Easy DIY Dreamcatcher Earrings

These easy, do-it-yourself dreamcatcher earrings turn out beautiful, and they're super fun and enjoyable to make! I originally made these as part of a Instructables jewelry competition, but this is a great project to do with friends, family, kids, teenagers, just on your own - fun for all ages! This project is also easily customizable to your tastes and styles.

Project Overview

These earrings are made by using a common friendship bracelet stitch (Candy Stripe) and then some knotting to create the stitching and strings you see hanging from the metal rings serving as the hoop part of the dreamcatcher. This is all attached to the earring hook.

1. Friendship bracelet string
2. You need several colors of friendship bracelet string, cut into lengths about as long as your arm. I like to do about 6 different strings, however you can do as many as you like. If you have a larger ring, you should probably do more strings to make everything look proportional and balanced, however this is up to you.
3. Ring
4. This ring is the hoop part of the dreamcatcher, and can be made of any material you'd want (wood, metal, plastic, etc.), however I used a metal one. This can be whatever size you like, but it is important that the ring is thin enough that it can fit in to the earring hook attachment.
5. Jewelry pliers
6. You will need two pairs of jewelry pliers, one to clamp down on the earring hook attachment and one to pry the hook attachment open and then closed.
7. Scotch tape
8. This is pretty simple. It's just a regular roll of tape. It's going to be used to tape down the ends of your friendship bracelet string as you stitch.
9. Earring hooks
10. You need two earring hooks per every pair of earrings that you make. These can be made of any material that works for your ears, but surgical steel and sterling silver are good options and tend to be safer for people whose ears react to certain metals.

All of these supplies can be found on Amazon, or at a local craft store.

Cut the friendship bracelet strings in half. It's okay if it isn't exact! You don't need that much string for each earring, and you will likely have extra, so even if you think it's too short, it's almost always going to be more than enough. Make sure that you sort through and have a group of all the strings for one earring, and all the strings for another earring.

First, make sure all your strings for one earring are laid out neatly next to each other, with all strings starting and ending at about the same point. Then, place them on the edge of a countertop, nightstand, desk, or any other place where they can hang off the edge of something and stay there for some time. Put a piece of tape a couple inches or so down from the top - you will need this extra space. Important: Do not tie a knot. You need these strings, and they will fray and separate if you have to try to undo a knot. Lastly, place a heavy object on the end of the strings, to help hold it down.

Next, you're going to do a Candy Stripe stitch, making sure that every string has one row across (or more, if you'd like), like in the pictures. If you already know how to do this, great! You can skip reading the rest of this step, and I'll see you in step 4.

If not: That's okay! This is definitely one of the most simple bracelet stitches.

How to do the stitch

This might feel complicated, but it's a lot more simpler than it seems! Once you get going, it's going to make sense.

1. You want to select the first two strings in you lineup. The first one is going to tie a knot around the second, just as I've shown in the first picture.
2. The first string should go down, parallel to the second.
3. Then, the first string should go right, crossing over the second string.
4. After that, the first string (the blue one in the first picture) goes through the whole that you've created.
5. Lastly, all you have to do is pull tight. Make sure that the knot goes at the top, right on the edge of the tape.
6. If the knot doesn't land in the right place, that's okay! You can you a safety pin, a needle, or anything long, thin, and strong enough to pull the knot loose.
7. After that first knot, you continue using the first string to tie knots in the same spot on every string, all the way down the line.
8. Finally, you do this with every string, until each string has one row of knots (or more, if you prefer).
9. Make sure to really pull everything tight! It's okay if the knotting slides up on the string a little - that's why you need to leave so much extra!

As you can see, the back of where you've done the knotting looks a lot nicer. This is the "good" side, the side that you want facing the front of the earrings.

You make the dangling strings by tying a bunch of knots with just the one string. You do it with a very similar method as I described above, and as is shown in the picture.

Again, you tie the knot very close to the top, and make sure to really pull it tight. Repeat this until the section of string with the dangling knots is roughly an inch long. Every knot should be fairly close together - about as close together as you can get while still having space in between.

Repeat this for every string, and cut off the excess string.

Now, your first earring is almost done!

Repeat steps 2-4 for the second set of strings/earring.

In this step, you want to attach whatever king of ring you have (I used a metal one) to each earring. Just split the strings in half, tie a double knot, cut off excess string, and repeat for the second earring. If you'd like, you can dab on some super glue to make sure the knot holds.

You're almost there!

It's time to open the earring hook attachment. If you've never done this before, this can seem complicated, but it's not. Let's break it down:

1. The earring hook attachment is that small circle on the bottom of the earring hook. This is what attaches the earring hook to the dangling part.
2. With your non-dominant hand, use one pair of pliers to clamp down on the hook attachment. This is just going to hold it steady while you open it.
3. With your dominant hand, use the other pair of pliers to clamp down on the other side of the attachment.
4. Make sure you're holding the first pair steady! You need to use the second pair to pull the attachment open.
5. It shouldn't need to be open very far, but it may need to take you a few tries, and may get a little bent out of shape. That's okay!
6. Repeat for the other hook

Finally, you need to insert the ring into the hook attachment. Then, use the same method used to open it to close the attachment.

Repeat for the other hook.

You did it! And your earrings look fantastic - time to try on your brand new gorgeous earrings that you made yourself!