How to Make Porcupine Earrings
The porcupine is second to the largest rodent in North America with about 30,000 quills all over its spiny body. These quills are a unique defense mechanism, with tiny barbs and hooks that will thrust into an opponent's skin. Native American jewelry makers can make intricate bead work out of these fine quills, also known as "quill work." Porcupine earrings are fairly easy to make as it's mostly created by stringing the fine quills together to make dangling jewelry. They can be used in their natural white color or dyed for decoration purposes.
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Things You'll Need
- 1 embroidery scissors
- 1 mix of dish soap and water
- 1 spool of thread
- 1 sewing needle
- 20 porcupine needles
- 1 bag of beads
- 2 metal earring wires
- (optional) commercial or natural dye
Instructions
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1
Buy the quills from a local bead store or order them online. They will be intact and won't be usable beads just yet. Cut off both sharp ends of the porcupine quills with embroidery scissors and properly dispose of them to make them safe for beading.
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2
Remove the waxy layer from your quills by soak them in dish soap and hot, but not boiling water. Stir the quills for at least 10 minutes, and as long as 30 minutes, to get rid of that musty layer.
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3
Dye your quills with commercial dye or natural dye if you want. Mix the dye in very hot, but not boiling, water. Leave the quills in this dye mix and set them in a warm place for at least a couple days to fully absorb. Take them out and wait until they fully dry.
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4
Prepare at least 20 quills for beading. Pick out the quills that are similar in both aspects. Trim each one down to match each other with embroidery scissors to 1-inch lengths. Note that these quills will show signs of irregularities, since it's a natural animal product.
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Set out your beading necessities. Choose your beads, particularly if you want them to be seed beads, glass beads or wooden. Make sure your beads aren't large enough to where the quills will slip inside the holes of them. Have your thread or thin leather ready and also your thick sewing needle.
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Thread your needle and once that's done, thread a circle of beads about 1-inch in diameter, to make a hoop for your quills to dangle from. Tie it off tightly by double-knotting it and cut off the extra string. Duplicate this circle for the other pair. Hook a silver metal earring wire from it.
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Thread your needle again and puncture the inside of the quill, which will have a soft material to pierce through. Have it go all the way through. Add beads to separate the next quill. Once the two quills are on one string, separated from beads, carefully tie the ends together to complete the tear drop hoop.
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Duplicate these tear-drop hoops. Have five tear-drop hoops for each pair of earrings. When they're completed, use a string to tie the triangular ends of these hoops onto the bottom of your circular beaded hoop that is already attached to the metal earring wire. This completes your earrings.
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Tips & Warnings
You can soak your quills in water to bead them when they are soft or you can bead them when they are dry.
Have extra quills ready since many times they will break or crack while you're trying to bead them.
