Needle Earring

As the needle in your sewing machine becomes dull, you're supposed to replace it, and I try to do so after every project or two. So I’ve already thrown away used needles a few times. But a couple of weeks ago I was about to throw one away when I stopped and actually looked at it; it had a nice shape to it and I thought I could use it for something. The eye of the needle could be used to attach it to something and I realized that I could easily create an earring with it.

To connect the needle to a jump ring, I decided on using metal wire to thread through the eye of the needle; it’s a fairly small hole so I used a 32 gauge wire to fit through it. I cut a piece of wire about four inches in length and thread it through the eye of the needle. With the needle about two inches into the wire, I looped the wire around it to stabilize it and then created two loops that could be used to connect it to a jump ring. Then I wrapped each of the wire ends entirely around the needle and I pressed down the wire ends so they wouldn’t stick out. Finally, I connected the needle’s loop to a jump ring, and connected that to an earring hook and was finished.

I used more wire than truly necessary to secure the loop, but I was also trying to make sure that the sharp point of the needle was underneath the loops of wire. The earring is simple as-is, but I think it could be interesting to add some other elements to it (like beads or charms). But overall I think it’s a nice earring and a good reuse of something I would’ve otherwise thrown away.