A quick look at how I make a set of earrings - for those of you interested in making a set for yourself, as well as for those that are interested in the actual process of making jewelry, a sort of behind-the-scenes peek.
I start out by cutting off the bits of thick wire from whatever wire stock I am using, they look like this when they are freshly cut. These will eventually be the heads of the earrings.
Next up, I clean the little guys up a bit and then I set them up for soldering. I put paste flux on them and a little tiny bit of solder (I use wire solder, though people keep telling me that the sheet solder is really nice). They are now ready for the torch. 
I add the posts and a little bit of heat and this is pretty much what they look like right out of the fire. They seem a bit slanted or off center because of the extra little bits of metal around the diameter of the heads, but they will be straight once I file them down and clean them up. From here they go into the pickle, which is a mild acid and will clean off all of the oxidation from the torch flame.
This is what they look like when they come out of the pickle and are washed clean of the chemical. They are now ready to be filed/sanded, and polished to make the final product. 
This is the finished product, all prettied up, photographed, and ready to be listed for buyers. If you wanted a more traditional finish you would then sand them with various grades of sandpaper and then polish them with whichever polishes you like to use (tripoli, then various rouge compounds, zam, wonder bar, tumbler polishing and componds, rio compounds, etc.). If you like the oxidized finish on sterling silver, then you can use liver of sulphur to oxidze the material, or some other oxidizing compound that is available, there are a ton of different ways to achieve the same result, it all depends on personal preference and usability on which way you choose to work.
Well, that's about it for making these earrings - feel free to make them for your own personal use, let me know how it goes for you if you do decide to make them!
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