DIY Gold & White Beaded Wire Earrings

Hey, y'all!  As I'm sure you've noticed, I've been all about jewelry making lately.  When the weather finally warms up, I'll be back to working on furniture makeovers and wall decor, but when it's cold, making jewelry is a great indoor craft.  This weekend I tried my hand at making wire jewelry.  The end result was a pair of Gold & White Beaded Wire Earrings.  Once I figured out my technique, they were really easy to make.

To make your own beaded wire earrings, you'll need a few basic jewelry-making supplies.

Supplies:

• 24 Gauge Wire
• 20 Gauge Wire
• Small Beads
• Two Earring Hooks or Lever Back Earring Findings
• Ruler
• Round Nosed Pliers
• Flat Nose or Needle Nose Pliers
• Wire Cutter (My other pliers cut wire.)

To begin making my earrings, I cut a length of 20 gauge wire.  (I didn't measure the wire that I cut, but I would guess it was 7 or 8 inches long.)  I used my round nose pliers to create a loop on the end of the wire.  I will admit that I am terrible at making loops with wire, and I don't think I ever make loops the same way twice.  For that reason, I encourage you to find someone else's blog post on how to make wire loops.  Maybe you can learn the correct way the first time and won't struggle like I do.  Once I created the loop, I began creating a long, skinny wire rectangle by using my pliers to bend a 90 degree angle in the wire.

I measured 1/8" from my initial 90 degree angle and created another 90 degree angle in the opposite direction.  (See the picture above.)

I used my ruler to measure 1 1/2" and again used my pliers to create another 90 degree angle.

I used my pliers to bend the wire again 1/4" from the last bend.

I measured 1 1/2" inches again and bent the wire into one last 90 degree angle.  I wrapped the excess wire above the rectangle that I created.

While the plain wire rectangle would make a pretty pair of earrings, I decided to add beads to mine using 24 gauge wire.

I cut about five inches of the 24 gauge wire and twisted one end of it around the bottom of my wire rectangle.  I then threaded beads onto the wire.

After I finished beading the wire, I wrapped the end around the top of the rectangle and cut off the excess.  I then repeated all the steps above to create a second beaded wire rectangle.  The last step to creating my earrings was adding a lever back earring finding to each beaded wire rectangle.  I would have preferred to use earring hooks instead, but I don't have any gold ones in my craft stash.  (That or I've hidden them from myself, which is very likely.)

I think the finished earrings are unique and pretty.  I've been crushing on gold and white lately, so I'm loving the bead combo.

If I were to make the earrings again, I would practice my loop making skills a bit more.  (If you have an easy way to create wire loops, please share with me in the comments!)  I'd also shorten the distance between the wire loop and the top of the wire rectangles.  This was a learning process for me though, and I'm excited to make some more wire jewelry in the future. Related Posts:

 Simple Silver Earrings

 Simple DIY Earrings

Rhinestone & Chain Earrings