Tuesday, August 7, 2012

DIY Chain and Seed Bead Drop Earrings

The other day I was rooting through my jewelry supplies when I came upon a few links of gold curb chain, saved after some project, and decided to make something with them.  I ended up with this pair of earrings:


I absolutely love the way gold looks with royal blue, and they were pretty simple, so I made a second pair and decided to make a little DIY with them. They're a little different because I didn't have any more gold earwires, but I'm still pretty pleased with the way these turned out.


Steps after the break!



I used: hook earwires, jump rings, eyepins, seed beads, and chain. If you already have a craft stash, this should be a snap to get together! 


Now for the steps:

First, cut two equal lengths of chain (I normally open and close links when using larger chain, and just use wire cutters when it's thinner) for the top part. I experimented with finding the middle by hanging the chain from different links using one of the eyepins until I was satisfied. It probably won't be exactly the middle, but that doesn't really matter in the end. Connect the middle link to an earwire with a jump ring. After that, use jewelry pliers to attach one end of an eyepin to one of the chain ends. Thread beads onto the pin until you have just enough wire left to make the closing loop, connecting it to the other chain.  I used a seed bead bottle to make the curve in my eyepin, and it ended up fitting with the length of the chain perfectly, but you might need to snip the eyepin a bit if you want a slighter curve or smaller earrings.



Small differences (other than the obvious) between the two pairs: I used two eyepins and four jump rings per earring on the gold ones, because the thicker chain could carry more, as well as a bigger size of seed bead. But, like I've said before, the beauty of DIY is in the personal touch you give everything you make. Tomorrow I'm hopefully getting more gold earwires-I'm making a pair of these bad boys in black and gold next.


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