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Dainty little Japanese-inspired earrings.
These were earrings that I made a while ago and just got around to posting here. They were inspired by the beautiful crane images seen on old Japanese fabrics and kimonos (last 2 images), and because I know that large amounts of sewing are not my strong point, I envisioned them as earrings instead :)

Posted by Scarlet from Stafford, Virginia, United States • Published 19th August 2010 • See Scarlet's 46 projects »

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LadyKabuki favorited Origami Crane Earrings 13 Nov 17:29
Charlotte H. favorited Origami Crane Earrings 29 Jun 11:25
Abnormal Abby added Origami Crane Earrings to Jewellry 11 Jun 00:53
Kathleen E. favorited Origami Crane Earrings 28 May 00:08
WaterAngel added Origami Crane Earrings to Jewelry 01 May 04:51
piefacetoldmeso added Origami Crane Earrings to dance camp 15 Apr 22:49
Risa.Hanae (JapZilla) favorited Origami Crane Earrings 21 Nov 16:25
Syb' favorited Origami Crane Earrings 10 Nov 13:06
ch0c0bn24 c. favorited Origami Crane Earrings 22 Jun 10:55
Scarlet entered their project Origami Crane Earrings to The Ultimate DIY Competition 27 Aug 03:01

Step 1
Prepare your paper. You can go ahead and use origami paper if you like, but it's a bit too pricy for me to use regularly so I just colored strips of white computer paper with watercolor markers and paints. Just pick 2 or 3 colors for a palette and draw some fluid lines and swirls.

If you use watercolor paints, you will obviously have to wait for your paper to dry completely before moving on to folding.
Step 2
Next you will have to fold an origami crane. For the sake of space and typing, I'll leave that out of this tutorial. However, if you would like folding instructions, they can be found on my blog post here:

http://scarletkitsune.blogspot.com/2010/06/origami-crane-tutorial.html
Step 3
In order to waterproof and stabilize your earrings, you'll want to coat them in nail varnish.

I used one coat of clear, then one coat of the shimmery color shown in the photo, and then one more coat of clear on top.
Step 4
Next you'll have to wire your cranes so you can hang them on your earwires. Just cut a piece of pliable wire about 1.5 times the height of your crane. Poke it through the paper at the top of the triangular shape in the center, and then use jewelry pliers to make a small loop at the top and bottom of the wire.
Step 5
You'll then want to prepare your beads. I used two clear glass beads colored with silver nail polish (much cheaper to buy clear beads in bulk than pick and choose colored ones).
String wire through each bead and make a loop at the top and fold over the bottom so the bead can not fall off.

I then made a swirly shape with another piece of wire to attach the bead to the crane with. I opted for the open swirl at the top so that you can make multiple colors and styles of dangling beads and interchange them on your earrings :)
Step 6
After that, you're pretty much done. Attach the beads to the cranes and the cranes to earwires and they're ready to wear!