How to Make Indian Earrings

Use the DIY approach to make a pair of Indian chandelier earrings.

Make a pair of Indian 'chandelier' earrings to add an exotic, fancy accessory to your outfit. Chandelier earrings have a metal top piece that is usually intricate, like metal filigree, with loops on the bottom edge from which strings of beads hang. Use chandelier earring findings, which do not have any beads or earring hooks attached to them yet--adding the beading design is up to you. Follow a specific procedure for linking beads together to hang from the chandelier earrings.

Things You'll Need

• Beads
• Ruler
• Head pins
• Wire cutters
• Round nose pliers
• Eye pins
• Chandelier earring findings
• Earring hooks

Instructions

1. Feed the end of a head pin through the hole of a 1/4-inch bead. Cut the head pin above the bead at about 3/8-inch with wire cutters. Bend the wire to a 90-degree angle directly above the head pin.

2. Grip the end of the head pin with a pair of round nose pliers and turn the pliers back to make a loop. Straighten the loop so that it is standing straight up from the top of the bead--this is the bead that will go on the bottom of the series of hanging beads. Make one bottom bead for each series of hanging beads for each loop on the chandelier earring findings.

3. Slip a bead onto an eye pin, which is like a head pin, only with a loop on the end instead of a small round flat piece of metal. Trim the wire of the pin 3/8-inch above the bead and make another loop on the top of the bead. Repeat this process for each bead that will be above the bottom beads in the series of hanging beads.

4. Connect the middle and bottom beads by opening the loops on the bottom beads. Grip the open end of the loop with the round nose pliers and gently bend to the side to slightly open the loop. Slip the bottom loop of one of the middle beads through the opening and push it closed with the pliers by going the opposite way as when you opened the loop. Connect all of the hanging beads this way.

5. Open the top loops of the top beads in each series of hanging beads and hang them on the loops of the chandelier earring findings. Close the loops.

6. Grip the open end of the loop at the bottom of an earring hook, feed it through the loop at the top of the chandelier earring finding and push the loop back together. Repeat the process for the other earring.

References

• Making Beaded Jewelry: Make Chandelier Earrings as Long Crystal Earrings
• Fusion Beads: Techniques: Simple Loop