DIY: Basic Stud (Post) Earrings

These are so simple to make. Once you start, you'll be making earrings out of everything!!

You'll need: Earring stud/post findings and backs, assorted small pretty things, superglue. Paper towel, newspaper and gloves are useful too (not pictured).  2 min + setting time.

1. Select some pretty things.
2. Turn them upside down.
3. Apply glue.
4. Apply posts.
It will depend on the glue how long it takes to set.
Once it's set it's ready to wear!

You can use anything to make these with - beads, flat back gems, buttons, sequins, coins, paper, ribbons etc etc.

You can get post findings in a range of different sizes and styles. The posts will hold better when you match the size and weight of the object to the size of the post's head. Wearing larger backings will also help with bigger, heavier earrings.  You can also purchase posts with cone shaped heads that make it easier to attach round objects to (such as beads).

Posts are easily available from most craft shops, online jewellery supply stores and ebay too (there are some links to these sites in my links tab). I buy surgical steel as I have a slight sensitivity to cheaper metals. You can also purchase sterling silver and gold filled posts but these tend to be a lot more expensive (much more expensive than silver/gold hooks). I pay about $2 for 12 pairs of surgical steel.

The glue I used here is called Ultimate Glue by Crafter's Pick and it's a non-toxic, water-soluble superglue. I have only had it a week or so but it seems to be holding well.  Here are some other glues that would work :

Remember to use gloves and work in a ventilated area when using these glues. 

Glue guns can work well too.

Here are a few similar DIYs to mine. These are both really great blogs, lots of fun DIY ideas here!

Vintage Button Earrings

http://thegirlintheyellowdress.com/diy/

These earrings are so gorgeous! I absolutely love the idea of using vintage style buttons to make earrings with. 

Rose Chabochon Earrings

http://www.thepetrichor.com/2012/07/19/diy-rose-cabochon-earrings/

These are a super pretty and popular style of earring. This is a really great DIY! Love the tip of using styrofoam to dry the earrings overnight in. 

DIY/Refashioning Discovery of the Week

Oh my goodness I love this new blog I found! - http://matterofstyle.blogspot.com

The DIYs here are amazing and so creative. They feature animated gifs too! Bonus!

Here are a couple of my favourites. I absolutely can't wait to try these.

Neon Lace Necklace

http://matterofstyle.blogspot.it/2012/08/make-statement-neon-lace-necklace.html

Detachable Boot Fringe

http://matterofstyle.blogspot.it/2013/04/rock-your-boots-from-am-to-pm.html

Images sourced directly from http://matterofstyle.blogspot.com

DIY Polymer Clay Bows

Polymer Clay Bows are so simple and fun to make. Here is a tutorial.

You will need: Polymer Clay, an old chopping board or plastic mat to work on, a cutting implement, a glass jar or old rolling pin, nail polish (optional), an oven!

1. Spilt your clay in half. 

2. Roll into balls.

3. Roll out the balls of clay into sausages. 

4. Flatten out with rolling pin or glass jar.

5. Neaten up edges of clay.

6. Pinch two on the end corners together and bring into the centre.

7. Repeat with other end of clay - you may need to trim some of the clay off so that they sit close together.

8. Trim around the clay to leave a bow shape.

9. Make two sausages a little smaller than the bows. Flatten them out into ovals with rolling pin.

10. Place bows onto the top of the ovals. Cut out a triangle shape in centre.

11. Get two smaller balls of clay and flatten out as pictured.

12. Wrap this length of clay around the centre of bow. Trim as necessary.

13. Place bows onto baking sheet. Bake to packet instructions (I baked this sized bow at 130oC/275oF for 25mins).

14. Allow the bows to cool slightly. Apply nail polish or polymer clay gloss for a lovely finish (as the black clay is quite grey I used a black nail polish).

Polymer clay is available at most craft stores and art supply shops. It's usually about $4 a packet. I used one and a half packets for these. You could make these bows into anything! Earrings, necklace pendants, charms, rings, brooches, belt buckles, hair clips or handbag clips as a few suggestions. I've already done most of these! 

I made today's bows into shoe-clips. I purchased the shoe-clip findings off ebay (they were very cheap) and used a glue gun to attach them. I glued felt between the finding and the bow to help strengthen the bond.

Here are some tutorials off youtube too. This is where I first got the inspiration to make polymer clay bows. I love both of these as they demonstrate how easy and quick bows are to make! The methods here are slightly different to mine but work just as well. The bow rings in the first video are so much fun! The second video features a slightly different style that is super cute and pretty.

How To: Basic Waterfall/Cascade Necklace

Here’s a tutorial for a simple waterfall/cascade necklace. I absolutely love this style of necklace and they are really simple to make. The basic idea is to create short links of beads and attach them to a main necklace chain.  You can add more chains and links to make a more complex necklace, but this tutorial will focus mainly on the simplest style.

You’ll need: About half a metre of jewellery chain (medium to larger width chain will be best), assorted beads (generally larger beads work better for this style),  head pins, eye pins,  jewellery pliers, necklace clasp. About 30 to 45mins.

For more information about basic jewellery techniques see my previous posts here – Changing hooks to sterling silver and How to make basic beaded earrings. I cover a lot of the techniques in more detail there.

1. Decide on a basic style. I think the simplest styles often look the best.

2. The first bead goes on a head pin. This will generally be the largest bead but you can mix it up.

3. Bend the head pin back to 90 degrees and cut back to about 1cm.

4. Create an open loop using the jewellery pliers.

5. Get your second bead and place on eye pin.  

6. Bend, cut and loop the headpin as the first bead.

7. Attach the closed eye pin loop to the open loop headpin of the first bead and close with jewellery pliers.

8. Add subsequent beads in the same manner.

9. Once you’ve finished a string of beads, use the open loop on the top bead to attach to the chain. Close with jewellery pliers. Make sure you are attaching beads to the central piece of the chain.

10. Keep making strings of beads and attaching to chain. Space them as you wish. Make sure the chain lays flat and that you’re attaching the loops to the bottom links of the chain.

11. One you're happy with the number of beads we can begin the finishing touches.

12. Cut back the chain to desired length with jewellery pliers (you can also open one of the a loops to remove chain as in step 15 here - I find it quicker and lazier to judge the length I'll need by initially cutting back though).

13. I like to leave equal lengths of chain on either side of the beads.

14. Insert the tips of the pliers through the last link to open it. You can also use a second pair of pliers to pull it apart – I usually find this method easier myself.

15. Place a necklace clasp on to the last link and close firmly with the pliers. There are several different types of findings you can use. I’ve chosen to use a simple parrot clasp here.

14. I’m finishing the other end of the necklace off with an extender chain. You don’t really need it here as you can clasp directly onto the chain – but I think it finishes it nicely.

Done!

This necklace cost me about $10 in material. Bargain!

Chains come in a variety of different styles, sizes and colours. So do necklace findings. I generally use parrot clasps as they are secure and fairly strong. The springs in necklace findings don’t always work too well. If you have an option of buying better quality ones I’d go for that. Some of the cheaper ones have broken on me straight away – others have been fine. Other types of findings include magnetic, screw in, toggle and hook.

This style of necklace makes it really easy to create some amazing and unique designs. I’ve compiled a page of design ideas at pinterest here. I included a couple of good youtube tutorials that show how to make similar styles of necklace. If you’re new to making jewellery I suggest watching these as they show how easy it is! 

Some other ideas to try are:

• Mixing different styles, colours, materials of the beads.

• Mixing beads up with charms.

• Hanging lines of chain between the beads – or using just chain.

• Adding lines of chain between bead loops. This works best when including a split/jump ring between the chain and loops. This is a necklace I bought at Target last year.

• Attaching beads to a chandelier finding rather than a chain.

Love to see and hear about your creations!

How to: Flat Back Gem Earrings

Here's a quick tutorial on how to make yourself an inexpensive and very lovely pair of earrings! These are made by sandwiching a headpin between two flat back gems (also called rhinestones, crystals or glue-on gems).

You'll need: 4 flat black gems, 2 head pins, 2 hooks, jewellery pliers and a hot glue gun.
For more information regarding jewellery hooks and pliers see my previous post here.
For information on creating basic earrings see this post.

1. Get the gems ready.

2. Lay headpins in centre of gems with end of headpin lined up with base of gem.

3. Bend the headpin to a 90 degree angle by pressing back over the top of the gem - you'll need to hold the headpin in place while you do this.

4. Using the jewellery pliers, cut the headpin back to leave approximately 1cm of metal.

5. Make a loop at top of headpin.

6. Place gems on newspaper. Centre headpins on top.

7. Get glue gun ready.

8. Place a dab of hot glue in centre - you won't that need much. 

9. Place the other gem on top. You'll have about 5-10 seconds to move the gem about before the glue sets. First check that the headpin is centred and the base of pin is sitting at exactly the base of gem. Next   make sure the two gems are aligned perfectly on top of each other, then check the sides to see if the width of gap between them is even. 

10. Here is what they should look like.

11. Add hooks and they are ready to wear!

These are super quick and easy earrings to make. It will probably take a few goes before you get good results though, so I would recommend practicing on the gems you like least first.

Gems are easily available from craft shops and online craft/jewellery stores in a variety of shapes and colours. See my links page for some potential suppliers. They do come is varying degrees of quality. The ones I have pictured were just basic ones from a local craft shop - I got a packet of about 20 for $4. I have bought some much cheaper ones in bulk and did notice quite a big drop in quality - their foils were scratched and their surfaces fairly dull. Swarovski make some extremely beautiful glass ones - they are $5 or so each though. In the coming months I'll do a tutorial on making your own extra special unique ones!

The hot glue should hold the gems together well. I have had a pair fall apart while transporting them in a box of other earrings. They should be easy to fix with a tiny bit more glue, but if you want to make sure they are super strong I'd suggested filling the gap with some super glue. If the gap bothers you I have a few ideas. You could fill gap in with glue and paint the sides with paint or nail polish. There is also something which I think is called mapping tape. It is basically very thin tape. The one I have is black and just a tiny bit larger than the gap between gems. I have tried doing a pair with the tape, beginning it to on one side of the loop and finishing it at the other. It looked ok but didn't stick too well on its on - I had to use glue and in the end it all became a bit awkward. I'm sure it's doable. I think they look absolutely fine with a gap though.

One other issue I've noticed is that the hot glue can mark the silver foil on particular gems, which will then show through on the finished earrings. It usually won't be that noticeable but if it really bugs you you could try painting a layer of mod podge or some other sealant on the foil before using the hot glue. 

Here is another idea. The sew-on gems come with holes already drilled into them so you can put an earring hook in straight away. You will probably need to increase the size of the hook's loop to be able to do this - see this previous post for more information on how to do that (you'll find it halfway done the post). You may also want to apply a layer of mod podge to back of gem foil so it doesn't get scratched. I have tried drilling holes into some of the other gems - this didn't work at all and nearly broke the drill bit! Try at own risk! 

You could also attach an earring post finding to one of the flatback's with jewellery glue. I'll write more about making earring posts later. Post findings would be available at any of the supply sites in my links tab. 

I'll be writing more tutorials on making jewellery and accessories from flat back gems soon - I love them so much! Would love to hear about your experience with this. 

How to: Pendant Charm Earrings

This is such a fun way to make earrings. Pendant Charm Necklaces tend to have really unique and lovely pieces on them. The next time you come across one you like, or one on sale, buy two! and end up with lots of one-of-a-kind earrings!

You will need: 2 identical (or not) pendant charm necklaces, lots of earring hooks, preferably 2 pairs of jewellery pliers (but can work out just fine with 1 pair)
For more information regarding jewellery hooks and pliers see my previous post.

Click image to enlarge

1. Using jewellery pliers open headpin loops
2. Remove charms, leave loops open
3. Using a second pair of jewellery pliers, open any of the jump/split rings. Jump rings are easier to open using two pairs of pliers. If you only have one pair you can press the rings back into the charms and they should open fine - or just cut them open!
4. Remove all remaining charms.
Add hooks and it's good to go!

For more information about attaching hooks see my previous post.

I bought these necklaces from Kmart for $9 each. Including the cost of hooks, that's 12 pairs of earrings for around $20!

As the charms aren't designed to be worn as earrings, some of them may be facing the wrong way for the hook or be too thick to fit through it. You can work around this by manipulating the size or direction of the hook's loop. Simply straighten out the wire at the end up the hook using the jewellery pliers. It doesn't have to be perfectly straight to look ok. There are specific pliers you can get for straightening metal called nylon jaw pliers. I don't have a pair myself. To change the direction of the loop, simply grab metal at the end and bend to one side. To make a larger loop you need to remove any of the beads or coils from the base of the hook and curl the wire back to form the desired size. If the top of the charm is still too large you can always insert a jump ring before attaching the hook.

A few more ideas:

Combining 2 or more of the charms - or combine with other beads.

Selecting some of the charms to create your own unique necklace design.

Make a bracelet using some of the charms. I made this by linking black beads on head pins then attaching the charm with a jump ring. See this post to learn more about looping beads.

So many possibilities here!

How to Make Basic Beaded Earrings

Beaded earrings are super easy and cheap to make. Here a simple way to make them.

You will need: 2 beads, 2 headpins, 2 earring hooks, jewellery pliers, 2 minutes.
For more information regarding jewellery hooks and pliers see my previous post.

Click image to enlarge

1. 2 basic headpins. These can be purchased at craft shops or on ebay.

2. Place bead on headpin.

3. Press the head pin back firmly against the bead till it reaches about a 90 degree angle.

4. Trim the head pin back to leave approximately 1cm of metal.

5. Grab the end of the head pin with jewellery pliers and begin forming a loop.

6. Keep moving the wire around the pliers, leaving a small gap for hook.

7. Put on hook.

8. Close the loop using inside of pliers.

This technique is really quick and easy but can take some practice to get refined results.

Headpins come in a range of sizes to fit different shaped beads, from a few centimetres on upwards. They also come in a range gauges. The smaller the number of gauge, the thicker the wire will be. Many of the cheaper ones won’t state a gauge. I don’t have much experience in using different gauges as I generally buy the cheaper ones! From what I’ve read I think a gauge of about 22 is about average – 24 on up is used for more delicate work. You can buy sterling silver or real gold headpins but I don’t see much point if you’re only making basic jewellery for yourself. Use good quality hooks if you have metal sensitivity though.  They aren’t expensive.

  

I buy headpins in bulk for ebay. My local craft store only sells small packets of them. I buy beads at the craft store and online. I also buy cheap, discounted or thrift shop jewellery to cut up for beads. Keep your eyes out for them.

For beads with larger holes you can purchase headpins with different sized/shaped endings. You can also use bead caps, which are available at craft stores. I prefer to simply just use sequins. They tend to be less noticeable than bead caps and you can coordinate their colours to suit your design.

I enjoy making more complicated designs but I think the simpler earrings look the best on. Some of my favourite earrings to wear are just round beads on a headpin. You can create more unique beads by painting them with craft paints or nail polish.

If you want to add more beads to your design you can stack them on the head pin –  try mixing them up with bead caps or sequins too.

You can also link other beads to your original bead. For this you’ll need an eyepin -  also available for craft stores - but I tend to just make mine own by creating a loop at the end of a headpin offcut.

Have fun!! I hope to work on a gallery of basic earrings designs to publish in the coming months.

How to Change Earring Hooks to Sterling Silver

I love cheap earrings but they irritate my ears. Replacing earring hooks with sterling silver, gold or surgical steel hooks is super easy. If your choice of earrings has been limited because of metal allergies this technique really opens up the possibilities. Its not only dead simple but super cheap too.

You will need : cheap, irritating earrings, quality earring hooks, jewellery pliers, less than a minute.

Click image to enlarge

1. Open loop. Grab end of hook with pliers. 

2. Pull outwards (I've seen people also bend it sideways)

3. Separate pieces. Discard horrible earring hook.

4. Get silver hook and open like previous hook.

5. Join pieces.

6. Gently close the loop. Make sure it closes completely so earring doesn't fall off.

7. Love them. 

If you want to see this technique being done there are some videos on Youtube too.

You could use strong tweezers, even fingernails (don’t). Jewellery pliers cost about $10 from a craft store. I like using a 4-in-1 set of pliers as I find it gives me more control, but round-nose, chain nose, and flat nose pliers would all be fine.

Buying hooks is easy. You can usually get them in bulk. Online jewellery stores are a great place to get them. There are some links for jewellery finding suppliers in my links tab. Ebay can be good too. I would be careful buying them from China – the prices are amazing but you may not necessarily be buying the real thing. There are warnings on ebay about this. 

I’m in Australia and I buy them from the Beading Store on ebay (http://stores.ebay.com.au/BeadingStore). I’ve had great experience from them. Also polyermerclay.com.au is a really great store too. Sterling silver hooks usually work out to be about $2 a pair. Gold filled or gold plated sterling silver are about $3 a pair. Surgical steel is about 30cents a pair. There is also niobium which is another completely hypoallergenic metal for about $1.50 a pair. Niobium comes in lots of fun colours. Basic earring hooks stated as silver or gold plated with no further information are not the real thing and will be irritating to a lot of people. I like to buy in bulk – a pair for each of my earrings. It is so easy and quick to change hooks though that you really don’t need that many. Buying kidney hooks, which slide off can make it even faster to change.

These sites also sell clip on earring findings which you can attach using the same technique. I’ve bought good quality sterling silver clip-ons to use for my heavier earrings and they’ve been great.

Another way of dealing with earring sensitivity is to use a hypoallergenic metal coating. It will look like a clear nail polish and is painted onto an irritating metal to form a barrier  to your skin. I have never seen these in shops but you can get them online. Try the Earring Doctor. Apparently clear nail polish can work fairly well too.

If anyone has any thoughts or experience with this would be great to hear from you.