Steam-punk Rose Earrings

First off, I feel the need to apologize for the excessively long hiatus. With everything going on these last several months, I haven't had the time to do much creating, much less blog about it. Life is starting to calm down again though, so I hope to be back to a regular posting scheduled.






 I bought these little lovely's at Hobby Lobby on my last trip. They are by Bead Treasures in their Fairy Tale collection. I believe the number is 771733 if you want to look it up online.
 
The first one I did took forever, partially because I over-glued, but once I got the hang of attaching the gears and other bits, I found them to be fairly simple. Just expect to have glue all over your crafting surface. My kitchen table has a couple of gears permanently attached to it now. 











What you need:

Two of the rose Charms,

 

earring studs, preferably ones with cups on the end.

 

  

assorted gears and other clock bits,

and two watch stem winders.

Attach the studs to the back of the roses first, make sure to not use too much glue, otherwise the studs won't stick well. I use Aleene's Jewelry and Metal glue. I haven't had any trouble with it not holding as of yet, and I've been wearing these for at least a month now.

Be sure to let the glue on the studs set before you move them at all, otherwise you run the risk of the flowers being crooked.

 Also, make sure you take the back of the earring off in case glue gets on

 the post and you glue your earring shut.

Once the glue is dried, attach the winder to one side of the rose by dripping a little glue on the back of the winder, then pressing it into the place you want it. This piece is a little heavy, so be sure that the glue is dried completely before starting on the other side.

 Make sure the earrings are mirror image to each other.

Arrange the gears between the petals of the rose before you put any glue on that side, make sure they fit where you want them to be.

 

 

Don't be shy about cutting some larger gears in half if you need to. They actually look better with at least one half gear.

Once you have the gears in place, take the glue and drip a little in on top of the gears and other clock pieces. Hold the rose by the post and make sure that the gears are all settled into the glue. 

Let the glue dry completely, your earrings should look something like this

If you want to hang anything off the earring, now is the time to do it. You can use the ring that is attached to the charm, or you can take it off and use your own jump ring.

Here are a couple of other ideas for the earrings.

These have watch hands hanging at the end of a brass chain.

 

These have freshwater pearls hanging right off the bottom. 

This is the first pair I I made. The glue works with the feathers, but not as well. They stick just fine, but if you look closely the ended up frayed a little when the glue spread.