The Eclectic Otter: Easy Geek Earrings

This weekend was scheduled to be pretty busy so I needed a quick and easy project.
Around two years ago I had a really interesting library book about making jewelry using shrink plastic. (Shrink! Shrank! Shrunk! Make Stylish Shrink Plastic Jewelry) I happened to have some stashed in the craft cabinet that I bought when at a going out of business sale for a scrapbook store in the area. I decided that I could probably make a couple pairs of earrings during spare moments this weekend.

The first thing I did was was look for designs. Way back, when I first had the idea, I wanted to make a pair using Rainbow Dash's cutie mark from My Little Pony. I also found templates to make a pairs using the Tri-force, a Star Wars Rebel emblem, and the Wonder Woman symbol.

One of the tips in the book is that not all Shrink Plastic has the same rate of shrinkage so its helpful to make a guide with a piece for each brand you use. You just use a pen and ruler to mark 1 inch and half inch increments on the plastic, then after you shrink it you can use it to size future projects. For the earrings I made I knew I wanted them to be about 1 inch square when they were done so I put the plastic ruler next to a regular one and 1 inch on the regular ruler lines up with about 2.5 inches on the shrink ruler.

Ruler Before

Ruler After

So I used Photoshop to print my templates out a approximately 2.5 inches square and used Sharpie Ultra-fine point markers to trace and color the designs. I ran into a little trouble with the Wonder Woman design because I started to smear it with my hand so you may want to keep a scrap of paper between your hand and the design. You need to punch the holes before you shrink the design because it will be too thick afterwards. Also keep in mind that the hole will shrink as well so be sure to make it large enough.

The first set that I tried to shrink ended up curling in one itself.

Luckily I have a heat gun so I was able to use that to help flatten them back out. I also did a little research to see what I could do to prevent this. One possibility is that I didn't leave them in the oven long enough. According to several sites I looked at shrink plastic will curl up as it shrinks and then flatten back out at the end. Other suggestions were to put a sheet of parchment paper or a fork on the design while it baked to keep it from curling and sticking to itself.

I actually used the heat gun for all the rest of my pieces so I could keep a better eye on what was happening. It worked pretty well except that the air from the heat gun pushed the pieces around so I ended up using a fork to hold them in place. You can see on one of the Rebel emblems where the tines left a little divot, but I'm still pleased with the overall results, especially for a first try.

To assemble the earrings you will need a few jump rings, a pair of earring wires, and some jewelry pliers. I also added a few beads to dress them up a bit. If you do this you will also need a couple of eye pins (the type with a loop on the end) and, obviously, beads.

I want to take a minute and say a big Thank You to my Mom who had everything I needed except for the shrink plastic and was willing to let me use it all.

If you are adding beads, decide what order you want them to be in and place them on the eye pin starting with the one you want on the bottom. Trim any excess of the top leaving just enough to make a small loop. Add the earring wire and use the pliers to twist the loop closed.

Then to finish it all off use a jump ring to attach the shrink plastic shape to the bottom loop of the pin.

As an additional step you may want to seal the design. Check out this post from Dabbled.org for ideas about what sealer to use. I used a coat of clear nail polish on the backs of mine because its what I had on hand. I've also read that you can use a white or colored polish to help enhance the colors of your design.