Triangle Swirl Earrings – Free Paper Quilling Tutorial

Today I am combining a last peacock themed earring with a promised Border Buddy tutorial! These triangle swirl earrings are so fun and sassy!

As soon as I ordered my Border Buddy I started sketching some possible designs to make with it.  Jewelry designs of course, since those are my favorites these days.  This triangle swirl earrings design was one of the first sketches I made, and therefore of course one of the first things I attempted!

The tricky part was to figure out which sizes of the triangles to use, and how long of a strip of paper.  You need the paper to be long enough that your triangle will be stiff enough to withstand the design.  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.

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 6″ long
• glue (My favorite is PPA which you can find here in my shop, 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 here in my shop, 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 triangle 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. *note* these photos are obviously of the square tip for the border buddy, you will be using the triangular one for these earrings.

• 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 6″ strip around level 9.  Here are your final triangles.  You can put them inside of each other to make sure that they fit well.  You could glue them so they are all lined up in one corner, but I prefer the swirly look!  For the swirly look, tip each triangle to the right (or left) until it fits snugly inside the bigger one. Repeat for each smaller triangle.

• Once you know the triangles fit well together, it’s time to glue!  Take them apart again.  Start by applying glue to the sides of the second biggest triangle.  Apply it near the corner, where it will be touching the bigger triangle.  Use your fine tip tweezers to hold the triangle with glue, place it inside the bigger one, and rotate it so that it fits nicely as shown in the middle photo.  Continue gluing and using your tweezers to put in the pieces until both of your shapes are finished as shown.

• 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.  For this type of earring I like using a liquid sealer because it soaks into all of the paper so that when it dries, it is nice and stiff.  And then I use something else, like watered down diamond glaze, to give a shinier and extra water resistant coat.

• 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 like the look of these earrings both with solid colors, gradient colors, and the fun peacock colors!  I imagine so many color combos would look awesome with these.  Or even use two colors on EACH layer, gluing the strips together.  So many options!

I hope you enjoyed this triangle swirl earrings 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!