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My wife just got a nice piece of vintage costume jewelry. It's worth a little money because of its age, but it's not real or anything. She wants to wear these earrings to parties or date nights with me. The problem is that she has very small ear piercings... I'd guess 20 ga., MAYBE 18 at most. These earrings have screw posts that are big enough that she can't get them through her earholes. I'm guessing 16 or even 14 ga, plus the screw threads make it even a little more difficult. We don't want to ruin the authenticity and possible future value by altering them. I've looked into gauging her ear holes, but most of what I've seen is for people looking to put those giant plates in their ears. Places like Piercing Pogoda and the local jewelers only seem to have smaller post earrings like my wife already has.

When looking online, I search for earrings for gauging or something like that, and everything I find looks promising at first, but then turns out to be for eyebrows or belly buttons or other areas, and I'm not sure whether that stuff is just totally compatible with the ear too, or if I need to find something else? Is the local tattoo parlor our only option? My wife is a little nervous about that option since we haven't used them before and you hear things you know? I just thought I'd ask y'alls opinion before diving into that particular pool. Didn't know if any of you had gone through this before. Also, any advice on gold v. platinum v. titanium v. surgical steel would be appreciated, or gauging v. tapering v. some other technique I'm unaware of.

Also, how long does it take and how likely is infection and how do we prevent it? My wife really wants to be able to wear them by Christmas, but remembers the awful infections she got the first time as a teenager and wants to avoid that debacle. She's also trying to find something comfortable to sleep with, which is another challenge.

Thanks.

OMG--do NOT gauge her ears or enlarge the holes. I have a kid who got his ears gauged, and now that he's tired of "the look," the holes aren't growing back, much to our mutual chagrin.

Take the earrings to a jeweler and have the jeweler convert the pierced earrings into clips. The advantage of having pierced ears is that you can still wear clips. Many of us with pierced ears wear clips all the time. Converting the earrings from pierced into clip-ons will not affect the value of the jewelry at all.

She's not trying to gauge up much (different from kids who want HUGE openings) so it should be easy enough. There is nothing sacred about jewelry for eyebros/belly buttons or ears. there is no reason she couldn't use one of those. I don't think infection will be an issue, since she is trying to stretch the hole she already has, not create a new one. I would still take reasonable precautions and clean the earings thoroughly before putting htem in. She should know that her piercing may be visible (the holes in my ears are small enough you can't see them without earings in - I expect hers are the same) after she does this.

I would get the little soft earing stoppers (they look like corks) and I would use plain old wire. Seriously. Go to Michaels or similar craft store and buy jewlery wire. It comes in gauges. cut a piece about an inch long, bend it like a U, put it through the ear and put one of the stoppers on each end. Wear it at night, put regular earings in during the day. Up the gauge every week or so and you should be good to go in no time.

CathyCA wrote:OMG--do NOT gauge her ears or enlarge the holes. I have a kid who got his ears gauged, and now that he's tired of "the look," the holes aren't growing back, much to our mutual chagrin.

Take the earrings to a jeweler and have the jeweler convert the pierced earrings into clips. The advantage of having pierced ears is that you can still wear clips. Many of us with pierced ears wear clips all the time. Converting the earrings from pierced into clip-ons will not affect the value of the jewelry at all.

Thanks, Cathy. I agree that gauging to a huge size is not what we want. But we're just trying to get to a 16 or 14 ga from a 20 or 18 ga. The things you are talking about are 2 or 0 ga, about 10x the size. By looking at it, the hole won't really be any larger than it is now, maybe 0.5 mm larger.

These earrings are over 100 years old, made in Paris. They are fake, but super high quality fakes that nobility used to wear for nights out on the town so as not to risk the "real pieces". The gold is real, the stones are
what's fake. I have spoken to multiple jewelers and antique dealers. Every one of them says that they refuse to alter them because converting them would completely destroy their future value. They are also big, heavy, dangly things. The people we spoke to said they didn't know of any clips that would hold them safely for sure. Wouldn't want one falling off and breaking. Converting is not an option. In fact, the first jeweler DID offer to remove the post and put in a normal, modern 14k post. We were about to agree when her partner, who specializes in antique jewelry, came over with his loop, took it from her, looked at it and said, "you will NOT be doing that. This is the original work, and WE will not be ruining it." He then offered to purchase them from us if we didn't want them w/o alterations. He offered us an amount that ended up being twice what we paid for them. So I don't think my wife would agree to that. If they were normal, new earrings from a jeweler, I'd agree in a heartbeat, but these are pretty special earrings, really pretty one of a kind.

windsor wrote:She's not trying to gauge up much (different from kids who want HUGE openings) so it should be easy enough. There is nothing sacred about jewelry for eyebros/belly buttons or ears. there is no reason she couldn't use one of those. I don't think infection will be an issue, since she is trying to stretch the hole she already has, not create a new one. I would still take reasonable precautions and clean the earings thoroughly before putting htem in. She should know that her piercing may be visible (the holes in my ears are small enough you can't see them without earings in - I expect hers are the same) after she does this.

I would get the little soft earing stoppers (they look like corks) and I would use plain old wire. Seriously. Go to Michaels or similar craft store and buy jewlery wire. It comes in gauges. cut a piece about an inch long, bend it like a U, put it through the ear and put one of the stoppers on each end. Wear it at night, put regular earings in during the day. Up the gauge every week or so and you should be good to go in no time.

Thanks Windsor. She currently has little "dimples", for lack of a better word, where her piercings are, so though you can't see the actual holes, you can pretty easily tell they're there. Her real worry is infection. She thinks the skin doesn't stretch so much as it tears and reheals. If it just stretches, that would be awesome. The only thing I'd worry about jewelry wire is that I doubt that it's sterile, and I bet it would irritate her more than surgical steel or gold would. She has very sensitive ear lobes. She can't wear most clip ons because they pinch her too hard, and sometimes at random her normal gold earrings make her ears get red and painful, and she has to stop wearing them for a few days.

bjornolf wrote:

windsor wrote:She's not trying to gauge up much (different from kids who want HUGE openings) so it should be easy enough. There is nothing sacred about jewelry for eyebros/belly buttons or ears. there is no reason she couldn't use one of those. I don't think infection will be an issue, since she is trying to stretch the hole she already has, not create a new one. I would still take reasonable precautions and clean the earings thoroughly before putting htem in. She should know that her piercing may be visible (the holes in my ears are small enough you can't see them without earings in - I expect hers are the same) after she does this.

I would get the little soft earing stoppers (they look like corks) and I would use plain old wire. Seriously. Go to Michaels or similar craft store and buy jewlery wire. It comes in gauges. cut a piece about an inch long, bend it like a U, put it through the ear and put one of the stoppers on each end. Wear it at night, put regular earings in during the day. Up the gauge every week or so and you should be good to go in no time.

Thanks Windsor. She currently has little "dimples", for lack of a better word, where her piercings are, so though you can't see the actual holes, you can pretty easily tell they're there. Her real worry is infection. She thinks the skin doesn't stretch so much as it tears and reheals. If it just stretches, that would be awesome. The only thing I'd worry about jewelry wire is that I doubt that it's sterile, and I bet it would irritate her more than surgical steel or gold would. She has very sensitive ear lobes. She can't wear most clip ons because they pinch her too hard, and sometimes at random her normal gold earrings make her ears get red and painful, and she has to stop wearing them for a few days.

That sounds almost like a metal allergy issue of some kind.

bjornolf wrote:

windsor wrote:She's not trying to gauge up much (different from kids who want HUGE openings) so it should be easy enough. There is nothing sacred about jewelry for eyebros/belly buttons or ears. there is no reason she couldn't use one of those. I don't think infection will be an issue, since she is trying to stretch the hole she already has, not create a new one. I would still take reasonable precautions and clean the earings thoroughly before putting htem in. She should know that her piercing may be visible (the holes in my ears are small enough you can't see them without earings in - I expect hers are the same) after she does this.

I would get the little soft earing stoppers (they look like corks) and I would use plain old wire. Seriously. Go to Michaels or similar craft store and buy jewlery wire. It comes in gauges. cut a piece about an inch long, bend it like a U, put it through the ear and put one of the stoppers on each end. Wear it at night, put regular earings in during the day. Up the gauge every week or so and you should be good to go in no time.

Thanks Windsor. She currently has little "dimples", for lack of a better word, where her piercings are, so though you can't see the actual holes, you can pretty easily tell they're there. Her real worry is infection. She thinks the skin doesn't stretch so much as it tears and reheals. If it just stretches, that would be awesome. The only thing I'd worry about jewelry wire is that I doubt that it's sterile, and I bet it would irritate her more than surgical steel or gold would. She has very sensitive ear lobes. She can't wear most clip ons because they pinch her too hard, and sometimes at random her normal gold earrings make her ears get red and painful, and she has to stop wearing them for a few days.

If she wore the wire at night (and dosed it in alchohol before and after) she should be ok. The make a variety of wires, so you might find one that work. I am not the best judge as i have 'tough' ears. I once wore (as a joke) twigs in my ears...grabbed them off the ground and put them through the holes and was just fine. If it were my ears I would be able to just shove the larger earings through and be done with it.

The more gradually you increase the size the more likely you get stretch not rip. She could try two (regular) earings at once - a post and a slender hook type (yes, I have done this...refer to 'tough ears' above) .

I hope she finds a solution...

Oh, one more thing...



(of the earings of course)

Gee, and I thought you'd want pix of my wife's cute ears.

They look exactly like these:

http://www.silvermangalleries.com/galle ... itemId=324

bjornolf wrote:

CathyCA wrote:OMG--do NOT gauge her ears or enlarge the holes. I have a kid who got his ears gauged, and now that he's tired of "the look," the holes aren't growing back, much to our mutual chagrin.

Take the earrings to a jeweler and have the jeweler convert the pierced earrings into clips. The advantage of having pierced ears is that you can still wear clips. Many of us with pierced ears wear clips all the time. Converting the earrings from pierced into clip-ons will not affect the value of the jewelry at all.

Thanks, Cathy. I agree that gauging to a huge size is not what we want. But we're just trying to get to a 16 or 14 ga from a 20 or 18 ga. The things you are talking about are 2 or 0 ga, about 10x the size. By looking at it, the hole won't really be any larger than it is now, maybe 0.5 mm larger.

These earrings are over 100 years old, made in Paris. They are fake, but super high quality fakes that nobility used to wear for nights out on the town so as not to risk the "real pieces". The gold is real, the stones are
what's fake. I have spoken to multiple jewelers and antique dealers. Every one of them says that they refuse to alter them because converting them would completely destroy their future value. They are also big, heavy, dangly things. The people we spoke to said they didn't know of any clips that would hold them safely for sure. Wouldn't want one falling off and breaking. Converting is not an option. In fact, the first jeweler DID offer to remove the post and put in a normal, modern 14k post. We were about to agree when her partner, who specializes in antique jewelry, came over with his loop, took it from her, looked at it and said, "you will NOT be doing that. This is the original work, and WE will not be ruining it." He then offered to purchase them from us if we didn't want them w/o alterations. He offered us an amount that ended up being twice what we paid for them. So I don't think my wife would agree to that. If they were normal, new earrings from a jeweler, I'd agree in a heartbeat, but these are pretty special earrings, really pretty one of a kind.

I've changed my mind: Unless they were heirloom pieces from a relative, I'd sell them.

bjornolf wrote:They look exactly like these:

http://www.silvermangalleries.com/galle ... itemId=324

They are gorgeous. I wouldn't part with them for love or money. Definitely worth the trouble of ear modification!

windsor wrote:

bjornolf wrote:They look exactly like these:

http://www.silvermangalleries.com/galle ... itemId=324

They are gorgeous. I wouldn't part with them for love or money. Definitely worth the trouble of ear modification!

Thanks. I bought them for my wife for her birthday to match a necklace of similar vintage and design.

Tweet Lance, and see if he has any Jewelry or earring comments for you!!!

DevilWearsPrada2.0 wrote:Tweet Lance, and see if he has any Jewelry or earring comments for you!!!

NOT funny.

OZZIE4DUKE wrote:

DevilWearsPrada2.0 wrote:Tweet Lance, and see if he has any Jewelry or earring comments for you!!!

NOT funny.

I am sure Lance BASS knows alot about jewelry.