Jewelry Making 101! Part 3- earrings

I hope everyone has been enjoying Jewelry Making 101 so far!! (If you missed it, check out part one and part two!) Now that you've got all your supplies and know the two basic skills, you are ready to make your first piece! Today I'll cover earrings: dangly and studs.

Dangly Earrings

I love me some dangly earrings! I think they add a little bit of fanciness that studs just can't. They are my go-to earrings, I'm almost always sporting a pair of dangly earrings. Wait, you'd like to learn to make some?? Well ok!!

To make these lovely rose pearl drop earrings, you will need:

• 6 small (6 mm) rose colored glass pearls
• 4 spacer beads (the silver ones)
• 2 two inch head pins
• 2 ear wires
• Round nose pliers, needle nose pliers, and wire cutters

First, string your beads onto your head pin. Pearl, spacer, pearl, spacer, pearl for five total beads.

Remember those loops we practiced yesterday?? It's time to put those skills to good use! Make a right angle...

Twist around your round nose pliers until you can't twist anymore.

Snip off extra wire with your wire cutters.

Slip an ear wire into your loop.

Close it up! Repeat the steps and in no time and all....

You've got spectacular, date night worthy earrings! They also make excellent gifts for any jewelry wearer on your list! You can use this "loop" concept to make sooo many different varieties of earrings. Your mind will start to race with ideas and you won't be able to stop!!

I used eye pins instead of head pins for the feather and maple leaves ones!

Studs

Studs are so ridiculously easy they barely warrant a tutorial. But, because tutorials are fun, I'll write one anyway. :)

To make studs, you will need:

• Glue gun
• Earring posts and "butterfly nuts"
• Flat backed embellishments (buttons work GREAT for this!! Just get some fancy buttons with shanks and then use a button shank remover or wire cutters to remove the shank.)

Take your earring post and dab a dot of hot glue on it.

And quickly add your embellishment before the glue dries. That's it!!! (Well, after you do it for the other one that's it.) Sooo incredibly easy! I hope you try out both of these methods to create something spectacular for yourself or someone you love.

Come back tomorrow for the fourth and final day of Jewelry Making 101! We'll be making a fabulous, stylish, and pretty freaking awesome button bracelet with matching earrings. Stay tuned!!!