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Hi this is Megan with Beadaholique.com and today I'm going to show you
how to make
these wire wrapped gemstone earring components. This is for the desert shores
earring
and you can find the step-by-step
instructions on how to make the whole earring under the free beading projects
section on Beadaholique.com
So this is what the completed earring looks like
and these are the two components that I'm gonna teach you how to make in this
video
If you have watched my video on how to make wire wrapped gemstone set
the one that uses the impression jasper and the copper wire
this is the same
basic unit
that you make in that one
if you watched that one, you're familiar, you'll have a
leg up on it for this one and this one is very slightly different
so
we're gonna need some wire. I
have eighteen gauge and twenty-four gauge
silver plated non-tarnish
craft wire
and I have some turquoise beads
I have a 10mm bead and I believe that's a 6mm
and then we need
Wubbers bail making pliers and I have the large size here
I need nylon jaw pliers
almost anytime you're working with
craft wire you'll need your
nylon pliers
and your flush cutters
I have round nose pliers
and I have a pair of regular chain nose pliers. You want to be careful when you're
working with the craft where the chain nose pliers can ding up the metal
but it's also sometimes a lot easier to get a nice firm grip with these than it
is with these. So sometimes you can carefully use these to
better effect
so to start
and going to you to chose a bead
one of the larger and one of the smaller beads
you can do this with any size beads that you want as long as you can find
something cylindrical to use
to make
the first curve
I'm going to use the bail making pliers but
if you want to use a different size bead, if you can find something cylindrical that will
match
the size of your bead
you can go ahead and use that instead
so if you had
a larger bead and you had
a dowel or something that was a similar
diameter to the
diameter of the bead you could use that
So next I'm going to cut
a couple of lengths of my
eighteen gauge wire
go ahead and
better safe than sorry cut yourself about six or seven inches
cut two pieces
that's one for each component
you wanna straightening out
your wire so use your round nose pliers to put a little
bent loop at the end
and use the nylon pliers to straighten your wire
You always want to start with your wire nice and straight with no kinks and no
bends
it'll make it a lot easier
to get a nice smooth finish
on your piece
and then once your wire is smooth
go ahead and clip off the loop
When your cutting thick wire
the ends can fly so always wear eye protection
or hold on to the end just
be really careful
okay so now I'm going to make
this link first
so I'm going to take
one of my pieces of wire
and then take my
bail making pliers and use the larger
side
and this is
actually I think about a millimeter smaller than my bead
and that's ok it will be snug but it will stretch out to fit, so you just
need to have something similar
bend the two sides of your wire up
you're going to pinch in
towards the center
with your thumb and your forefinger
to try to get a nice
teardrop shape
should look like that
you're going to cut
piece of
twenty-four gauge wire
the twenty-four gauge wire you can actually get pretty straight with your fingers
unless it's really kinked up and then you will want to go ahead and straighten out
put this wire through the hole
on your bead
place the bead
into
the opening on the teardrop but like I said this is a little slightly bit larger so
it will
open out at the end that's fine
you can bend it back close later
hold the bead
in place
inside the wire frame
take
one side of the twenty-four gauge wire
and
wrap it around
the edge of the frame
get that nice and tight
and then
go on to the other side and let that one just hold your place
and your bead might move around it might go crooked in there and that's ok
you can just adjust it, just put it back straight
so that it's right
perpendicular from
the top pieces that are going out
okay now you're going to wrap
both sides around a few more times
I'll have about
three or four wraps. I wanna make sure that it's nice and
secure
you can use your nylon jaw pliers to pull on the end of your wire and
tighten that up
and then you can very gently used chain nose pliers
to bring the coils
together tightly
so wrap-around
there or four times, make sure it's
holding securely
straighten out your bead
you're gonna wanna take
the last piece of wire to the back and use your flush cutters
to cut off the extra right in the middle so that the
edge of the wire can lay flat against the back and not show on the front
and this is one
place where I prefer to use the
chain nose pliers to the nylon jaw. I feel like I can get this tighter
but do be gentle so that you don't ding up your wire
and take
the chain nose pliers and just
make sure that the
end of you're wires
pushed flat down
all the way to the back
and then you can see this sits forward
of the wire frame
you can just push it back a little bit
center it up
and you're going to take
the opening here that's opened up a little and
close it backed up
and you want to use your
side of your fore finger and your thumb to get that
teardrop shape back
so that the ends go parallel and right next to each other
to the end
cut yourself another piece of
twenty-four gauge wire
when you're gonna use this wire for wrapping cut yourself
six inch pieces at a time if that it's
easy for you to work with, if you need it longer to work with
you'll have a little bit more to throw away at the end but
whatever's going to
make it a neater product for you would be what I would recommend so
if you find it more comfortable to work with a longer piece go ahead and cut a piece
now I'm going to wrap around the top of my tear drop shape and I want
my wrappings to stay right
towards the place where they open up
wrap that
about four times
nice and securely and it is gonna feel like it moves around a little bit
pull it tight
bend the ends out and that is going to help secure that
just make sure that the wires are going to stay in place then you're okay
trim off your ends at the back
take your chain nose pliers
squish that down
flatten it and it's gonna make it more secure
now you're
going to trim
the ends
You want to give about an inch from the top of your wire wrapping
and you want to be sure that you using the
the flat side of your flush cutters towards your piece so you get a nice flat
cut on the wire
make sure that the wires have a little bit of a gap in between them
you can gently bend them out if you need to
grab the very end of the wire towards the tip of your round nose pliers
and as you turn
moved down the wire so that you get a gradual spiral instead of it
and a complete circle
bend that down
flip it over
do the same thing with the other side
so that is going to be how you do
the bottom component for this earring
and then we're gonna just the top component
start with your other piece of wire
and your round nose pliers
and pinch the center of the wire between the round nose pliers
just a bit from the base of the pliers, do this loop at the top
used to hang the earring
bend down
crossed your ends over and go ahead and make that loop
then you're gonna take the smaller side of your large
bail making pliers
and you can't
squish this like you did with the other
time obviously because it flattens that loop or so
hold the pliers hold your piece and just go ahead and bend it without closing
them
then you can move it over to the side to get the
same kind of closing that you had with the tear drop shape on the other one
using the side of your forefinger and thumb
You want a shape
like that
and then you're going to do the same thing that you did with the other component
to anchor your bead
take a piece of 24 gauge wire
go through the bead
hold it on
in place
right there on you wireframe
just like we did with
the other one you're going to wrap
around the side
on the other side
you want to wrap around about three times. This one is smaller, you don't have
a lot of room but you do want to get a few
solid wraps around there to hold it in place
move your wraps
back to the center
bring them in line
trim off the back
make sure they're where you want them before you
tighten them
they'll be harder to move once you do
and then again you're gonna just make sure that that centered
when you look at it from the side
bring your
ends
together
wrap this just like you did
in this other piece here
make sure that your sides don't get twisted like that make sure that they
lay flat next to each other side by side
get a few good wraps
around
trim your access at the back
make sure that that's nice and tight and the ends are flat
you're going to trim this
again about an inch from the end of your wrapping
and just like the other one
use your round nose pliers
to bend
the ends into a spiral
there's your second component
you can see
the bulk of what is involved in these earrings
you also need to watch a video on how to use
the Wubber bail making pliers to make jump rings or use another method to make
jump rings
to connect your two components and then and we also have a video on how to make
wire hook earrings
which is how you're gonna make the
earring hook or you can buy an earring hook and use that too
that is how you make the components that go into those earrings