Using Beads with Wire: 3 Earring Designs

1. Introduction: Hello folks and welcome to another class. In these videos, I will be showing you how to create three different earring designs that include adding beads to your wire. The first design that we will be making is this fun tear drop dangle earring. This method can be used on any shape of bead as long as you are able to thread the wire through the bead and then wrap at least half of the bead with your wire. The next earrings that we will be creating are these chain drop earrings. With this design, we will be learning how to make a chain, as well as adding beads to the wire. Our final set of earrings is this fun half beaded hoop. This design is super versatile and you can add as many or as few beads as you would like to the hoop as you wrap the wire. If you found these video tutorials helpful, I'm sure you'll enjoy the other videos and tutorials that I have on my page. I would also love it if you could read and review my class so that I know how to best create these videos so that they are easier for you to understand. Thanks for watching once more. And now let's go ahead and jump into the class and start creating these bead and wire earrings. 2. Wire-wrapped Teardrop Earrings: The first design that we will be creating are these fun tear drop dangle earrings. For our supplies, we will be using a 20 gauge craft wire that I chose as silver plated copper. This pairs well with the turquoise color of my teardrop shaped beads, you can use any shape of bead for this design. Also, I have my French hooks in silver to match the wire. The tools we will be using are the nylon drop pliers, the wire cutters, the needle nose pliers, and the flat nose pliers. To begin creating the earrings, we will pull out a length of wire and straighten it with our nylon jaw pliers. Next we're going to add our bead onto the wire, leaving about 2 " of excess wire. That short end of the wire we're going to bend up and over the top of the bead using the flattenose pliers. We will then bend that wire straight up so that it is vertical from the center of the bead. Next, we are going to take the long end of the wire which we've left on the spool so that we can begin wrapping it around and around the bead. Continue wrapping the wire around the bead, pricing it tightly against the bead so that it holds its shape onto the bead. Use your nylon jaw pliers to tighten the wire against the bead so that it holds its shape and is less likely to spring back as craft wire usually does. Once you are satisfied with how much wire is on your bead, we'll take the wire cutters and snip the wire. Next we are going to take our needle nose pliers and hide that end of the wire up inside of the wrap that we have on the bead press that in tightly inside of the wrapping so that it stays tucked in there and doesn't pop out. We will then press down the wire once more all around with our fingers and the nylon jaw pliers. Next we are going to be creating the loop at the top of the bead using our needle nose pliers. We will take the wire and bend it over 90 degrees, adjusting our pliers in the wire. We will take that long end of the wire and bring it around, creating a loop. Then we will readjust our pliers again and then wrap that short end of the wire around underneath the base of the loop down towards the bead. Switching to our flat nose pliers. We will then press that short end of the wire tightly against the wrap, pressing it into and hiding that end in the wrapping on the bead. Now that we have finished securing the end of the wire, we can attach the bead onto the ear wire. Twist open the loop with your flat nose pliers, add the bead and then close the loop. That's it, super simple, and you have finished creating the tear drop dangle earrings. 3. Wire-wrap Chain Drop-earrings: The next earrings that we will be creating are these chain drop earrings. I chose to have them start small and then get bigger in size, and I went with a pink court speed. Next up we have our silver ear wires to match our silver plated 20 gauge copper wire. For our tools, we will be needing the nylon jaw players, the wire cutters, flat nose pliers, and our round nose pliers to begin creating the earrings. We will pull out a length of wire and straighten it with our nylon jaw pliers. I chose the smallest bed because I want it at the top. Then I'm going to grab my needle nose pliers. And leaving about 1234 of an inch of the end of the wire off the end, I'm going to create a 90 degree turn into the wire. Then readjusting my pliers. We are going to take the long end of the wire and bring it around to create a loop. Readjusting our pliers, we will place them back into the loop. And taking the short end of the wire, we will wrap it down and around the long end of the wire underneath the loop. Hold the wire in the pliers tightly as you wrap that short end of the wire around the long end. Switching our pliers into the other hand, we are going to grab the flat nose pliers and use both pliers together to help tighten down that short end of the wire. Once we have secured the end of the wire, we will draw the bead back up to the top, placing the wire back into the pliers. We are going to leave a little space bending the wire over 90 degrees and then readjusting our pliers. Take the long end of the wire wrapping it around to create a new loop. Once we have created the loop, we will then readjust our pliers again and take the long end of the wire, wrapping it around and around underneath the loop to match the top. Once we have finished wrapping the wire, we will snip it off with our wire cutters using the needle nose pliers to help keep the chain link from sliding back and forth. We can then use the flat nose pliers to securely press down the ends of the wire using two sets of pliers together. Like this helps us when we are working with a smaller piece of jewelry, such as this little chain link that we are creating for our earring. Next step, we are going to create our second chain link. Make sure you add your bead onto the wire before we start bending anything. Then using our needle nose pliers, we'll create a bend in the wire bringing the long end of the wire around to create the beginning of a loop. Before closing this loop, we want to open that bend up a little bit so we can attach our first chain link that we made onto the wire. Slide that first chain link on, then press the loop, close, holding it tightly in our need nose pliers. Now we can take that short end of the wire and wrap it around underneath the loop, switching our pliers in our hands. We will then take the flat nose pliers so that we can finish securing that end of the wire. Now that we have attached our first chain link to the second one, we can bring up that bead and begin creating the second loop for our second chain link. Placing the wire into the pliers. We're going to bend it over 90 degrees, readjusting our pliers, placing it back on the wire. We will then wrap the long end wire all the way around to create a loop. We will then take the long end of the wire, wrapping it down and around the loop using our wire cutters, we will cut off the excess wire. Then using both of our needle nose pliers and flat nose pliers, we are going to flatten down that short end of the wire, pricing it securely so that there's nothing sticking out. As you can see, it's super helpful to be able to hold the chain link with the needle nose pliers because this piece of wire would be too small to hold in our hands and be able to secure the wire tightly with the flatenose pliers alone. Now we have created our second chain link. We're going to create the third chain link in the same manner as the second one, putting our bead onto the wire. We are then going to create a small loop in the end of the wire, leaving an excess which we will wrap in a moment. Before closing that loop, we want to twist it a little bit open so that we can add our chain onto the wire. And then we can close the loop, placing it in our needle nose pliers. And wrapping that short end of the wire around the base underneath the loop. Then we will grab our flat nose pliers so that we can tightly secure the end of the wire. Now that we have created the top loop, we will then draw up our bead and create the loop on the other end, using our needle nose pliers, we will bend the wire over at 90 degrees. Then take the long end of the wire wrapping it around to create a loop. Then take the long end of the wire and wrap it around underneath the loop. Once we have finished wrapping the wire, we will snip it off with the wire cutters. Then using the needle nose pliers again and our flat nose pliers together, we are going to tighten down the end of the wire. Continue creating chain links until the earrings are as long as you want them to be. You can also use this method of creating links to make a bracelet or a necklace. I'm going to create a final chain link. This chain link begins as the other ones, where we create a loop at the top. At the bottom, we are going to bend the wire in a slightly different manner, placing it into our pliers. Bend it all the way up, creating a U shape. Then we will take our wire cutters and snip the wire off just below the bead. Then take the flat nose pliers and crimp that end of the wire until it is tight against itself. Now we can add our chain link onto our french hooks. Twist open the loop on the ear wire. Add the chain link and then close the loop. Well done. You have just created a whole chain out of wire. 4. Beaded Wire Hoop Earrings: For our final video, we will be creating these half beaded hoops for our materials. We will be using a solid brass wire in 18 gauge, and this is what we will create the hoop from. Then we will be also using more brass wire, but this is a 20 gauge. This is what we will use to attach the beads onto the hoop. Next we have a ring mandrole. This one is three, four of an inch, which is a size ten ring. Then we have a ruler. Then I have these beads which are about a four millimeter size. Our tools are the nylon players, wire cutters, needle nose or round nose pliers, and flatenose pliers. To begin, we are going to use our 18 gauge wire to create the hoop with our needle nose pliers. We are going to bend the wire over at 90 degrees, leaving about a half inch of space at the end, creating a sharp 90 degree turn into the wire. We're then going to place the very tip of the wire into our pliers and twist it around to create a loop, centering the long end of the wire underneath the center of the loop. We will then tighten it down with our flat nose pliers. Next we are going to place the wire onto our ring mandule to create the circular shape. Wrapping the wire, press it tightly to create the circle. Now that we have created the hoop shape, we will take our wire cutters and cut off the excess wire just underneath the loop. Now that we have cut the extra wire off, we will take our file, or finger nail file and smooth down the end of the wire. This end of the wire will be going through your ear. We want to make sure that it is super smooth and that there are no catches on it, so that you don't get poked or scratched when putting it into your ear. Once the end is smooth, we will take our flat nose players and bend to the very end of the wire upwards. This will go through the loop that we've created at the beginning. Now that we have created the hoop, we are going to switch to the 20 gauge wire. This is what we will use to attach the beads onto our hoop. I'm going to use 6 " of wire for the hoop that I've created, which is about three, four inch diameter. Once we have our wire at 6 ", I'm going to hold that wire across the center of the hoop, leaving about a half inch of wire sticking out the end. I'm going to wrap it up towards the top of the hoop, holding the wire tightly in my hands. I'm just going to use my fingers to begin wrapping the wire onto the hoop. Then using my flatenose pliers, I will secure that wrap onto the hoop. Once we have secured the end of the wire, we can now begin adding beads. Placing the bead on the wire. We will slide it all the way against the hoop, holding the bead in place tightly with one hand. We will then take the long end of the wire in our other hand and bring it up through the center of the hoop. Wrapping it two times. Hold the bead in place tightly as you wrap the wire. Then we are going to grab the flatenose pliers and tighten down that wrap that we just created. Once that wire has been tightened, we can then add our next bead. Repeating this process, holding the bead tightly against the hoop. Wrap the wire two times around the hoop. Tightening the wire with the flat nose players. And then going on until you have wrapped all of the beads that you want onto the hoop. This design is super fun because you can add as many or as few beads as you would like using this technique. Adding the last bed, we are then going to secure the wire so that it matches the other end. Using the flat nose pliers, we will then tighten down that wrap and then go back over the rest of the wraps making sure everything is tight and secure and adjusting it so that it is centered across the middle of the hoop. Then using our wire cutters, we will snip off the extra wire. Switching back to our flatenose pliers, we are going to make sure the end of the wire is securely tightened onto the hoop so that there are no ends sticking out. Lastly, we're going to close the hoop and make sure that the beads are centered in the hoop. There you have it, guys. Well done and thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to create the half beaded hoop.