While scrolling on TikTok on an average day last October, senior Macy McGill was struck with creative inspiration. McGill came across a TikTok video where someone was showing off the earrings they had made.

“I saw someone on TikTok wearing fun earrings with rubber ducks on them, and I had decided that I wanted earrings just like that too,” McGill said. “I thought it could be a fun craft for me to do, and then after that I would have my own unique earrings.”

McGill didn’t just want any ordinary earrings; she wanted something unusual that people wouldn’t see and think that they could turn that into a pair of earrings. McGill set off to the party supply store to find something that she could into a wearable piece of jewelry.

“I went to Party City and found some small paint palettes that I had seen others on TikTok use to make earrings, so I thought I could do the same,” McGill said. “I then realized I didn’t have any hooks, so I took off hooks from old earrings I wore in elementary school. I connected the small paint pallette and hook with wire. Looking back at it now it was horrible, but at the time I thought it was amazing.”

When looking for ideas to make earrings, McGill looks for things that may not scream earring-material.

“When I go to look for new items to make earrings, I typically look for objects that are meant for miniature doll houses or if I am looking for something less outside of the box, I will look at charms for jewelry,” McGill said.

Not only do these peculiar earrings show off McGill’s imaginative personality, they also tell stories about her interests.

“I have a few pairs of earrings that are different bones because a while back I wanted to become a forensic anthropologist,” McGill said. “I love how bones can give someone their identity back when those bones used to just be some random person’s bones.”

Others of McGill’s earrings even hold special meaning that is very dear to her heart.

“One of my favorite pairs of earrings are my cardinal earrings because they are my favorite birds,” McGill said. “When I was younger, my mom told me that the cardinals were family members that have passed on and are checking in on the family and I guess it just really stuck with me.”

This fun, easy craft has turned into a new outlet that McGill can utilize to express herself and show people the clever pieces of jewelry she can create.