The Easiest Wire Earrings: Two-tone Dangle Earrings

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. Two-Tone Dangle Earrings: These earrings with a smaller wire in a different color as a cute touch of texture. For our third set of earrings, we are going to be using the 20 gauge breast wire again, and this is what we will be shaping the main hoop of the earring. The silver wire we use to wrap that hoop is 22 gauge to create a nice contrast and a pair of ear wires to finish the earrings. We have our ruler to measure the wire, and we have a three quarter of an inch diameter ring mandrel, which is a size ten, which we will shape the earrings on, and also the fingernail file to smooth down any rough edges. In pliers, we are using the wire straighteners again, our wire snips. We will be using the needle nose pliers and the flat nose pliers. To start off the earrings, we are going to pull out a length of wire and use the wire straighteners and smooth that wire down so that our final earrings are nice and smooth and there are no bumps or kinks in the wire. We will be king 3.5 " of our 20 gauge wire, we will place our wire on the ruler at that mark and then holding it tightly at the end, we'll pinch it with our fingers so that that measurement doesn't get lost and we'll take the wire snips and cut it off flush against our fingers. Now with the 22 gauge wire, we're going to do the same thing and pull out a little bit of wire and use the wire straighteners and smooth that wire out before we place it on the ruler and cut the length that we need. We are going to need 2.5 " of the 22 gauge wire, so we'll hold it on at that mark as we did before, holding it tightly at the end and then cutting it flush with the wire cutters. Next, we're going to file the ends of both wires. It's definitely easier smoothing the wire as you go instead of trying to file around your design at the end. Don't forget to roll that wire in between your thumb and finger as you file it so that it is evenly smooth. With both ends of the wire filed, we're going to take the 22 gauge wire and bend it in half, making the ends meet and pinching where the wire comes together until the middle of it is tight and the wires are crossed. Your 22 gauge wire should look like this. Now we are going to take that 20 gauge gold wire and we're going to place the 22 gauge silver wire at the center of it. We'll just slip that silver wire onto the gold wire, and then we will pull each side of the silver wire in opposite direction so that it is tightened up against the gold wire. With the silver wire attached to the gold wire, we are going to begin wrapping alternately either end of the silver wire around the gold wire. So we'll do one full wrap on the one side, and then one full wrap on the opposite side. As you go, you want to push the wire towards itself where you just wrapped it so that there aren't any gaps in that wrapped part. Alternate wrapping left and right, and pushing the wire against itself, tightening it as you go. Once we come to the end of the wire where we can no longer wrap it with our fingers, we will finish pressing it down using our flat nose pliers and gently squeezing that silver wire all the way flat against the gold. One last thing before we are finished with this wrap, we're going to use the flat nose pliers and squeeze the whole coil together so that there are no gaps in the wrapped section. With the wrap finish, we're going to create loops at both ends of the wire. These loops will be 90 degrees from each other. Using the needle nose pliers, we will place the wire into the pliers about a quarter of an inch down from the tip and then give it a little twist to create the loop. With this first loop made, we're going to turn the wire around. We're going to turn the wire so that first loop is pointing down. Then we're going to create a loop on this end 90 degrees from that first loop. In the same manner as before, we will place the wire in the pliers a quarter of an inch from the tip, and then give it a twist to create the loop. If you need to, at this point, you can hold one of those loops and twist each end in the opposite direction to make sure that they are exactly 90 degrees from each other. With the loops created, we will now shape the wire on the mandrel. You're going to place this loop on the ring mandrel so that it is facing the outside of the circle and then we will wrap the wire tightly around the ring mandrel. The loops will meet and then cross at the top, and you want to make sure that that second loop is flat against the mandrel. Now that we have the wire shaped, we're going to open up this loop with our needle nose pliers and place it underneath that top loop. Simply insert the pliers into that loop and gently pry it open just enough so that you can slip it over the wire underneath that top loop. Then close it again, making sure that it is nice and tight. With the circle created, we will adjust it to make sure that it is flat and round. Hold the top and bottom of the earring in your fingers and gently twist it to make sure that it is flat, firmly, but gently press the wire, and this bottom part where the wrap is probably will be a little bit flat, so you'll want to round it a little bit by pressing the top and bottom against each other to create a nice circle. Lastly, we'll attach the ear wire. Using the needle nose pliers, we will open the loop on the ear wires by twisting it to the side. And now we can attach the earring. We want to make sure that the face of the earring is towards the front of the ear wire. And then twist the loop on the ear wire closed. Subtly elegant and simply made. Congrats on completing the basic design series. 3. Thank you!: 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.