From sketch to hoop: designing Eira
Eira took fourteen months and nine prototypes to get right. The story of a hoop that had to look heavy and feel like nothing at all.
Eira started with a complaint. A customer told me she loved chunky gold hoops but could not wear them for more than an hour before her earlobes ached. Most solid hoops of that size weigh six or seven grams each. I wanted to make one that looked just as bold and weighed half as much.
The first sketches
The early drawings were too round, too perfect. They looked like tubes. What made the final shape work was a slight swelling at the front of the hoop, so it catches the light where it is seen and slims away towards the ear.
Nine prototypes
- Prototypes one to three were solid and simply too heavy.
- Four to six were hollow, but the walls were so thin they dented when dropped.
- Seven found the right wall thickness but the hinge rattled.
- Eight fixed the hinge. Nine fixed the click, so it closes with a sound you can trust.
A hoop is only finished when you forget you are wearing it.
The final piece
Eira is cast in recycled 14k gold with a hollow core, 22 mm across and 4 mm thick, and weighs 3.1 g per earring. It is high-polished inside and out and closes with a hinged click. It is now one of the pieces we make most often, and the customer who started it all wears hers every day.
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