Jumkas - The Traditional Indian Ear Rings Tutorial I

JUMKAS

 Jumkhas are traditional ear rings form for Indians. Every Indian women love to have at least one set of jumkha in her jewel box no matter whether it is made out of gold , silver, terracotta, paper, clay or anything. Now a days non metal jumkhas become very popular as it is affordable and can have many in numbers to match with our costumes :-) It has a wide range of designs too .

The dome make these ear rings distinct from other type of dangling ear rings. It can either be conical or bell or half of round hollow bead or like a prism in shapes. The designs are endless according to the talent and imaginations of artists.

Earlier it was available in a form like the domes attached to studs. Now people uses ear hooks and hoops. The dome adorns with filigree, stones, kundans, pearls,tiny beads etc to get more catchy and elegant looks.

Jumkha Mold

Polymer clay is a wonderful medium to make jumkhas. I look at with lot of envy and admiration towards other artists jumkha designs until as myself could not make one. I haven't gone to a teacher to learn how to make jumkhas but tried myself watching a youtube vedio on making terracotta (natural clay) jumkha. First time me tried to make the dome on a scoop in the baby food packet. I applied some baby powder on the convex part of the scoop for not to stick the clay onto the scoop. But unfortunately when I take it off the dome was deformed also happened to get lot of finger prints.

This leads to the purchase of a jumkha mold usually people use it for making quilled / teracotta jumkhas. Now it seems its getting there to almost success which makes me obsessive as well as delighted. Its actually a process of correcting through trial and error.

I have seen many beginners asking for free jumkha tutorials in some Facebook groups. So I have a plan to pass just an idea. Of course , not sure whether it is the 'scientific way' to create them, But hopefully you will get a spark from this tut, I'm grateful if so.

How To Make Them?

Here I gonna share how I did simple cane jumkhas, similarly you can try plain or single color too.

Materials:

1. Clay / Round Cane (Fimo proffessional \ kato\premo)
2. Eye pins / Head pins
3. Hoops / Ear hooks
4. Beads (store bought or made out of clay) 
5. Bead caps or spacer beads (optional)

Tools:

1. Mold
2. Craft Knife
3. Round Nose Plier
4. Wire cutter

Steps To Follow:

Making Domes-

1. Clean your hands ,work surface and tools with wet wipes,then with tissue paper thoroughly. Cut two equal  pieces from the cane approx 1 cm each. On the other hand make a bead wrapped in thin slices of cane and cut it into halves. ( Exactly as what we do to make a cane bead) . Unless you use a cane, cut two equal size circles from a thick sheet of clay
2. Apply some water or oil all over the concave side of mold. Place the cane or clay. Press well with a finger, check whether clay moves easily without any grip. If it sticks to mold take it out and apply little more water or oil. 
   
3. Then again dip your finger or ball tool in water and make a dip in the centre of the clay and move around to make the dome. Trim edges in level . Make a bead hole exactly in the centre. Now you take it out; gently wipe the water not harming the shape. 
   
4. Bake these domes at 130 degree celcius for 15 to 20 minutes. Mine is thin and light if your domes are thicker in size bake accordingly. Always check manufacturer's note on clay pack.

Assembling-

Now you can sand and polish them. Once they dry well its ready to assemble. These are not studded jumkhas so use ear tags or hoops as per your choice. 

Made few pair of domes

• Slide the dome, bead cap (if any), and a bead through a head pin or eye pin. Bend the wire very close the bead at 90 degrees towards out again bend little up from the first bend to opposite direction to form a loop. You should trim any excess length of wire. Attach to an ear wire. Similarly do the pair too. 

•  For hoops, straighten the lock at the one end of hoops not the eye ; then slide some beads of your choice (seed beads, faceted beads, gunguroos anything ) and the dome prepared now again same number of beads to look even. 
  

• Bend the edge again with round nose plier to lock with the eye loop. Tada..... we have completed it in easy steps.

 I say it is economical to make small small jumkhas for practising because it consumes a good amount of clay. See here some designs made following the said method with different canes.

Other patterns from my collection and face book page.
https://www.facebook.com/Projjwaljewellery

Enjoy....