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Topics: Jewelry & Watches |
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| DIY "Fancy" Earring Gift Idea |
Submitted by:
01/17/2009 1:48 AM
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I love jewelry and accessories, as do a number of my close family members and friends, but not all of us are thrifty! Jewelry-making has been one of my hobbies for some time now, and last year I decided to make earrings for 6 of my closest relatives and friends. As 4 of them are professionals, and ALL of them "dress-to-impress," these needed to be "nice" pieces of jewelry. (It's definitely the thought that counts, but I wanted to make something that even the spendthrift-Ms. Gotrocks would be proud to wear.)
I bought 1 package each of sterling silver headpins (what you string beads on) and sterling french earring wires on sale at one of our huge local craft stores (it's part of a national chain) for 3.50$ each. This store seems to run sales of these items on a very regular basis, apparently every 6 weeks or so. This was enough to make 6 pairs of earrings, with some leftover pins. I strung the pins with genuine gemstone beads--small, faceted rubies and emeralds interspersed with some tiny pearls--that I bought from my favorite eBay gemstone-bead store. Including shipping and handling, the total cost of my order was a little under 10.00$. I used a tiny pair of pliers to fasten the pins to the earring wires once I'd strung the beads; these were part of a three-piece set of jewelry-making tools I'd bought at Wal-Mart for 7.00$ two years ago. However, you can use any small pair of tweezers to do this just as easily. The entire project was done while I watched a couple of hours of television. In the past I've dismantled jewelry (a pearl necklace I never wore, amethyst-bead earrings from the thriftstore, gemstone-bead bracelets from a garage sale) to make new pieces for gifts of personal use.
The total cost of my gifts for 6 people was 17.00$. While definitely not anything that would've been confused with jewels from Tiffany's, the earrings were lovely and unique. Everyone has enjoyed wearing them, even the hard-to-please loved ones. |
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