I crafted these earrings and a charm from slices of wine corks and scraps from the bottom of my bead box. I think they are pretty good value for around 20 cents per pair!
Approximate Time: 15-30 minutes
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Supplies:
wine corks
seed beads
crimp beads
crimping pliers
beading wire or thread
pliable wire
round nose pliers
darning needle
Instructions:
Using a sharp knife and a cutting board, slice the wine corks through. You should get 5 or 6 discs from each one. Try to keep the thickness similar as you are looking to make pairs of earrings.
If you are not confident, mark the cork at 2 mm intervals along the length of the cork, then use the marks as a guide. You should end up with a pile like the one in the photo.
Once you have found a matching pair, you can choose your beads and start making your earrings and charms.
For the heart design, use 2 acrylic red hearts and 22 seed beads. Push a hole through the center of the cork with the darning needle then, push through 9 inches of 34 gauge beading wire. Leave a 3 inch tail on the wrong side popping on a bit of tape to stop it pulling through. Next thread 3 seed beads, making sure that they are at the front before pushing the wire back round. Do this several times. Finally pass the wire through and round the heart bead to hold it in place.
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Bring both ends of the wire to the top of the cork and after you are happy with the position of the beads twist them together a few times. Trim to around 1 inch, this will form the loop to hang from the earring wire. Pop on a couple seed beads to disguise the wire.
Push the twisted wires through a crimp bead then through the loop of the earring wire then back through the crimp bead. Use pliers to crimp the bead and tuck any excess back through the seeds beads.
I made the spoke wheel charm in a similar way except I used a few bugle beads to make the spokes and split and beaded the two wires before twisting and securing to a jump ring using a crimp bead.
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For the large drops, use pliable aluminum wire and round nose pliers to form the spiral shape, bend it over the top and round the cork then, push the wire through a large pearl bead, back up and then holding the whole thing gently but firmly give the bead half a twist to hold it in place. Then take the wire back to the top and use pliers to fix the earring to the earring wires.
