Sep 12, 2009 | DIY
Tom Binns is one haute designer who’s been refashioning the way we look at “precious jewelry.” Pieces from his safety pin collection from last year popped up in just about every fashion mag on the planet – and there’s been some cool DIY tutorials for his safety pin necklace (bracelet, in the case of this tute) but earrings there have not been. In fact, the Tom Binns earrings from this collection were notoriously difficult to buy anywhere…leading me to DIY my own. (Well, I would have DIY’d them anyway, since I’m such a cheapskate and like to put my own stamp on things…)
Here’s how (for my version):
You need:
-med-size or small-sized safety pins (I used black)
-pearls (faux, of course!)
-silvertone eyepins
-8″ rhinestone chain (med size rhinestones) (you can scavenge this from a piece of jewelry you already have, or something found at a thrift store, Forever21, or even by the yard from Joann Fabrics)
-8″ rhinestone chain (small size rhinestones)
-oversized rhinestone post earrings with drops below them (scavenged from an ugly pair of F21 earrings)…I know, the original earrings use french hooks, but I wanted a more glitzy, drippy effect to mine
-silvertone jumprings
1. Remove the dangly earring part from your rhinestone earring posts, since we’ll only be using the top.
2. Cut each of your rhinestone chains in half.
3. Pair up one med rhinestone chain length and one small. Thread halfway through a silver jumpring, and attach the jumpring to the earring post drop loop. Each chain will sort of dribble on either side of the jumpring as your earring dangles.
4. Using pliers, thread an eyepin through a pearl, cut, bend and loop around the end so the pearl is suspended between two loops. Repeat for each pearl.
5. Using small jumprings, connect the pearl eyepin loops you just made, creating a teardrop shape.
6. Attach teardrop of pearls to main jumpring from Step #3.
7. Randomly pin safety pins throughout the cascade of pearls and rhinestone chain, making sure that the pins will prevent the rhinestone chains from slithering up through the large main jumpring and falling out of your earring.
As you can see, my earrings a bit heavy, so I’ll probably switch out the backs to the comfort acrylic backs that have a larger pad to prevent the whole thing ripping from my earlobe because of the huge weight of them. I also haven’t snipped off the ends of the rhinestone chain where the connector loops were – I’m that lazy!
I feel like a punky Russian princess! Thank you Mr. Binns for such great inspiration!
Happy DIY’ing!
xoxox
Carly
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Sep 7, 2009 | DIY
So I fell in love with the image above from the J. Crew August 2009 catalog. I already wrote that, I know.
And I wanted those necklaces. But $98 apiece (the model’s wearing two necklace, BTW) for glass rhinestones??? Swarovski I can understand. But that’s more expensive than quartz gemstone would be, honestly. Buy these from FireMountainGems.com for $4.27 and string ’em yasself and have a gemstone necklace.
But I digress. I wanted rhinestone, I wanted similar styles – and so I headed to my old standby for cheap jewelry finds that I can rip apart: Forever21. (I know, some poor Chinese laborer likely working long hours crafted these pieces, by hand, in a factory somewhere in mainland Chaina [according to the label]. I’m very sorry, unknown Chinese craftsperson, to be destroying your handiwork. I wish there was a place here in the U.S. that wholesaled components like these, I truly do. But until there is, I will have to rip apart the work you slaved over. 🙁 ) Anyway, apologies to the Chinese factoryperson aside, I bought these styles:
You can buy the necklaces here but the bracelet is no longer available online. You basically need a stretch bracelet with large rhinestones on it to do the trick.
The two necklaces were simple; here’s the how-to:
DOUBLE RHINESTONE NECKLACE WITH RIBBON
1. Open up the jumprings on either end (before the clasp and large ring on the end), pull off the clasp and ring, and reattach both jumprings onto larger 12 mm silvertone jumprings . (Both necklace ends share the same ring.)
2. Then tie some black grosgrain ribbon (should have been 3/8″, but I could only find 1/4″ at the store urrr) around the large rings.
3. Tuck the ends of your ties into the knots themselves to conceal them. Secure with some fabric glue, and voila! Your own version of the J. Crew Tiered Crystal Libretto Necklace, for about $11.60 for the two necklaces + $1.99 for the ribbon. (on the left, below)
LARGE RHINESTONE CHAIN NECKLACE
1. Cut the large rhinestones off the bracelet by cutting through the stretchy elestic and pulling them off. (Oversized jewels used in stretch bracelets usually have two holes on each side of the jewel to allow two rows of stretch elastic through.)
2. Thread a goldtone eye pin through the rhinestone holes side-to-side [through the top set of holes on each rhinestone only].
3. Cut off the eyepin to the correct length, bend and curl the length to create a loop (for each rhinestone eyepin).
4. Add goldtone jumprings to each loop, and link the rhinestones together.
5. Add some goldtone chain and a necklace clasp set to the ends (I had decided to make my necklace more like J. Crew’s Majesty Stone Necklace ($115) than the Crystal Symphony Necklace simply because the F21 bracelet rhinestones were pretty big – but of course you can attach the black grosgrain ribbon instead of a gold chain to be more like the J. Crew version.)
Anyway, the bracelet from F21 was I think $3.80, and I already had all the findings, so I felt pretty satisfied with the job. I love wearing both necklaces layered, like in the catalog, but they are each pretty on their own.
Happy DIY’ing! Hope all of you are having a fabulous Labor Day!
xoxox
Carly
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