Burlap or jute earrings DIY

Often I have gawked at intricate earrings made of burlap or jute cloth at craft fairs. I wondered how anyone could think of making earrings with a cloth that I grew up watching, holding household groceries such as rice, sugar, salt and the like by bulk.

Jute or burlap has come a long way from its modest storage option days. It is today a style statement, a fad that projects you as that earth friendly person, or maybe conscious about nature.

On a boring evening, I decided to experiment with burlap myself. The result is not awe inspiring. But it is a handy pair of jewellery I will use with some clothes.


You do not need much for this project.

Grab

-- a pair of scissors

-- jewellery pliers, and cutters

-- tacky craft glue

-- Burlap or jute twine

-- embellishments - cloth flowers or sequins

-- ball point headpins and fish hooks - jewellery findings

-- a plastic water bottle cap and a pen or pencil

-- a piece of consumer cardboard lying around home


Firstly, I used a water bottle cap to mark out a circle on the piece of cardboard I had.

The cardboard I had pulled a layer of paper out from, to roughen its surface.

Next on, it was about using the jute or burlap twine on the cardboard. I used sufficient glue over the marked circles. Make sure you glue one circle, let everything dry, and then move to the next one.

I let this dry for an hour. And repeated the process over the other circle. I marked the circles close to the corners so that cutting would prove easy.

And let this set dry well.

After the discs have dried well, time to cut the cardboard. There are several methods to hook jewellery findings to these. One of the simplest that you can try without the use of fancy gadgetry, is to leave a little cardboard over one end to give it the shape of a teardrop.

It was time to prick a hole each in the protruding corners of these tear drops.

And fix the findings. In this case I experimented with ball pin findings that are not normally used in such a variety of jewellery.

While the set was drying, it was all about getting the pieces hooked with fish hook findings. And also embellishing with cloth flowers.

My pair of burlap earrings just got ready. Am waiting to use them as soon as possible before someone  likes them more.

As of now, they proudly sit on my workstaion.

Try out something as simple as this, and you will soon find yourself experimenting with more - burlap at that.



Pictures Courtesy: Radhika M B

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