DIY Hardwood Ear Gauge Jewelry?
A lathe might be overkill–I don’t see any reason you couldn’t do it with patience and varying grades of sandpaper. As for finish, most of the ones I’ve seen involve oils of some kind–jojoba and olive are two popular ones. There’s a good bit of information about this subject out there already. Check out rec.arts.bodyart, and visit the pages of people who make organic jewelry (Erica at organicjewelry.com has been doing it for quite a while now, and the folks at onetribe.nu do good work as well). And I might as well mention that almost everybody who makes wood body jewelry does custom work, and might be very happy to work in your preferred woods. Alternately, a basic double-flare plug would be a simple project for even a very amateur wood carver.
