Faux Flower Earrings

posted by Diana

Spring has finally arrived!

These past couple of days have been so nice where I live that the flowers have started to come out of hiding.

Maybe my flower headbands had something to do with that? In my initial headband post, I mentioned that I had several flower projects in the works. This week I've got another spring-inspired project to share.

A dreamworld buds outside my apartment building.

Faux flower earrings!

The daisies are my prototype--I wanted the flowers to face forward (and not droop to the ground) when I wore the earrings, so I used fishing line to tie them to the jewelry chain. The fishing line was just wasting away in my craft box. It was leftover from when I decorated for Halloween (hanging glow-in-the-dark bats, anyone?). 

Initially, I was going to make these earrings entirely from fishing line. Ideally, the clear fishing line would make it look as if the flowers were floating mid-air, but I got frustrated quickly with puzzling through how to make that happen. I used jewelry chain instead because I thought it would still give my earrings the movement I wanted. Plus, let's be honest, I had a pretty big spool of chain already.

When I made the blue flower earrings, my second trial pair, I felt brilliant substituting the fishing line for headpins. The headpins are a better choice even though the finished product is a little less clean-looking. The wrapped metal attachment is definitely more secure than the plastic knots I tied in my prototype earrings.

To make my earrings even more secure, I melted the ends of the bases of the flowers by holding them over a match for about a second or two. The flame melts the plastic together seamlessly. If you like a little less danger and adventure in your crafts, you could also try gluing the tips with a glue gun or some E6000. 

Since I'm a pro with matches, the most challenging part in making these earrings was getting the flowers to hang nicely. This is where it's important pick the flower with the "right" base. The flowers I don't like using for my headbands are the supplies that work perfectly for these earrings. I looked for faux flowers that had tall bases so I could have more freedom in puncturing the plastic. Honestly, doing this right the first few times was just trial and error.

To add a little more twee and whimsy, I picked out dew drop-shaped glass bead accents.

It's so hard to choose a favorite pair (and it'll be even hard to choose when I make more)! They look okay mismatched, right?

 If you want to make your own, all you need is:

• jewelry chain
• fish hook earrings
• head pins
• beads
• jump rings
• faux flowers
• awl/large needle
• match/glue
• pliers
• wire cutters

All of my supplies (except the fishing line) came from Michael's. The earrings are fairly basic to assemble, but let me know in the comments if you'd like a full tutorial. And let me know if you make your own version!

Happy making!