Charm Porcupine

So far I've made tons of little earring charms with a loop that can be interchanged on one pair of kidney earwires. But these presented a bit of a problem storage and display wise, because I couldn't hang them from a traditional earring display. So...time to make my own! 

I was charging my camera as I cut and drilled this, but just pretend the wood is in whatever shape it's layed out as :)

Get a strip of thin wood. Mine was about 14" x 4" x 2cm.

You'll want to cut it as shown above, in half first, and then one large triangle in the middle of each with two half triangles on each side....

...like this!

As you see, the two half triangles can be put together to make a triangle the size as the one in the center.

Now go ahead and drill holes. I belive I used a 3/32" drill bit, but you can try out one hole first to see if it's the  right size. The eventual goal is to fit one toothpick in each hole, so if you're not sure on the size, try a smaller drill bit first and work your way up until the toothpick is snug.

When you're done drilling the holes, get your hot glue gun ready-- you'll be using it a lot from here on.

First you'll need to glue your half triangles together to make a full size triangle. Try to do this quickly and push the wood tightly together.

Then, grab half as many toothpicks as there are holes, and cut each toothpick in half. Stick each toothpick half into a hole, blunt side out so you don't prick yourself, and apply a little bit of hot glue to the inside are to secure them.

See why I call it a porcupine now? ;)

After every toothpick is glued in, you can glue the four triangles together into a pyramid shape. Just as before, try to work quickly and press the wood firmly together for the best fit and hold.

At this point, you can paint this if you like or keep the natural wood look as I did.

And finally, the fun part -- put all your charms on it! :)

But what to do if you only have a small number of these dangle charms? What if building a whole earring porcupine is just too much work? Or maybe you just don't have the tools needed?

I'll show you how I made a more traditional earring holder too, and how you can easily hang these charms on that or a store-bought one ;)