I love making my own jewellery from recycled materials. Like these cool plastic earrings that were made from part of a squeeze tomato sauce bottle!
Earlier this year I shared a tutorial on how to make some really cute plastic earrings from recycled milk bottles. They were so easy to make that I have been wondering how I could make some more using different colours! The milk bottles are really easy to work with but unfortunately they only come in one colour – white! So I had to start looking at the other bottles I was putting out to the recycle.
One day when I was washing out an empty tomato sauce bottle I thought ‘This red would make really pretty earrings’. So once the bottle was clean and dry I cut out a section of the plastic and had a go at making some. They turned out great don’t you think?
These earrings are so easy to make, you can whip up a pair in around 10 minutes once you get started. The squeeze bottle plastic is a bit thicker than the milk bottle plastic but it was still quite easy to cut, put the holes in, and bend.
I have my eye on the squeeze bottle of mustard in the fridge for my next pair of these earrings! Can you suggest other plastic bottles that would make great earrings?
For the full instructions that show how to make these plastic earrings check out my milk bottle earring tutorial here.
If you like to make your own jewellery, head over to Pinterest and check out my DIY Jewellery board.
How clever. I haven’t done anything crafty for years and this would be a great start. 🙂
Thanks Maureen! They are super easy to make, I’m only a beginner when it comes to jewellery making!
Milk jugs are made out of HDPE (High Density Polyethelene). So are most laundry soap and shampoo bottles. It is #2 plastic. If you look on the bottom for a triangle with a 2 in the center, it’s HDPE. All of it has the same qualities – easy to bend, opaque colors, easy to cut. Look around for #2 in your house and try it. You might also go to recycling stations and look around for different colors – it comes in a wide variety.
Thanks for pointing that out Bev, I hadn’t looked at the plastic number! I will be on the lookout for #2 plastics now!
I have a couple of empty shampoo bottles… a bright lime green one, and a vibrant purple. I was thinking it would be fun to make jewelry with them, but didn’t know the best way to cut and put holes in them. I started googling and found this post. Your earrings are soooo cute! Do you have any tips on the tools and techniques that work best for you?
Oh! I just followed your link to the tutorial for your milk bottle earrings. I should’ve read that before posting my questions. Scissors, and the pokey end of a compass! Clever!
No worries Erica, perhaps I should add some basic info to this post to make it clearer! Lime green and purple earrings would look good, I hope you are able to make them!