Throughout this entire post, if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, scroll all the way to the end of the post. The picture of my final product is there. If that still doesn’t point out what I meant, comment me and say so. I want to know how I can be better at writing tutorials so I can help you more often. Thanks!

I was at my parent’s house today and I was bored. So I went to the craft store and I bought some supplies:

• Some sterling silver jump rings

  

• Some sterling silver earring hooks

  

• Some sterling silver eye pins. I only got 1″ pins, these are probably 1.5-2″ pins though.

  

• Some white Sculpey (or other polymer clay)

  

Some other items you’ll need to make some earrings like I did, that I didn’t buy are:

• A ceramic tile to cook the earrings on because you shouldn’t put Sculpey on a cookie sheet you will later use for food.

  

• Some acrylic paints. Any kind will do.

  

• Some glossy varnish. This is my favorite brand:

  

• Of course, some paint brushes so you can put the paint and varnish on. I use high-quality red sable fur brushes, but you can sacrifice the quality but be sure to get small brushes for the details!

  

• Some super glue. Again, my favorite brand is below.

  

• Sculpting tools are always a good to have around. However you can use some old kitchen utensils. Just don’t use them for food afterward!

  

• And you’ll also need two pairs of needle-nose pliers.

  

• Last, but not least, a pair of dikes. That is, diagonal wire cutters.

  

And those are your supplies. I chose all sterling silver hardware because I’m allergic to nickel, so my ear would turn green if it wasn’t sterling silver.

Next you’ll have to decide on what you’re going to sculpt the clay into! I chose to do the Mario Mushroom!

If you want to go ahead with your own design, I recommend that you at least draw out a thumbnail of how you want your finished product to look. It’s a good idea to keep the finished earrings in mind all the way through the project.

So go ahead and do what you have to do to sculpt the clay into how you need it. For the mushroom, first I made two very small, nearly flat cylinders and put two dots in them for the eyes. Then I made a half-circle dome for the top and I rounded off the bottom. Then I used a circular tool to make indents where the circles would be. This is the part where you get to use your creativity! Just keep in mind that on the very top, you’ll want a little bit of space, because that’s where your eye pins will go.

Also, you don’t want to make the design very complicated because you will have to sculpt two matching earrings. Unless you are an expert at sculpting, I would try to keep from doing loud, spectacular designs until you’ve practiced more.

After you have your earrings sculpted, cut the eye pins to an appropriate length, using the diagonal wire cutters. Then, push them into the top of your clay charms. Place the charms on your tile and cook them in the oven according to the instructions on the package.

Once they’re finished, it’s time to get out your paints and brushes. Paint them in a pleasing color scheme, or matching whatever design you chose. Apply several layers so your color is bold and bright!

Next pull out the eye pins and apply a bit of super glue to the ends of them and push them back in. Keep in mind the way that they are facing so you don’t end up with the front of your earring off to the side.

Leave them alone for a few hours. Watch a movie, or better yet, get a second pair of earrings started!

Next, holding the bottom portion of your earrings, apply a generous amount of the gloss varnish to the top half. Let those sit for another few hours.

After that, holding the top part of the earrings this time, apply varnish to the bottom half. Try to apply the same amount that you did on the top. Place the earring’s upside down so they can dry.

NOTE: If your earrings are not going to stay upside down, you can thread the loop in the eye pin through a string and hang the string from a lamp or something while it dries so it won’t touch anything. You won’t want to put both earrings on the same string though because you do not want them to touch, they’ll dry sticking together!

After the earrings are done drying, they will be shiny and look like plastic. Now you will need to open two of your jump rings. The proper way to open a jump ring is by twisting the two ends away from each other with pliers, rather than stretching them apart.

On your jump ring you will attach your earring hook and your charm. Close up the jump ring and admire! If your earring is backwards (whoops) just open the ring back up and take off your charm and flip it around!

Do the same with the other jump ring and your charm and last hook! Now you have a pair of earrings. Here’s how mine turned out:

I’ll just post that one, because the other one is identical to it!

I hope this helps you if you want to make a pair of earrings for yourself! Post comments on how I could make this little tutorial any better.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Tutorials, Creativity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.