Square Swirl Earrings – Free Paper Quilled Jewelry Tutorial using Border Buddy

Continuing the theme of border buddy, I have another tutorial for you today for a fun pair of square swirl earrings!

Have you used a border buddy or similar tool yet?  What types of projects are you using it for?

As mentioned in the first border buddy tutorial (for triangle swirl earrings), this is a design that I doodled while waiting for my border buddy to arrive in the mail.  It is fun and can have so many color variations!

The tricky part was to figure out which sizes of the square to use, and how long of a strip of paper.  You need the paper to be long enough that the sides of your square will be thick enough to be nice and sturdy.  If you make the edges too thick, however, you will have to use different sizes to get the same style of look.  So this tutorial will show you what I have come up with so far.  Feel free to experiment with different layers and lengths of paper to get new looks!

Enjoy the tutorial, give it a try, and let me know how it goes   If you post your results on your own blog feel free to link back here and to leave a link to your blog post in the comments here, I’d love to see them!

I used all 1/8″ (3mm) width paper for this project, but you can use any width you’d like.

Supplies You Need (for one pair of earrings):

• 2 strips of paper 24″ long
• 2 strips of paper 18″ long
• 2 strips of paper 15″ long
• 2 strips of paper 12″ long
• 2 strips of paper 9″ long
• 2 strips of paper 6″ long
• glue (My favorite is PPA which you can find at Custom Quilling, or here on Amazon)
• Border Buddy by Quilled Creations (you can find it at Custom Quilling, and on Amazon)
• Fine tip tweezers (you can find them at Custom Quilling, or on Amazon)
• sealant for making your earrings water resistant (click here to read more about different sealants)

Instructions:

• This design is quite simple once you follow a few good tips for using the Border Buddy.  If you haven’t already, check out my first post on tips for using the Border Buddy!  You will be wrapping each of the strips around a certain layer on the Border Buddy.  If you have numbered the layers on your Border Buddy, it will be easier to keep track of which layer you are on.  My number 1 layer is the biggest layer.   Make sure as you are wrapping, you apply glue all around the border as you go, to keep a nice sturdy square shape.  Just be sure to wrap very carefully so the edges line up or you’ll end up with the edges looking uneven.  I apply glue to two sides at a time to make it a bit quicker.

• Wrap each 24″ strip around level 1.  Wrap each 18″ strip around level 3.  Wrap each 15″ strip around level 5.  Wrap each 12″ strip around level 7.  Wrap each 9″ strip around level 9.  Wrap each 6″ strip around level 11. You will have 6 squares that all fit inside of one another nicely.  If you put them together so that they all are lined up as shown in the left hand photo below you can then turn the shape clockwise or counter clockwise to see the swirl that you will be creating.  Of course you could also glue them together in the design on the left and that would look cool too!

• Remove the squares before starting to glue them together.  You will glue them in one at a time, starting with the biggest.  Pick up the second largest square.  Apply glue to each of the four edges, right by the corners, where it will be touching the bigger square.  Use your tweezers to insert the square into the larger square and then turn it to the right (or you could do left) until the glued part touches the edges.  Make sure all 4 corners are touching equally.  Repeat with all of the other squares, one at a time.     Let dry completely.  To make these into earrings you could have them hanging as squares, or you can turn them as shown in the third photo here and hang them as diamonds.  If you want to hang them as squares you’ll need to add a circle at the top for putting in the jump ring.  See this post for some ideas on how to do that.

• Your next step is to seal your jewelry.  You can read more about using sealant for paper quilled jewelry in these posts.   In general what you will do is paint your sealant onto the top side of your earring and let it dry completely.  Turn it over, apply it to that side, and let it again dry completely.  Put on your jump rings and earring hooks and then apply the sealant to all sides and inside crevices.  Hang to dry completely.

•  Here is a photo of the size of these earrings.  They make a fairly big earring.  If you want a smaller earring, just start with the smaller size and use fewer layers.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  As always, I’d love to hear back from you if you try it out, and please comment with a link to your work so I can see it, or send me a message!

Stick around and check out some of the other fun stuff on the blog!

Click here to view more free paper quilling tutorials!

Click here to view paper quilling tips and tricks!

Click here to view a list of places to buy quilling supplies around the world!

Click here to view some of my own quilling projects, with tips so you can make your own if you’d like!

*All products and supplies mentioned in this post I purchased and/or made on my own.

*This post contains some affiliate links, and some non affiliate links.  If you purchase products through the affiliate links I get a small percentage (at no extra cost to you!).  I only link to products that I believe in and/or love to use myself.  Thank you for supporting my blog!