How To Make Simple Earrings

One of the easiest jewelry projects to make is earrings. They are fast and simple to make and are a great starter project for beginners. Here I’ll show you how to make a simple pair of earrings. You’ll learn how to make a basic loop. You’ll need the following items:

MATERIALS

Beads of Varying Sizes
Two Head Pins
Two Earring Loops

TOOLS

Wire Cutters
Chain Nose Pliers
Round Nose Pliers

Here I’ve laid out my materials on my workspace and I’m ready to start beading. I have a finished earring here as well as some in progress:

The first step is to put some beads on your head pin. Play around with this for a while until you get a combination of beads that pleases you. Here I’m using a goldstone hippo bead with coordinating goldstone spherical beads. I’ve chosen to use silver colored head pins and earrings.

Once your beads are threaded onto the head pin, hold the pin upright so the beads slide to the bottom of the head pin. Keep them in place with your left hand. With your right hand, push the head pin sideways into a 90 degree angle.

Next, place your round nose pliers at the corner of the angled wire, with the wire gripped at about 3/16″ to 1/4″ from the top end of your pliers.

Placing Your Round Nose Pliers to Start the Loop

Grip tightly with your right hand to keep the pliers in place and with your left hand, pull the wire back toward you, rotating your right wrist clockwise as you do this. Or think of is as holding the wire in place with your left hand and just rotating your wrist with the right hand. Either way, you’ll end up with the wire coming back over the top of the pliers, forming the top of the loop.

Pulling the Wire and Rotating Your Wrist

Bringing the Wire Across the Top of the Pliers

Remove the pliers and grip the wire again, this time grabbing only the top wire and leaving the bottom wire free.

Grip tightly with your right hand so the wire does not slip. With your left hand, continue to push the wire down to form the side of the loop.

Pushing the Wire Down to Continue the Loop

Now pull the wire under the pliers and past the beads to finish forming the loop. The wire will stick out the back of the earrings at close to a 90 degree angle. Practice doing this step and the previous one in one smooth motion for the best loops.

Push the Wire Around and Under the Pliers to Finish the Loop

Your loop will be complete and a long tail will be sticking out the side. The loop should look like the picture below. Next you’ll need to trim off the excess tail. Grab your wire cutters and position the flat side against the base of the loop and cut.

Your loop will look a little funky at this point. Don’t worry!

Take your round nose pliers again and slide them into the loop. Open it up slightly until it is symmetrical and nicely rounded. If you feel like you still have too much tail, cut off a smidgen more.

Now you need to open your loop to slide in the earring finding. The WRONG way to do this is to take your round nose pliers and enlarge the diameter of the loop. NO NO NO!!! NEVER do this. This will destroy your loop and it will never look rounded again. Instead, take your chain nose pliers and pull the end of the looped wire outward to the side. In the picture below, I am pulling the end of the loop upward, toward myself.

Once you have the loop open, slide the earring finding onto the loop.

Then you’ll need to close the loop. Do this the opposite way that you opened it. Just push the wire back into place using your chain nose pliers.

Spend a minute making sure the entire head pin hasn’t shifted or bent during the loop making process. The best way to do this is to place your chain nose pliers at the base of the loop, secure the beads with your left hand, and then move the head pin right or left to adjust it as necessary. Also, make sure the loop is straight and the end of the wire is tucked in neatly into the base of the loop.