Beading Basics-How to Make a Simple Pair of Earrings

Terri Gable: Hi! I am Terri Gable, owner of Studio Baboo, a Big Little Bead Store. Today we are talking about basic beading. In this clip, I am going to show you how to make a simple pair of earrings. The tools you need to make a pair of earrings are chain nose pliers, wire cutters, and round nose pliers, head pins which are metal pins with a little head on the end; very much like a sowing pin but they are not sharp on the end; ear wires. This style of ear wire is called a French Hook Ear Wire but you can use any style. You will need some beads and you might find a tape measure to be helpful. You will take your headpin and literally, just stack the beads on there. We are going to put a crystal on top. Okay, those are very sweet and very dainty. You will take your chain nose pliers. We want to bend the wire right at the top of the first bead. You are going to bend that to a 90 degree angle. Then you will take your wire cutters and you want to trim off the excess, any excess wire, so that you have about a half an inch of wire remaining. You can use a tape measure and measure. You want to leave only about 3/8 to1/2 an inch. We will trim that off. Always, always catch the little end of your wire because it could fly and hit someone in the eye. Plus, it get stuck down on the carpet. It is not fun when you step on that bare feet. I will trim that off. Now we will need our round nose pliers. With our round nose pliers, grab that in the pliers. I don't want any wire sticking out at the back there. You are going to roll the pliers, reposition, and roll again. You want that cut on to the wire to come underneath right where you have made the bend and make a pretty little loop there. I am going to do that again. Again, curve second one. Alright, if it comes a little crooked as mine have, you can easily straighten that out with your chain nose pliers. You are going to use our chain nose pliers, grab our loop that we just made right here at the side and lift it up and away. Drop your ear wire in, hold on the side here and down, and make sure that it touches. I will show you that again for the other one. You never ever want to pull a loop open. You want to rip it out this way. Again, you are going to lift up, this keeps your loop round, and down. That is how you make a beautiful pair of professional earrings. In the next clip, we are going to talk about bead stitches.