Braided Earings (Jhumkas)

Braided earrings are rage now a days! These are commonly known as Jhumkas in India. Traditionally made out of precious metals, now-a-days they are commonly available to match the modern fashion.

Ever thought how to make those fancy, braided silk earrings?

Here we show you how to make them.

Tools:

• Nose pliers
• Wire cutters
• Paper knife
• Scissors
• C-clamp
• White PVA glue (not shown in the photos)
• Cutting mat. A3 size.

• Jhumka base. Available here
• Eye pins. Available here
• Earring hooks. Available here
• Jump rings, 22 gauge, 4mm. Available here
• Metal flowers spacers 8 mm. Available here
• Metal spacer beads 8 mm. Available here
• Stone chain. Available here
• Silk threads. Available here

To make the braid you need to choose 3 colors of silk threads.

Begin by pressing one end of each thread on the center of the cutting mat.

Then wind each thread 12 times along the short length of the cutting board.

Once you are done, stick the ends of the threads with other threads.

Once you have wound all the three coloured threads, separate them by cutting them at the center.

To prevent the loose ends of threads from running away, hold them between fingers as shown in the photo, and then cut using scissors.

Apply some PVA glue to one end of the threads, and let the bunch dry.

Fix the C-clamp on the table, and secure the pasted end of the threads under it.

Now start braiding the threads of 3 colors together.

Start braiding the three color threads bunches. If you dont know how to braid, Becky has covered it nicely in this 'ible

Once the braid is complete, remove it from the c-clamp and glue the loose end.

Trim any extra lengths of loose threads from the braid.

Apply a small amount of PVA glue to the Jhumka base and start winding the braid around it.

Its easy if you apply about 2 cm line of glue, paste the braid, then repeat. This way, you will have a good control on winding and the glue also wont dry out till you reach the top.

Progress with the winding, and stop when you are about one winding short.

Leave a small clear area around the hold in the base.

Repeat this procedure for both the bases and let the dry.

It takes about half an hour to set, and another one hour to dry completely placed in sunlight.

On the small clear area you had left in the previous step, apply some PVA glue, and paste the metallic bead spacer on it.

It takes about couple of hours to dry completely, so be patient :)

Once the assembly is dry, pick up the eye pin, insert it through the hole in metallic bead.

On the other side (the side which does NOT have the eye) insert the 6 mm plastic bead.

This bead is for locking, normally deep inside the jhumka, and stays hidden from the sight.

Leave about ½ inch wire inside the jhumka, and trim the rest of the length using wire cutters.

Carefully hold this left out ½ inch piece and bend it away by 180 degrees using nose pliers to form a small loop.

This loop will keep the small bead in place, and prevent the eye pin from coming out!

Give a light pull to the loop on the top to make sure that the eye pin does not come out :)

If it does, insert a new eye pin and follow the procedure told above.

Apply small quantity, a line of about ½ inch, near the base of the braid winding.

Paste the stone chain onto it, a small portion at a time.

Repeat. ½ inch glue, then ½ inch chain, till you are done!

Once you have covered the complete circle of the stone chain, trim away the extra chain using wire cutters.

Let it dry.

Apply some PVA glue right below the metal bead spacer, and stick the stone chain.

Follow the same procedure as described in the earlier steps.

Once stuck, the jhumkas will look like shown in the photo.

Split the hoop open with the nose pliers.

insert the earring hook and the loop of the eye pin in this open hoop.

You will get a nice eye pin to hoop to earring hook connection.

Once you are done inserting the two parts in the open hoop, use nose pliers to close it.

Its really simple. Press the two ends of the hoop ring till they are right in front of each other. then close any gap thats left, so that the ends meet each other :)

You are done!

Admire your handiwork and wear it with any outfit you like :)

You can use the same technique to make lots of different combinations

The one shown in the photo uses red, green and yellow threads. There is a red wooden bead at the top, and a ball chain is used to decorate :)

You can also play around with smaller jhumka bases, different colors, add golden threads for richer effect or go for different decorations. Sky is the limit :)