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DIY Halloween: Magic Earrings

Learn how to make Magic Earrings from guest contributor Kristen Evans.

Kristen Evans is a 39-year-old fine artist and designer who owns Firebirdhouse Designs.

She creates vintage modern jewelry from vintage, antique and new components, recycling, reusing and reworking beautiful things that need new life into something unique that can be worn and enjoyed for a long time to come.

Kristen is also the Etsy Twitter Team Co-Leader ~ you can keep up with her latest designs by following her @firebirdhouse.

Magic Earrings

Halloween was one of my favorite childhood holidays. My older sister and I carved jack o'lanterns, got ourselves scared silly at the local "haunted house" and tried every year to come up with the best costume.

My favorite costume was a "gypsy." A long, flowy skirt, my mom's peasant blouse (this was the 1970s and peasant blouses were everywhere) and enough chains and bangles that you could hear me a block away, and I was almost ready to trick or treat in high style.

Except for the earrings.

Dug from the depths of my mother's jewelry box, they were 4" long and dangly, with multicolored disks on black cords that swirled around my ears. In my eight-year-old mind, they had to be real gypsy earrings that had simply been lost by their owner. How else to explain the magic noise and glitter they made swinging around near my shoulders?

I tried hard to wear them every year, whether I was a gypsy or not, figuring that even a pirate (or a ghost or a pumpkin) needed a little extra flair.

While the magic earrings eventually wore out, the thrill I got from wearing them never did, and I have tried to put a little of that thrill into the design of the earrings below. A handful of gorgeous Czech glass leaves, some tiny smiling skull beads, a pair of vintage metal shank buttons, and voila!

Magic earrings.

Here's what you will need:

• 6 tiny skull beads
• 8 1/2-inch Czech leaf beads
• 2 small sections of chain, however long you want your earrings to dangle
• 2 hypoallergenic or silver lever back earring findings with a loop
• 2 1/2-inch vintage shank-back buttons
• 8 6mm or 7mm jump rings
• 14 2-inch silver plated headpins
• 30-35 tiny pewter or silver colored spacer beads in any shape desired
• One pair of round-nose pliers
• One pair of jewelry wire cutters or a tool to cut headpins
• One pair of small standard jewelry pliers

1. Take one jump ring and run it through the end of one section of chain, then through the shank of one button, so that the shank runs vertically up the back of the button. You will be attaching the earring back to the button later. (Figure 1)

2. Create one leaf dangle: on a silver-plated headpin, slide one spacer bead, one leaf bead (point down) and another spacer if desired, then bend the top of the pin at a 45 degree angle (Figure 2). Cut the pin about 1/4 of an inch from the bend, and place the round nose pliers at the end of the loop, rolling the pin back toward you around the pliers in one smooth motion (Figure 3).

If you want to wrap the headpin around the loop at the top for a more secure loop, make the number of wraps that you desire first, then cut any excess pin that remains and file any sharp edges.

3. Make 4 leaf dangles for each earring, alternating the direction of the leaves on the pin.

4. Create the skull dangles: since the skull beads have larger holes, put a small spacer bead or two between the end of the head pin and the skull bead to make it secure. Create the loop in the same way as you did for the leaves. Make 3 for each earring.

5. If desired, make a couple of smaller one or two spacer bead dangles to act as filler for any empty spots (Figure 4).

6. Take the section of chain with the button attached, and attach a leaf dangle to the last ring (Figure 5). Continue adding dangles up the length of the chain, alternating skulls and leaves, until you reach the top.

7. Look for any blank or empty spots, and fill in with the smaller spacer bead dangles if needed.

8. Pick up a silver jump ring, and run it through the shank on the back of the button then through the loop on the lever back earring finding. Make sure the front of the finding is facing you while you do this. Close the jump ring and check to be sure that the earring hangs facing the right direction. The lever back will keep the earring secure in your ears.

9. Repeat directions for second earring.

The possibilities for these earrings are endless, and you can even simply make them by using Halloween charms with loops instead of making dangles. The length can also be adjusted simply by using more or less chain.

Happy Halloween!