Metal, Lace & Flowers Earrings

As I was browsing ELLE magazine, I found some fantastic earrings by Dolce & Gabbana. Unfortunately I don’t have the £505 to spend on such lovely trinkets!

What I do have is a big crafting stash, so I sat down and came up with these:

And here are the luscious Dolce & Gabbana earrings I was inspired by:

Sorry it isn’t a pin or link to a particular website!
Try as I might, I couldn’t find these online.
So here’s a picture snapped on my phone, from ELLE UK, September edition!

As you can see, my earrings didn’t turn out much like the designer ones at all, hence only being inspired by! I'm sticking to my resolution to use up more of my stash rather than buy more.

These were fairly easy to make once I’d figured out a design, though the process was a little slap-dash. I didn’t have any nice filigree to mount the flower onto, so I used multi-strand bracelet links instead. A quick eBay search for ‘round filigree’ throws up a heap of options though, at reasonable prices!

And of course, I took pictures along the way so that I could share a tutorial with you!

You’ll need:

2 x flower embellishments

2 x earring wires

4 x jump rings

6 x filigree multi-strand bracelet links*

Scrap of gathered lace trim with flower pattern**

Strong glue

Nail file or small scrap of sandpaper

Wire cutters

Flat nose pliers

Scissors

* Alternatively, 2 x bracelet links + 2 x filigree pieces. Please note that the tutorial only shows covers how to use the bracelet links, but the use of filigree pieces is virtually the same.

** You should be able to fit two joined links/a filigree piece inside the flower and 3-4 links from the top to bottom of the trim.

1. Using wire cutters, remove some of the loops/holes from the bracelet links:

Top link (x2): Cut off left & right of wide edge, to leave one loop at the top and bottom

Centre link (x2): Cut off all loops on the long edge

Bottom link (x2): Cut off all loops

Flatten the rough edges with the nail file.
If you have filigree pieces, just cut the loops from the ‘top link’ and skip to step 3!

2. Glue together centre and bottom bracelet links along the wide, straight edge, and set aside to dry.

3. Cut a piece of lace big enough to fit the links in step 2.

4. Trim around the flower pattern and cut the top part in the shape of a downward-pointing triangle (but still joined onto the flower!). The gathered section of the lace should be as wide as the top of your top bracelet link. 

5. Use flat nosed pliers to join the bottom centre loop of the top bracelet link to the top loop of the centre bracelet link with a jump ring. Check that it fits on top of the lace trim.

6. Dab glue along the top, gathered piece of the lace, and stick to the back of the top bracelet link. Trim off any excess lace around the side/top of the link.

7. Spread glue across the back of the two joined bracelet links (centre and bottom) and stick to the flower on the lace.

8. Glue the flower embellishment to the centre of the joined bracelet links. (I used a pretty generous amount of glue for this part)

9. Attach earring hooks to finish, using jump rings, then go out and wow your friends with your fab new earrings!

I hope this tutorial was clear! This is part of my continuing endeavour to use up what I have to hand! (I still have loads of stuff though...)

Will be linking up to the parties listed below!