Make Chandelier Earrings and Other Earring Designs Yourself
Post earrings are the easiest to make because the earring hardware is made with a small metallic circle and you simply glue beads, charms or other novelties onto the hardware. You’ll find thousands of tiny trinkets that you can attach to the post earrings which can be made in minutes.
Wire earrings take a little more time but are also very simple to make. There are so many different styles, bead combinations, and color combinations that it’s simply your choice in how to arrange them. Start by cutting a piece of fishing twine about 8″ long. As you make earrings you’ll come to realize about how long of a piece you need to begin but 8″ will allow you enough to make a short or long dangling earring.
Thread one end of the twine through the loop of the wire earring piece. Bring the ends together and slide the first bead onto the two piece of twine. If the bead hole is too small for two twine pieces to pass through use a tiny dot of glue to hold the two pieces together at the top, just below the wire hole. Now slide the first bead on, all the way up to the glue. Begin adding other beads until finished. When you’ve placed the last bead on the twine touch the top of it with a glue gun then slide it up to the previous bead. The tiny bit of glue will hold the bead to the twine.
That technique makes short or long earrings that are all on one strand. To make earrings that are on two strands thread one end of an 8″ long piece of twine through the earring hole. If you want the two strands to hang at the same length align them to be equal in length. If you want one strand to be shorter position the twine accordingly. One design requires you to first put a bead onto the two pieces of twine then start adding single beads to single twine. You can also eliminate the first bead, which goes onto both twine pieces, and just begin placing beads onto each individual twine piece. When you get to the last bead, slide it onto the twine, touch the top bead hole with glue, and slide it on the rest of the way. Another pattern is to place one final bead over the ends of both twine pieces which will then form a loop in an oval shape rather than leaving the strands dangling.
To make chandelier-type earrings you’ll need craft wire. The wire should be strong enough to hold a shape but thin enough to pass through the earring hole. There are so many designs that can be made from a few pieces of wire. One design is a mere hoop with a dangling trinket in the bottom center. Form the wire into a circle then place the trinket on the hoop. Begin placing beads on the hoop , first on one side, then the other. Alternating the sides that you thread will make it easier to keep up with how many beads you have on each side of the trinket. Without doing this the trinket could hang off-center. When you get to the ends of the wire squirt some hot glue into the hole of the earring hardware. Insert the ends into the hole with glue then hold them together while the glue dries.
Make the above design without the trinket in the center, but instead, add another hoop that dangles off the first hoop. Make the above design and find the bottom center of the hoop. Make another hoop, with beads, then slide it over the first hoop. To secure the ends of the second hoop squirt hot glue into the hole of the bead then place the wires into the bead holes. Hold them together until dry.
Another cute design is an oval made from beads and wire. Instead of forming a circle with the wire shape it into an oval. Proceed with threading the beads and attaching the end wires in the earring loop hardware.
Slide a long piece of wire into the earring hole then bend the wire to form two ovals or circles, one on each side of the earring hole. Make one hoop larger than the other for them to dangle properly. When you get to the final bead fill it with glue before sliding it onto the wire.
Experiment with the wires, fishing twine, beads, trinkets and other jewelry-making accessories and you’ll come up with dozens of more designs of your own. The unique thing about making your own earrings is they’ll all be one-of-a-kind.
