Wear the moon phase trend with these delicate and pretty moon phase ear climbers made from clay and wire!
The moon in all it's forms has been cropping up all over the place lately, and being an avid reader of other creative blogs, I've noticed the moon has come up in a variety of DIY projects. As you know, I'm a big fan of interesting jewellery, and have recently been loving the variety of ear climbers or cuffs (never quite sure what to call them!) that have been about. Although there are a lot of moon phase DIY's out there, something I've still not yet seen, are homemade moon phase earrings or climbers. In my mind, they just go together perfectly, and so naturally I needed to have a go myself. Keep reading to find out what I used and how I made them...
1.
First of all, warm up and knead some clay until it is feeling easier to roll. Roll it out until it is the thickness of a coin. Using a the end of a straw, cut out 8 small circles. You'll need 4 for each earring.
2.
Take 4 of these and leave one circle as it is for the full moon. Take the second circle, and using a scalpel, cut off about a third of the circle (keep the bigger piece) and with the third circle, cut it in half (keep one half). With the fourth circle, use the straw to cut out the side of the circle to leave a crescent moon shape. Repeat with the other four circles.
3.
Bake your shapes (as instructed on the packaging). Whilst baking, cut and bend some jewellery wire to the shape and length of your ears. Once your shapes are baked, use small bits of clay to fix the full moon shape to the end of the wire nearest your face (using clay ensures the back is flat for your earring post to adhere to) and bake again.
4.
Once you've attached the full moon, attach the smallest semi-circle to the other end of the wire with superglue. Once dry, fix the crescent moon and slightly bigger semi-circle on the wire in between, in size order, to create your moon phases.
5.
Once your glue is dry, brush size or foil adhesive over the front of your moon phases and apply faux (or real) metal leaf with a brush and tweezers. Use your finger to gently remove any air bubbles. Use a sealer to protect your metal leaf work and again, leave to dry.
6.
Take some thick jewellery wire (or as I've done here, some old hook earrings) and bend into u-shape, with one side slightly longer than the other. Bend over a small bit of wire on each end so that you don't have any sharp ends. This will be the cuff that keeps the top of the earring in place, so check it fits your ear.
7.
FInally, use superglue to secure the earring post to the back of the full moon. At the other end of the moon phase, secure the shortest half of the cuff to the back of the smallest moon phase.
