How to Make Your Own Earrings

Co-authored by Cory Schifter

Last Updated: October 11, 2024

Making your own earrings is a perfect way to add some flair to your jewelry box or to create a thoughtful gift for a close friend. To make your own earrings, all you need is a few items from a craft store and the desire to express your creative side. If you want to make earrings that will dazzle everyone in sight, just follow these steps.

1

Gather all of your materials.

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Visit a craft store to buy supplies to make your own earrings. There are a few standard tools you'll need to create the earrings themselves, but you can be as creative as you like when it comes to decorating the earrings.^{[1]
X
Expert Source

Cory Schifter
Jeweler & Certified Jewelry Appraiser

Expert Interview} Here are the things you'll need:
- Earring hooks
- Cleaning alcohol
- Glue, or a hot glue-gun
- Toothpicks
- Thin wire
- Small pliers
- Aluminum foil
- Anything else you'd like to use to dress up your earrings, such as paint, stickers, small bows, glitter, or jewels

2

Disinfect the earring hooks.

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Soak a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide and squeeze it around the back of the earrings. Rinse with clean water and dry with a lint-free cloth. You'll need to take this precaution before you begin to wear the earrings.

3

Make a ball with aluminum foil.

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The ball shape works best and is the easiest to make. Use only a small square of foil about the size of your palm to make these balls. If they're too big, the earrings may be too heavy and can hurt your ears.

4

Decorate your earrings.

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Get creative with glitter, jewels, fuzzy balls, or colorful paint. You can decorate the earrings any way you like! Roll them in glue and then roll them in glitter. Put tiny stickers or sticky jewels on them. Use glue to stick other small decorations on them, such as tiny fuzzy balls. You can also cover the earrings with paint and then add decorations, or just leave them painted a nice, appealing color.
- If you're using glue to decorate the earrings, give them time to dry before moving on to the next step.

5

Make a hole through the center of the earrings.

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Just position it at the top center of the earring and gently push it down until it goes all the way through.

6

Cut two pieces of wire about 2-3" (5-7.5cm) long.

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Use pliers or wire cutters to cut two pieces of wire for your earrings. This wire will hang off the earring hooks and will attach to your earrings, so you can make each piece as long as you want. For dangly earrings, you can cut the wire even longer. If you want the earrings to hang close to your earlobes, then cut the pieces a bit shorter.^{[2]
X
Expert Source

Cory Schifter
Jeweler & Certified Jewelry Appraiser

Expert Interview}
- Gently curl up one end of each piece of wire until it curves back into itself. You'll need this shape to hold up the earring.

7

Run one piece of wire through one earring and attach it to the hook.

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Hold the curled part of the wire and push the straight part through the hole. Once you've pushed it all the way through, curl it around the small hole at the base of the earring hook so that it attaches to the earring hook while firmly holding the earring in place.^{[3]
X
Expert Source

Cory Schifter
Jeweler & Certified Jewelry Appraiser

Expert Interview}
- Repeat this step with the other piece of wire. Simply repeat the steps you took to connect the earring, wire, and hook in the previous step until you have two perfect earrings.^{[4]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Cory Schifter
  Jeweler & Certified Jewelry Appraiser
  
  Expert Interview}

8

Store your earrings.

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To take care of your earrings, store them in a covered jewelry box or cotton bag to prevent scratches. You can even make your own hand-made box to continue the home-made theme.

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Question

Can I make various shapes?

Community Answer

Sure, go ahead and be creative!

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Where can I found an earring hook?

Community Answer

You can buy them at WalMart or Hobby Lobby.

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Question

How can you make the earring without the foil?

MidnightTheBunny

Community Answer

You can also use polymer clay, or air-dry clay. Just make sure you follow the instructions well.

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Tips

You can also use paint. Make sure that the paint doesn’t get on the hook. If it does it could potentially harm your ear, causing an ear infection.

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Warnings

Make sure that the hooks are clean otherwise the hooks may have bacteria which can cause infection over your ear.

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Don’t bend your wire too much or it might snap!

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Watch out with sharp scissors.

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Watch out with glue and hot glue.

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Things You'll Need

Earring hooks
Cleaning alcohol
Glue, or a hot glue-gun
Toothpicks
Thin wire
Small pliers
Aluminum foil
Anything else you'd like to use to dress up your earrings, such as paint, stickers, small bows, glitter, charms, or jewels