| We like to decorate our ears. Try to forget that | | | | to hairstyles. For example, the adornment of our |
| you had your ears pierced in a mall just as soon | | | | ears fell out of favor during the Middle Ages. It |
| as you could talk your mother into letting you do | | | | was considered immoral for respectable married |
| it. Try to forget that you have given away as | | | | women to be seen in public with their heads |
| gifts more earrings than there are margaritas in | | | | uncovered. Then in the mid-1500's women began |
| Cabo. Consider from the perspective of an alien | | | | wearing their hair up, exposing their ears. Earrings |
| visiting our planet for the first time:"They | | | | resurged.Today earrings thrive with as many |
| decorate their auditory recepticals with small bits | | | | different variations as there are people wearing |
| of shiny metal and colorful rocks."In our | | | | them. We wear danglies of all sorts, hoops and |
| fast-paced modern cultures our ears provide one | | | | posts and spirals and swirlies, made from all kinds |
| of the easiest and most prominent body parts to | | | | of materials including silver and gold and sea shells, |
| adorn. We express ourselves, our moods, our | | | | pearls and gems and glass beads. We wear |
| attitudes through the jewelry we afix to our | | | | earrings as art.By Serene Chong, Eleworth |
| ears.Earrings have been around forever. Well, ok, | | | | By Topher ZiCornell, EleworthEleworth offers an |
| as near as we can tell, a really really long time. | | | | increasingly wide selection of artistic, hand-made |
| The oldest known earrings are the Lunate | | | | earrings.When Serene isn't busy with coursework |
| earrings. The Lunate earrings were excavated in | | | | for her computer science master's degree, she's |
| Ur in Mesopotamia, what is now Iraq (of all | | | | busy daydreaming about her next meal. As a |
| places). These gold crescent hoops are | | | | Chinese-Malaysian in California, she loves to try |
| approximately 4,500 years old. The earliest | | | | new foods, and equally loves to try new jewelry. |
| designs of earrings were hoops and pendants | | | | Serene is always looking for new ways to |
| made of precious metals, most commonly gold, | | | | express cuteness, and jewelry is one of her |
| and sometimes bone.The popularity of earrings | | | | favorite things to play with. |
| rose and fell throughout the ages in direct relation | | | | |