Make This:

Floral Hoop Earrings

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Statement earrings are so hot right now, though some of us believe they never really go out of style. A million years ago, one of the first projects I made for this site was a headband covered in pretty purple mulberry flowers. I keep running into that post when I’m on pinterest, and I just found my box of flowers while I was going through my craft stash recently, so it seemed like the perfect time to make something new with them. I realized about three quarters of the way through making these floral hoop earrings that I had looked at my box of crochet thread and chosen the same purple as the ribbon in the previous project, because none of the greens I had were right with the leaves. I guess my taste is consistent!

 

While these earrings aren’t difficult to make, they are kind of fidgety. What becomes challenging is settling your knot in the right place to tie around what you want, but not around what you don’t. After a little time it starts to get easier and come together better. Don’t feel bad if you decide to cut your thread off and start over, I did.

 

It may be tempting to try to just wrap the crochet thread instead of tying it. That was the first thing I did. I didn’t like that method because I couldn’t set the project down before I had wrapped the whole thing, and it just wasn’t as sturdy and durable as the tied version.

 

Many mulberry flowers and leaves come with a lightweight wire stem, others come with a thread stem. The same method will work with either.

Cut about 2 yards/2 meters of crochet thread. To start it on the hoop, tie it as shown, leaving about 4 inches/10cm of tail – long enough tail to be able to tie it in a knot with other strands later on.

 

When that’s tightened it should look like this. Arrange the ‘knot’ to the back, so the front just looks wrapped.

 

Each subsequent knot will be a half hitch. Tie one or two of them before adding any stuff. Try to tie them all the same way, but with everything going on, it won’t really show if you switch it up a bit.

 

Start by adding a flower, being sure you tie the stem to the hoop. Place it so that the flower lands where you want it to.

 

Keep tying, being sure to go around the stem and hoop each time.

 

Add more things as you tie, I added a flower, stamen, or leaf about every 5-10 knots. You want as much stem wrapped in as possible, so start them early. I show how I added the stamen further down. Just let any extra flower stem wire stick out, we’ll handle it later.

 

Just keep adding and tying, being careful to land the knots around just what you want tied in. At this point I’m nearly to the first flower, so I’ll start settling my knots in between that flower and the orange one.

 

This is what the back looks like. You can see how I tied the stamens in for a few knots, then stopped including them.

 

By here I’ve stopped tying around the first flower, and kept adding more things.

 

To add a stamen, start by folding. I fold mine not-quite-half-way, so that the ends are artfully asymmetrical. Then place it through a loop as shown, making sure the fold point is aligned with the knot.

 

After that, make sure the knot ties around both strands of the stamen, for at least a few knots.

 

I typically tied the knot way over away from the flowers…

 

Then moved it to where I wanted it to be.

This is about where I cut my thread and started over the first time. I had gotten so much better at tying my knots where I wanted and placing my flowers that I knew I could make it all look nicer.

 

You might run out of thread at some point. To add more, start by cutting another piece.

 

Make the first knot with the new thread the same way you started way up at the beginning. Carry on tying as before, only now also tie around the end of the first strand, and the tail from adding a new strand. They’ll just disappear in with the rest of everything.

 

Keep going until you get to the end of the hoop.

 

Tie the beginning and end of the strand together in a small, unobtrusive square knot.

 

This is the front.

 

To make the other earring, I started on the other side of the loop, so they would be more symmetrical. I didn’t try to make them match, though, because I knew I couldn’t make them identical.

 

Sisters, not twins. Make any adjustments to how everything is arranged before moving on to the next step, (like bending the wire a bit so the flower points the right way.)

 

Carefully saturate the thread with fray check or apply a thin, complete coat of clear glue along the back of the hoop. Let it dry really well, overnight is ideal. Then start very carefully trimming the extra wire and thread. If any flowers or leaves are wiggling around, add more fray check or glue where their stems are to help lock them down.

 

It can help to bend the wires away from the hoop so you have a better angle to trim them. Trim the threads with scissors.

 

Attach the hoops to your ear hooks and you’re done!

Mulberry paper flowers can be found in a huge range of colors and flower species, so there are endless ways to make your floral hoop earrings match whatever style you want!