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Easy Handmade Earrings

Handmade earrings are a fast and easy handmade gift to make…one of the fastest and easiest in my opinion!  Even if you have NEVER made a pair of earring before, you can do it.  It is also a unique, personalized handmade gift AND it’s inexpensive to make earrings…depending upon the beads you select, of course.  It is also a great craft project when you need a last-minute gift since it is so easy to do.

Here is what I recommend:

First, go to a local bead store or craft store and purchase:
•  2 Earring hooks
•  2 Headpins
•  Beads
Note: You can often find earring kits that contain everything you need to create a pair of earrings, including the beads.

The tools you will need are:
•  Wire cutters
•  Needle Nose pliers or Round Nose pliers
Note: If you do not have these tools, go to a bead store to get your supplies and use their tools that they have available to the public.  They can also help you make your earrings, so this is a good option for beginners too.

Instructions:

1.  Stack your beads in the order you want on your headpin.
2.  Cut off the excess wire of the headpin about a ½ inch from the top of the last bead on your stack.
3.  Create a loop with the wire above the stack of beads using Round Nose pliers and attach the earring hook before completely closing the loop.  For instructions on how to create the loop and add the earring hook, I’ve included a video (see Video #1) that I found online to the end of this post so that you can “see” how it’s done (rather than “read” how it’s done. It’s also a lot faster than me making a video myself!).  Also, if you want to see a step-by-step video, check out Video #2 below, but be sure to read my comments about the video before watching it.

Note: If you don’t have Round Nose pliers (commonly used in making jewelry) and are making your earrings at a bead store, most bead stores have tools you can borrow (as I mentioned above).  If you don’t have access to a bead store, you can use Needle Nose pliers.  If these are Needle Nose pliers that you got at a hardware store and not a craft store, they will have grooves on them, which can make marks on the headpin wire.  If this is all you have to work with, I suggest you try putting pieces of masking tape on the grooved surface of the Needle Nose pliers, so that the surface of the pliers in more smooth.  It’s not a perfect solution, but it should get the job done.

You may have thought making earrings was harder to do than it is.  I hope you see now how fast, easy and inexpensive it is to make earrings for yourself or for a personalized handmade gift for someone else.  And “one size fits all” so you don’t need to know anything more about the person than whether or not they have their pierced ears.:-)

Happy crafting,

 AJ

Video #1

 

I’ve included a second video, which takes you from the beginning to the end of the process.  I also am including it because she creates her hook differently than I do, and it may be simpler for kids to do (or simpler for you).  One thing I did notice is that she cut her headpin 1 inch above her stack of beads in the video.  You can see in the video that this leaves a lot of room between the beads and the loop, so I suggest you DON’T do this.  You can experiment, and see how much room you typically need to make a loop.

Video #2