All about jewellery making

Many people get married in the summer so I thought I would write a tutorial for some earrings that would be suitable for brides and/or bridesmaids.  This design is very quick and simple to make.  Here’s what you need:

2x   6 inch lengths of 26 gauge wire
1x   pair of ear wires
2x   focal bead (8mm)
20x  Swarovski crystal bicone beads, 4mm (I used 8x vintage rose, 8x chrysolite and 4x clear)
26x 3mm pearl beads (I used ivory)
1x   6mm pearl bead
1x   4mm metallic bead
Round nose pliers
Flat nose pliers
Wire cutters

1.  The first step is to thread the beads that form the main loop of the earring.  Here is a diagram to show you how:

2.  Once you have the beads in the desired order draw both ends of the wire towards each other and make a neat and tight wrapped loop at the top.  You will need to trim the wire that you have used to create the wrap so that you end up with a wrapped loop bearing a single wire out of the top like so:

3.  The next thing you have to do is to cover the wrap you have just made.  To do this take the 6mm pearl bead and thread it onto the wire.  Hold the wire with your flat nose pliers and pull the bead down firmly to cover the wrap.  When you have done this then thread on the 4mm metallic bead followed by the 3mm pearl and finally create a wire wrapped loop at the top to hang the earring from the ear wire (see diagram below).  Repeat for the other earring.

I have just finished making this set of Christmas jewellery for myself to wear over the festive period.  The pattern is from the latest Bead and Button magazine on p.48 and is called ‘Crystal Showers’.  I made the earrings by completing just one unit of the design before attaching them to the ear hooks.  The technique is right angle weave and is quite easy once you get the hang of the pattern.
 
You can probably see from the picture that the crystals I used are rather uneven.  These are some I am using up as they were to be stock for my shop but I do not consider them good enough quality to sell.

I chose red and gold as my colour scheme as I think these are especially Christmassy colours and will add a bit of glitter to my outfit.

It is unlikely that I will get another opportunity to post here before Christmas so I hope you all have a fabulous holiday and a joyful new year.

Inspired by a forthcoming Christmas concert I set about designing myself some really sparkly, super-dangly earrings.  To me, dangly earrings are the jewellery equivalent of the high heeled show providing an instant confidence boost and a bit of glamour.  Wishing to spread a little pre-Christmas cheer I will explain here how I made these glittery shoulder dusters.  It really isn’t as hard as it looks and this design is hugely versatile in terms of length, colour and the potential for added detail. 

I knew that I wanted to make my ‘Christmas party’ earrings in a Christmassy colour and had absolutely fallen inlove with some deep emerald faceted crystal rondelles that I had actually purchased as Bead Tree shop stock.  Nevertheless I couldn’t resist and gathered a handful of these scrumptious beads to set aside for my own use.  Also in my shop inverntory were some silver-lined apple green seed beads that not only complemented the rich emerald colour very well but offered a good dose of sparkle - fundmental to my vision of these showstopping, glimmering and twinkling, swishing and swaying earrings that I had in mind.

What follows here is a guide to their construction rather than a precise tutorial.  This is to allow you to be creative with your own version.  If you use my ‘Christmas party’ earrings tutorial and would like to send me a picture of your finished earrings I will be pleased to add it to this post.

Materials

0.6 mm wire (I have used silver-plated)
24 beads about 6mm in size (I have used my luscious green rondelles)
Small handful of size 8/0 seed beads (I used silver-lined transparent)
Small handful of size 11/0 seed beads (I used silver-lined apple green)
One pair of ear hooks
Round nosed pliers
Flat nosed pliers
Wire cutters

The first element of these earrings that I made were the individual dangles.  I made my own headpins by cutting from my wire and making a small loop with the round nosed pliers at the end to stop the beads from falling off.  (You could use ready-made headpins just as well if you can find some long enough).

Here is my schemata for the sparkly dangles but you can create any combination you like:

Make 2 of:  (11/0 - 8/0 - 6mm - 8/0 - 11/0) rep twice then add 6x 11/0

Make 2 of:  (11/0 - 8/0 - 6mm - 8/0 - 11/0) rep twice then add 12x 11/0

Make 1 of: (11/0 - 8/0 - 6mm - 8/0 - 11/0) rep twice then add 18x 11/0

Finish each dangle with a loop at the top.

To illustrate the construction of the top part of the earring I will draw some diagrams as I think it is easier to communicate the technique pictorially.

With a piece of 0.6 mm wire approx. 7 ins long use your round nose pliers to create a large loop as shown in diagram 1.  Then using your flat nose pliers bend both ends of the wire so that they are at 90 degrees as indicated above.  You should now have something that looks like this:

Before proceeding add your beaded dangles to the loop in order of your choice followed by a 6 mm bead that threads onto both ends of the wire.  You now need to make a wrap with the wires just above the bead (holding the loop you made in stage 1 with the flat nose pliers will make it easier):

Next trim the wire that you have used to wrap with before threading on the second 6 mm bead.  Finally make a wire-wrapped loop with the remaining piece of wire like so:

Make another earring in the same way, attach both to your ear hooks and you’re done!

Copyright 2007 http://www.allaboutjewellerymaking.info
Not to be reproduced on any other website, in printed format or on a portable media device. May be printed for personal use but must not be used for commercial purposes.

Just a quick ’show and tell’ and a teensy tutorial.  I am loving wearing these earrings at the moment.  They are very simple to make using a basic hoop finding.  Here’s how I made them:

Materials:
2x hoop earring findings (or make your own from wire)
1 pair ear hooks
0.2 mm wire
Small handful size 9/0 seed beads
Small handful size 11/0 seed beads
3 large drop beads
4 small drop beads

1.  Un-hook the wire hoop at the back of the pre-made hoop finding and thread on your chosen drop beads in the following order - 1 small, 1 large, 1 small, 1 large, 1 small, 1 large, 1 small.  For the moment forget about these beads, just let them hang on the hoop out of the way.

2.  Take some fine wire, approx. 0.2mm in diameter, and wind it a few times around the hoop at the top.  Once the wire is firmly attached thread on your first seed bead (I have used blue size 9/0).  Position this bead up against the hoop on the outer edge and wind the wire around the hoop a couple of times to secure it.  Now you are ready to thread on your first group of 3 smaller seed beads which will sit on the inner edge of the hoop (I have used pale grey size 11/0).  Here is a close up picture to give you the idea:

As you can see from the photograph I have repeated this process 3 times plus one blue size 9/0 seed bead before incorporating the drop beads into the design (the drop beads essentially replace the 3 seed bead unit that you have been adding).  Each drop bead is separated by a size 9/0 seed bead and the wire should be wound around the hoop a couple of times between each bead so that they are all secured in place.

3.  Very nearly there!  Continue until you have incorporated all 7 drop beads into the design and then resume wiring on seed beads just as you did at the beginning so that they match the first side.

4.  Attach ear hooks and you’re done!

Copyright 2006 http://www.allaboutjewellerymaking.info
Not to be reproduced on any other website, in printed format or on a portable media device. May be printed for personal use but must not be used for commercial purposes.

These right angle weave beaded earrings were made using a pattern by Marcia DeCoster available from the Beading Daily site.  They are called ‘Tesserae earrings’.  My pair is not exactly the same as those illustrated as I had to improvise a bit with the beads.  I did not have any size 15/0s so the centre of the shapes are without a border.  I tried with size 11/0s but they just bunched up unattractively. 

I used a pale pink seed bead for the back of my earring but they were a slightly different size to the pink-lined blue Tohos on the front.  This meant that joining the two right angle weave sections was not as easy as it might have been.  If possible I would definitely use the same make of beads to alleviate this problem.  The main right angle weave sections were woven using 0.10″ monofilament which gave a nice stiff fabric.  When it came to putting the two halves together I changed to nymo as it was no longer possible to push the monofilament through without a needle. 

Despite all the alterations and uneven bead sizes I am still fairly pleased with the result and wore them yesterday.