How to make perfectly matched earwires!
These are great earwires to add to your designs —they're a good length for most earlobes and quick and easy to make. You can easily adapt these earwires into a variety of shapes to suit your personal style or to best complement your design. Simply adjust the wire as needed to create the desired look.
I like to start out with a 5-inch piece of silver wire. This is round 20-gauge sterling silver. I like to have a 5-inch piece because it gives a really nice-sized ear wire. We're going to fold this in half and get the ends lined up as best as possible. I like to get them as close as I can and pinch the ends down a little more to make sure the wires are close together.
I hold the folded end with flat-nosed pliers and pull the wires so they both go the same direction. Then they behave themselves a little nicer. We want to even out the cut ends here with the wire cutters. You always want to use the flat side of the wire cutter towards what you want to keep, which is how I remember it. We're going to cut that extra bit off.
Next, we have our multi-looping pliers, and we like to use the second-smallest one here. We're going to start at the cut end and work our way to the flat end.
Grab the cut ends and pull the wire away as we move the pliers to round the end. You can see that I'm making a pinhead shape.
I'm going to readjust the pliers, pinch the wire where the loop ends, and pull it back a little to create the pinhead shape, like you are looking at a balloon on a string.
The opening will be on the back of the earwire, so now I want to bring my wire around the back of the pinhead. Next, I'm going to pinch the wire about halfway down on the second biggest one. I'm going to pull these legs towards each other and try to keep them lined up, with equal parts on either side for balance, leaving a little extra that will be cut off.
Then I leave it on the multi-looping pliers and switch hands because I'm going to use the small flat-nose pliers to bend the end. I'm going to pinch and slightly bend this backwards to get that subtle angle.
I'm going to switch hands again, leaving the wire in the jaws so I can use the small flat-nose pliers to measure just enough, then cut the loop end off so we get two nice, matching ear wires.
To finish them off, we take a fingernail file —I like to use the 100/180. It's 100 grit on one side and 180 grit on the other side. You're going to soften the ends by moving the file around, starting with the 100-grit side first, then the 180-grit. I like to check the ends on the back of my hand to make sure they’re not too scratchy, because you don't want to put this in your ears and scratch your earlobes. So, that's good, do both earwires.
When you put your earwires on your jewelry, you always open the hook end to the side like a jump ring, so we maintain the rounded shape. Then you move it back in line like you would a jump ring.
I like to hold it and look at it from the front, then sometimes you have to tweak the wire or twist parts of it so they are nice and straight. Something like that.
These are great earwires to add to your designs —they're a good length for most earlobes and quick and easy to make. I like to make them in batches so I have a pair whenever I need them. Happy creating!
