The Easiest Wire Earrings: Heart Studs

1. Introduction: Hello, folks. Katrina Anderson here. In this class, I'm going to be showing you how to create these three basic designs. We'll cover the tools and materials you need, and we'll go over each step for you to make these beautiful earrings. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the class. 2. Heart Stud Earrings: To the second video for these heart stud earrings. The second set of earrings that we will be making are these heart shaped stud or post earrings. We will form the post and then wrap the opposite end of the wire into the heart shape. First up, materials for these earrings. We have 20 gauge wire and I chose a tarnish resistant silver plated wire for these studs. Next, we've got a ruler and we'll need 1.5 " of wire for these hearts, which are about a quarter of an inch across. We have the fingernail file to smooth the ends of our wire so nothing is sharp. And the tools, we will be using our wire straighteners, the wire snips or cutters, and we will be shaping the earrings with the needle nose pliers. To begin creating our earrings, we're going to pull out a length of wire and straighten it out with our wire straighteners to make sure it's nice and smooth. Next, we will place it on the ruler. And for the earrings which are a quarter of an inch across, we are going to measure an inch and a half of wire. We'll place it onto the ruler and holding it at an inch and a half, we'll pinch it with our fingers at the end, and then we will use our wire cutters and cut that off flush to our fingers. Once we have cut the wire, we will file both ends with our fingernail file so that the end of the post and the inside of the heart are both smooth and they won't snag on anything. As you file the wire, you can roll it between your thumb and finger to make sure that that wire is smoothed evenly and then also test the tip of the wire against your fingertip to make sure that it is all smooth. With the tips smooth, we will now create the post, and these can be anywhere from three eighths to half inch long, and I'm going to make these in half inch. I'm going to hold it there at that measurement, and then using Mighty nos pliers, I'm going to grasp it and turn the wire 90 degrees to create the shaft. Now that our wire is bent and the shaft has been created, we can now begin shaping the heart. To do that, we will place the wire long ways in the pliers, about a quarter of an inch down from the tip and holding it there with the wire flush to the edge of the pliers, we will bend that long end around to about the center of the point of the heart, which will be directly underneath that shaft. With the first half of the heart made, we will hold the pliers right here at the point of the heart and we will bend that long end back up to create the second half of the heart. Keep in mind as you bend that long end up, that you want it to be at the same angle as the first edge of the heart. To finish shaping the heart, we are going to start at the tip of the wire and with little turns, we're going to move the pliers along the wire, twisting it inwards towards the center of the heart. Now we have the other end in the center of the heart. You can see that this one is a little off center, so I'll just bend the wire on both sides until it's the shape that I want it. The more often you make this design, the less adjusting you will have to do at the end because you will have figured out just the right spots to turn and bend the wire so that that heart is perfectly shaped. On the flip side, sometimes those lopsided hearts are pretty cute, really the shape of the heart is up to you and how much you want to keep adjusting it. Another note, you can bend the wire in opposite directions when creating the heart so that the hearts are mirrored, or as I did, you can take the wire and bend those ends in the same direction so that the hearts match exactly. Great job on those heart studs. I'll see you in the next video. 3. Outtro: Katrina here to say thank you again for watching my video. If you would do me a favor, it would be super helpful if you left a review and comments, letting me know how this video went for you, ways that I might be able to improve these videos for you, as well as ideas on what you might like to see next. If you want to see more wire jewelry tutorials, be sure to go check out the rest of the videos on my page. That's it for now. I'll catch you next time.