Girl with a pearl earring

I've always wanted to get a pair of earrings like the one in the painting. Even though all you have to do is string a headpin to a bead and attach a pair of hooks to them, these large pear shaped beads are really hard to come by. I recently came across a website selling beads made from compressed cotton, some of the beads were lacquered and made to look like pearls. I tried to make several beads and they turn out well. All you have to do is take a length of wire to use as the core, wet some cotton with thinned Elmer's Glue and wind it tightly around the wire to form your desired shapes. Let the beads dry and they are ready to paint. They are extremely light (anything else in this size would be too heavy for earrings).

You can also buy similar earrings at Sapphire and Sage for $19.

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