Do you smash your aluminum beer or soda cans before taking them somewhere to be recycled? Stop doing that! Stop smashing them, yes, and stop taking them to a recycling place. Why would you throw away all those beautiful earrings? Wait; are we talking aluminum cans or are we talking jewelry? Actually, they’re one and the same. It’s easy to make a huge assortment of beautiful earrings when you recycle beer or soda cans.
Turn a can on one side and pierce it with a sharp knife or scissors, right near the top. Cut around the top with scissors and remove it. Do the same thing to the opposite end to remove the bottom of the can. Then, cut up one side of the remaining cylinder to open it.
Working with a cylinder shape isn’t as easy as it would be if the can was flat. To straighten it, fold a towel and lay the inside of the can against the towel. Begin to iron the top of the can with a hot iron and, as you do, lift one end of the towel, repeatedly. Turn the aluminum 180 degrees and, as you iron, lift the end of the towel again, several times.
Once the aluminum is flat it’s really easy to cut. Use stencils to draw shapes – a marker works well to write on the can; a fine-tip pen works to make impressions – on the aluminum. Or, draw simplistic shapes, freehand, like circles, triangles, or stars. Cut the shapes out, using scissors, and wearing gloves.
When you lay each shape on a hard surface, like a piece of wood, it’s easy to hammer a small nail into the top of each piece. After that, it’s just a matter of hanging the shapes on wire earring hardware. You can find the wires at a craft store that has a jewelry-making aisle.
Open a single chain link and hook it onto the finished aluminum shape. Then, hook it onto the earring hardware, and clamp it shut. Do the same to make an identical earring, and to finish the pair.
There are many variations you can do with the beer or soda can earrings. For example, you can make three stars – each a different size – and hang all three together on the earring. Or, you can dangle shapes off of each other, by making a second hole in each one, and connecting them with links.
Aluminum can earrings are shiny, colorful, lightweight, and easy to make. Wear them as they are or use craft items, like colored tape, glitter, paint markers, or rhinestones, to further embellish them. You’ll love making them so much that you’ll end up with a set of earrings to go with each outfit you own – and then some.