Wednesday 1 July 2015

DIY Personalised Vintage-Look Earrings

I must admit that I'm not the kind of person who is mad keen on jewellery/accessories personalised with my initials or name, but being a mum to my two cheeky monkeys, I do quite like to wear pieces with their initials.  So when I saw some vintage marcasite alphabet dangles for sale, I knew I had to make something with them!  I decided to make myself a pair of Mummy Earrings, as I call them, and I am sharing the super easy tutorial with you today.


Supplies
- vintage alphabet dangles (these are vintage glass and marcasite cabochons set into raw brass settings)
- two French ear hooks
- two eye pins
- 2 x 6mm freshwater pearls

Instructions
1. Gather all your supplies as well as your favourite jewellery pliers (I like to use a round nose and a flat nose pair).


2. Put one pearl onto an eye pin.  Cut off excess pin, leaving 8-10mm for making a loop.  Turn the cut end of the eye pin into a loop to make a bead connector with your pearl.  Repeat with the remaining pearl.


3. Open one loop on a bead connector, attach the alphabet dangle to it, and close the loop again.  Repeat with the other side.


4. Open the loop at the bottom of an earhook and attach the hook to the freshwater pearl.  Repeat for the other earring and voila, you're done!  You now have an elegantly simple pair of earrings commemorating your favourite person/people and great for fancying up a casual outfit or complementing a more dressy outfit.


Alternatives
If you're after a more symmetrical look, use the same initial for both earrings.
- Change up the look of these earrings by using typewriter key charms or alphabet charms instead of the vintage marcasite dangles.
- Not a pearl kind of person?  Use whatever favourite bead you love, just make sure that the size of the bead balances the size of the alphabet dangle.  Create even more of an asymmetrical look by teaming each initial with a bead in the colour of that person's/child's initial!
- These earrings don't have to dangle from French ear hooks.  Use stud ear posts, leverback hooks, clip on hoops, etc; the choice is yours!

1 comment:

  1. Those are cute. I'm going to have to track down those beads for myself.

    ReplyDelete

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