How to make earrings using Air Dry Clay

Learn how to make these easy earrings using mini cookie cutters and air dry clay.

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Learn how to make your own custom earrings using air dry clay and a few mini cookie cutters.

Hello magical Crafters, today we are making earrings using clay. I saw these mini cookie cutters at the dollar store and I immediatly thought they would be the perfect tools to make some earrings. And what better way then to make some holiday theme earrings.

Supplies needed to make your own custom earrings are…

• Air Dry Clay
• Mini Cookie Cutters
• Paint to decorate the clay
• Paint brush
• Fine point Sharpie ( for detailing)
• Earring wires, loops, and hooks
• Pliers
• Mod Podge
• Foam (optional for drying earrings)

Since we are using Air Dry Clay, we will have to wait for the allowed time for the clay to dry before moving on to painting. If you’d like a faster version, you could use Polymer Clay instead, but you’ll need an oven to bake it.

Working the clay

Before we can start cutting our shapes out, we first need to warm up the clay.

Some clay can be hard at first, so start with a small amount and begin rolling and kneading it in your hands until it becomes more easily to move.

Once it’s ready, you can use a rolling pin or the palm of your hand to roll the clay out. You’ll want to have about a fourth inch thick.

Since we have Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, and St. PATTY’S day coming up, I decided to make a set of earrings for each. So I grab the heart, flower, and clover cookie Cutters and made two of each shape. If you don’t celebrate Mardi Gras like we do in the south, you could just make a flower with non Mardi Gras colors.

When you made your desired number of earrings out of the clay, we need to add our wire inside so it can attach the rest of the fixings later.

Starting at the bottom of each piece, gently insert each wire through the clay. Working slowly to move the wire all the way through to the top.

Repeat until all of them are done. When that’s finished, we need to allow the Clay to dry before we can move on to painting. Refer to your package instructions for the dry time. Mine said 24hrs.

Painting our clay earrings

When your earrings have dried and are no longer soft and movable, it’s time to paint.

You can use regular paint for these. The kind I used was Apple Barrel brand. Grab your colors you want and get to painting. Once they are all painted, you can stick them in a foam holder. ( I cut a foam ball in half to hold them.)

I also decide to give the hearts and clovers a little added off color to the middle.

You can take a hair dryer to speed up the drying process.

When the paint is dry, we are ready for the detailing part. This is optional.

For the heart earrings, I added an outline to the small heart. The clover has an outline of the off color with a second outline around that. There’s also three hearts in the middle. The flower has an outline of the purple, and lines for the petals along with an outline of the inner circle.

When you’re done adding the detail, we need to seal the earrings. I used Mod Podge matte to apply to the earrings. Make sure you apply a good amount, the mod Podge will dry clear.

When you’ve finished applying the Mod Podge to the earrings, place them back into the foam holder to dry. You’ll notice it also gives them a glossy look and gives creates a smooth texture over the earring.

Attaching our earring fixings.

You will need a set of pilers, two jump rings for each set, and two hooks for each set.

We first need to cut our wire from the clay earring and turn it into a loop. I did two different ways. The flower, I cut, bended, and wrapped the wire around the base. For the clover I simply cut the wire and bended it down into the clover. This was much easier then the flower.

When the wire is turned into a loop, take your jump ring, open it up slightly and loop it into the earring. Take your hook and add it to the ring. Close the ring back. Repeat for the other earrings.

Congrats crafter! You just made your very own earrings using air dry clay all by yourself. Wasn’t that easy?

We have hearts for Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras color themed flowers, and clovers for St. Patty’s Day.

If you’d like a version using Polymer Clay, let me know below in the comments.

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