Introduction: Leather Earrings

This is a good use for all the scraps of leather you have been holding onto because you know there is something you can use it on.

Step 1: Tools / Items Needed

  • Scrap leather
  • Scissors and/or exacto blade
  • Straight edge (not shown)
  • Punch
  • Wire snipes
  • Angled nose pliers
  • Round nose pliers
  • 24 gauge wire
  • Earwires
  • Fun beads

Step 2: Cut Out Your Shapes

Using the scissors or exacto knife cut out shapes. If the leather is not too thick you can sandwich them to get two exact shapes.

The leaves shown are approximately 2 inches long and 5/8" at the widest point.

Green squares above are approximately 1.25 inches x .25 inches.

Completed blue earrings are approximately 1.75 inches x .25 inches.

A straight edge was used to get the rectangular shapes, scissors were used for leaves.

Step 3: Punch Holes for Wiring, Beads and Earwires.

Use the punch to make holes approximately 1/16 to 1/8 inches from edge of piece.

Step 4: Wire Wrapping the Top of the Leaf

Cut a piece of wire 24 gauge approximately 4 inch long Attach wire to top of leaf thru hole, fold back approximately 1/4 inch of wire and wrap it to secure wire to leaf. Once it is secure, make a loop at the top of the leaf using the round nose pliers. Once the loop is created start wrapping the wire around the top of the leave. As you get the the end of the wire tuck it into the bottom of the wire or into the side. As you can see from the final two the bottom one came out much better...practicing wire wrapping on a scrape piece of leather will help!

Step 5: Add a Few Beads

For the leaf earrings....Pick out a few beads that go with your leather. Take a piece of wire approximately 3 inches long and do a loop on the end using the round nose pliers. Place your bead on the wire and make sure they are basically the same length. Once you have both done then place a loop at the other end. Once you have all the piece done you can add them to the ear wire.

Step 6: Adding Beads...continued

For the blue leather earrings the design was simpler....the leather was attached to the ear wire using the punched holes. For the beads, i created a head pin that had a smaller loop on the bottom and a bigger loop at the top so it could easily be attached to the bottom of the blue leather.

If I won the laser cutter i would like to try using it on leather to see what the effect would be on leather and what the possibilities could be.