Happy National Piercing Day!

That's right, today- May 16th- is National Piercing Day! Slightly controversial, but gaining in social acceptance, piercing is a form of self expression and social identification for many people. It has become a huge part of the social networking scene. Rather than being viewed as a rebel, as it was considered not that long ago, people who sport visible piercings are now recognized as conforming to their particular social group.

You may induce from this that I am a supporter of piercings. I have a few myself, and support my family in getting the piercings they desire. I do believe it can be overdone, and at times it becomes a sickness that help should be sought out to rectify. That's true for just about everything, though.

I also hold that more education should be available to people regarding safe piercing practices. Piercing guns should be banned, and anyone caught using them should be forbidden from piercing. The business should be monitored more closely and procedures put in place to protect the general public- especially young people who are so caught up in life that they sometimes don't do the proper research.

But I'll stop lecturing you now, and get on to the good stuff. I had to decide how I wanted to celebrate this year's National Piercing Day. I'm currently maxed out on the piercings that I want, and El Diablo is not quite ready for her piercings yet. And although my step daughter wants her lip pierced, that's not going to happen until she does a bit more research and changes her school's policy regarding piercings.

But I do have a bag of french hooks that have been taunting me for months. Surely I can think of something!

 Yeah, that wasn't difficult.

A quick note regarding materials. I have super sensitive skin and react quite badly to sterling silver. All my earrings must be gold or surgical stainless steel. Even nickel free jewelry (nickel is the material that most people with a silver allergy react to) makes my ears swell and I develop a painful rash. Not fun.

A few years ago, however, I found these great french hooks that are made from surgical stainless steel! Once again I was able to wear dangle earrings. Of course, this was after I stretched my ears to accommodate 14 gauge jewelry rendering the point moot (typical earrings are 20 gauge, and gauges get bigger as the number gets smaller). But it is nice to have options.

So this is the basic lay out of the earrings. French hook, 3 beads to be threaded on a head pin, and a silver leaf charm.

First step is to thread the beads on the headpin. I'm using pins with a loop to give me something to attach the charm to. So the loop is at the bottom of the bead strand.

Using round nose pliers, I carefully wrapped the straight end of the head pin around the loop at the bottom of the french hook.

 Then used a jump ring to attach the leaf charm to the bottom loop.

Sometimes a simple design can be incredibly effective.

This photograph gives the scale of the earrings. They're just over 2 inches long. If you're like me, that sounds quite long, but because the design is so delicate, it's not overwhelming.

And yes, this par of earrings is now up for sale on my Etsy shop.

I still wouldn't suggest these if you've got a new baby or work with animals though. I've been on the receiving end of a tug, and although no damage was done, it's still not a pleasant experience!

So, no matter what your piercing experience, I hope you enjoy your day. And, if you're anti-body piercing, hopefully this post has helped expand your understanding.







Happy crafting!