Saturday 2 August 2014

Origami Leaf Earrings




I love origami paper - particularly the traditional Japanese designs.  I recently bought a bunch of beautiful paper online and I have been incorporating it into my jewelry designs.

These leaf earrings are very easy to make and look beautiful.

You will need:

  1. once piece of square origami paper (the piece I used was about 5 inches x 5 inches (12cm x 12cm), and the earrings I made were quite large.  You therefore might want to try using a smaller piece of paper if you do not want your earrings to be so dramatic);
  2. 10cm (3.15 inches) of 24 gauge wire; 
  3. 2 earring hooks; and 
  4. a small amount of craft glue. 



The first step, is to cut your square paper in half diagonally.

Next, turn the paper face down.  Fold the largest section of the paper, about 2mm from the edge of the paper.



Continue folding the paper, turning it onto the other side every time you do, so that is is folded like an accordion. 


Fold the paper in half, bringing the largest sections of the paper together. 


The next step is to make a wire loop so that you can connect the paper to an earring hook.  You could use a jump ring to do this, but I prefer to make a wrapped loop so that the structure is stronger without the need for solder.  Take a 5cm length of wire, and bend the top of the wire around pliers to make a loop. 


Bend the longer length of wire around the pliers so that you make a second, larger loop. You want the loop to be large enough so that the folded paper can be threaded through it. 



 Wrap the wire twice around the 'stem' wire, towards the top of the smaller loop. Trim the excess wire.


Thread the folder paper through the large loop. The loop should be held in the section where the paper was folded in half. 


Place glue along the edges of the inside of the folded paper.  Make sure not to glue the other folded sections together, otherwise the earrings will not fan out. 



Thread the top small loop onto an earring hook, and your earrings are complete!


You can cover the earrings with Mod Podge or an acrylic spray to make them more durable. 

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful!!! I have a lot of origami paper, so thanks so much for those instructions. I am just not clear where the glue goes but hopefully I'll figure it out once I get into the project. I'm so glad I found your blog (via Rena's Jewelry Making Journal).

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    Replies
    1. Hi Wwilloww! I am so glad you like the blog. When you fold the paper in half, place the glue on the two sides of the paper facing each other (the inside strips). I placed it on the entire strip.

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    2. Thanks so much. Haven't had a chance to make them yet but I'm going to try to get them made this weekend.

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