Tutorial: Summery Earrings

Finding myself wanting something a little more summery, today I made these:

If you have a couple of hours and would like to make your own earrings, here's how!

You will need:
-a pack of more than 30 (probably 40 to be safe) beads of your choosing for each pair of earrings you plan to make; I used some 3-mm turquoise beads and some 5-mm red glass beads (I'll post a picture of those at the end.
-a pack of earring bases - whatever kind you like, as long as you can connect a chain to them.
-a matching chain - make sure it's not too fine; otherwise, you won't be able to attach the beads.
-matching head pins - I picked up an 80-pack; that'll cover 2 sets of earrings if you like (you use 30 per pair)
-jewelry pliers with a wire cutter edge (or separate wire cutters) - they're kind of like needle nose pliers but with rounded pincers.  If that makes any sense.  If not, mine appear in one of the photos, so have a look.  Mine also have a wire cutting edge on them; this is crucial.  I highly recommend picking up a better pair; you can get the super cheap ones for about 6 dollars, but I don't recommend doing that.  Even the nice ones beat the heck out of your hands after an hour, so imagine how the less-nice ones will feel!
-it helps to have a little box as pictured below, to help keep everything corralled in one spot.

I picked everything up at Michael's for about 17 dollars (MINUS the jewelry pliers, which I already had).  They were having a great sale on jewelry making supplies, particularly the beads.  Don't know if that's still going on, but you can probably either find a coupon or wait for another sale - I am starting to think that anyone who pays full price for everything at Michael's must be actively trying to avoid saving money.

Here are some photos of my supplies:

I chose these little 3-mm turquoise beads because they just felt so summery

I adore this little box.  Wish I'd had this while making like 10 pairs of earrings for my wedding...

head pins

Some of the required materials

 Step 1 - prepare the beads and head pins:

You will need to trim down the head pins to approximately the length of the ones on the left.

Put each bead on a head pin and trim the pin to the length shown above.  15 beads for each earring.

 Step 2 - bending the head pins.  You're going to need to create little hooks on the end of each one.

Start by bending the head pin one way...

Then, bend the upper part back to create a hook...

...like so.

You should end up with a cute little array of these.

 Step 3 - attaching the chain to the earring.  You will need to cut a length of chain with 16 links - one for attaching to the earring, and then 15 more, one for each bead.

Most earring findings or whatever they're called have somewhere you can attach a chain.  With these ones, I had to open up this loop just a little bit using my pliers, slip the chain on, and close it again.

I LOVE these pliers.

 Step 4 - attaching the beads.  Stick the hook through the link of the chain (starting right below the link that fastens to the earring base), and close, using the pliers.  Work your way down the chain, attaching them in a spiraling pattern around the chain as you go.  It was impossible for me to photograph this with just my two hands at work, but it should make sense once you have the project in hand; if not, I can try and persuade my husband to help me get some better pictures.

It'll get tough toward the end as there's less chain to hold on to, but with a little bit of patience, you'll get through it.

As I said, I made 2 pairs today.  Here are some shots of the red ones in action:

Please let me know if this tutorial needs any further detail or explanation!  And let me know if you make some of your own!  Please note that you can totally get creative with the length of the earrings (just adjust the number of beads you set up accordingly), as well as the shape - when I made earrings for all the bridesmaids in my wedding as well as for myself, I made a variety of different shapes and sizes.  They're on my old computer, so I'll have to dig those up and add them later :)