Clear teardrop earrings - why doesn't Sundrop Jewelry have any?

If you've been looking for clear teardrop earrings amongst Sundrop Jewelry's veritable rainbow of colors, I'm sorry to tell you - I don't make any perfectly clear glass teardrop earrings (or necklaces).  Why not?  Well, it all comes down to color - or lack thereof.

The closest I can get to clear teardrop earrings, these are made from green-tinted Coca-Cola bottles.

At this point, you probably know that Sundrop Jewelry's glass teardrop earrings and necklaces are melted using sunshine. (If this is the first you've heard - go watch the videos! They're pretty cool, if I do say so myself.) The thing about sunshine, even sunshine focused using a giant magnifying glass, is that it is still light. And light is not *quite* the same thing as heat.

Light and heat are not the same

Light, in and of itself, is not warm. In order to create heat, light has to be absorbed by something. The darker that something is, the more light is absorbed (and gets turned into heat). The lighter in color that something is, the more of the light is reflected away. Reflected light doesn't turn into heat.  Wearing dark clothes on a sunny day makes you warmer than a white shirt, right?

So, to get back to the question, "Why don't you make clear teardrop earrings?" The answer is - I can't!

Black glass will absorb ALL the light and turn it into heat - the glass even begins boiling! A blue glass will absorb all of the light except the blue wavelength (that's what gets reflected back and why we see blue), turning the rest into heat, and melting a bit more slowly. And white glass will not melt at all - it reflects the entire spectrum, so none of the light is absorbed, and none of it turns into heat.

Although clear glass doesn't reflect all the light like white does, it doesn't absorb it either. Instead, the light passes right through (That's the whole point of windows, right? To let the light through and let us see out). So, no light absorbed, no heating up, no melting!

If there is a little bit of pigment throughout the glass, like in a Coca-Cola bottle, the glass can still absorb enough light to heat up and melt. Similarly, if there is a strand of color next to clear glass, the color can absorb enough light and heat up enough to transfer some of that heat to the clear glass next to it, like in my tornado colors.

These clear teardrop earrings have a swirl of color within, which does absorb light and heats up enough to warm the surrounding clear glass, letting it all melt together.

So, if you've been searching for perfectly clear teardrop earrings or necklaces, I'm afraid I can't help you.  But if you're interested in adding a touch of color - from the faintest green tint to a vivid magenta, or anything in between - you're in luck!

Start here to find your favorite color - click on any color and you'll see all the designs available in that color - or browse Sundrop Jewelry by design.