Flower Power Button Earrings (Tutorial)
by Rena Klingenberg. © 2003-Present Rena Klingenberg. All Rights Reserved
These cheerful, charming button earrings are simple and inexpensive to make.
They’re a great project for grownups or supervised children to create.
You can keep a few pairs of these handy for last-minute gift giving. Or a teen / pre-teen could make them for all her friends.
These also make good impulse purchase items for your jewelry booth.
With a couple of flower button variety packs, you can make a whole garden of earrings!
Here’s a view of the back:
Supplies:
- Two pieces of round, half-hard wire, 20- or 21-gauge.Each piece of wire should be about 4.75″ (12 cm) long.
Use a metal type that’s suitable for pierced ears – copper, brass, sterling silver, 14k gf, or niobium. (NOT craft wire.)
- Four buttons – two large and two small. At least two of the buttons should be flower-shaped or have a flower printed on them.(In my town, craft and fabric stores had several different flower button multi-packs – so for a couple of dollars you can probably get a nice variety of button sizes and colors for this project!)
- Wire cutter.
- Round nose pliers.
- Flat nose pliers.
- Chain nose pliers.
- Cup bur or jewelry file for smoothing off wire end.
- Sharpie marker.
- Ruler.
How to Make
Flower Power Button Earrings
Cut your two pieces of wire, and use your Sharpie marker to mark each wire 1.5″ (3.8 cm) from one end:
We’re going to work on one wire at a time, so set one of these wires aside for now.
Now use your round nose pliers to grasp your wire on the mark you just made:
Bend both wire ends straight down, so you have a long narrow hook shape:
Now your wire should look like this:
Thread your wire ends through the holes in your buttons, like this:
Pull the wire snugly against the top button:
Important: Keep the wire pulled as tightly as possible against the front of the top button throughout this next step, so your buttons won’t be flopping around on your finished earring.
At the back of your larger button, leave the longer wire running straight out from the button.
Bend the shorter wire toward the longer wire, until the shorter wire lies flat against the back of the button:
Keeping our wire pulled tightly against the buttons, we’re going to wrap the shorter wire around the base of the longer wire, with 2 or 3 wraps.
You can use either chain nose pliers or your fingers for this.
So let’s start by wrapping the shorter wire tightly around the bottom of the longer wire, with the shorter wire tightly against the back of the button:
Keep wrapping smoothly and tightly, until you have 2 or 3 wraps around the base of the longer wire:
Now clip off the excess wire, using the flat side of your cutter to nip it off as closely as possible:
Use chain nose pliers to squeeze the cut end down so it can’t scratch the person wearing the earrings.
Now the back of our earring should look something like this:
Now use your marker to mark a spot on the wire that’s 0.75 inch (2 cm) from the back of your button:
At the spot where your wire emerges from the wire wraps you just made, bend your wire until it touches the back of your button:
Now with the widest part of your round nose pliers jaw, grasp your wire on the mark you just made:
Bend the wire ends straight down, so your wire is hook-shaped (with the buttons attached to the shorter end of the wire):
Use a cup bur or jewelry file to thoroughly round and smooth your wire end.
Since it will be put through the earring wearer’s ear piercing, it’s important to make this wire end completely smooth.
After using the cup bur or file, finish the wire end by smoothing it with a small piece of #0000 steel wool.
Now use the tip of your flat nose pliers to make a tiny bend at the end of your wire:
Repeat the steps above with your second piece of wire to create the second earring.
And your flower power button earrings are finished!
Clean off any remaining Sharpie ink from your wire with a few drops of rubbing alcohol on a scrap of paper towel.
These earrings are also delightful with a small flower button on a larger round button:
Playing with color combinations is half the fun of making these flower power button earrings!
