I made some mandala earrings with the Proofgrade Medium Walnut Plywood and found that they break very easily. This is the recommended material in the earring file. Does anyone have any recommendations other than being “extremely careful” with them? I’d like to eventually sell these but don’t trust the outcome.
Should I be using a different material?
Thanks!
I make all my earrings from PG plywoods, and they hold up really well. Can you share a photo of the design you’re using? Maybe it’s just too delicate and needs some adjusting.
Any wood product, even the proofgrade plywood, will be delicate if your design doesn’t provide enough strength. If you can provide photos of the breakage and the design, as @geek2nurse requested, we can probably help. I would guess though that your design doesn’t provide enough material for the stress it is under. You may need a different material or you may need to modify the material somehow. For instance, two veneers of hardwood on either side of a sheet of tulle or fine fabric mesh will give you better strength than the veneer by itself.
Oh dear. Maybe we can help you fix this.
I use only the plywood, because the Walnut solid wood snaps very easily. What part of your design is breaking, is it by the jump ring or somewhere else? And does it break during manufacture, or while worn?
Thanks for helping me 
So two things:
They broke when I was taking off the masking.
Here are the photos:
So maybe I should be using plywood instead like @mnemosyne said 
Oh yes! That’s the same thing that has happened to me with hardwood, even with much less delicate designs. Just how that wood works. I predict if you switch over to the plywood you will find these delicate designs really hold up.
Ok, I will have to buy some 1/8 walnut plywood then. 
Thank you for your help!!
maybe – if you are feeling adventurous, you can try using up your hardwood stock with some resin as filler, which would potentially strengthen it up. You’d still have to make it past this delicate stage though because the resin goes on after cutting. Also you might have some luck being super careful of the grain. But if you are doing a production line, save yourself the hassle and go with ply.
I made these for my wife & daughters…I had started to peel tape off when I remembered that SOMEWHERE on these posts that someone had stated that they use a strong adhesive backed taped to remove the left over masking tape. I found (for myself) that using a very strong carpet adhesive tape peeled it off very well on 1st try…I did also find that i can use it multiple times (up to a point). I just laid the tape flat with adhesive side up to press my earing on it & the while holding my creation i gently pulled the tape back flat against the object gently… I HOPE this made sense to you helps!
Blessings
Ken
Ha, that’s my design. Yeah, hardwood is (despite the “hard” in its name) very breakable for delicate designs. Plywood will work much better for you.
Hard doesn’t mean tough, generally the opposite! With a few exceptions, the harder a material is the more brittle it is meaning that it can be broken more easily. Tough implies the ability to move and absorb load without breaking.
I know this. A lot of people who buy my designs don’t, however. 
That’s cool that you designed something that’s on their shop. I’m not good at the design part. Hopefully as I make more stuff I’ll learn how to do my own things.
I have been getting good results with 1/8" aspen wood. It is not as brittle as other hardwoods and features greater then 1 mm seem to hold up well. The wood is almost white, but takes stains well.
Here is an example:
Stained with a water based stain. Solvent based stains work well too.
Lovely presentation and stain!
That’s beautiful! I like the stain.
you could apply thin CA glue to them. it will penetrate the wood and significantly strengthen them.
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