Button & Wire Earrings
Have you ever bought a nice blouse and found a few extra buttons attached either to the inside of the blouse or attached to the price tag? What do you do with those buttons? I usually toss them into my button box and forget about them. Then I realized I could use them to make a pair of earrings to match my blouse.
You’ll need:
2 buttons with the loops on the back
2 3 inch pieces of thin wire (I used 34 gage.)
super glue
2 ear hooks
wire cutters
flat/bent nosed pliers
1. Place the wire against the loop on the back of the button, and wrap the wire around the loop so that you have a short end (approx. 1 inch long) and a long end (approx. 2 inch long).
2. Continue to wrap both the long and short wires around the loop a few more times until the short end is completely wrapped around. While you wrap, use your flat nosed pliers to press the wires close to the loop.
3. Take the longer wire and make a large loop out of it leaving about a ¾ inch of wire on the end free.
4. Take the extra wire from the step above and wrap that around the loop some more so that your larger wire loop is closed.
5. Use pliers to squish the wire around the loop. (Mine was so tight I actually wore the earring around before adding glue.)
6. Add a drop of super glue to the back of the button to help secure the wire.
7. Add an ear hook.
8. Repeat steps 1 - 7 to make another earring.
So, dig out those buttons you’ve tossed aside, and make a pair of matching earrings to show off your favorite blouse.
Here's a printer friendly copy of this file.
Sign up for the weekly Jewelry Making Newsletter and
find out about new additions to this site each week.
Chat with other jewelry makers in our chat room.
All graphics created by Tammy Powley.
Previous
Features
