire is another factor in comfort - stud posts that are too short for your ear lobe contribute to pinching (at best) and your piercing starting to absorb or intake part of your earring or the earring stopper (at worst), on the other hand stud posts and hooks that are too long can poke into the skin at the back of your ear or neck, especially if you wear them while sleeping. If the end of the ear wire that passes through your piercing is too sharp and hasn't been rounded off properly by the maker, it may be uncomfortable to poke through your piercing or bother the backside of your ear or neck.

And here we come to it, at last, the actual type of wire used to create ear wires or posts is ultimately one of the most vital parts of earring comfort. In my time I've heard everything - people want surgical steel, people don't want surgical steel, people are allergic to gold, people can't wear silver, people want plastic or aluminium.......

Every pair of earrings I make is available on a standard ear wire made with a material that matches the colour tone of the earring design - it may be gold plated surgical steel, it may be silver plated brass, it may be a high quality copper, or a bronze coloured brass. Many people are happy with this, and it allows me to offer the jewellery at a base cost they are comfortable with.

 

However the two best alternatives I can easily work with are the upgrades I offer on every pair of earrings I create to help cover people who don't do well with basic metal and plated coatings.

Niobium is my go to upgrade for my gold, bronze, or copper toned earring designs. This material is an inert, hypoallergenic material that is silky smooth and long wearing, easy to care for and extremely comfortable. Being inert means there is no biochemical interaction between the ear wire and the cells of your body.

 

For my silver coloured earring designs I offer an upgrade to Argentium Silver® this, in my opinion, is the best silver option for ear wires, it is a very high quality that is tarnish resistant, easy to care for, and comfortable.

 

And when cared for properly your ear wires and earrings will remain comfortable for a long time, even your fashion jewellery. This is going to sound yucky, but when you remove your earrings, you should really wipe your ear wires with a soft, clean cloth (t-shirt jersey is just fine) they usually have some residue on them from inside your piercing, removing this gently should help prevent tarnish or build up and keep the ear wire silky smooth.

Also storing your earrings so they don't get exposed to moisture and dust will help keep the earrings and the ear wires in top condition for the longest time. If your ear wires start to look yucky, with the plating not intact or the metal begins to hurt your ears you should consider replacing the ear wires, especially if the earring still looks lovely and you'd like to keep wearing it. At market, where I have time, I usually offer a service where people can have their earring wires replaced on the spot for a small fee. I really love earrings, and I love to help people keep wearing and enjoying the jewellery they love.

I really hope this will help you to choose earrings that will be a joy to wear, but if you do have further questions don't be afraid to pop a comment on this post, I really love talking about earrings and am happy to help. 

If you're an earring seller, don't be afraid to share this advice with your customers, you can link to this blog post in your own blogs and social media or pin/re-pin it on Pinterest

Don't forget you can find me on Instagram

the beauty of postmarks

 

Without a doubt, one of the things I love the most about postage stamps is that they are miniature masterpieces of art (or photography) I also love that they help record history, and they do that not only by carrying letters and documents, but by being marked on their journey across the world so that we can easily revisit our past. That's why today I want to write about the beauty of postmarks and postage cancellation, which can bring me to absolute delight, and can enhance the desirability of a stamp after its use. 

For the uninitiated, a postage cancellation is a stamped mark placed on a postage stamp by the postal service to prevent it being used postally again, while a postmark is a stamp that details where and when a piece of mail has been processed, and sometimes other information is included, which can make a stamp even more interesting for collectors and crafters. Most of the examples I'm talking about today, are technically postmarks however as they partly cover the stamps they have cancelled them. I'm going to use the word postmark in this article.

The beautiful ballerinas above were mailed at Christmas in 1982, during a campaign by the Royal Mail (UK) to remind people to make sure their envelopes were properly addressed, so these elegant beauties in their tutus have the postmark "properly dressed" stamped over them, which made me quite pleased, I've held onto them from sheer delight.

I have to admit the main reason I bought the stamps above, is not just that I love the funky flowers and metallic gold highlights, but I couldn't resist the postmark "hurricane relief" which reminds me of a part of history. The stamps are vintage from the Cook Islands in the 1960's. And the bottom row, middle stamp postmark reads "Kia Orana Apollo 13 Astronauts" which is a greeting that means may you have a long life. 

As a history buff, I love stumbling across postmarks that trigger memories of cultural and historical events, although I'm too young to have been around for Apollo 13, the movie captured my interest when it came out. 

I have a lot of these Marjorie Atherton rose stamps, from Australia in the 1980's but this is the first I've received with the Commonwealth Games postmark from 1982, which interests me because my cousin was competing in those games when I was in the first grade at primary school, we had the television running in my class room though I can't clearly remember the event in which my cousin was beaten by Debbie Flintoff in the hurdles. 

Another way that postmarks have personally touched me, was after my Aunt passed away and Mum and I had to close up her house. I came home with crates of postage stamps and one day rifling through, looking to make some postage stamp necklaces, I found a bird still attached to a piece of envelope. The postmark said Kadina Jan 3 and I knew immediately this was a stamp that had carried a birthday card to my late Aunt (birthday Jan 6) from my Mum's cousin in Kadina. I made a necklace though I would never list it for sale - that necklace connects me to two very dear family members and I wouldn't part with it for all the world. 

So when I create postage stamp jewellery, I do so with an eagle eye for postmarks - some are too heavy, they obliterate a beautiful piece of art, but many can truly add to the stamp and its meaning to us as individuals and also as a community. All the jewellery I create uses the original postage stamp, and genuine postmarks.

To view more vintage postage stamps and postage stamp jewellery by Starzyia, please follow me on Instagram