I concur with the earrings hanging off the paper. The line between the paper and the background is jarring and makes that first and foremost a focal point of your picture composition and not the earrings themselves.
1) An alternative to hanging them off a cup or another item to show the dangle factor is to take a clean piece of white poster board or mat board and punch two tiny holes in is evenly spaced apart - like how they would all on an earring card, and make sure that they are in the middle of the board allowing a large white square around them. Then take the board outside and attach it to a wall (I use painter's tape) and photograph. Then take them off the board, lie them down and photograph that way as well. You will probably still need to clean them up a bit in a photo editor or not, depends on the light.
2) IME, when a photo is out of focus, there isn't much you can do about it, so discard that photo and work on one that is in focus. Take a bunch of shots of your item so you have a number to potentially work with.
3) Explore making and using a light box, particularly for those days of inclement weather wherein you can't really take them outside. You can make a light box very inexpensively.
4) There are so many sellers here that have mastered the photographing process (I am not one!) and make BEAUTIFUL compositions of their item with props, yet with the props, their item is still the star of the show. That is a major skill in and of itself and is, IMO, not what you need to concentrate on at this juncture. Concentrate on getting clear photos on a white background that show your pieces in a few different positions to give the viewer a real clear idea of them, their detail and their beauty.
More fancy pants photographing will come along as your skills mature.
I personally don't use props as that is not my forte, plus I am primarily an assemblage artist and wouldn't use props in those photos anyway. For the jewelry I do create and sell, I use only white background as 1) that is my skill level at this time and 2) it helps, IMO, the cohesiveness of my shops in relation to my artwork.
Photographing is NOT easy and can be very frustrating, you are NOT alone in that, trust me. It can be a real struggle, but one that will pay you in spades in the end.
XO
