On the second day of Steampunk Christmas,

My true love gave to me:

Two Steampunk Earrings.

Well, maybe I’ll give them to my true love.

Steampunk Earrings are a great way to accessorize the steampunk outfit you’ve been putting together.  A quick search on Etsy brings up 250 pages of results! While many of the creations incorporate gears in their design, some go beyond and include keys, tiny glass vials, octopi, balloons, colored gems, and many other parts of the steampunk iconography.

While I wholeheartedly recommend you support steampunk artists and vendors, if you’ve got a specific idea in mind, you might try your hand in some introductory jewelrymaking and go the DIY route.  Provided you have the inspiration (which is always the hardest part, I find), and access to a well-stocked craft store or bead shop, you can quickly purchase all the components you need to make your first set of earrings.  As far as tools go, you can get started with only a pair of needlenose pliers (with wire cutter), although as with any craft, there are many specialized tools you can sink your money into if you like…

There are good tutorials on earring making here, here, and here, and this one gives lots of ideas.  You can make yours as simple–craft-shop gear charms made into a long dangly chain, or complex–how about a kraken, or tiny vacuum tubes, or typewriter keys of your beloved’s initials?  It’s limited only by your imagination!

On the First Day of Steampunk Christmas…