Make Heart Earrings from Copper Staples

Before: Copper staples

Today's project is completely the result of the creative genius of my wonderful daughter. When I was opening a package that came from UPS the other day, my daughter noticed that the staples holding the box together were copper. Score! She immediately got out the wire wrapping tools and started designing projects that could reuse and repurpose the copper staples. Such a good idea!

After: Copper Hearts by GeltDesigns.com

After playing with the found wire for a while, we decided to shape two of the staples into hearts to use as charms for earrings in our V-Day series. Seriously, would you guess these were staples otherwise destined for the garbage (and by extension the landfill)?

Materials
2 copper staples
Beadalon 20-gauge magenta Artistic Wire 

Gather your tools

Tools
Eurotool wire looping pliers
Chain nose pliers
Eurotool Wrap n' Tap pliers
Grobet No 2 half-round file
Lortone tumbler

Step 1
File the edges of the staples until they have no sharp edges and are jewelry smooth.

Form staple into circle

Step 2
Form the staple into a circle using the Wrap n Tap pliers or a mandrel.

Step 3
Form the circle into a heart using the wire looping pliers or round nose pliers. File again, as needed.

Step 4
Repeat to create second, matching heart.

Step 5
Make ear wires and attach the ear wires to the hearts.

These ear wires were leftover from another project where we either made extras and never used them or made these and decided we did not like the shape or color for the project and made something else instead.

Step 6
Place in tumbler to burnish and harden metal.

Related Tutorials
How to Make "Fish Hook" Ear Wires
How to Make an Ear Wire Jig

How to Straighten Wire

How to Smooth Sharp Wire Edges
How to Measure Wire
How to Use a Wire Gauge
GeltDesigns Tutorials by Topic
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Jewelry
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Found Object  

Further Reading 
"Complete Metalsmith: Professional Edition";  Tim McCreight; 2004.
"Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing (Jewelry Crafts)"; Tim McCreight; 1997.

Day 84  Month 4. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent to date: 0
Found materials: copper staples
New Jewelry a Day.

Enjoy your weekend.