Seashell Dangle Earrings

I love going to the beach. The soothing waves, the warm sand, and of course the beautiful shells! I always collect a ton of seashells, and this time when I was going through my haul I thought to myself: Why not try making something cool out of these? So I dug around a bit and found a bunch of pretty Atlantic bubble shells. They're some of my favorites, and I thought they would look cute as earrings! So that's what I made, and I hope you enjoy and try making them yourselves!

The materials needed for this project aren't too crazy, so you'll be able to find them at your local craft store. (Aside from the shells. For those I recommend either going to a beach and searching for them yourself, or buying them online)

• Atlantic Bubble Shells
• Eye pins
• Earring hook (the dangle kind)

Tools

• Wire Cutters
• Pliers
• e6000 glue (or some other type of strong glue)
• A strong liquid glue or resin (optional, but recommended)

First thing you're going to want to do is make sure all of your materials are ready to go. Meaning you want to cut the eye pins and make sure there are holes in the shells.

Atlantic bubble shells are great for this project because the top part already has a perfect sized hole where the shell curls in on itself (Image 1). But usually, those holes don't go all the way through. So what you need to do is take one of your eye pins and very carefully poke it through the hole (Image 2). I cannot stress enough how careful and precise you need to be, because these shells are very delicate and break so easily. Make sure to poke holes in all of your shells.

Once you have the holes poked, you need to trim the eye pins down to size. It doesn't matter how short you make them, just make sure they are long enough to comfortably fit through the hole and still have some room on top. So once you've decided on a length use your wire cutters to cut them (Image 3). Make sure to cut the other eye pins the same size by lining the first one up with the others when you cut them (Image 4). You can save the scrap metal for future projects.

Now you need to glue to eye pins and the shells together. Do this by first dipping the end of the eye pin in the e6000 glue (Image 1). Then you place the pin in the top of the Atlantic Bubble shell (Image 2). Put them in deep enough so they will be stable and won't accidentally fall out. When putting in the pins, make sure the eye is facing you, or in line with the shell as seen in the image. This way when you attach the earring part and wear them, the full front of the shell will be visible.

Now that all your pins are glued into the shell, wait until they are fully dry.

This step is optional, but highly recommended. Since these shells are so fragile, you don't want them to accidentally break while you're wearing them. So to help with that you need to fill the shells with a strong material. This is where that liquid glue comes in. I'm using super glue, but any strong, easy to apply glue that dries clear will work. All you need to do is squirt the glue into the shell until its sufficiently filled. You don't want to add too much and have it drip out of the sides, but you also don't want to add too little and have it barely cover anything. Now all you have to do it wait for the glue to dry.

At last you can add the dangle earring parts! Now that your shells are fully dry, you can finish your earrings! Take the dangle part and use your pliers to bend the small hole bit open (Image 1-3). Next, you need to loop the earring bit through the eye pin on the shell (Image 4-5) This part is a bit tricky, because you need to make sure to loop it correctly so the shell faces out when you wear it. You can try them on to help determine that. Once you have the dangle positioned correctly, use the pliers to close the hole so they don't fall off (Image 6). Now it should be completely secure! (Image 7)

Pair your earrings with a cute outfit and go strut your stuff!! :)