Jewelry Findings: Make an Earring Backing from a Wine Cork

Jewelry Findings: Earring Backing from a Wine Cork

Lost an earring backing? Here’s how you can replace these sneaky jewelry findings in just a few minutes!

You guys, I shopped so much at the Indie Craft Experience a couple of weeks ago. The very first thing that I bought was a pair of stud earrings featuring the artist’s own photography. They are freaking gorgeous, and I love them! So you can imagine how bummed I was when one of them fell out of my ear the very next day. I’d been toting my son in the baby carrier, and I think it must have gotten caught on the strap. I found the earring but the backing seems to be lost forever.

I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t keep jewelry findings around my house. And I couldn’t find anywhere that sold single earring backings. Shops that sell jewelry findings are catering to jewelry makers, which makes perfect sense. But I didn’t have any use for 100 blank studs with backs.

Instead of buying a bunch of jewelry findings that I didn’t need, I decided to figure out how to make a new backing out of something in my house. The solution? A plastic cork!

Related Reading: What to do with all of those wine corks!

Plastic wine corks have a similar feel to those rubber backings that you sometimes see on French hook earrings, so I thought my plastic cork would be perfect for making my own backing.

Honestly, this was such a simple process that I feel a little bit silly writing a formal tutorial for it. Instead, how about a little visual tute?

To replace a lost earring backing you need:

  • 1 plastic wine cork
  • serrated knife
  • the skinniest straight pin you can find

Here’s how you make it:

Jewelry Findings: Wine Cork Earring Backing Tutorial

Boom! Have you had to come up with any unconventional ways to replace or repair jewelry findings with unusual materials? I kind of love hearing about interesting repair techniques so I hope that you will share yours in the comments!

Written by Becky Striepe

My name is Becky Striepe (rhymes with “sleepy”), and I am a crafts and food writer from Atlanta, Georgia with a passion for making our planet a healthier, happier, and more compassionate place to live. My mission is to make vegan food and crafts accessible to everyone!. If you like my work, you can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, and .

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