Korker Earrings

Today I was lamenting my current slump in making earrings. I've been trying several ideas to try and introduce a new, creative, and fun style to my repertoire, but only one has worked and I'm on the fence about how much I like how they came out (the Double Loop Seed Bead Earrings, pictured right). I tried my hand at chainmail earrings over the past week, but I couldn't produce any that I was proud of.

While sitting around in lament, I eyeballed the two shoeboxes almost stuffed with korker ribbons. I love to make them--not only is it funny when the kids run around yelling that mom is "cooking ribbon in the oven!", but they look fantastic and make really fun hair bows. The bows take a good bit of work (it's one of the rare occasions where I actually sew) and are great for a rainy day project. While looking at the boxes I had a thought.. what if.. no... could I? Combining two of my current crafting loves--making earrings and working with ribbon--seemed so logical that my mind was blown.

I grabbed my shoeboxes and ran off to the crafting room, where the korker earring was born. The first pair (yellow with white dots, pictured below) came out a bit rough, but by the second pair I had a better grip on what I was doing. I can see so many combinations possible with these! Not only do they look fun and are lightweight on their own, they can be paired up with beads, charms, chainmail, bottlecaps, and much more to create customized touches.

My fun summer project is here!