Weddingbee

Being that our wedding colors are teal and brown, I found it very complicated to find jewelry in those colors that was formal and wedding ready. So, what’s a bride to do? DIY!

I haven’t made jewelry since the friendship bracelet days in elementary school. Remember these? Ahh… days!

However, I thought well, maybe I could try this. If it doesn’t work out, no harm done! If it works out, one less thing to shop for!

I knew I wanted simple dangle earrings for my bridesmaids that would work with my plan of combining swarovski crystals with pearls in their necklaces. So, I started my search looking through my bridal magazines for inspiration. This is what I came up with after playing around with bead patterns.

There is a little bit of a sneak peek of the necklace to show how well it matches with the earrings.

These, at first, took a little bit of practice. I should have practiced making loops on plain wire, since two headpins did break in the process of the constant unbending and rebending to get a decent looking loop.

In my frustration, I found this great video on Fire Mountain Gems on how to make a simple loop right here. So, thank you Fire Mountain Gems for helping a bride out! The thumbnail trick in this video is what really worked for me in making loops on the wire.

So here is the supply list, pattern and step by step pictures of how I made my earrings.

Wire
* Silver headpins (one per earring but buy extras if you mess up!)
Headpins are pieces of wire with this little metal edge on the end to catch beads that you string on it.
* Ball and Coil earring posts

Here they are pictured above.

Pliers
* Cutting pliers (to cut excess wire)
* Round nose pliers (to make the loop)
* Flat nose pliers (to bend wire and to close the loop)

Beads
* 4mm bicone swarovski crystals (two needed of different colors per earring)
* 4mm swarovski pearls (one needed per earring)
* 6mm round swarovski crystals (one needed per earring)
* 3mm bali silver plated beads. These are very thin spacer beads. (two needed per earring)
* 3mm silver round beads (one needed per earring)

Pattern (from bottom to top)
3mm silver round bead, 4mm swarovski pearl, 3mm bali bead, 4mm bicone swarovski crystal (color 1), 6mm round swarovski crystal, 3mm bali bead, 4mm bicone swarovski crystal (color 2)

By the way, for these pictures, I’m making some LSU earrings, but in the same pattern. I made all my bridesmaids’ earrings during Hurricane Ike and didn’t think to take pictures.

Place your beads on the headpin in the pattern.

Using your flat nose pliers, bend the wire on top of the last bead at a 90 degree angle.

Using your cutting pliers, cut excess wire to where there is about 3/8 - 1/2 inch of wire remaining.

Put your thumbnail in the corner under the 90 degree bend, and at the same time, using your round nose pliers, grasp the end of the wire. Then, use the pliers to turn the wire in a complete loop. The thumbnail trick really helps to center the loop over the headpin and beads. (Sorry I couldn’t take a picture of this for you…I only have two hands and no tripod!)

Add the ball and coil earring post to the loop before closing it up with the flat nose pliers.

So, repeat this one more time, and VOILA! A pair of simple, formal earrings!!

Have you attempted DIYing with a craft that you haven’t tried before? How did it go?

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