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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Show off.

Hey, everybody. Here's another view of Spain. Less picturesque scenery, more...roasting flesh.

It was Seville's annual Medieval Marketplace! Huzzah! Besides lots of charred meat, there was food and jewelery and art and dancing and lepers. And dragons.

In one of the jewelry booths, I saw these cute, efficient earring display thingies:


Besides being pretty, they're so practical, especially if you're the girl (guilty!) who has many, many, way too many earrings, and not enough space to display them.

Here's how I upcycled plastic bottles into a reasonable facsimile.

Cut off the bottom off a bottle. If you so desire, decorate the rest.

(I Sharpie-ed on a few black swirls, but anything goes. Decoupage with scrapbook paper. Paint polka-dots. Stencil, spray paint, whatever you can come up with.)

Cut a spiral from bottom to top.

When your spiral is cut, poke holes all along the bottom edge. (Sorry, forgot to take a photo.) If your bottle is flimsy, a hole punch might work. But my bottle was too tough, so I used two methods that worked equally well: hammer and nail, or if you have one, a leather punch.

Poke a hole in the cap (again, hammer and nail work great). Add a loop of cord.

Tie a weight to the hole at the very bottom. Something charming, of course.

Load with lots of earrings and show them off!

I only hung a few here, as an example for the photo. I put one earring in each hole... if it were full, 36 holes would be 18 pairs. Not too shabby. But if you noticed, the jewelry booth people actually hung one pair per hole. Whoa - I could display 36 pairs of earrings on one spiral? That's almost half of my...okay, I lie. That's not nearly half my ridiculous collection. But it's a lot.

Here's another one, made from a smaller, single-serving soda bottle:

I used the cut-off bottom, upside down, as both the weight and bonus display space.

Nifty, eh? Plus, I get to file it under my very favorite category...Pretty Much Free. Go ahead, make one for yourself & be a showoff. I have to go now - I think I need to make some more earrings.


16 comments:

  1. Not sure what I love more...the holder, or your EARRINGS!!!! You got some good taste girl! :)
    Thanks so much for linking up today! :)

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  2. Love the photos from Spain and how you made your very own upcycled earring display! Neat-o and it's something I can do too!

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  3. Go on, make some more earrings- and don't forget to post them all on here!
    I wish I had a reason to make this display, pure genius as always!

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  4. OMGosh, that is the neatest idea! Thanks for the info. on how to do this.

    I came here via HOH. Hope you can visit me sometimes over at Pittypat Paperie.

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  5. That's great! I love things that are decorative but serve a purpose.

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  6. Very cute and creative! Thanks for linking up at PonyTails&FishScales!!!

    terelauritsen.blogspot.com

    tere

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  7. Very creative. Thanks for linking up with Sugar & Spice.

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  8. I really admire the beauty and re-use-ability. The earrings are great too. Glad I have some of my own!:-)

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  9. Wow - you are so clever. Your plastic bottle hanger is great, and very cute. Those earrings that look like carved ivory - are they poly-clay? If so, NICE job.

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  10. this is definitely my way of displaying....love this idea soooo much...wonder if to place this display near the window...it make make pretty sound like a wind chimes... if it would...it sings " Mich the Brilliant Craft Queen of all....

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  11. Love your blog and how you upcycled plastic bottles and so I featured you in my roundup of plastic bottle crafts here. Feel free to check it out if you want and hope you like it! : )

    -Mel the Crafty Scientist

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  12. this would make a cool spiral windchime also....

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  13. Love the upcycled plastic bottle to a spiral display! I'm thinking of doing this for a craft show. Did you soften the cut edge of the plastic bottle in any way? Thanks.

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    1. Hi! No, I just cut it and let it spiral - since you aren't really touching the edges much, I doubt they would be a problem. Hope your display turns out great - thanks so much for the sweet comment!

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