Recycled Earrings

I wanted to find a way to reuse a can and turn it into jewelry. I decided to do this because it was something I could use and might be interesting to others. I did lots of research and brainstormed. I found earrings were the easiest jewelry you could make with a can. After getting enough information and seeing others' ideas, I wanted to show you how to make your own.

-metal scissors

-tin cutters

-tin can

-hammer

-nail

-jewelry findings

-pliers

-metal filer

Grab your can and take off the bottom and top of the can with a can opener leaving you with the middle. Cut the can in half with a can cutter. Flatten out the can the best you can with a hammer on a wood surface.

Get your flattened can and cut out 4 metal strips. Cut out desired shapes with can cutters (2 big and 2 little).

To soften the sharp edges you can get a metal filer and file them down and you can flatten your rough edges by pounding your pieces with a hammer. (pound both sides of all 4 pieces).

Knowing where you want to place your holes grab your nail, hammer, and can pieces. Grab a nail and put it on your can piece and hammer the nail in enough for the nail to make a hole (repeat 3 more times). Make sure you do this on a wooden surface that can be damaged. The metal might be pushed out where the hole was placed to fix this you can flip each piece to the opposite side and hammer the nail into the same hole to make it smoother.

Place the smaller piece on the more significant piece and do the same to the other pieces. Make them look how you want (I bent mine with an object around my house). Attach jewelry findings. For each earring use, two jump rings and one fishhook earring. You can use pliers to open and close the jump rings. Now you are all done and you have a pair of earrings made out of a can.