Leather Loop Earrings

My sister is in Johannesburg for two weeks, so I'll be posting until she gets back. These earrings are actually the result of my brother, who bought a really cool bottle of Poncho's Coffee Tequila that comes with a pretty leather thing around it's neck. He wanted me to make him a manly leather bracelet out of it and this is what I did with the off-cuts.

You will need:

• Leather string

• Scissors

•  Basic hooks (See Vocab Tab)

• Loop-end wire pins (See Vocab Tab)

• Round-nosed pliers (See Vocab Tab)

• Cutters (See Vocab Tab)

Method

Cut two equal lengths of leather string, roughly 10cm in length. Bend them in half and tie them in a knot where the two ends meet at the top. Use the pliers and cutters to bend the loop end wire pin around the base of the knot and cut off excess. Attach the loops of the pins to the basic hooks and viola!

Effort Required: 2/10

There is very little to do to make these earrings because they are extremely simple. They took me a minute to make. If you have any suggestions or ideas to make them more complex or more effective please leave a comment.

Durability: 7/10

The upside of them being so simple is that there isn't much that can break. They tend to get hooked on things, but because it's a pretty big loop they normally unhook themselves. 

Cool Factor: 4.5/10

They may be simple, but there is definitely something to be said of their simplicity. They're elegant and pretty, but random enough to deserve a spot on here on Glue and Random Objects. They are not very effective if you have brown hair and they are not incredibly original, but they match with pretty much anything and they are worth making, considering the time and effort involved to achieve the overall effect.

Let us know what you think! Your input is greatly appreciated, so if you have any comments, challenges, suggestions or feedback of any sort. 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.

Acorn Earrings

My sister has a habit of 'squirreling' stuff. In this case I'm not using that word metaphorically. She has a stash of acorns in her room. It caught my eye while we were discussing creating this blog. 

You Will Need:

• 2 acorns (with their hats)
• Basic earring hooks (See Vocab Tab)
• 2 Loop-end Wire Pins (See Vocab Tab)
• 2 Jump rings (See Vocab Tab)
• Round-nose pliers (See Vocab Tab)
• Drill (hand or electric) with a little bit
• Super Glue (I feel like this may as well get a bracket too)

Instructions:

With my acorns, the tops were already glued on which made my task significantly more difficult. The instructions I'm providing assume that yours have loose hats.

Drill a hole through the acorn hat somewhere near the middle. Insert the loop-end pin through the hole and bend the bottom up so that it rests snugly against the inside of the acorn hat and stops the pin from pulling through. You may want to trim some excess off the bottom of the pin to allow less of it to stick out the top.

Super Glue the bent end of the pin to the inside of the hat. Add some glue to the place where the wire goes through the hole to seal in and stop it from crumbling. Once the glue on the inside is dry glue the acorn hat to the top of the acorn and leave it to dry.

To finish off, attach the jump-ring to the loop-end of the loop-end pin and the the earring hook to the jump-ring. Jump rings are not essential but they are recommended as they give the acorns more freedom to move about. This movement is important because it simulates the acorn's experience of having been hung from a tree.This prevents them from realizing that they've been moved and becoming depressed or rebellious about their new purpose in life. Like my mother always says "there's nothing worse than a rebellious acorn." 

Rating:

Effort Required: 3.5/10

There's a bit of wire work and a bit of gluing. Nothing major.

Durability: 5/10

Nature adds a whole new set of things to be considered. On the whole they're pretty solid and they make cute little rattling noises when you walk. I'd watch out for squirrels though. Also, don't lie on damp ground while wearing these, Glue And Random Objects will not be responsible for oak trees growing through anyone's head.

Cool Factor: 7/10

They're pretty noticeable and original enough to draw a comment most times. My favourite so far has been "are those real walnuts?!" The fact that acorns don't really grow in this area may increase their novelty though.