Pretty Bow Earrings

Remember me? I know it's been a LONG time since I've posted, but I've had a lot of things going on. I'm afraid it may be a while before you hear from me again, I am in a brief period of holidays before I begin writing my finals. Also, my older sister has moved to Poland. She will no longer be gracing us with her posts. I have one or two in the archives, but I'm afraid that from now on you're stuck with me.

 You Will Need:

• Two pretty bows. Choose the colour, type, pattern and size according to preference. If you can't find anything you like, make your own. Just an idea, use red and white polka dotted bows reminiscent of Minnie Mouse. I much prefer green though.

• Loop-end Wire Pins (See Vocab Tab) 

• Round-nosed Pliers (See Vocab Tab)

• Cutters (See Vocab Tab)

• Basic Hooks (See Vocab Tab)

How To:

Take a loop-end wire pin and thread it through the middle part of your bow. Be careful not to damage the bow in any way while you do this. Next, take your round-nosed pliers and bend the pin into a vaguely triangular shape. Use the cutters to cut off the excess. 

Use the round-nosed pliers to attach the basic hook to the loop of the pin. Use the pliers to bend the wire holding the bow slightly forward to adjust the angle at which the bows hang. Do this as many times as it takes for you to be satisfied.

Rating:

Effort Required: 2/10

They don't take much time or effort to make. The hardest part is finding the bows you like, really. They took me roughly 6 minutes to make.

Durability: 7/10

I admit that I have yet to wear them. I kind of just decided that I needed to post today and so I whipped these up, but as a general rule, the simpler the earring, the more durable they are.

Cool Factor: 5/10

The cool factor depends entirely on your choice of bows. Obviously it would greatly increase if you made them yourself, instead of using store bought ones like I did. But there's just so much potential here! With Christmas coming up, these would make a great (cost effective, yet touchingly homemade) gift and could even add a little festive feel to your outfit. I really like that they dangle and, though bow earrings are pretty popular, they're normally made of metal and are attached to studs.

Let us know what you think! Your input is greatly appreciated, so let us know if you have any comments, challenges, suggestions or feedback of any sort. We want to see your finished product!  If you like what you see then please follow us and if you want to keep up to date on our latest posts, follow My Earring Board on Pinterest. Thanks for taking the time to view our blog!

Army Man Earrings

I stumbled upon these two while looking for Lego in a decaying bag of leftovers from my brother's childhood. I enjoy the army-man/waitress combination because it looks like you're making a political statement when all you're really doing is wearing toys.

                         

Materials required for idea implementation:

• Two army men or any kind of small plastic figurine. These two are Micromen. I'm not sure of they're still a thing.
• A drill with a thin bit
• 4 jump-rings (See Vocab Tab)
• Basic Hooks (See Vocab Tab)
• Round-nosed pliers (See Vocab Tab)

Actions required for idea implementation

The man and the lady of this pair were made differently. The waitress lady was fortunately made angrier than the guy with the gun. Her arm made a good loop for me to put the jump-ring through. The designer of the soldier was not so considerate. I had to drill a hole in the corresponding place on his body to put the jump-ring through so that both earrings would hang at more or less the same angle.

You'll have to go through a similar process of examination and logical hole-drilling in order to attach your first set of jump rings. 

The second set of jump-rings is to make sure that the earrings hang facing outwards. For every one you add you get a 90 degree rotation. Play around with the number you use until you get the right length and angle.

Finally attach the basic hooks to the topmost jump-ring.

Rating

Effort Required: 2/10

The standard drill-a-hole-and-put-a-jump-ring-through-it score for this blog. I would increase it since it's usually more than one jump-ring, but sometimes you don't even need to drill a hole so it all evens out.

Durability: 8/10

The beauty of making earrings out of stuff that was originally intended to withstand children.

Cool Factor: 7/10

Again, this will depend on the figurines you use. Mine are pretty small and light-weight so they tend to go wandering off into my hair. The matching but not really matching thing is cool though. I feel like people get more excited when they have to put in the effort of checking both the earrings you're wearing.

    

Jelly Bean Earrings

I apologize for the fact that these look like they're going through some terrible process of decay. I unthinkingly applied a layer of water-based impatience under the varnish. I would have made a new pair but by the time I'd finished these the extra jelly beans were finished too. Rest assured these instructions are for shiny, delicious-looking beans.

There's quite a bit of creativity you can bring into the design of these. You can vary the colour and number of beans and how they are attached. These instructions are for the shiny, uncorrupted version of this design. I won't give you others, you have a brain.  

You Will Need

• Basic Hooks (See Vocab Tab)
• 8 Jump rings (See Vocab Tab)
• 8 flat-end wire pins (See Vocab Tab)
• Round-nosed pliers (See Vocab Tab)
• Cutters (See Vocab Tab)
• 8 Jelly Beans
• Super glue
• Oil Based spray lacquer 

Here's How

The first step is impaling each of the jelly beans. It's a tricky process. A brief description of the anatomy for jelly beans is that their relatively hard outer shell is just protecting stickiness. Any damage to this shell therefore, compromises the structural integrity of the jelly bean. It's important to be careful when impaling them, to keep the durability and visual appeal of these babies at a max. Hold them gently as you push the pin through to avoid cracks. This process will displace some of their stickiness onto the pin, your hands and everywhere but just stay calm and know that the jelly bean is suffering more than you are.

Once you've pushed the pin right through trim it, leaving roughly 1 cm protruding from the bean to give you room to make a loop. Then make a loop using the round-nosed pliers. This is a little more difficult than usual. You can't use the bean as a point to bend it from because too much pressure will crack the bean. Hold it gently and work slowly.

Now you can wipe all the jelly-bean innards off the pins, just don't use anything moist to do so.

Put a blob a super glue at the places where the pin comes out of the bean. This is to seal it and keep the pin in place. They used to use super glue to stick people's skin back together during the war when there was no time for stitches. Interesting facts are always relevant.

Once the glue is dry treat each bean to to couple of coats of spray lacquer.

Once that's dry attach a jump ring to each bean and join them together in a chain. Join the chain to the basic hooks.

Rating

Effort Required: 6/10

It's a deceptively delicate process if you want to get it right, especially the first time you do it. In this score I'm also including the effort of waiting for stuff to dry.

Durability: 5.5/10

Mine have lasted despite their pre-varnish exposure to water. This is indicative of a admirable will to survive on their part. Once varnished they should withstand moisture within reasonable limits. They're nervous sweets though; they tend to crack under pressure.

Cool Factor:  8/10

One jelly bean on its own makes a kind of sucky earring. Together though, these look like a miniature bunch of colouful balloons, which makes me happy. 

Lego Man Earrings

As an apology for not having posted in so long I made sure to make this a cool one

What you need:

• 2 Lego men (they don't have to match)
• 2 pieces (roughly 0.5 cm long) of something cylindrical that's narrow enough for the Lego men to hold. I used a piece of piping I found among the Lego but you could also use something like a sosatie (kebab) stick 
• Basic studs (see Vocab Tab)
• Superglue

How to Construct Lego Man Earrings From These Objects:

To give you a better idea of how these earrings work the above picture is of my two Lego men sword fighting with their um...part-of-the-stud-that-goes-through-the-actual-ear things.

The only thing more epic than a Lego sword fight is a Lego sword fight that's happening on top of a Nelson Mandela quote. I told you this post was going to be cool!

To make them start by sticking the piece of stick to the middle of the stud with super glue. You may need to hold it in place for  a minute or so until the glue is semi-dry.

One the glue is completely dry, coat the inside of one of the Lego man's hands with superglue. It doesn't matter which had you use as you can always swap the Lego man's arms at a later stage.

Push the stick that's now attached to the stud into the Leg man's hand and leave it to dry.  

The benefit of only attaching them by one hand is that they remain fully adjustable and fully customizable. You can make them strike cool poses, change their clothes to match yours or even decapitate them if you so wish.

Rating:

Effort Required: 3/10

This rating is only for once you have all the ingredients. The effort involved in tracking down a pair of Lego men depends on your access to young children  and the severity of your parent's hording problem.

Durability: 6/10

Resistant to water but not corrosive chemicals or extreme pressure

Cool Factor: 9/10

When you're wearing Lego earrings everything is awesome!

Comments, Suggestions and Challenges:

There, see, I even gave you guys your own heading.....