No Wire Hangers!
When making these wire earrings, they reminded me of wire hangers. Though I’m not a real fan of wire hangers normally, I think these little ones make cute earrings when you add a few beads.
You’ll need:
approx. 5 inches of wire (18-22 gage)
four 4mm beads
2 ear hooks
round nosed pliers
flat/bent nosed pliers
wire cutters
jewelers’ files
Since I just created this earring design and am still practicing, I used 20 gage galvanized wire I got from the hardware store. Once I make a few more practice pairs, I think these would look nice in either sterling or gold-filled wire. I also used howlite beads, though you could use any beads as long as they fit on your wire.
1. Use round nosed pliers and loop the end of the wire over the pliers.
2. Now wrap the wire around itself. This is done by keeping the round nose of the pliers threaded through the loop and using bent or flat nosed pliers to do the wrapping.
3. Now measure ¾ inches away from the loop and bend the wire by placing the round nose pliers on at the spot to bend and using your fingers to bend the wire at a 90 degree angle.
4. Bend the wire loop around the area where the wire is wrapped so it is straight up.
5. Slip on your 4 beads.
6. Again bend the wire, but this time you’ll bend it up towards the loop.
7. Now hold the triangle part of the wire with flat or bent nosed pliers, and wrap the wire around the area that was wrapped before. You can either use your fingers to wrap the wire if it’s soft enough, or you might want to use another pair of pliers.
8. Trim off excess wire, file the end of the wire, and bend over to make it flush.
9. Add an ear hook.
10. Repeat steps 1-9 for another earring to match.
These wire hanger earrings have a simple elegance to them, and there are a lot of design possibilities that I intend to explore. However, just by changing the type of wire or beads, you can make a number of different looks with this easy project.
Here's a printer friendly copy of this file.
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All graphics created by Tammy Powley.
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