Transcripts
1. Dragonfly dangles intro: Hello, and welcome
to a new tutorial. Katrina here and today
we are going to be creating some adorable
dragonfly dangle earrings. Create this design on
its own as a charm, or as we're going to be
doing in this tutorial, we can add some ear wires and
create a pair of earrings. This design is actually a lot simpler to make than
it May 1 appear. Using just a couple
of basic pliers, we're going to create
loops in the wire. We're going to twist
the wire around itself, and we will use our pliers and our fingers to bend
and shape the wire. I'm so happy to have you here, and I'm excited to share
this design with you, so let's go ahead and
jump into the tutorial.
2. Dragonfly dangles: These dragonfly dangle
earrings are both elegant and fun and also
super simple to make. After sketching out and designing this dragonfly
on piece of paper, I made a little prototype, and I knew it would be perfect for creating a pair of earrings. So that is what we
are going to be doing in this tutorial. I'm super excited to share
this fun design with you, so let's jump into what we
need to create these earrings. First of all, we need a set or a pair of earrings or ear wires, and then for our wire, we're going to be
using a 20 gauge wire, and I chose a silver
plated copper. Next, we have a file, and for our pliers, we will be using our round nose pliers. We have our chain nose pliers. We also have our
Nylon jaw pliers, and then we have
our wire cutters. Now, you know what time it is? It's time to pause the video, grab your tools and supplies, and let's get into creating
this wire jewelry design. I always like to
start with our Nylon jab pliers to straighten out the wire to make
sure that we have a nice smooth wire to
start creating with. To begin the design, we are going to use
our round nose pliers, and we are first going to grasp the very end
of the wire and bend it around into a loop to create the
head of the dragonfly. Because this is
where we are going to be attaching the ear wire, we want to give it a
little extra strength, so be sure to twist this loop two times around so that the
wire is doubled up. After creating the loop, we want to bend it
backwards a little bit so that it is centered
over the long end of the wire. Now, I have my prototype here to measure the length of
the dragonfly against. But if you would
like to know how big the dragonfly is that I made, it's about 2 " wide for the wingspan and an inch
and a quarter long. Decide how long you want the
tail of the dragonfly to be, and then using your
round nose pliers, create a bend in the wire. Essentially folding
the wire in half, we are then going to use
the Nylon jaw pliers to help us hold that
bend in the wire, and then we are going to
take each end of the wire, and we are going to
begin twisting it around itself to create the
tail of the dragonfly. We're going to continue this
twisting motion all the way up to the top where we have that loop that
we first created. Use your Nylon jaw
pliers to straighten out the tail of the
dragonfly as needed. Then we are going to take
the long end of the wire and begin creating the first
wing of the dragonfly. Simply using my
thumb and finger, I'm going to create a
slight curve into the wire. Then with my chain nose pliers, or you can use your
round nose pliers, we're going to bend the wire over to create the
tip of the wing. Adjusting and bending
the wire as you go until you are satisfied
with the shape of the wing. Bringing the long
end of the wire up over the top
of the dragonfly, we are then going
to bend the wire back around to create
the second wing, and we're going to do this
in a figure eight pattern. Again, using our chain of pliers to create the
tip of the wing, we are then going to
bring the wire over the top of the
dragonfly again and so that these two wings have now created a sort of
figure eight pattern. Now we are going to
take the long end of the wire and wrap it around the body of the dragonfly to help secure these wings. We're going to use
this method to create the second set of wings, and I made mine
just a little bit narrower than the first
set of wings above it. Using your fingers or
the pliers to create a slight curve in the
wing and then using our pliers to hold
the wire as we bend it around to create
the point of the wing. Criss crossing it
over the top of the dragonfly body and then
back around in that figure eight pattern using our chains pliers to create the
point or tip of the wing, and then bringing
it back towards the body of the dragonfly. We're then going to take
that long end of wire, and I gently pushed the
second set of wings upwards so that it was sitting right against the
first pair of wings, and then I wrapped the
long end of wire around the body of the dragonfly
to secure these wings. Once we have finished
creating the wings and secured them
onto the dragonfly, we can cut off the excess
wire with our wire cutters. Then using the chains pliers, make sure that the
end of wire is pressed down against
the dragonfly. Be sure to use your file
to smooth down both ends of the wire so that there
are no rough or sharp edges. We have completed
our first dragonfly. Now we can attach the ear wires. Opening the loop
on the ear wire, I'm then going to find the face or the front of the dragonfly, and then I'm going to
attach the ear wire into the loop or the
head of the dragonfly, and on closing it, we have completed
the first earring. Now repeat all of these steps to create your second
dragonfly earring. You can use your
first earring as a pattern or just
make sure you have all of your measurements
the same so that you can create
a matching set. I hope you enjoyed
creating these earrings as much as I enjoyed sharing
the design with you. Once again, thank you
so much for watching, and I look forward to seeing
you in the next video.
Katrina Anderson, DIY wire jewelry and craft tutorials
