Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Tutorial- Wire-Wrapped Bead Earrings

These earrings are super easy to make, and they're good for wire-wrapping beginners (like me).

Materials and tools needed:
2- 16" lengths of 20 gauge coated copper wire
3 pairs of glass beads (I used my own lampwork beads, but any will do)
a few small glass spacer beads
2 copper earring wires
Wire snippers
Small round nose pliers
(ignore the Needle nose crimper pliers- we won't need them for this project)

Form a coil at the end of the wire with the round needle nose pliers. String your beads on the wire. Thread the wire through the eyelet of the earring wire, bend at a 90 degree angle.

Bend the wire to form a loop and wrap it a couple of times, just above the top bead.

Wrap the wire 4-5 times around the round nose pliers.

Remove the pliers, bend the corkscrew down, and wrap the wire around the first bead(s), with the wire extending on the opposite side.

Continue wrapping the wire around the pliers and then around the beads, down to the bottom of the earring.
Wrap the wire around (or through) the bottom coil.

Trim the wire to about 1/2". Coil the remaining wire end and crimp or fold it up to the first coil. Straighten the base wire (the ones the beads are strung on) so that the earring dangles properly.
Voila!

2 comments:

Cyncalla said...

Very nice! This do not look simple at all... I'm impressed.

Kathleen Taylor said...

Thanks! They really are easy- it took me longer to set up the photos (and some came out fuzzy anyway), than it did to wrap the wires.