Intentionally imperfect industrial square cut nail earrings ... simple, dangly with movement, naturally textured, rustic and perhaps a bit unexpected ... sterling silver elevated hardware jewelry.

The humble nail … such a mundane object, a fastener, a tool, but they are hard at work all around us … respectfully hidden, but so important … they hold things together, binding one thing to another, strong and powerful.
They represent strength and hard work.

Is there a “nail” in your life? Someone who works tirelessly, selflessly, someone strong and powerful and so often behind the scenes holding things together? The fixer?
These nails are for them …

- approximate nail with loop measurement - between 1 1/4“ (30mm) - 1 1/2" (35mm)
- nail metal - recycled sterling silver (.925 silver)
- ear wire metal - sterling silver (.925 silver)
- photographed with a US dime and inch ruler for scale

I've sand cast the square nails from some nails I salvaged from our own hardwood floors during a little renovation so they have some history ... they’re used, rusty and date back before 1930, when the house was built. Please note every nail will be slightly different as they are each cast individually from different square nails.

The sand casting process - I’ve created molds in packed sand, torch melted the metal and poured it into the cavity of the sand mold. The cooled metal is then removed and the castings require quite a lot of clean up before being finished and fashioned into jewelry. It’s a process done one at a time, a new sand mold is made for each and every casting and not every piece works out the way I’d like it to so I make a new mold, melt the metal and try again.
Each solid dimensional nail will be unique and you can expect to see evidence, natural imperfections, of the process in every piece of jewelry, texture left behind from the sand molds.
Once I cleaned the nails up I added the loops and oxidized the earrings to highlight the rustic industrial imperfections ... it's a long and time consuming process but it’s hand crafted jewelry because I believe how it's made matters.

You can find the nail earrings accented with 14k gold, shown in the last photo, here.

Elevate the ordinary.