In Pursuit of Suede String & Tassels

As you can see by what I post on this blog, I've recently been making jewelry with tassels.

When I found this picture of suede tassel earrings, the colors appealed to me: thin turquoise suede, ruby red beads and gold fixtures.

Anthropologie faceted fringe drops

As I tried to find materials to make these earrings, I found that the thinness of the suede is a large part of the effect these earrings hold.

So, my first move was to try to cut my thicker strings of suede in half.

I first used an X-Acto knife.. it was very difficult to cut evenly through the suede string with it.

Then I tried using sewing scissor, the sharpest scissors I could imagine.  With much fear for my fingers, I was able to cut the suede string thinner.

...But then the suede string fell apart.

Rather than waste more of the suede string, I just went to the art supplies store and bought thinner suede string.  AND, I also got some thin leather cord - and made two pairs of earrings!

My DIY Earrings.

What you need:

- The thinnest suede or leather cord you can find.

- Very thin wire.

- 2 of the same glass bead.

- 2 head pins with rounded top.

- A pair of earring hooks.

- Round-nose pliers and a wire cutter.

What to do:

1. Place each bead on a separate head pin.

2. Use the round nose pliers to close the head pin into a loop.  Make the loop a bit larger than normal - the suede string needs to go through it.

(The loop you made is pointing downwards)

3. With pliers, add an earring hook to the top of each head pin.

4. Determine the desired length of the tassels for your earrings.  The black pair above are about an inch and a half.  For the tan pair, they are over two inches.

5. Double the length you decide on and cut 3 to 4 pieces.

6. Fold the cut pieces in half and put one end through the loop at the bottom of the bead.

7. Start slowly and tightly wrapping the thin wire around the top of the folded suede.

8. Once you wrap the wire to desired thickness around the suede, cut with the wire cutters, and fold the raw edge in with the pliers.

9. Trim the ends so they are even.

That's all!

Tri-Color Tassels

Some more tassel earrings! Hurray!

These are super simple DIY earrings made from string and 3 colors of seed beads.

my DIY earrings

What you need:
-2 earring hooks
-2 bead tips
-nylon string (preferably in the color of the lowest color bead, in this case, brown)
-3 colors of seed beads (or more if you'd like).
-needle
-scissors
-pliers

First, cut 10 pieces of nylon string, about 4 to 5 inches each, depending on how long you want the tassle.
Then, string one bead of the last color onto one end of a cut nylon string.  Pull bead to middle and fold in half.
After folding the string in half, you can put a the two string-ends through a needle to make your life easier.  String all the following beads onto the needle so the first bead is stuck at the bottom (and no knot is needed at end to keep the beads on!).
Put as many beads of each color as you like.  Lots of freedom here!
Leave yourself plenty of room at the top.
Make 10 of these beaded strings.
With 5 beaded strings, slip the remaining string through the bead tip.  Knot the tops of the strings well so they cannot slip through the bead tip.  Cut the excess string.  Use the pliers to close the bead tip.
Repeat with the second set of 5 strings.
Use the pliers to open the bottoms of the earring hooks and slip on the bead tips.  Use pliers to close earring hooks.
All done!                   
                                          Wearing my DIY creation:

The most time consuming part of this DIY is definitely stringing all of the seed beads!

The First Post in a New Place: Suede Tassle Earrings

I'm back!

After 3 months settling into this new place, I have returned to my crafting ways.

With a holiday gift exchange tomorrow - it gave me the perfect excuse to visit the local craft store.  Of course, I bought much more than needed in anticipation of other crafting projects!

I found suede string in a multitude of colors, and for a little less than fifty cents a piece.  Most things are more expensive here; it is always exciting when I come across cheap finds.  So, I bought a bunch of strings, a variety of other trinkets (clasps, earring hooks, elastic, jump rings,...), and set to work.

Materials:

- suede string (cut into 12 pieces, about 2 inches each)

- 2 cylinder cones

- 2 Earring loops

- Industrial strength glue

- pliers

- scissors

Once the suede string is cut into 12 pieces, separate 6 and 6 for each earring.

Gather the bunch of 6 pieces.  Squeeze the glue into one cylinder cone.  Then, push the bunch of suede string into the cylinder cone.  Repeat for the second earring.  Let them sit for a few minutes.

Use the pliers to attach the earring loops to the top of the cylinder cones.

Trim the ends of the suede so they are all the same length.

That's all!

I ended up making 2 pairs - now which color do I keep and which do I give?!

Chain Tassel Earrings, Part 2

Tassels have been of much inspiration to me this past spring.  While home over break from university, I made two pairs of earrings with chain tassels.

Pair 1
The first were inspired by a pair of earrings I had bought previously.  They were super easy to make and I always get compliments on these earrings when I wear them!

Supplies:
-Pair of earring hooks
-head pins with loop at bottom
-2 medium glass beads
-2 large decorative beads
-2 spacer beads
-chain (I used 3 pieces of chain per earring)
-pliers

On each head pin I put a large bead, a spacer, a glass bead, then closed the top into a loop.
For basic instructions on how to do this, look here.

I then opened the loop at the bottom of the head pin, and slid on 3 pieces of chain of equal length.  Close the loop tightly so to prevent the chains from falling off.


Add earring hooks to loop above glass bead.  All done!

Pair 2
The second pair took a little bit more time, but were not much more difficult.

Supplies:
- pair of earring hooks
- 2 cylinder shaped glass beads
- 10 small glass beads in various colors & shapes
- 10 normal head pins
- 2 head pins with looped bottom
- chain (I used 5 pieces of chain for each earring)
-pliers
-wire cutters

First, take the head pins with the looped bottoms and put a cylinder shaped bead on each.
Loop the top closed.

Put each of the small glass beads on a normal head pin (1 per pin).

Place 5 pieces of equal length chain to loop under the cylinder bead.  Do this for each earring.  Close the loop tightly afterwards so the chains do not slip off.

Once the chains are in place, add 1 bead on head pin to the end of each chain.  Loop the tops of the head pins closed.  Trim off any extra head pin with wire cutters.

The only step left is to attach the earring hooks to the top loop of the earring!

Here is some inspiration for tassel earrings.  I can't wait to make more of these!

                       Chain Tassel

                 String Tassel

These are more of a variation on the basic tassel earring:

              

                  Chan Luu earrings, $75.

Hoops with beaded tassels

Chain Tassel Earrings

I keep seeing tassel earrings everywhere this summer!
I spotted these earrings, left, on the Nordstrom website.  I really like the idea of using chain as the tassel instead of string.  On the right, the pair that I made for myself!!

Nordstrom earrings, $38

My DIY!

Making these earrings was super simple!  I found the four silver decorative pieces at the top while scavenging through my bead & sewing collection.  At ACMoore, I picked out the colored chain.  They had a variety of colors, but I picked the blue because it has a little bit of a silver shine on the sides!

First, I attached the top pieces with jump rings.  I used six jump rings initially on each earring, 2 at the top   of the first piece, 2 between the two pieces, and 2 at the bottom of the second piece.  I looped one jump ring through the two at the top of the first piece, and attached the earring hook to it.  With the two jump rings at the bottom of the second piece, I attached two more, but so that the 'o' faced forward instead of sideways.

I then decided on the length of the tassel I wanted and cut 10 pieces of equal length (5 for each earring).  After, I simply attached the chains to the bottom-most double jump rings and closed the rings tightly.  Ta da! My very own pair of chain tassel earrings!

Now, I'm looking for inspiration for some cute string tassel earrings.  My sister wants a pair too!
Here are some great ideas!

Mixing string and chain!