Introduction: Cute Dropping Heart Earrings!
Heya!
I used inspiration by a comment from one of my previous Instructables and made a sort of spiral and drop sort of earring. This is actually pretty simple to make despite how nice it looks (I practically finished it in 1 or 2 sittings).
Supplies
I actually didn't take a picture of the materials this time and by the time I realized it was too late (whoops). I'll just list them here:
- 1 mm thick silver wire
- Pliers
- Wire cutters
- 2 pearl beads (I used about 0.4 or 0.5 cm diameter)
- 2 hanging type bead (something with a loop on the top or the bead hole at the very top should work. I used 2 pink heart ones)
- Paper & pencil
Step 1: Drawing Out the Basic Shapes
I'll usually start most of my jewelry making projects by drawing out the important shapes and parts of a piece of paper beforehand. That way, I can get the shapes more exact. This is especially useful if you need to make more than 1 of a shape or need 2 identical parts.
Anyways, draw out an earring shape and the spiral looking shape like I did in the picture. For the earring, I used one of my actual earrings as a reference to be more exact in shape and size. For the main spiral shape, I actually traced a small circle out first and then re-drew one side to give it the spirally shape.
Step 2: Bend the Earring Shape
Using the drawing as a guide, try to bend out the earring shape.
What I did was first take a good estimate on how much wire will be used for the loop (where the earring will hung) and how much wire space the pearl will take. Right above where I think the pearl will go, that's where I make the sharp bend. I then put in the pearl through the side where I saved space for it and bend the loop afterwards, locking the pearl in place.
When that sharp bend is right after the pearl, the pearl doesn't jiggle too freely and won't slide off the earring because the bend was sharp enough.
Anyway, after the sharp bend, the loop, and the pearl is in there, use a pencil and wrap the wire around it to get that nice rounded shape earrings have. Leave some straight wire after that and then slightly bend the end upwards. Cut off the excess.
Now just repeat with the second earring. You can use this way of making the basic earring shape for pretty much any earring projects really. All you would have to do is add the dangling bit later on.
Step 3: Bend the Spiral Shape and Make the Jumper Rings
To make the circular shape of the spiral, I wrapped the wire around the same thing I used to trace it's base on paper (yep, a mini magnifying glass). I then bent the ends and sides a bit so one end would go more inwards and the other outwards like the drawing showed. Then, I cut the excess while leaving enough space for making the loop, and I made the 2 loops. Repeat the process again so that you have 2 spiral shapes in total.
If you have 4 jumper rings, you don't have to make any by hand. I had 2, so I made 2 more by hand. To make a jumper ring, all you do is twist the wire into a circle about the size of a jumper ring, cut the excess, and make more if you need any.
Step 4: Earring Parts ASSEMBLE!!!
Now you just put the parts together.
Open 1 jumper ring and insert the dangling bead and the spiral's inner loop into it, then close it. Then open the second jumper ring and insert the earring loop and the spiral's outer loop into it, then close it.
Then, repeat with the remaining parts to make the second earring, and you're done!
Have a great day, and hope you guys found this Instructable helpful!