S925 Silver Gesang Flower Long Earrings

Gesang is not a botanical name. In Tibetan the word means happiness, and gesang flower is a loose term for the wildflowers of the plateau: cosmos, delphinium, potentilla, not the same species from one valley to the next. So there is no standard answer to drawing one. Eight petals is the most common treatment, the tips slightly pointed and a dot of yellow at the centre; some draw six and hold that six is the true kind of the high grassland. The headdresses of Tibetan women often carry a small silver flower of eight petals with a red bead at the centre, which is close in manner to this pair. On the grassland the flowers are at their fullest in August and are gone once the frost comes.

The weight of a long earring is in the drop. An earlobe will carry only so much: past ten grams it begins to pull, and a full day of wear lengthens the piercing. Here the flower head is set at mid-length with a stretch of chain below it, so the weight is spread and the swing stays small. It moves when you walk and does not slap your face when you run. The opening of the ear hook has to be soft enough to pinch: too hard and it will not go through the piercing, too soft and it opens by itself.

The eight petals have to be the same size. When a master model is made by hand, the eight are laid out in eight passes, and skew one of them and the whole flower leans. There is no need for a ruler when you check it: narrow your eyes and look at the outline, and whether it is round is obvious at once. The gaps between the petals have to be equal in width. Uneven gaps and the light cannot get in, and the flower goes dead. The face of each petal swells very slightly, and the swell is what gives thickness; flat, and it reads as paper.

The centre holds no stone. It is a dimple pressed into the metal where light gathers and looks like a small brightness. This is steadier than setting a small stone: a stone can fall out and a dimple cannot, and a dimple also resists dirt, since a toothbrush will deal with it when it does get dirty. The back of the petals carries a reinforcing rib, without which the thin sheet curls at the first knock. The dimple is less than half a millimetre deep; deeper and it collects dust, shallower and no light shows in it. The yellow at the centre is left in the natural colour of the silver, with nothing applied.

Long earrings look best with the hair up. Worn loose, the hair catches on them. They swing as you walk, and if the swing is excessive the chain is too soft, so a slightly stiffer one is better. Choose a heavier hook as well, since a fine hook cannot carry this much length. With wear, the backs of the petals darken first while the fronts, which the hair keeps brushing, stay bright, and I like that unevenness. Hooks spread apart over time, so pinch them back now and then.