JEWELRY TUTORIAL: Painted Hearts Earrings

While in Tennessee, I bought a pack of 12 small wood hearts from Hobby Lobby. I made a few jewelry projects with several of them, including a pair of earrings. For me, these were easy to make. It helps a lot if you have existing experience with a power drill, as you will need to drill holes into the hearts, for the jump rings, to add earring hooks. Otherwise it's just simple painting. You can use other paint colors and designs, but this is what I came up with.


SUPPLIES:
  • 2 Small wood hearts - I used two from a pack of 12 from Hobby Lobby. Michaels has them too
  • 2 Silver jump rings - I make my own, but you can buy them pre-made. They need to be big enough to go through the wood holes and earring holes
  • 2 Silver earring hooks - I like lever back earrings, but you can use the French hooks or the studs with loops, if you prefer
  • 2 Pairs of pliers - For opening and closing the jump rings
  • Red acrylic paint - For painting the hearts
  • Small paint brush - For painting and sealing the hearts
  • Black fine paint pen - For drawing the details on the hearts
  • Mod Podge Matte or Outdoor - For sealing the hearts
  • Dremel drill with a small drill bit - For drilling the holes in the wood. I have a 7.2V Cordless MultiPro. It has 2 speeds and works well enough for my limited needs. The bit in my drill is 5/64"
  • A old thick phone book or magazine - For protecting your work surface while drilling. My phone book has mostly been used for drilling into
  • Wax paper - To protect your work surface
  • A foam plate, small cup, or palette - For pouring the paint onto. I'm fond of foam plates and cheap shot glasses
  • Paper towels - For cleaning the brush
  • A cup of water - For washing the paint and Mod Podge off the brush

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Let's start with a little prep. Pour a little red paint into your plate (or other paint holding item). Lay a piece of wax paper onto your work surface. Load the drill bit into your drill. Have your water and paper towels ready for cleaning your brush. Make sure your paint pen is ready to flow. You can pump on a paper towel if it's not already flowing nicely.

2) Dip your brush into the red paint. Evenly paint one side of each wood heart. Let dry on the wax paper. Paint a second coat if needed. Repeat on the other sides and edges. Let dry on the wax paper in between each coat.

3) With the black paint pen, draw a heart near the edge of the wood heart. Draw another heart inside that one. Draw another tiny heart inside that one, which I did with just two tiny strokes of the paint pen. Draw dots in between the 1st and 2nd drawn hearts. I used the tip of the paint to make the dots. They can be equal dots if you desire. Let dry, design side up, on the wax paper. After the 1st sides are dry, flip the hearts over and repeat the design on the other side. Let dry again.

4) Using the paint pen, make lines around the edges of the hearts. Let dry on the wax paper.

5) Wash the brush in the water cup. Dry it off on the paper towel. Make sure there is no paint remaining on the brush.

6) Dip the brush into the Mod Podge. Paint on a thin layer of Mod Podge onto one side of each heart. This will seal the paint. Let the heart dry on the wax paper. Repeat on the other sides and edges. Do this step again for a 2nd coat.

7) Wash the brush in the water cup. Dry it off on the paper towel. Make sure there is no paint remaining on the brush.

8) Put the hearts on top of the thick phone book or magazine. Hold the heart steady with one hand. With the drill on slow speed, make a pilot hole/impression on one side of the hearts, near the valley (where the heart bends in). These help steady the drill bit when you move on to high speed. Repeat on the 2nd heart.

If you aren't comfortable with using the drill on high speed, you can finish drilling the holes on slow speed. Make sure to pull the bit out every few seconds, to release wood dust from the holes. This will make drilling easier.

9) If you are comfortable with high speed, carefully drill into the pilot holes while holding the heart steady. I pull the bit out every few seconds, to see if the hole is complete and empty the hole of wood dust. If you don't hold the heart steady while drilling, it will spin after the hole is done, and possible warp the hole. Dust off the two holes and remove any wood dust from your work surface.

10) Using the two pliers, open each jump ring. If you haven't used a jump ring before, you need to hold the pliers on either side of the separation ends. Separate the jump ring by moving the ends back and forth in opposite directions vs stretching the ends to the sides. You just need to separate the ends enough to slip the jump ring through the hole in the heart. Use either the plier or your fingers to slip the jumps ring through their holes.

11) Slip one earring piece onto each jump ring.

12) Using the two pliers, close the jump ring. Hold one plier on each end, and move the ends back toward each other slowly until the ends touch.


That's it for this tutorial. You can use this concept for other shapes and designs. If you wanted beads dangling from the wooden shape, you could drill more holes along the bottom edge. Make some wire wrapped dangles to those holes, and you'll have very dangly earrings. I'll cover this kind of wire wrapping in a future tutorial. Happy Makery!

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