homemade earring backs

24Mar10

another adventure!

earring backs are kind of a pain, but necessary for any straight post (and non-dangly) earring. most earring wearers know there are a few different incarnations of them out there, assorted sizes and shapes, different metals and plastics, they all work relatively well, but… tend to be uncomfortable. I really like the plastic ones, but they are cheap and really don’t like to fit the 18 and 20 gauge wires I use for earrings. I’ve been preferring the 18 gauge for a heavier earring since it’s more substantial.

so i set out to make my own earring backs. i traced a crappy drawing of a template from a book i have (since i am maligning it, i won’t tell you what book it was)… it basically said start with a shape like this :   [[crappy drawing]]   so i just traced it.

here are the drawings ready to be cut out of 22 gauge sterling sheet

and there they are. see that black line thing on the left? that’s the saw blade! tiny!!!

i have sawn out one of them, it's sitting on the bench pin there, now to the next one

tiny sawing is annoying because there just isn’t much surface area. i try to be clever when i lay out the drawings to make it easier to cut out. the saw blades create a lot of friction and can easily bend the silver sheet, or break themselves, or both. annoying!

all cut out and filed a bit - they're going in the tumbler so i am not too concerned with the finish now.

these are exactly the shape of the delicious homemade thick corn tortilla served at my favorite local taqueria called a huarache. dude, the tortilla is just the beginning of how wonderful huaraches are. not the shoes, the foods.

this is my hammer, this is my punch... line it up good, it only takes one tap!

now you are wondering, how does a huarache become an earring back? well, you need a hole…   using a center punch and a heavy hammer (on top of a thick piece of leather on top of a steel block on top of my workspace) you line that punch perfectly up and whack it on the backside with the hammer. it really only takes one tap to dent the metal, but since we want a bit of a dent along with a hole, i hit it twice, once normal to make sure the punch wouldn’t slip, then i followed which a solid whack that probably startled the neighbors.

nice little dents, ready to have holes drilled through them

now we must drill. with tiny things (actually with most things) i use a tiny little handheld what’s the name of this thing as i am constantly forgetting even though i have the whole internet at my fingertips is it …? … oh google. help me! oh. apparently the internet is only useful when you already know what you are looking for.  here it is anyway:

tiny tiny hand drill takes forever but gets results. i've tried the dremel drill press for this, but it won't work with something so tiny. abunai!!

you sit and twist and twist and twist until it pops through the other side. don’t put too much pressure on or you will snap the drill bit. i wish it was a bit more ergonomic… this wasn’t a big deal, but wait till you see what i used it for today. i’ll post that when they are complete.

holes all ready to go. in retrospect, i will taper the entrance to make the earring back easier to insert. (that's what she said?)

in retro-retrospect, as you are about to see, i think the dents go the other way. 3 dimensional dyslexia. this is why one can’t truly learn from books. i guess i did just learn from a book. but a human would never have let me make that mistake.

triangular or square file works nicely to make tiny grooves for the grips

pin vice? is it called a pin vice? i just thought of that. oh brain, you always come through in the end, usually too late however. vice or vise, depends on how much you care about those things. as a bit of an anglophile, i think vise sounds more sophisticated and european. (note – those two things do not indicate the other)

so, we are filing grooves into the grip portion of the earring back. cute! this is where i could have had a little design fun, and probably will next time. this time, i was too busy injuring my nails:

holding tiny tiny things and filing them is not happy land for fingers. sane people take precautions. sometimes i forget.

this is why we don't bother with manicures anymore - look out for those files!

please excuse the formatting wonkiness. if i had to care about things like that, i’d never post.

whew. these injuries don’t hurt, but they are unsightly! and now you can see how nail polish just won’t last. i do have stuff i could wrap my fingers with, but that takes foresight and energy, two things i do not possess in any abundance. someday i’ll be in the habit. when i’ve been through enough pain.

all ready to go! symmetry is overrated. i have a much better idea for the overall shape next time.

grab at the very end with round nose pliers and curl towards the center

so, like it’s doing in the picture, you grab one end with your cheap $5 round nose pliers from michaels (they are holding up darn well, but they tend to torque – need some with a pointier point and a stronger hinge) and you curl it.  you really want to grab it pretty close to the end so you can have a nice tight curl. 22 gauge was maybe a little thick, i think i will go with 24 gauge in the future, as this step was difficult. i just kept grabbing it from different portions of the curl to tighten/loosen it until i had the right proportion and proximity to where the earring post would be.

one done, one to go

repeat on both sides. next time, darling, curl them the other way so the dent makes sense. everything is clearer in hindsight, non?

all curled up and ready to go! they look more like the real thing than i expected.

cute! i am forced by nature to “like” the “rustic” “wabi-sabi” unevenness of this design, as i am clearly not capable of much more. i think i kind of do like it though. wait till you see how BIG they are!

all set! ish. time for the tumbler to become shiny and then to be tweaked to fit later.

HUGE! that’s an earring post… well, a wire the diameter of an earring post. these guys are at least twice the size and heft of a normal earring back. honestly, after writing this post, i kind of can’t wait to make them again, now that i have a vague clue what i am doing, and make them cooler. the more surface area they have in contact with your ear lobe, the more comfortable they will be (and the bigger your earring can be! woo!)

i really can’t wait to actually work out a design and make some more of these guys. this is really the best part about making things yourself, is that even the backs to the earrings are interesting.

can i preach for a second about buying handmade things? DO IT. factories make products that on first glance, cost you less, but the cost in the end, to not only you but the underpaid workers and the environment, not to mention the banks of knowledge humans have collected in the few thousands of years we have existed… what if we forget how to make things? in japan, they consider people with knowledge like that national treasures. that’s what they call them, and that’s how they treat them. buying handmade is just a step in the right direction for all of us, as humans.

did anyone read this?

no matter. it helped me to write it.

Filed under: earrings, metalsmithing   |  10 Comments