This year clay jewelry has really been trendy, especially clay earrings! I was so tempted to buy a pair, but most shops that had them sold them for $20-$30. I just couldn’t justify that once I realized I could probably make my own for way cheaper. Turns out, I was right! I spent about $30 on all the supplies I needed. And I am able to make SO many different pairs of DIY clay earrings with the supplies I got, and customize them just the way I want.
Today I wanted to share what you will need if you want to make some, as well as some tips and tricks to make them successfully! I have only made these 3 pairs so far, but once I have more free time I am looking forward to trying new styles and colors too. It is so nice because once you have all the supplies, it is enough to make dozens of pairs. You just have to buy new colors of clay if you want to switch it up, but it is only $2-$4 at the craft store.
What you’ll need for DIY clay earrings:
- clay
- earring posts
- earring backs
- jump rings (I found 7 mm to be best)
- pliers
- super glue
- parchment paper (for creating on and baking!)
- cookie sheet
- knife, round objects, or anything else you want/need to make the shapes! As you can see, I literally turned a measuring spoon upside down to create one of my circle sizes! The lids to chapstick or body sprays also worked well!
The process is very glam as you can see… kidding. I spread out across basically our whole dining room table, put on a show, and it looked like a hot mess there for a bit. But it slowly came together!
Pro tips:
- Warm the clay up in your hands before trying to shape it
- If you are using white or a light color, handle it first. I made the mistake of using my bright pink first, and it stained my palms. I then had to really scrub it off before handling the white clay!
- Buy supplies at Michaels of Hobby Lobby during a sale! I got almost all my supplies from Michaels because they were doing 40% or 50% off it all! Craft stores frequently have sales or good coupons, so I would recommend checking in and waiting a few weeks until you can get a decent discount before buying everything!
- Watch them closely as you bake them. I used two different brands of clay, which maybe was a mistake because they were supposed to bake at slightly different temperatures and times. But I just set a timer for a minute or two under the recommended time (I believe 8 minutes) and then checked them literally every minute after that until they looked done. I heard if you aren’t careful the clay can burn easily, so I kept a close eye on them and it turned out well!
The rainbow shaped ones look like they would have been the most difficult, but actually I would say they were probably the easiest and most fun! You just roll out tiny “snakes” (can you tell I use play doh a lot at my internship 😉 ) into the same size and press them together and curve them. Then cut off the ends on each side so all the colors are even!
I also ended up using a nail file to file around the edges of my hot pink pair after they were finished to round off the edges a bit more since they had a few “sharp” looking parts.
I love how this first batch turned out and I am excited to dive deeper into this new hobby and try new designs and colors. It is also oddly therapeutic to spend an hour or two crafting these! And of course it is so fun to be able to reply to any compliment I get on them with “thanks I made them!”
Have you made DIY clay earrings before? Is it something you would try in the future? Let me know in the comments! And if you want to see more DIY content from the archives, click here!
xo, Scarlett