DIY Earrings

I don’t wear jewelry but I make an exception when it comes to beautiful earrings! Over the past few years, I have been collecting Australian & NZ made pieces from some of my favourite makers like Mamoru, Quim, Pigment Studio and Bianca Maverick. So, after spotting these amazing beads in Nippori, I decided it was time to try and DIY some for myself!

I actually dabbled in making earrings with leather remnants while I lived in New Zealand so I knew what I needed to get started but I wasn’t too sure where to find it here in Tokyo. I was also in need of some sewing inspiration and after reading Emilias Tokyo Fabric Shopping Guide I decided to head over to Nippori. I picked up a couple of fabrics and was just about to leave when I walked past a leather store with lots of remnants outside. To my surprise, this store also had the most incredible dead stock beads on sale! I had actually been dreaming about making some chunky beaded earrings and this just seemed to good to be true. So, I filled up a bag for 1000 yen (about $11-$12 AUD) and carried my new treasures home.

Asakusabashi is where I found all of the tools and jewelry making bits I needed to put some earrings together. Its kind of like bead town and there are a bunch of fab bead and jewelry making shops to check out. I picked up Round Nose Pliers, Chain Nose Pliers and Wire Cutting Pliers plus a couple of types of earring hooks and bits to piece everything together.

When I got home, I set myself up with a movie on Netflix and got making! It took a couple of goes getting the loops right but it all came back to me and I ended up making about 6 pairs in one go. I definitely wanted them to be statement earrings and initially thought they would be more mix and match but I decided to use all the same beads for each pair and I am actually obsessed with how they turned out. I love how simple they are but will go with so many of my printed and plain me made pieces.

These were SO easy to make and I think would make a super fun DIY project using beads from broken jewelry or vintage beads from the op shop. Next up, I'm going to try some random bead combinations for a couple of extra wacky earrings. If you want to give earring making a go, jump on Youtube and watch lots of tutorials. Other than that, its all trial and error and you will learn on the way. It's lots of fun! So, I hope you get inspired to give it a try!

Have a fab day :)
Daisy