I find myself increasingly annoyed when browsing pretty earrings. So so often they are made with nasty nickel containing posts and wires, which make my ears very sad indeed. I am like a nickel detector, even when things are plated in silver, still my earlobes weep.

This came to a head a few weeks ago when I bought some pretty flower earrings from a craft fair, assured by the stall holder that they were silver plated, and as such wouldn’t give me any problems, and that the reason for using silver plated posts was that solid sterling silver posts were simple too expensive these days…. Hmmph. Yet another pair of earrings I can only wear for a couple of hours, and then have days of itchiness.

Well, I bought some posts from Palmer Metals for the outrageously expensive sum of 36p and 65p each, some backs for 25p each, and then some Fimo, so I could have a play myself!

I used this tutorial from Diary of a Mad Crafter to make some roses out of Fimo modelling clay.

First some petals…

One rolled up to make the centre…

First petal added….

Then some more…..

Then of course I needed to make another matching rose, pinched in behind the petals to open them up……

Then I sliced off the bases with a craft knife.

Next I took a ball of green Fimo…

Worked one side into a point….

Flattened it out, then pressed a cenral line into the surface with a cocktail stick…

Then some further veining…

Then I made a further two, and added my rose to the top.

I further experimented with size and number of petals and leaves, and put them on a lined baking tray into an oven preheated to 110C for 15 minutes.

Once they were cool, I used my glue gun to attach the roses to the earring posts, and they were done!

I’m quite happy with the way they came out, not sure which size I prefer, I guess it would depend on whether you wanted a dramatic statement pair of earrings, or something more subtle!

P.s. yesterday was a hectic day! It was an old friend’s Hen do, we had a Grease themed dance lesson at Poletwisters Cardiff:

and then out for food, drinks, and dancing! I teamed my 60s style dress from this post with some MAC Ruby Woo and I was good to go!