Becky Striepe
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:
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!
