For July I decided to challenge myself to create a trendy design for jewelry components. (This is the second of three summer challenges; see Painted Triangle Charms in June for the first blog post.)
The Trend of Leather Teardrop Earrings
Leather teardrop earrings are all over the handmade world. A quick search on Etsy brings up more than 39,000 results. Some observations from the first few pages of search results:
- Most appear to be simple teardrop shapes on ear wires -- no beads, charms, or other components. The majority use a single hole at the top for the ear wire.
- The earrings use mostly faux leather with patterns and textures, including animal prints, metallic/glitter, and florals.
- A few earrings appear to be made with cork, not leather.
- The earrings appear to be mainly on the larger side with 2.5 to 3-inch teardrops.
- Few earrings show cut-outs or hand touches like painting or embellishment; most are just solid teardrop shapes.
- A search for "leather teardrop necklace" (instead of earrings) brings up around 3,000 results.
Where Did This Trend Come From?
One of the reasons for this trend is undoubtedly the Cricut machine. I found DIY tutorials on how to make these teardrop shapes as early as spring 2017. (If you're looking for tutorials, I liked this one that has a PDF pattern you can use to cut out the leather shapes with a pair of scissors if you don't have a machine.) Faux leather is sold at big box craft stores and comes in a variety of colors and finishes. It's priced much lower than real leather and can be cut with the standard blade that comes with the machine. Several blogs also mentioned Joanna Gaines of the Fixer Upper TV show as the celebrity behind the trend.
So how does that information help me (or you, if you're interested in following a jewelry trend)?
In order to make my own version of leather teardrops, I'll want to make choices that help me stand out in this very crowded arena. Based on my research, my plan was to use real leather (not faux), do some cutting and engraving (rather than just plain shapes), and find a way to hand embellish the teardrops to add color. I also thought about making a necklace, not earrings, since there is significantly less competition in that area.
Of course, it's not necessary to make this many changes yourself! I chose these because they fit my own personal aesthetic. For example, I almost never make statement earrings, so naturally I'd want to make a smaller version of this style. I also knew I wanted to use real leather, not faux, because I'd be using a laser cutter and faux leather potentially could release some harmful gasses. (It could be fine, but I'd have to do a lot of research to determine how exactly the faux leather was made.)
Here's what the teardrops looked like initially:
- These teardrops are about 1.5 inches tall and cut from real leather. This size is smaller than most.
- They all have holes at the top for hanging either as earrings or necklace pendants. You'll notice that one has two holes instead of one. That allows you to create a slight fold in the leather for a curved drop shape. (See the Faux Leather Leaf Earrings tutorial on how that works.) One teardrop also has holes at the bottom for dangles.
- The dark spots are engraved. I wasn't sure at first how I was going to embellish the drops and engraving gave me the most flexibility. (I figured I could add holes later if needed.)
I started making a beaded teardrop using size 11 seed beads and WildFire. I could fit 2 (sometimes 3) beads in between each engraved dot. (Yes, there would be thread on the back, but since these were samples, not finished jewelry, I didn't worry about that. If I wanted to produce these, then I would explore backing used for bead embroidery or simply stitch two teardrops back-to-back for a reversible pendant.)
Leather is quite stiff for bead embroidery. If I were to make these again, I'd be tempted cut the holes (not engrave them) to make the stitching easier. On the other hand, I do think using a needle to poke a tiny hole in the engraved dots made the stitching more secure. (No chance that a bead would pop through the hole to the back.) I did like having the dots on the teardrop rather than just trying to stitch freehand. I felt like the end result was neater.
For the second teardrop, I used a dark brown leather dye and dots of paint to cover some of the engraved pattern in the middle. I added some bead dangles to the bottom. I ended up not using the third teardrop.
Last Thoughts
Ultimately, I didn't love either of these designs enough to create finished jewelry with them. That's okay. Sometimes the process (and your progress!) is more important than the final product. That was certainly the case for me this month. I did enjoy analyzing this trend and brainstorming ways I could make something that fit and was still true to my own style. I also learned quite a bit about working with leather and creating SVG files on the computer which will come in handy for future projects.
Have you followed the leather teardrop trend? Why or why not?