How to make wooden earrings from scratch. One of the best ways to contribute your bit to the environment is to make creative DIY crafts out of recycled wood.
To make simple yet stylish sustainable earrings at home, You’ll need pinewood or balsa wood, woodworking skills, and a pinch of your creativity that’ll make your design stand out.
If you don’t want to try woodworking, fret not. You can skip and get desired wood shapes by the carpenter. Let’s proceed to learn something unique today and inspire the world.
How to Make Wooden Earrings – A Complete DIY Guide That Will Save your Cost
To make sustainable earrings from a leftover wood piece, ensure that wood material is soft particularly used for crafting purposes. I have got some pinewood pieces with me so first we will start with planning a design layout.
Once you finalize the design, proceed with forging wood shapes. Cut desired wood shapes with a Dremel or get it laser cut or carpenter. It’s completely your choice. So Let’s begin with step-by-step instructions.
13 Insightful Steps to Make Artistic Wooden earrings
| STEP1. Select Best Wood Type |
| STEP2. Plan Wooden Earring Design |
| STEP3. Gather Supplies |
| STEP4. Outlining Wood Piece |
| STEP5. Wood Cutting |
| STEP6. Drilling Hole |
| STEP7. Wood Carving (Optional) |
| STEP8. Sanding Wood |
| STEP9. Paint Wood Shapes |
| STEP10. Connect Jump ring & Earring Hook |
| STEP11. Waterproof Wooden Earrings |
| STEP12. Let your Wooden Earrings Dry |
| STEP13. Ready to Wear |
Step1. Select The Best Wood Type
Wood that is easy to cut and craft and recommended for artists is Pinewood or Balsa wood. They are softwood type and light in weight.
I got this amazing idea of recycled jewelry when I found leftover wood pieces at the construction site. Then, I just thought to reuse them before it gets trashed out and let me tell you I am a huge fan of eco-friendly crafts.
Let me give you a Fair Idea of Wood Types
- Hardwood like Mahagony, Cherry, Maple, Walnut wood is very expensive and used for making furniture items. So, we can’t use them for making jewelry.
- Softwood such as Balsa, Pinewood can be cut, carved and sands smoothly as compared to hardwood. Most importantly, they are affordable being light-weighted and soft in nature. Therefore you can prefer Pine or Balsa wood for making jewelry at home.
- Aromatic Wood – Have you heard about trees that make your wood beads aromatic? Recently I found something really interesting about the aromatic property of wood such as Cedar, Ebony, Apple Trees, Camphor, Rosewood, Sandalwood, and Jam wood. You can surely consider them for crafting.
Step2. Plan a Design Layout to Make Wooden Earrings
For every jewelry designer – Ideation is the first step you should keep in mind. Plan a nice layout design digitally on your computer or notebook.
Step3. Gather Supplies
Now, you’ll need essential materials, to begin with crafting wooden earrings. I have also added some woodworking tools as we are learning from scratch.
- Hacksaw
- Leftover Wood pieces
- Drill Machine
- 150 Grit Sandpaper
- Paintbrush
- Acrylic Colours
- Pair of Earring Hook
- Pencil/Marker
- Varnish
- Damp Cloth
- Turpentine oil
Step4. Outlining on Wood Pieces
Take a pencil and start outlining designs on the wood pieces for wood cutting. You can make any design such as triangular shape, oval, square, circle, etc. I choose the triangular shape today.
Step5. Wood Cutting
Pay attention! as I am going to teach you how to cut wood carefully using a hacksaw. You can skip manual wood cutting if you want and get it done by a carpenter. If you’re learning woodcutting – Stay Super Alert and don’t rush as it may harm your hand.
3 Ways to Cut Wood Yourself
- Manual Woodcutting By a Hacksaw
- Dremel
- Get Access to Laser Cutter Technology
Carefully, keep a gap between your hand and a hacksaw and start to cut slowly. You have to be patient and slow here till you accomplish this task. I am sharing a very helpful video with you. Take a look.
Step6. Drilling Small Hole at the Top
Drilling Holes can be performed using a Dremel or drill machine (in case you don’t have a Dremel machine). Mark a center point carefully with correct gaps at the top of the wood shape and drill a small hole.
If you are not comfortable with drilling, you can always skip this step and get this done by a carpenter.
Step7. Hand Carving Wood Shapes (Optional)
This step is optional but interesting. Take a pencil and make a design or a monogram whatever you like and use a Dremel machine to carve the design. It looks lovely.
Another way to carve wood manually is by using a chisel. Scrape it slowly on wood shape. You can leave this step if you like.
Step8. Sand Wood Shapes
Sanding wood is a crucial step that will remove the uneven scratches and blemishes to get finely finished wood shapes. This is done by using 150 grit sandpaper. If you have a Dremel machine then you don’t need sandpaper.
Rub your wood piece thoroughly till you see the scratches are completely gone. You will see the perfect finishing of your wood shape. Let me show you how I performed this task.
Step9. Paint Wood Shapes
The most fun part about making wooden earrings is to paint with acrylic colors. Make superbly beautiful shades and play with colors using a thick top-notch quality paintbrush. Let the paint dry for some time.
Step10. Connect Earring Hooks
First, open the jump ring and insert it into the wood hole. Connect earring hooks to the jump ring and close the ends of a jump ring by slightly pressing them with a flat nose plier. This is to avoid your earring hooks dropping off.
Step11. Waterproof Wooden Earrings
Waterproofing is an essential part that is mostly forgotten by designers. Hence, to make water-resistant earrings use varnish. Take a thin paintbrush and gently apply varnish in small amounts to wooden earrings.
Step12. Let your Wooden Earrings dry
Now let your earrings try for at least 24 hours and see the glossy effect of your wooden earrings the next morning.
Note: Dip your paintbrush into the turpentine oil and wipe it thoroughly using a damp cloth. This will prevent your paintbrush from hardening. So, don’t ever skip this step.
Step13. Ready to Wear
Voila! Your wooden earrings are now ready to flaunt. I love it.
FAQ’s That’ll Give Your More Clarity
| Q1. What are the reasons to make earrings using wood? |
| Ans. Wood is a natural material that has amazing properties such as lightweight, easily available, doesn’t produces odor after piercing, non-allergic to your skin, and cost-effective. You don’t have to purchase wood from the market. Make earrings out of recycled wood. |
| Q2. Can we make wooden earrings without the wood cutting process? |
| Ans. Yes, you can make earrings with readymade wood shapes from the local market. Also, if you want to get shapes as per your choice you can do it by using a Dremel machine, laser cutter technology, or get your desired shapes from a carpenter. |
| Q3. How to save costs by making wooden earrings at home? |
| Ans. The most economical method- reuse wood pieces and manually cut wood shapes. Don’t trash wooden blocks, use them to make lovely earrings. This is by far the most skillful and economical craft one can try at home. |
| Q4. Is the manual wood cutting method difficult? |
| Ans. Yes, it is difficult for a beginner, you have to be super alert while working with a hacksaw. Alternatively, You can get it done from a carpenter or look for places where laser cutter technology is used. If you have a budget, you can buy Dremel which has amazing multi-functionality features of woodcutting, carving, sanding, etc. Choose the most feasible method at your convenience. |
| Q5. Where can we buy jewelry supplies? |
| Ans. You can buy jewelry supplies from the local market or directly from the Amazon store. By the way, If you want to learn about wooden jewelry making supplies in detail here is one more tutorial for you. |
| Q6. Post waterproofing process, how to prevent paintbrush from getting hardened? |
| Ans. Use Turpentine oil and wipe it with a damp cotton cloth. |
| Q7. How to sell wooden earrings online? |
| Ans. You can sell them on Etsy, Amazon, Flipkart eCommerce platforms and earn a decent income from home. |
Friends, I hope this tutorial has brought some clarity on working with leftover wood. I have elucidated some insights on wood types because I completely understand it may be difficult for beginners but let me tell you- it is doable.
All you need is to take the plunge, practice slowly and you’ll master this craft in no time. Start making beautiful pieces and do share your experiences with me. I would love to hear from you. Thanks and Happy Crafting.
