Tutorial: Fringed Rope Earrings

Hi crafty friends!

Here's an easy tutorial for the earrings that I made last month.  Thanks for your encouragement Crafty Hope!  Stop by her blog for more crafty goodness!


I made these with rope from Hemptique:

I used the natural but it comes in a lot of different colors and combinations.

For the wire hoops, I used TierraCast Charm Keepers in the 32mm size.  You could also make your own hoops with some heavy wire.



The other materials are 24 gauge wire in Vintage Bronze and a pair of brass ear wires.

For this tutorial, I'm using hoops that I made myself from 16 gauge copper wire.  I hammered them after I made the hoop to give it some texture and harden the wire.

Cut 2 1/2" lengths of the rope.  Cut about 4" of the 24 gauge wire.  Fold the rope over the hoop and wrap the 24 gauge wire close to the fold.

Trim the wire and press the ends into the rope.  Unravel the rope completely.

Keep adding fringe until it is as full as you like.

Brush and fluff the fringe and trim any stray ends.

Pretty easy, right?  This also makes a fun pendant as well as earrings.  Have fun with it!

Unboxing new craft goodies

Hi crafty friends,

This Designer Crafts Connection blog hop we are sharing our favorite products, techniques and crafts.  Which one to choose?  I love so many crafty things.

I just got a new box of craft goodies from Plaid as a result of a fortuitous meeting in their booth at AFCI in January (Thank you, Julie and Shauna!).  So, I thought I'd show you their quite generous shipment.

Wow, right!  Plaid has been generous to designers ever since I've been in the industry - and they continue to be.  New brushes, several different brands of paint and plenty of Mod Podge!

But, the item that I was most excited about was a product from their Bucilla line.  I love yarn and thread, fiber and fabric.  It's where I started crafting - stamped embroidery, sewing and needlepoint.  Now, I can add weaving to the mix with the Weaving Loom.

I have strung the loom with the warp threads (vertical threads) with some Hemptique twine.  Then I took a length of yarn and started weaving.  I found a lot of blue shades in my stash.  I started with a yarn that has a lot of tails to give it some texture.  I did have to go back and pull the tails to the front.

I continued with a few different kinds of yarn ends - sari yarn, t-shirt yarn and novelty yarn.  Then, I finished it with some rya knots on the bottom.  I tied all the warp threads on the bottom and the top, and then overcast the top edge.

I decided to add a hanging bar.  I used a piece of grapevine for a rustic look.

I really enjoyed this project and learned so much (like leave more length to tie off the warp threads!).  I can't wait to try another weaving with different stitches besides the plain weave and some thick bulky yarns or strips of fabric.  And, there must be a way to add beads!  The only problem I had was reading the instructions - the print and the background were too close in color to be easily read.  And, although I used the wooden needle in the set to weave, I used a tapestry needle to weave in the ends because it was smaller and easier to use for that.

I found a nice weaving site to help a beginner like me:  The Weaving Loom  She has a lot of good tips.

Ready to see more fun projects?  See the Designer Crafts Connection blog.  We've got lots of ideas!