Back in elementary school, my gym teacher told grizzly stories of what happened to girls whose long, dangling earrings snagged on something while playing games in class. After that, I never wore earrings that extended more than half an inch below my lobes. But since I started beading, I’ve come to favor lengthy earrings because they offer endless opportunities for chain, wire, big beads, and other miscellaneous items one might hang from an earring wire (see my previous post). Plus, we don’t play with parachutes or pummel horses in the office (too much!).

But can non-dangly earrings be cool too? Of course! Recently, I stumbled into the button aisle of a local craft store and found all kinds of whimsical shank buttons that just screamed to be made into earrings. I bought a package of brightly colored “mixed cats,” cut off the shanks, filed down the stubs left by the shanks, then glued the buttons to earring posts. Wearing different colored cats on each ear makes my earrings more noticeable, though not to my old gym teacher, who will have no reason to tell me to take them out.

*Note: I personally wouldn’t wear any earrings when playing with parachutes or pummel horses, but I leave that to your discretion!