Barrel Knot Leather Earrings With Pearls

A quick, easy and affordable way to make a striking pair of dangle earrings! We are by no means claiming this design as our own – I have seen versions of these knotted leather earrings everywhere lately... which must mean this style is super popular right now! Plus, they can be made from almost any mixed beads you may have lying around… time to use up some of those odds and ends! We love the versatility of this design; we've used freshwater pearls and crystals, but the possibilities are endless.

Allow about 30 minutes to make these cute earrings. Perhaps slightly longer if you're still learning to perfect the loops on headpins, or if you want to make more dangles than we have.

Beads and Materials You’ll Need:

• about 50cm of 2mm or 2.5mm leather or cord (we’ve used 2mm brown leather)
• Earhooks (we’ve used bronze earhooks)
• Approx. 30x Mixed Beads (we’ve used small lilac nugget freshwater pearls, a lilac coin pearl, and mixed mauve crystals).
• Approx. 30x Headpins (we’ve used bronze headpins)
• Approx. 30x 4mm Daisy Spacers

Tools You’ll Need:

• Flat Nose Pliers
• Scissors
• Round Nose Pliers
• Flush Cutters

Each earring takes about 20cm of leather, but I find it easier to start with more than that and cut it down later. You may have a little more waste, but the earrings will be a lot easier to work with! Fold the leather over, to form the loop at the top.

Then, make another fold at the bottom to form the large loop of the earring.

Take the tail of the larger loop, and wrap it entirely around the small loop. You will then start to wrap down this smaller loop.

Continue to wrap downwards.

Continue to wrap downwards, and make three wraps around the smaller loop.

Now this step is a little tricky. And tricky to photograph, too! Take the longer tail that you have been wrapping, and pass it up through the center of the wraps you have just completed.

Then, pull this loner tail quite tight to form the knot. But!… don’t pull in too hard, as you will want to adjust your loop to the perfect size before you finalise the knot by pulling it as tight as you can.

You can pull on the shorter tail to adjust the loop sizing. Once you have got the sizing perfect, pull on the longer tail from before as tight as you can! This will form the knot.

Now simply cut off the tails with your flush cutters. It’s definitely a good idea to use some beading glue to secure this knot in place.

This is how your finished loop should look now.

Now it’s time to make your dangles! We’ve made about 15 for each earring. Standard procedure for these: just take your headpin, slide on the bead and a daisy spacer, cut the pin with your cutters leaving about 1cm and then form a loop using round nose pliers.

Now simply put the earrings together! Open the loops on your dangles and attach them to the leather loop. Then, attach a earhook to the top loop. And you’re done!