For my wedding, I wanted to make sure that each of my bridesmaids received not only heartfelt gifts from me for all their hard work, but something that I had made with my own two hands. After planning on making them a set of matching earrings and necklace to compliment their fab dresses from Vera Wang Bridesmaids, I went to work on getting all the supplies and brushed up on my jewelry making skills.
Lucky for me, New York has an entire section of town full of fantastic bead shops (5th/6th Avenues between 37-39th Streets) where one can find just the perfect size pearl or set of jewelry pliers in just browsing through a few of these fun shops, I found all the supplies I needed for my project.
The following tutorial is a step-by-step guide to recreate one set of earrings. If you need to brush up on your own jewelry-making skills, two great resources include the book Glamorous Beaded Jewelry by M.T.Ryan and this adorable blog, Jewelry Recipes.
Supplies*:
- 8 freshwater pearls, 5mm
- 32 bi-cone beads, 4mm
- 16 rondelle beads, 4mm
- 2 teardrops, 8mm
- 34 headpins (1.5″ length)
- 6 jump rings, 8-9mm
Tools:
- round-nose pliers
- flat nose-pliers
- wire cutters
Directions:
- Insert pointed end of headpin into bead. Cut pin 7mm-8mm away from end with wire cutters.
- Bend shaft of pin at a right angle from base of bead.
- Bend shaft back into a circle using round-nose pliers. (Repeat steps 1-3 with all 58 beads)
- Connect three of the jump rings, leaving the two on each end open. Place the following group of beads onto each open jump ring: 2 pearls + 4 rondelle + bi-cone. Slightly closeup left and right jump rings to keep beads in place until next steps.
- Insert earring hook onto extreme left jump ring. Close jump ring.
- Insert one teardrop bead onto extreme right jump ring. Close jump ring.
- Enjoy your new earrings!
*All specified beads must have center-drilled holes.
Make sure to have fun with the project and subsitute beads as you see fit – making them all a little different within the same color pallete could be a great way to tailor these to each lucky lady! These are some great shots by my photographer, Brian Dorsey Studios with the girls and their pretty gems.
