Earrings to Wind Chime

Sounds strange, doesn’t it?  Well, I found these ginormous earrings at an auction and I bought 7 pair of them for $2!  I wasn’t sure what I would do with them, but they are made from shells, so I knew I would do something with them! 

I love how they were different designs and how different the actual shells were in thickness and color on the backside.

I cannot imagine wearing these as earrings because they each weigh about half a ton! 

I got to thinking about the clanking of the shells/earrings would make a great wind chime.  So I toodled off to JoAnn Fabrics where I snagged two round bamboo circles for 97 cents…I was thinking of something metal, but I knew these were perfect (and cheap) when I first saw them.  I guess they are purse handles, but they were great for this project!

I had some flat clamshell beads in my jewelry making stash and strung one of them in front of each earring, partly for the look and partly for the sound they made!

I used a hit and miss arrangement method…I didn’t measure, that is just how I roll!  I drilled the holes to hang the string though in an imperfect manner (I used stretchy bead and jewelry cord in the 1mm size)…I didn’t measure.  And I didn’t measure length either, so they are also not perfect in length.

They do make a pretty sound when they clank together. 

I am going to do some thing at the top where the strings poke through the top of the holes in the circle, just not sure what to do.  I super glued the ends of the strings (just like I would if I was making a bracelet).  I think I might try to cute the knots off and see if the superglue would hold without the knots…I am also thinking that maybe I should have painted the circle black or maybe cream color.  Or a bright red?

I am linking up to these great parties…

Ellen