Earrings are always a nice gift, especially if they are hand-made.

These earrings are ideal as Christmas gifts, but neutral enough to wear all year round.

Even better, once you've got the materials, they only take ten minutes or so to produce the finished pair.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Silver-plated copper wire (I used 0.8mm thick wire, which is easily sourced at your favourite online auction website, but you could use any reasonably-soft metallic wire. Just remember that non-coated copper can turn skin green).

Silver-plated "fish hook" ear wires (I also purchased these online. Strangely, it proved far cheaper to buy a pack of five pairs than a single pair. Hundreds were even cheaper. You could use any ear-fixing you like, but I wanted the dangle effect).

Narrow-nosed pliers (I used my Leatherman, but specialist jewellery pliers are available quite cheaply).

A sharp pencil (If you're going to make lots of these, I would recommend sharpening a dowel, since the pencil "lead" can be snapped off quite easily).

Step 2: Wrapping.

The wire I used cam in a six metre length, way more than I needed, or was convenient to handle, so I cut off a few turns of the coil.

Using the pliers, I made a small loop in the end of the wire, and held it at the point of the pencil.

I then wrapped the wire around the pencil until it "looked right".

Wrapping was fiddlier than it sounds, because the wire tried to slide along to the point, which messed up the slope of the spiral. I found that the easiest thing to do was hold the pencil in my right hand with my little and ring fingers, wrap the wire around the point with my thumb and first two fingers, and keep the coil pushed firmly onto the point of the pencil with my left hand.

Step 3: The Trunk.

These are supposed to be trees, so they need a trunk.

I bent the wire directly across the base of the tree, then down at a 90º angle, and trimmed it off to an aesthetically-pleasing length.

Step 4: Repeat

Earrings traditionally come in pairs, so you'll need to make a second.

As you make your second earring, it's important to keep an eye on your first, comparing as you go to make sure the two aerrings end up as similar as possible.

Box them up, present them to the intended recipient, and you're done.

Kitewife is wearing these as I type.