Miniature Umbrella Earrings

To me, umbrellas were something that sounded "summery" to me, besides things likes ice cream, books, watermelon, and the beach because they reminded me of the summer rains. They also remind me of parasols I see princesses use for the sun in books and movies.

I have all the time in the summer break now to make all sorts of things, so I ended up returning to hobbies I didn't have as much time for (like falling into the abyss of a good book series), drawing, and origami.

I ended up trying origami and combining it with jewelry to make these earrings. A nice twist to these is that the umbrellas can actually be closed and opened up again like real umbrellas!

(I wonder if using waterproofing spray might actually make them waterproof? Or if not, what would? Let me know about that in the comments if you have any ideas!)

Conveniently there happened to be an Instructables contest for jewelry at the same time I was planning this, why not enter it in the Jewelry Challenge?

To make these mini umbrellas you'll need:

• 1mm thick silverish pink wire

• 2 purple diamond shaped beads (about 0.5 cm wide or so)

• Pliers

• Wire Cutter

• Scissors

• A sticky note

• Pencil

• Pink paper

• White paper

• Liquid glue/White glue

• Toothpick (it's a special tool that can help us later :P)

• Ruler

• Exacto knife

• Cutting mat

First, we make the "umbrella-y" part of one of the umbrellas.

Prep up a 4 x 4 cm square of both white and a pink paper.

Start with the pink paper with pink side facing the table. Fold it in half, open it up, then fold it in half the other way and open it up again.

Flip the paper over so pink is facing up, fold in half diagonally, open it up, then fold the paper in half diagonally in the other way and open it up again.

Flip the paper over white side up and simply turn the paper around so that it looks like a rhombus. Note the creases.

With the creases as guides, you'll need to make whats called the origami square base (this part might sound tricky so I labeled the picture for this part).

Note the crease that goes from the center of the paper to the right corner. Fold so that the crease lines up with the crease that goes from the center to the bottom corner of the paper.

Do the same thing to the crease that goes from the center of the paper to the left corner so both creases are aligned with the same crease.

Turn the flap on the right of the shape and keep it in the middle. Then, squash it down so the flap spreads out.

Repeat the turning of flaps over to the middle of the shape and squashing it down until you have squashed down all four flaps in total and the whole paper looks like an upside down ice cream cone shape.

Take the right flap of the paper and flatten it so the crease in the middle of the flap lines up with the line down the middle of the shape. Fold the left half of the flattened flap over to the right using the crease.

Do the same to the left side of the shape. It should look like the upside down ice cream cone shape from before with another mini upside down ice cream cone on top of it.

Do this whole step with the other four sides of the shape. Then, repeat the entire folding process so far with the white square piece of paper. These are for making one of the umbrellas.

Then, prepare another pink 4 x 4 cm square paper and another white one of the same size and repeat the whole process on those too. This is for the second umbrella.

We'll work with only one pair of the pink and white shapes first to make the first umbrella top.

Cut off a bit of the tip as well as the "ice cream" parts of both upside down ice cream cone shapes. You should be left with only the "cone parts" of the two shapes with a little of the tips missing.

Now bring out your cutting mats!

At the halfway point of the white cone shape, mark and cut two slits as shown.

Open up both the pink and the white shape and carefully spread out the folds (don't flatten the folds out). They're finally looking like umbrella tops.

With the inside of the white umbrella top facing you, fold out the edges of the shape along the small slits that were cut out earlier. Turn the shape over. It'll look a bit like a volcano with a wall around it.

Apply glue to the outer wall of the shape and using the legendary toothpick to help the glue spread out and get in between the folds (told you the toothpick was special). When done, fit the shape in the inside of the pink umbrella top. Line the folds in both shapes together.

Repeat this step with the second pair of the upside down ice cream cone parts.

Now for the handle.

Make an eyelet from the wire by bending a loop at the beginning and leaving a straight line about 4 cm at the end.

Prepare 4 x 2 cm white paper (I did about 4 x 3 in the picture but ended up having to cut it shorter later on). Using the legendary toothpick and its amazing abilities to get in tiny areas, spread some glue all over the paper. Lay the eyelet in at one end of the paper and tightly roll the white paper onto it.

Prep up a 0.4 x 3 cm strip of pink paper, spread the glue over this, and wrap it tightly onto the top of the eyelet. Spread glue under the pink roll, slide the umbrella top through the eyelet, and get it to adhere to the bottom of the pink roll.

Cut a 0.4 x 8 cm strip of pink paper. Since this roll will be the part that will have to slide up and down to adjust the opening and closing of the umbrella, we'll start the wrapping without glue around the lower section of the eyelet. After the beginning has been wrapped around a bit, apply some glue onto the pink roll and continue wrapping until there's nothing left to wrap.

Bend the end of the eyelet upwards to make the handle of the umbrella. Cut a 0.4 x 28 or so cm strip of pink paper, spread glue over it and wrap it around the handle area to decorate.

Repeat this step with the second umbrella and both umbrellas will be ready!

Draw out an earring shape like I did on a sticky note. I already have a sticky note from another earring project I did so I'm using that (that's why there are other drawings are on my sticky note). Always refer to the drawing to see if you're getting the size and shape right.

Start by threading in one of the beads into the wire and bend the end of the wire into a loop. Slide the bead down so it's resting on the loop.

Make a sharp bend to the left and use a pencil to bend the round part of the earrings. Straighten out the end, cut off the excess, and bend the tip a little upward.

To make the other earring, just repeat the step.

Next, if you don't have jumper rings already, make some using the wire. Keep curving it until the size and shape is right, then cut off the excess. We'll need 2 jumper rings.

Open one of the jumper rings and insert the loop from the umbrella and the loop from the earring before closing it up again. Do the same with the second jumper ring and the earrings are all set.

The miniature umbrella earrings are complete. A very nice choice for a summer day and for when you're feeling a bit fancy. I'm telling you, these are very unlikely to go unnoticed.

To close the umbrella, slide down the pink roll and gently squish down the umbrella top. To open it, just slide it upwards until it opens to however much you want it open.

I hope you felt inspired by this Instructables to make your own earrings. I'd really like to read about how they turned out. Any comment or vote would be very supportive and appreciated.

Now go my friends, unleash your inner princess, your inner cuteness, inner fancy...

Go forth!