It’s been a while since I’ve done a jewelry DIY project, but this one combines fashion with something I’ve become increasingly into lately, plants. Judging by the other indoor jungles that I see on Instagram, I’m not the only one, so this one goes out to the other plant lades out there! Monstera’s iconic split leaves seemed like they would make good earrings, so I took a cue from my brass hand earrings, and used the same technique to make brass monstera leaf DIY earrings.

You know how people declare a “song of the summer?” I think these are going to be my earrings of the summer.

I decided to try these earrings on their real-life plant inspiration, my big, beautiful monstera deliciosa plant.

Be honest, who wore it better? I can take it.

Brass Monstera Leaf DIY Earrings

Materials

Brass wire – I used 14 gauge, but you could probably also use 16 gauge.
Scrap wood
Earring hooks
Small wire brads – Ones with small heads are best.
Masking tape
Printed template

Tools

Hammer
Round-nose pliers
Flat-nose jewelry pliers
Wirecutters
Scissors
Bench block
Jeweler’s mallet (optional)

Steps

1. Print out the leaf template, cut it out, and tape it to your piece of wood. Working from the center to the outside, hammer brads into the wood at the points where the outline bends, turns or curves. Hammer them in far enough that they won’t move when you push on them.


2. Starting with the middle leaf vein, bend the wire around the brads. Try to keep it as close to the outline as you can, but don’t stress about it, because you’ll be doing more shaping in the next step.

3. Once you have wire all around the template, gently pull it off. Don’t worry if it looks like a deformed leaf, like this:

Use your flat-nose pliers to shape it. Squeeze together the wire that makes up the leaf splits. Flatten the leaf edges with the pliers, and gradually shape the wire into a leaf. This might take a bit of finessing, because when you pull on one area it might deform another part, but you should be able to make a leaf. 

4. When you’ve gotten a leaf shape that you’re happy with, cut the wire, and wrap the cut end around the bottom of the leaf to secure it.
5. Repeat the above steps so that you have a second leaf. When you’re shaping the second one, try to match it to the first in size. Try not to worry too much about getting it perfect, though, because monstera leaves don’t match perfectly in nature!

6. To harden the leaves, and keep them from bending out of shape, place them on the bench block and hammer them all over. You could use a rubber mallet to keep the wire from flattening, or a ball-peen hammer for extra texture, but a regular hammer will give you just a bit of texture.

7. Use needle-nose pliers to loop the other end of the wire into a loop, then cut it.

8. Attach earring wires to the loops.