Special occasion earrings can make a dazzling statement

Earrings are Creative Expressions

There are various forms of body art that people use to enhance their looks, make statements or are cues into their cultural beliefs. Earring-wearing is one such form of body art that has an interesting and diverse history and is exhibited in many creative forms. 

Why earrings?

The act of wearing earrings far predates most other forms of self-expression including wearing necklaces, hair jewelry and bracelets. Earrings are a type of enhancement that both men and women have used throught history to make personal statements and to dress up their physical appearance. 

The same reason is behind today’s earring choices. The color, uniqueness and materials are an expression of the wearer’s personality, style or planned activity. That’s why everyday earrrings are so different from special occasion earrings. 

What makes it an earring?  

Earrings are usually round rings that are worn through or on the ear and can be an artistic or personal expression of one?s personality and mood. They enhance an individual?s look and can be a part of one?s cultural expression as well as religiously symbolic, ethically inspired or simply an expression of taste. 

Earrings can be either machine manufactured or hand-crafted and vary in look, size, shape and form.

What are earrings made of? 

Many cultures use natural substances such as copper and wire to form their earring jewelry and give it a form of creativity which denotes their background. Other natural and precious materials like diamonds, silver, and gold are also used to make earrings into creative pieces. Today, plastic is one of the most popular earring material choices, especially among young people.

Earrings can be quite stunning or subtly soft and range anywhere from casual, fun earring jewelry to special occasion earrings and can run the gamut of price in between. 

The most expensive pair of earrings in the world is a pair of Harry Winston diamond earrings which consist of two pear-shaped diamonds in a platinum setting. They have over 60.1 total carats of diamond weight and are called the Extraordinary Diamond Drop Earrings.

Although you may be pressed to find many buyers,, they are an extraordinarily beautiful pair of earrings to behold — and are sold at only $8.5 million USD!

History of Earrings

The origin of earrings dates back as far as 3000 B.C.E. . Early earrings were probably made of metal, wood, stone or bone. Many were crafted to express the wearer’s level of wealth, marital status or tribal identity. But experts believe many were purely aesthetic in nature. The earrings wrapped around the ear, or were pierced through the lobe or tragus. 

In the west, pierced earrings weren’t popular until the 1920s, but many women still opted for clip on earrings well through the 1970’s. Now pierced earrings outsell clip on’s four to one. 

Stud earrings

Stud earrings are a very popular type of earring and give an appearance as if it is floating on the ear, minus a visible connection point. The studs are threaded through the ear?s piercing point and are held in place by a pin or a post on the backside of the ear. This post keeps the stud from moving around atop the ear lobe. 

Its popularity is in its clean, no-frills look and is popular with both sexes and all ages. Studs set with diamonds or other precious stones are worn as special occasion earrings, as well. 

Hoop earrings

Hoop earrings are circular in design. They are often constructed of metal or gold material and have an inner wire tubing which is inserted through the ear?s piercing. The hoop earring is a casually-preferred look but can be dressed up as well when set with diamonds and other genstones. 

Although there are various types of jewelry that are expressions of an individual?s personality, earrings are most commonly used to enhance and call attention to an individual?s physical features. They are generally worn by women, but are increasingly becoming popular and more evident in both sexes. 

There are men in many cultures who now wear earrings as an expression of their personality and culture. In recent decades, ear piercing and earring wearing has become quite popular among men in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Their popularity will likely continue to increase as more people are finding them as a form of expression and enhancement.