DIY Porcupine Quill Earrings + Necklace, Shot in Paris

Over the past couple years I’ve grown really interested in jewelry created from natural objects. From rocks to more rocks and shells, my jewelry collection is getting a little out of hand. The stuff I make isn’t something you can wear every day, but it’s so therapeutic to me to sit sewing or soldering at night after work that I can’t stop doing it. My favorite way to relax out of the NYC bustle is to plop down on the couch with Netflix and a cocktail working on a new jewelry project.

While we were in Paris over a month ago, I photographed my newest natural element jewelry projects– a pair of porcupine quill earrings and a porcupine quill necklace.

Supplies you need:
-Porcupine quills (I bought two batches on Ebay.)
–Ear wires
-End caps. I can’t find the exact ones I used online, but they are similar to this, or this, or this, or this.
–Jump rings
–Earring hooks
–E6000 super glue

To make the jewelry it is incredibly simple. The hardest part is rounding up all of the supplies. Once you cut the porcupine quill to the length you want, just glue it inside the end cap and use a jump ring to attach the end cap to the earring hook. For the Makers always has really awesome jump ring tutorials. 🙂

For the earrings I used African porcupine quills and for the necklace I used North American porcupine quills.

I photographed the set of jewelry as Sean and I were exploring around the Louvre in Paris.

One of my favorite things about traveling in pedestrian cities is how fun it is to have little picnics on benches. On regular days I eat a lot of cheese… But in Paris it was shameful. (It’s just so cheap and fresh!)

One funny thing about the African quills vs. the North American quills is that I had to file them down a bit, but in completely different ways. The North American porcupine quills, while tiny, are actually barbed and they stab into your shirt repeatedly if you don’t take a nail file to the lower portions of them. The African quills are super sturdy and sharp… So you might give yourself a puncture wound in the shoulder if you don’t dull them up a bit. 🙂

And if you don’t want to make a pair of earrings yourself, I’ve got a few for sale in my Etsy shop!