Beaded Bobby Pin Earrings

I saw a version of these earrings on Pinterest and thought they looked really cool. There was no tutorial, but I gave them a go and made up my own.

You will need:

• Seed beads in varying colours and sizes. The ones that I had were a tad too big, but I used them anyway.

• Round-nosed pliers (See Vocab Tab)

• Cutters (See Vocab Tab)

• Flat-end wire pins  (See Vocab Tab) 

Method

Before I start, here is an expertly drawn diagram of the earring by itself. 

 

First, decide on the bead sequence. For best results, arrange them in order of size. The amount depends on the size of your beads and the desired length. I used 7 beads and mine are about 2cm long. 

When selecting you wire, make sure that it isn't too thick to go through your earring holes. Start threading the beads onto the wire, beginning with the smallest bead. When the beads are all threaded use the round-nosed pliers to bend a right angle in the wire as close to the top bead as possible. 

Then continue to bend the approximate shape of the wire in my illustration. It doesn't have to be exact because you can easily adjust them once you've tried them out.When you have the general shape, cut off the excess wire using the cutters.

To put them on, simply hook them through your ears and then pull them up so that they run parallel to the lobe. You may find that you need to make them tighter, or that the line of beads runs too straight, so just take them out adjust them.

Effort Required: 2/10

Overall, they took me about 5 minutes to make. It's really not a lot of work.

Durability: 9/10

There isn't much you can do to break these bad boys without hurting yourself. They aren't bulletproof, unfortunately, but you can do almost anything to them and they won't budge. Just make sure that they are tight enough and you're good. If they do bend out of shape from something, you can just bend them back again, no biggie. 

Cool Factor: 5/10

These are what I like to call my 'lazy earrings'. If I'm going somewhere and I don't feel like coordinating, I just put these in. It's a relatively obscure type of earring, so they aren't too common just yet. It also depends on your colour choice, but these earrings really open up a world of possibilities. Who knows, you may be seeing more of this earring base in the future. 

Let us know what you think! Your input is greatly appreciated, so if you have any comments, challenges, suggestions or feedback of any sort. If you like what you see then please follow us and  if you want to keep up to date on our latest posts, follow My Earring Board on Pinterest. Thanks for taking the time to view our blog!

Simple Beaded Earrings

These elegant earrings are easy to make and go great with pretty much anything. With pretty beads available in a range of different colours, materials and sizes, the possibilities are endless. Go nuts!

You will need:

• Pretty matching beads (as many as your ears can take)
•  Basic Hooks (See Vocab Tab)
• Loop-end wire pins  (See Vocab Tab)
• Round-nosed pliers (See Vocab Tab)
• Cutters (See Vocab Tab)
• Jump rings (See Vocab Tab)

Method

 Arrange your beads the way you would like the earrings to look. You can add small coloured glass beads if you're just using two big beads, like the blue ones in the middle. The beauty of these earrings is that you can let your creativity loose and see what happens.

Thread the beads onto the wire pins in your desired order. Then use the pliers to twist a little loop at the top of the beads and cut off the excess.

Attatch the beads to to hooks using the jump rings. This step is optional depending on the length you want.

Rating:

Patience Needed: 1/10

There's really no patience needed to make these. They're simple to make and they'll be on your ears in hardly any time at all

Durability: 8/10

Because they're so simple, they don't really get in the way or get hooked on anything. They are as durable as your bead material and wire working skills.

Cool Factor: 3/10

Obviously their simplicity means that they're not incredibly original, but they are as cool as the beads you use. So go out and find the awesomest beads you can!

Paper Bead Flowers

This idea involves effort. Turn back now! I first learnt how to make paper beads as a cheap way to amuse children. I put some thought into how I could use them in making earrings and this is what I came up with:

How It's Done:

You will need:

• 2 sheets of glossy magazine paper
• A pen
• A ruler
• Scissors
• Craft glue
• A paintbrush
• Varnish 
• 2  4-holed Buttons
• Soft wire
• Basic hooks (See Vocab Tab)
• Wire Cutters (See Vocab Tab)

Method:

First the beads:

Chose the magazine pages in the colours you want. The stripy effect is going to happen with the rolling unless you manage to find a page of solid colour. I purposefully chose colourful pages for mine. The colour pen you use will also affect the colour of your beads so you can either use that to your advantage or measure them out on the back of your chosen pages.

Along the top of the magazine page measure and mark intervals of 1cm. Do the same along the bottom but start off 0.5 cm from the straight edge. Now join your marks together so that you have long strips that taper to a point. Check out this picture before you start to make sure you have the right idea: 

Once you've drawn your strips cut them out and we'll get down to the tough part. Take a strip of paper and roll it around the back of your paintbrush. If the end of your brush isn't round and narrow find something that is. Ideally you need something that's around 20mm in diameter. I used the end of a chopstick. Start rolling from the broad side of the strip and end with the point in the middle. Keep your rolling tight and neat. Add a touch of glue to the end to hold it in place. Making the beads is time consuming and can get pretty frustrating but you can look at this one for some motivation:

Once you have made 48 of these you can give them a coat of varnish and breathe a sigh of relief (but turn your face away first because they're pretty sensitive to wind).

Now for the earrings:

Start by making a loop with your wire and threading it through one of the button holes. Next thread 4 beads onto the wire, thread it through the next button hole and pull tightly so it makes a petal. Twist it a couple of times so that it holds the shape. Continue this process for the rest of the flower and to finish off twist the end of your wire around your loop. Once your flower is complete attach the earring hook to the wire loop and bam, you have an earring!

Rating:

Patience Required: 8/10

Making paper beads needs a lot of patience but one you get the hang of it it's kind of relaxing. It'll also give you an understanding of why people who sell anything made out of paper beads charge so much for such basic materials. 

Durability: 3/10

I made mine with copper wire so anything sturdier than that will improve this score. They do get bent out of shape by hugs, hair brushing or any kind of vigorous movement but can be restored just as easily. They also come with all the natural limitations of once-varnished paper.

Cool Factor: 7/10

They are big and beautiful!