Monday 16 April 2012

Recycled cardboard earrings anyone?

Like recycling? In my 6 year daughter's words, 'I don't like it. I love it'. I find recycling and reusing paper quite satisfying. Some of my jewellery pieces are made of recycled cardboard or food packaging that is about to be thrown into the paper recycling box. And here's how.

Materials
Cutting board
Pencil 
Scissors or craft knife
Cardboard 
Hanji paper (or any mulberry paper of your choice but not too thick)
Glue (What I use is for Hanji craft but thinly watered down PVA glue might do the job) I'll talk about the glue in detail in a different post. 
Earring findings of your choice (a pair of eye pins and ear wires)


  1. Draw some shapes such as circles, hearts or stars on a piece of cardboard. You need 4 of the same shapes for a pair of earrings. 
  2. Cut them out. Glue 2 of them together with an eye pin in the middle firmly attached using hot glue gun or super glue. Do the same with the other 2. 
  3. Wrap them with the paper of your choice (Korean Hanji paper in my case) getting rid of all the air bubbles between Hanjii paper and the cardboard. Let them dry completely (ideally overnight).
  4. Once dry, varnish them to protect from water and to give the shiny look. Wood varnish, or any kind of craft varnish is fine. 
  5. Put the ear wires on and show off your new creation. 
Voila! Mine looks like this. 
Photographs by Paul Munson

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