Cardigan Clip

When I’d visit my grandmother, I usually got to stay in the attic bedroom. One entered the mostly unfinished attic by climbing the noisiest staircase in the world. The stairs exited into a storage room, lined with narrow shelves filled with memorabilia. A rickety wooden railing kept one from falling into the stairwell, but it still gave me vertigo to step onto the plywood plank that bridged the gap in order to investigate the oddities stored in the furthest corner. I practiced typing on an oldfashioned typewriter and giggled at old photos of my mother and her sisters. They rollerskated in costume and sported cat-eye glasses. In school portraits, I noted the pretty chains that kept their unbuttoned cardigans on their shoulders and dismissed them as hopelessly old-fashioned.

Years later, I developed an appreciation for granny-chic items, like those cat-eyed glasses, and saw how a cardigan clip could be incorporated into my wardrobe. However, they no longer seem to be widely available. I had to make my own.

Tools and Materials:
1. Chain nose pliers
2. Wire cutter (not pictured)
3. Beading wire
4. Decorative beads
5. Two crimp beads (not pictured)
6. Two clip on earrings (the tighter, the better)

Thread the wire with a crimp bead, the decorative beads, and then one more crimp bead.

Loop the wire around the first earring and insert free end into the crimp bead. Crimp.

Repeat with the second earring, being sure to eliminate most of the slack in the wire.

Ta-dah!



This is my very first foray into beading, so I’m not sure how well crimp beads hold up. If you are a beader and have a better suggestion for securing the loop, leave a comment!