Vintage bracelet tutorial

 





 
On May 1st I started Pinterest month. I am an avid pinner, and I love everything about Pinterest, except for one thing: I seem to spend more time pinning than actually doing! So for the month of May I will be bringing you inspiration and projects from my Pinterest boards so I can #StopPinningStartDoing!
Isn’t the vintage earring bracelet seen above gorgeous? Frankly I am shocked I managed to make something I like so much! I got the idea via a pin I saw via AmoreTreasure. Jeanette takes heirloom earrings and turns them into bracelets which was obviously my inspiration. Of course she does a much better job of it than I did, so if you like this project but don’t want to spend the time making it, visit her shop here.


To make this bracelet you are going to need a handful of vintage earrings, flat metal connectors, metal jump rings, needle nose pliers, industrial strength glue, a jewelry closure, and work scissors. I purchased the earrings via Etsy, the jewelry components via JoAnnes, and the pliers/glue via Home Depot. The scissors are my kitchen sheers and I have had them forever.

To begin you are going to have to make the backs of the earrings as flat as possible. This means you will need to remove the clip. For earrings like the one shown above, I used scissors to cut the metal.

I was shocked at how easily the scissors worked! I thought I might need metal sheers, but these worked just fine.

The other kind of earring I ran into had the top of the earring and the bottom of the earring as two separate disks. I just needed to pull up the tiny tabs keeping the two disks together.

For this I used my needle nose pliers and they came right off. You could also use tweezers, or even a butter knife. But be careful if you use the knife!

Once you have removed the backs of the earrings, it is time to glue the front to the flat metal connectors. I used some industrial glue we had lying around. It is really harsh stuff so I did it outside and wore gloves. If you want to use superglue I think it would be fine, but try to get glue that isn’t very watery because you don’t want the glue to just melt through all the nooks and crannies in your earrings.

Now carefully place the disk on top of the glue. I let mine dry overnight.

Now it is time to connect the earrings together. Using the needle nose pliers I carefully opened up the oval hoops and threaded one side through a hole in the disk.

Next I connected another earring to the first. I continued until it was long enough to reach around my wrist. To close the hoops, I just used my pliers.

I wasn’t sure what kind of closure to use, so I went with this one. I have some trouble opening it due to my long nails, but if those weren’t in the way it would be fairly easy to get on and off.

With the exception of letting the glue dry, this was a very short and easy craft project. I adore the yellow and white vintage earrings and I can’t wait to wear it around town. If you happen to have some old vintage earrings that you don’t wear, maybe it is time to give them a second life by turning them into a bracelet.