Zip-tie tutorials, part one! Zippy, leafy earrings.

Hi again, fans of weird jewelry!  Here are some leafy little cuties:

Made from plastic zip-ties.

Today begins a small series of ideas for these things, starting with this simple-peasy earring tutorial.  Here goes.

Step one: make some zip-tie leaves.

Insert the skinny end into the locking hole and pull until you have a teardrop shape.  Trim the tail, and you have your basic leaf.  As you make a second leaf to match, pull the end slowly and keep measuring against the first leaf until they are the same.

Two notes: be sure you insert the end into the hole so the teeth grip and lock.  If you insert it backwards, it will just slip out.  Also, once you have completed your leaf, you could add a drop of glue into the lock, just to be sure it won't click past any more teeth and shrink smaller.  This is optional for these earrings, though; there's not much stress on the design, they are probably fine without glue.

To turn a leaf into an earring, use a jump ring and any earring finding.  Like this:

And there you go!  A basic leafy earring.

If you nest two sizes, you get this extra pretty, double-happiness version...

Or link two teardrops with a teeny tiny leaf, as in this yellow pair:

So find some zip-ties, make some leaves - then just play.  Whee!

Hope you liked these!  More zip-tie creations to come.