How to Make Handmade Earrings

These french ear wires have many beads dangling from their loops.

Making handmade earrings has a huge advantage for both jewelry designers as well as someone who just wants to make a few pairs of earrings to go with her favorite outfit. Earrings are some of the most profitable items a jewelry designer can sell; while most people balk at paying $45 or $50 for a necklace, most of them would happily pay $10 for a pair of earrings even though those earrings used about 5 percent of the material that the necklace did. Individuals can avoid paying the huge markups on earrings by making their own.

Things You'll Need

• Wire
• Round-nose pliers
• Chain-nose pliers
• Beads
• Charms

Instructions

Making French Ear Wires

1. Cut a 3-inch piece of 22-gauge wire with your cutting pliers. Three inches is probably too long for a standard French ear wire, but you can always cut off the tip if you have too much wire; you cannot make more wire if you start with a piece that is too small.

2. Wrap the tip of the wire around your round-nose pliers to create a small loop. This loop is your connector to any beads or charms you want to dangle from your earrings.

3. Bend the wire just above the loop at a 90-degree angle using chain-nose pliers. You should make sure you have bent the wire at almost exactly a right angle, or your beads will dangle at an angle from your earring.

4. Wrap the free tail of the wire around the wide base of your round-nose pliers or a thin marker to create the rounded part of the ear wires that hang inside your ear. You should keep wrapping the wire around your mandrel until it reaches about three-quarters of the way to a full circle.

5. Bend the remainder of the free straight wire tail slightly up, using your chain-nose pliers. Cut off any excess wire and hammer your earring to work-harden it.

6. Repeat the process to make the second ear wire for a pair.

Assembling your Earrings

1. Cut a 1-inch piece of wire and wrap its end around your round-nose pliers to create a small loop. Open up this loop slightly with the pliers, slip the loop at the bottom of the earring onto your newly created loop, and then use your pliers to squish the wire loop shut so that the earring loop cannot fall out of it.

2. Slide a bead onto the free wire and wrap the other end of the wire around your pliers again to create a second loop.

3. Open up your second loop slightly, slip on a small charm or gemstone pendant, and close the loop again by squeezing it shut with pliers. This should leave you with a bead and then a focal component dangling from your handmade French earwire. Repeat to create your other earring.

References

• Witty Living: Wire Wrap Jewelry-Make an Ear Wire
• Witty Living: Wire Wrap Jewelry-How to Make a Bead Link