Grace Earrings: Simple and Elegant for Ladies with Class

Yeah, ok, so I really love earrings. But I do have a problem with them, in TS3 and in real life: no-one makes nice earrings. They're all cheap plastic, or so long they tickle your shoulders, or dayglo pink - or, even worse, all three. I mean, really, who the hell would wear a two inch orange fake feather dangling from their earlobe? The '70s called - and they want you to stop giving them a bad name...

Sadly, I don't have the time, skill, money, or scrap metal to make nice earrings for myself in the real world. So I'll have to settle for venting my frustration by making proper earrings for simmies!

This is a set of seven earrings, all using the same mesh, and all of which are simple, pretty, classy - and less than an inch and a half long, fgs. I reckon they look best in classic gold, but all of them have two extra presets for those of you who disagree: a killer silver and black, and a blue and purple design which might be plastic, but certainly isn't cheap plastic. Because Claire's Accessories does have some redeeming features, at the end of the day.

All the earrings are available for teen to elder females, in everyday, formal, swim, athletic and career. They are enabled for random and maternity.

The Floral Designs
These two earrings have a delicate floral cutout etched into the metal, one full size for a truly glamorous look; and the other half-height, adding a touch of fascination to a simple, casual design. They are my absolute favourites; they're gorgeous. I especially love the gold design on black sims - it looks stunning. Sadly, I don't have a pic of that, due to, um, Photoshop being a whiny bitch. But I suggest you try it - and they look equally wonderful on sims of any other colour.

Both designs have two recolourable channels; the body of the earring, and the fastening.

All of these are alpha meshes, which is fantastic. It does, however, mean that the floral design gets a bit blotchy when you zoom out: I'm sorry about this, but there's nothing I can do about it. You can see how they look zoomed out in this pic: I think they're beautiful enough to put up with it, but if you disagree, you can of course keep to other five designs, which are not affected.

The Gem Designs
These designs are inset with beautiful gems (I don't do plastic, but they might be glass...). They break the pattern with an elegant silver and blue topaz design in place of the blue and purple, and are perfect for a glittering, classic look.

Both have three recolourable channels: the gem(s), the setting and the fastening.

The Wire Designs
For a lighter, more modern look, these three designs are characterised by delicate, freehanging wires, making for an understated (now there's a word the earring industry hasn't heard in a long time), professional grace.

The channels on these vary. Teardrop has two channels: the wire and the fastening. The other two both have three channels: the outer wire, the inner wire or pendant and the fastening.

The Other Stuff
Firstly, and I know this stuff is meant to go in Additional Credits, but it's just too important this time: I must say huge and unending thankyous to emhpb, whose alpha wings I shamelessly cannibalised to make these - I still don't fully understand how she made them work in the first place, and since she didn't tell anyone before leaving the simming community, I am forever in her debt, since I basically just copied everything she did without knowing why. It worked! My second unending thankyou goes to Inge and Peter Jones, who were kind enough to make a new version of S3OC for me, just so I could clone these more easily.

Secondly, these are based on the WA egyptian necklace. Several recent EPs include alpha accessories, but the basegame doesn't. I don't know whether or not alpha accessory support was patched into the basegame, so it is possible that these will glitch if you don't have any EPs installed. I don't think it's likely... but it is possible. As you can imagine, it's tricky to find someone who has no EPs to test this. So, if you are in that position, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know whether or not these work.

Thirdly and finally, enjoy!

Policy:
Feel free to include these with sims, retexture them, remesh them, rip them apart and try to figure out how they work, eat them, etc. Please do credit me, with a link back here or to my profile. If you're trying to make alpha accessories and come unstuck, feel free to ask me for help, though I can't guarantee any answers... I've almost forgotten how I made the mesh already.

Polygon Counts:
268 (LOD0 + LOD1)

Additional Credits:
Although I'm not sure why, I must thank BloomsBase and CmarNYC, as they've helped me in some way or another with pretty much every CAS project I've ever made, and I'm sure this one is no exception.

I have used several of Stephanie Shimerdla's wonderful free photoshop brushes for the gems.

The hair on the sims, used by two models, is by Anubis360.
The other stuff on the sims is by, variously, All About Style, Elexis, emmzx, EsmeraldaF, HystericalParoxysm, LadyFrontbum, Sandy, -Shady- and Shyne.